Elena Little was one of the GB Olympic shooters to come home empty-handed

British Shooting has decided to make performance director John Leighton-Dyson redundant as part of a major shake-up after a heavy funding cut.

The figure of 46 funded competitors from the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics is set to be reduced to five.

Shooting suffered the heaviest funding cut of all Olympic sports, with a 76% reduction to £1.225m over four years.

"In the run-up to 2012, shooting has never faced such an uncertain future," said chairman Phil Boakes.

"The funding UK Sport have offered shooting is not enough to allow us to put together a meaningful world-class performance program.

"We believe that the PD role is a very necessary part of our programme."

Great Britain's shooting team was set a target of two Olympic medals in Beijing by the British Olympic Association but came back with none.

Judo and badminton also missed out on medals after being given targets but neither received a significant cut in funding.

Leighton-Dyson has been in the job for the last eight years.

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But he told a British Shooting extraordinary meeting on Tuesday that the funds available would not allow his role to continue.

"His concern is for a number of athletes, which because of the necessary reduction in numbers needed, will now no longer be part of the program," said a statement.

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