John Leighton-Dyson

British Shooting called an Extraordinary meeting on Tuesday 10th February to discuss the future of their World Class Performance Programme following the drastic cut (78%) made to their 2009/2013 funding agreement by UK Sport. As a result, the Board has decided that the number of athletes included in the programme will be reduced and that the post of Performance Director is to be made redundant.

This came as no surprise to the Performance Director himself John
Leighton-Dyson as, during his presentation to the Board earlier in the day, he had highlighted the fact that the figures in his budget for the four year period going forward, showed all too clearly that the funds available will simply not stretch to his continued employment as PD. His concern however was for those athletes, who due to the necessary reduction in numbers needed, will now no longer be part of the programme.

On behalf of everyone who has been involved in the programme over the past eight years, the Board would like publicly to extend to John its sincere thanks for his dedication, contribution and unstinting efforts during the time he has worked for British Shooting. John has agreed to continue to work with British Shooting until the 31st March when his funded position ceases.

“It sounds illogical to those not involved in a programme such as this but the funding UK Sport have offered shooting is not enough to allow us to put together a meaningful World Class Performance Programme. We believe that the PD role is a very necessary part of our programme and in the run up to 2012, Shooting has never faced such an uncertain future” stated Chairman Phil Boakes.

Shooting suffered the heaviest funding cut of all Olympic sports following Great Britain’s shooting team’s failure to win a single medal in Beijing after being set a target of two.
The figure of 46 funded competitors from the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics is set to be reduced to five for the London Games.

Source: British Shooting