Slap in face for Britain's deaf athletes

A hundred million pounds more for school sport. That'll do nicely, prime minister. No complaints there, except from the Panathlon people, who rightly feel a morsel of that action would preserve the one event the schools themselves actually seem to want. But they are not alone in being greeted with silence.

It has happened to the deaf as well. As from next March, UK Deaf Sport's funding via the Government agency UK Sport will cease. It is hardly a fortune - a total of [pound]126,000 over four years covering 19 different sports in which the deaf compete at elite level. But UK Sport say they now have to prioritise, concentrating on investing in the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, of which Deaf Sport is not a part - deaf athletes compete instead in their own event, Deaflympics. "We are very concerned for the future," says Craig Cowley of UK Deaf Sport. "We have nowhere to turn." He has written to the new Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, complaining of a "lack of equality" over a situation which the British Olympic Association chief, Colin Moynihan, describes as "extremely regrettable".

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