UK to Raise Olympic Taekwondo Budget 68.3 Pct.

The United Kingdom, the host country of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, will spend 68.3 percent more on its national taekwondo team than it did in the Beijing Olympics, the third-biggest funding increase for a British Olympic team.

UK Sport, which handles the budget for the United Kingdom’s Olympians and Paralympians, said yesterday that it has allocated 4.49 million pounds (6.6 million U.S. dollars) for the Korean martial art. The body is expected to focus on investing and training athletes for the 2012 Games.

England won one bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

British media highlighted the six sports with the biggest funding increases, calling them the “big winners” in UK Sport`s Olympic 2012 funding program.

Seventeen events received sizeable increases in their budgets, with basketball getting the largest with 136 percent, followed by synchronized swimming with 109.8 percent. Archery, a traditional Korean stronghold, got the fifth-largest increase of 58.7 percent.

In contrast, track and field, shooting, table tennis, handball and fencing suffered huge budget cuts.

The British Olympic Association blasted UK Sport’s funding cuts, saying the budget allocation is unfair and biased.

surreal@donga.com