UK Sport rejects all seven appeals from sports who had Tokyo 2020 Olympics funding cut

Archery, badminton, fencing, table tennis, weightlifting, goalball and wheelchair rugby will not receive any funding ahead of the Tokyo Olympics

Marcus Ellis (R) and Chris Langridge won bronze for Great Britain at Rio 2016 but will now see their funding cut (Getty)

Seven sports that had their funding applications for Toyko 2020 rejected by UK Sport have failed in their attempts to overturn those decisions.

Olympic sports archery, badminton, fencing, table tennis and weightlifting, and Paralympic sports goalball and wheelchair rugby will now receive no financial support from the lottery-backed funding agency.

Compared to the four-year build-up to the Rio Games, badminton is the biggest loser in cash terms, as it was given £5.7million last time. This dramatic cut comes despite the sport hitting its medal target thanks to a bronze medal in the men's doubles.

In fact, the only successful representation made to UK Sport earlier this month came from the Paralympic version of weightlifting, powerlifting.

UK Sport backed this sport but initially gave the budget of £1.3million to the English Institute of Sport to manage. British Weightlifting, however, has successfully persuaded the agency to let it run the Paralympic programme.

But all of the other representations - made on February 6 and 7 - were unsuccessful, leaving them with one more chance to take the decision to independent arbitration at Sport Resolutions.

In a press release, Rod Carr, chairman of UK Sport, said: "I'd like to thank all the sports for their professionalism and openness throughout this process. Our decision is in no way a reflection on them, their athletes or support personnel and everything that they have achieved to date.

"I appreciate that for the majority of national governing bodies that attended the representation meetings today's outcome is extremely disappointing.

"We are operating in a tight financial envelope, and have responsibilities to both develop the system underpinning our best athletes as well as the sports and athletes themselves, and sadly our investment won't stretch to these sports for the Tokyo 2020 cycle."

PA