British track facing funding drop

BEIJING (AP) A disappointing Olympics for British track and field athletes could cost it some funding in the buildup to London 2012.

"I think it's clear that athletics themselves would agree that they haven't yet delivered in the same way that our most successful sports have like sailing, rowing and cycling," said Liz Nicholl, director of elite sport for UK Sport. "They know that they're on a journey and there's a long way to go."

One of the possible changes is that British track and field "could be a smaller team" at the 2012 Games.

"They know they have to create a better environment for athletes and better level of influence and support for personal coaches.You have to be prepared to make some very tough decisions about which athletes you fund," Nicholl said on Friday.

British track and field athletes have one gold to show for four medals. UK Sport expects athletics to look to the sailing, rowing, canoe and cycling programs for inspiration after those disciplines won 15 of Britain's 18 gold medals as of Friday.

"If you look at the cycling program, one of the signs of the successful organization that it is is that it is prepared to make very hard decisions, very tough decisions of which athlete it will work with and support and that is something we will discuss with UK athletics going forward," Nicholl said.

UK Sport will begin performance reviews of these games soon after Sunday's closing ceremony.

"All sports will be treated in the same way on a no-compromise basis," said chief executive John Steele.

"We won't make a special case out of any sport. We want to see evidence of development and success and wouldn't make any exceptions," Steele said.

UK Sport is targeting more medals at the home games, but Steele wouldn't make any kind of prediction on if it could match Beijing, which is Britain's best medal-placing since the 1920 Olympics at Antwerp, Belgium.

"We'll only get one shot for the home games. We should be looking at increasing the number of medals," Steele said on Friday. "Britain will review its ambitions at the London Games and build on the unprecedented success in Beijing."

UK Sport is budgeting $1.1 billion of government funds into post-Beijing plans, even if the money hasn't been guaranteed yet. Should that funding not come through, sports like boxing could also be facing problems.

"Boxing is a sport that was on the red light (list) ... and we said that we wouldn't be addressing that until after the games, (because) it was important the athletes and coaches had the opportunity to focus on what they were there to do," Steele said. "We did say we would sit down and look at it very carefully. That remains the case."

Britain came into the games as a boxing favorite but failed to medal.

On Thursday, British boxer Billy Joe Saunders was suspended by the country's boxing authorities because of reported "lewd behavior" during a pre-Olympic training camp.

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Help not hurt

10:55, 22 August 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Instead of penalizing track & field which has been a stalwart olympic sport for the UK in terms of results, they should follow the Chinese example and put more resources into its infrastructure to ensure it regains or surpasses its once glorious stature by 2012