BRITISH Weight Lifting have promised to support Denholme's Rebekah Tiler as much as possible after their appeal against the World Class Programme (WCP) funding cuts by UK Sport was unsuccessful.

The governing body did have WCP investment for powerlifting reinstated but its elite weight lifters were left disappointed as were six other sports that appealed to UK Sport's board – archery, badminton, fencing, goalball, table tennis and wheelchair rugby.

It means former Bingley Grammar School pupil Tiler, who finished tenth in the Olympics in Rio, may have to find funding elsewhere as she aims to improve on that in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

However, British Weight Lifting are considering another route of appeal.

Their chief executive officer Ashley Metcalfe said: "The announcement from UK Sport has brought mixed news for British Weight Lifting.

"We are delighted to have the powerlifting funding reinstated. However, we are of course disappointed to not be successful in our bid to overturn the weightlifting World Class Programme funding decision.

"We are incredibly proud of our weightlifters' achievements throughout the last cycle and we have made significant progress on the world stage, not least with the GB representation in Rio, where we qualified both male and female lifters.

"We will continue to support our elite weightlifters as best we can and we will work hard to maximise the investment that is available to us – which includes an increase in Sport England funding, both in support of the Commonwealth Games and increased participation – and explore other available routes to provide our male and female weightlifters with the best possible opportunity of competing at the highest level of the sport."

Metcalfe added: "We have until Monday, March 20 to decide whether to appeal through Sport Resolutions UK about UK Sport's decision.

"We want to do our best, particularly for lifters such as Rebekah Tiler and Zoe Smith.

"However, we can only appeal about the way the decision was made, rather than the decision itself.

"We will wait for all the paperwork to come through from UK Sport before deciding, but we have a very balanced board, including some legal expertise."

Sports may now choose to go to formal appeal through Sport Resolutions UK who will consider the integrity of the decision-making process used by UK Sport but do not have authority to make investment decisions on its behalf.

In the meantime, UK Sport’s Board will be considering at its next meeting in March what relationship UK Sport will be able to have with non-World Class Programme funded sports going forward. Any solutions need to be considered in the context of affordability and resource.