Eight sports hit by Olympics shortfall

They have effectively been penalised after UK Sport gave priority to those sports most likely to deliver medals in London and achieve fourth place in the table.

The funding agency were forced to make cuts due to a £50million shortfall in £354m that had been earmarked for elite funding from 2009 to 2013.

As a result, there will be just £12m confirmed funding to share between beach volleyball, fencing, handball, shooting, table tennis, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.

Those eight received a total of £25m in the run-up to Beijing. Most will now receive only basic funding, which looks certain to lead to cutbacks on coaches and training trips.

Table tennis bosses have already warned that cuts may force its young stars, including British No1 Paul Drinkhall, to train abroad.

They avoided having public funds cut off altogether thanks to a last-minute handout of £29m secured by culture secretary Andy Burnham.

UK Sport have made their allocations according to a "no compromise" funding formula which rewards sports that have won medals or show the potential to do so in 2012.

They have given full performance funding to 19 Olympic and 14 Paralympic sports worth a total of £292m.

Among the sports handed big increases above their pre-Beijing allocation are basketball, boxing, canoeing, hockey and swimming.

Basketball and hockey had feared cuts to their elite programmes but have won a reprieve thanks to the extra £29m in Treasury cash.

The so-called 'Formula One' sports of sailing, rowing and cycling have been rewarded for consistent podium performances, with £77m between them.

Badminton suffered a slight cut after failing to win a medal in Beijing.

And, as revealed in the Evening Standard, athletics has paid the price for failing to hit its target of five medals in Beijing, with a £1.4m cut to £25m.

In Paralympics, 14 sports have secured funding while the future of four - women's basketball, fencing, goalball and volleyball - remains in doubt.

Sue Campbell, chair of UK Sport, said: "The decisions made by our board were not easy, but they were right. The additional funding confirmed yesterday by Andy Burnham is very welcome and brings a high degree of certainty in an otherwise uncertain world.

"With a shortfall in the overall funding available we had to make some tough calls, but we did so in the knowledge that our 'no compromise' strategy is not only known and understood by sport but was also the basis of our success in Beijing.

"It is disappointing we are not able to offer the full level of resources to all sports, but we can only invest what we have available to us."