British Judo is delighted following today’s announcement that UK Sport funding for the Great Britain performance programme is set to be increased by over half a million pounds (£566,000) over the next three years.

UK Sport has increased Judo’s original funding for the 2016 Olympic cycle from £6,800,200 to £7,366,300 in a bid to protect and enhance medal potential for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

The increase in funding is a positive step from the UK’s elite sporting body and shows that UK Sport has the confidence in the sport to bring home medals at Rio 2016 and beyond following their most rigorous Annual Investment Review process ever.

Following London 2012, judo’s elite funding was reduced from £7.5 million to £6.8 million and the sport was given a conditional one year award, which has now been secured for a further three years.

The last 12 months have seen the British Judo Association make significant progress, with strong steps forward in governance and a new performance programme following a review after London 2012, which culminated in the opening of the new £1 million British Judo Centre of Excellence in November 2013.

This increased funding not only secures the financial position of the performance programme, but also shows that UK Sport has faith in the ability of British Judo to produce the best athletes for Rio 2016 and beyond, and to build on the success of London 2012.

The funding will enable the appointment of a Performance Pathway Manager to drive forward the goals of the programme.

A significant amount of funding will supplement the competition and training preparation programme and effectively get more players to competitions. It will also support an enhanced performance operation at the new Centre of Excellence in Walsall.

Additionally it will ensure British Judo can provide sports science and medicine support to its athletes.

Funding for the Paralympic performance programme remains the same at £2,019,874.

British Judo’s Chief Executive Andrew Scoular said: “We are delighted that UK Sport have not only confirmed funding for the next three years, but have increased the level of funding for Olympic programme and maintained a high-level of support for the visually impaired programme – both of which will be vital in our ability to deliver medals in Rio and beyond.

“The increased award is testament to the hard work of the British Judo team over the last year – staff, volunteers and the Performance Management Group – working on governance, building a new performance programme and improving the association as a whole.

“With a new home for the programme at the Centre of Excellence in Walsall, we will continue the hard work to follow up our multi-medal winning Olympic and Paralympic performances with more success in Rio.”

Liz Nicholl, Chief Executive of UK Sport, said: “I would like to thank all the sports that engaged with us so openly through this Annual Review.

“It is testament to the strength of our high performance system that 36 sports have been identified through this process as being capable of winning medals within the next two Summer Olympic and Paralympic cycles and it is UK Sport’s job to do everything it can to ensure they get all the support necessary to achieve that goal.”