Stevan Walton won two golds at the Delhi Commonwealth Games

Redditch clay pigeon shooter Stevan Walton says a loss of funding is likely to seriously harm his Olympic chances.

Walton won two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in the double trap competition.

"I admit I had a bad year last year and unfortunately I was taken off the funding programme," Walton told BBC Hereford & Worcester.

"The Commonwealth Games has got nothing to do with the Olympics which is what they are spending the money on."

As well as winning gold in the singles event, Walton also partnered Steve Scott in taking the honours in the pairs double trap.

But he feels he will have to give up the full-time training that enabled him to produce his double gold-winning performances.

I'm hopefully going to Chile next year and that trip alone is going to cost me around £2,500 Steven Walton

While the Commonwealth Games success has clearly raised his profile, Walton says sponsorship could be hard to come by in the current economic climate.

"Obviously it is going to put me in good stead for the future as hopefully there will be some sponsors out there," he said.

"I got a sponsorship deal from World Class about a month ago and they give me a certain amount of money per month," he said.

"It's not a lot - it's amounts to about five or six days training.

"That is going to last me around two weeks maximum so basically I have got to try and find other sponsors to help me get to where I want to go," he added.

Walton is well aware clay pigeon shooting will never have the profile of the bigger Olympic sports but insists it is an area in which Great Britain can take on and beat the world.

But he says that in order to do that he will need financial backing or will have to cut back on his shooting in order to make ends meet.

"I would like to train five days per week as in a nine-to-five job and they say that would cost between £48,000 and £68,000 per week," he said.

"But just training every week costs around £500 and then there are trips abroad [for competitions].

"I'm hopefully going to Chile next year and that trip alone is going to cost me around £2,500."

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