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British cycling reforms will secure funding for 2020 Tokyo Olympics

BRITISH Cycling has pushed through the governance reforms in an extraordinary general meeting on Saturday, securing 43 million pounds in public funding.

The changes were demanded by government sports minister Tracey Crouch to make governing bodies more independent and diverse. And the British cycling's governing body was warned that future funding is dependent on it adopting reforms.

Sport England had allocated funding of 17 million pounds (22 million U.S. dollars) to British Cycling to boost grassroots participation and UK Sport earmarked 26 million pounds (34 million U.S. dollars) for Britain's Olympic and Paralympic team preparations for Tokyo 2020.

British Cycling president Bob Howden, who urged the sport's regional bodies to back changes, had warned that cycling could be lost to an entire generation if Sport England's funding was withdrawn.

Ahead of the day's meeting, Howden stressed the need for the structure of the sport to be modernised.

He told the 136,000 members of British Cycling that what was at risk was not only funding for the Tokyo cycling teams, but the ability to support cycling at grassroots level, adding "this is no bluff". He said rejection of the changes would have set the sport back 30 years.

Earlier this year the head of British cycling had to apologise for failings following accusations in cycling of bullying and sexism against a number of top British cyclists. The accusations led to an investigation last year after cyclists complained about their treatment.

British cycling and Paralympic cyclists struck gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and with Britain likely to win the famous Tour de France on Sunday cycling in Britain has hit a high note.




 

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