On Monday night, UK Athletics spoke of their happiness “with the outcome” of figures provided by UK Sport concerning funding for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

There were fears that British athletics could face a severe funding cut following apparent underachievement in the recent Beijing Olympic Games. However, the figures released by UK Sport, who distribute lottery funds, indicate that the funding for the next four years is not a cause for concern.

You will remember the British cyclists making the nation proud in Beijing this summer, winning an impressive total of eight gold medals. Cycling legend, Chris Hoy, won three gold medals and repaid the faith shown by UK Sport, which forked out over twenty million pounds to help the development of the sport in a relatively short space of time.

Hoy and the other cyclists performed incredibly well in Beijing and as such, cycling, along with swimming which also saw the British competitors excel, has been rewarded for its success with an increase in funding.

Although the precise funding figures will not be released until the start of December, a source from the upper echelons of British cycling told the press that he believed the sport would be getting a “substantial increase”. It is believed that swimming, which received investment of approximately twenty million pounds prior to the 2008 Olympics, will be given a rise in funding of about 9%.

Furthermore, diving and sailing have been given a 5% increase each. These moves from UK Sport were fairly predictable but the lenient approach taken to athletics in general has caused surprise in some corners of the sporting world.

UK Sport would arguably have good reasons to cut funding for athletics. After all, the four years prior to the start of the Beijing Olympics saw the sport receive a tidy sum of £26,513,000.

However, despite this massive investment, British athletes only won four medals and this modest haul included just the one gold medal. This total fell narrowly short of the target set by UK Sport, who proposed an ideal total of five medals following the massive funding in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics.

This negative aspect should not, however, make us forget the overall success of the recent Olympic Games. After all, the British team won 47 medals, including 19 gold medals. However, it's fair to say that track and field competitors did fail in comparison to others, such as Hoy.

Now that British athletics looks to have escaped a cut in funding, the athletes will be under increased pressure to perform well in 2012, especially since they will be performing on home turf and in front of British fans. This pressure does not concern Niels de Vos, the chief executive of UK Athletics.

He recently spoke of his confidence in the sport winning “the most medals in London, although they may not all be gold”. Cyclists and swimmers may have something to say about this assertion but what is certain is that the British athletes need to start repaying the faith shown in them by UK Sport, and quickly.

Written by Charlotte Cook