Handball ace reeling after running cuts

GREAT BRITAIN handball player Lynn McCafferty fears her Olympic dream is over after UK Sport revealed British Handall would receive funding cuts.

The government agency charged with distributing funding to all Olympic sports came up £50million short of its projected £600m budget and handball was one of the major casualties.

It is not clear how big a chunk will be taken off the £2.99m British Handball received for the Beijing Olympics but McCafferty believes any cuts will be disastrous.

"We had every hope, dream and wish for handball to be big in the UK, but we really have to qualify for 2012 as otherwise there will be no media coverage.

"That was part of being at 2012, it wasn't just the dream of going, it was about taking back what we have learned from training Denmark to Britain so handball can continue to grow.

"Right now I find the news devastating as I think as a sport we have done extremely well and achieved all the targets that UK Sport set for us.

"Funding is a massive part of our progress and without it we're a little bit lost right now."

The news comes just days after McCafferty top-scored with five for Great Britain in their World Championship qualifier 25-23 victory against Greece in Holland.

And the 29-year-old Scot believes the progress made in recent years renders the decision by UK Sport all the more unwarranted.

"The tournament in Holland was a very good experience for us, it was just what we needed to go and test ourselves as a squad and individually," she added.

"In terms of finding out where we are and what we need to do to get better and improve it was very successful but we've got to keep playing competitively.

"We've tried our hardest but this decision means we're not going to get the funding and finances we need to improve for 2012.

"The popularity of handball has increased slightly so imagine what the Olympics can do."

CHRIS SLACK