British Wrestling forced to cancel showpiece event

BRITISH Wrestling have announced they are scrapping their showpiece competition due to cuts in their funding.

CASH STRAPPED: 2012 prospect Leon Rattigan, competing at last year's European Championship, won a silver medal at last year's GB Cup. This year's event has been cancelled due to funding problems (Getty Images)

Wrestling received a 68 per cent decrease in support when UK Sport announced their grants for the next Olympic cycle.

They'll have just £717,650 to spend in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics, only weightlifting will receive less.

British Wrestling chairman Malcolm Morley described the postponement of the GB Cup - which was due to take place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield this June - as a 'big disappointment'.

Last year's inaugural event attracted 70 world-class wrestlers from nations including Russia, Poland, Finland, Belarus, Japan, Mongolia, Australia and Hungary.

However, he tried to remain positive.

"We are a very upbeat and resilient organisation,'' he said.

"We know we have a great product and, despite the financial setback, this is a really exciting time for our sport and we see the countdown to the London 2012 Olympics as a great opportunity."

Noel Loban, who won bronze at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, is Britain's last Olympic wrestling medallist.

The British Olympic Association didn't send a competitor to Beijing while American-based Nate Ackerman was the lone wrestler on the Athens 2004 team.

However, Morley remains encouraged by the youngsters coming through the ranks and reports an increase in membership of wrestling clubs around the UK.

Scott Gregory and Philip Roberts - who went to Beijing as past of the BOA's Olympic Ambition mentoring programme - both won medals at a recent international event in Cyprus.

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