Gold Medallist To Lose Lottery Funding

In growing tensions around the 2012 lottery cutbacks to athletics, paralympian Danny Crates, who carried the flag for Great Britain in the Beijing Games, has joined others to protest his funding being terminated.

Unable to compete in Beijing because of injury, Crates was one of the athletes who will no longer be receiving a cut of the 2012 funding after UK Athletics chief Charles van Commenee announced a 20 percent reduction of the number of British athletes on lottery.

Crates, who won a Gold medal in Athens 2004, is in the process of appealing the decision, joining sprint hurdler Andy Turner, another amongst those whose funding has been terminated.

The cutoff from funds not only means the athletes will no longer receive backing from the National Lottery, but also restriction of access to training and support.