Morley resigned on the eve of facing a vote of no-confidence at the sport's annual meeting while the contract of Kornieiev was not renewed. 

British Wrestling had their allocation of three places for London 2012 reduced to just one for failing to meet performance targets and their sole competitor, Ukrainian Olga Butkevych (pictured top in red), lost in her opening match.

As a result, British Wrestling is set to see its funding, worth £1.435 million ($2.327 million/€1.800 million), cut in the build-up to Rio 2016. 

Morley and Kornieiev were behind the controversial policy of recruiting Ukranian and Bulgarian-born athletes to represent Team GB at London 2012. 

Malcolm Morley, Shaun's father, the chairman of British Wrestling, has refused to criticise the high performance team and instead blamed the British Olympic Association for squandering the opportunity London 2012 represented for the sport by cutting their number of places.

Shaun Morley resigned as British Wrestling's performance director after facing a vote of no confidence 

"British Wrestling appealed the decision," he said in a statement on British Wrestling's website. 

"The FILA (The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles) President [Raphael Martinetti] wrote a letter of support that our named athletes were capable of a credible performance, but our appeal was turned down.

"Their refusal to grant British Wrestling all three host nation places denied the BWA of the most significant part of our legacy.

"Olga's performance in the Games was somewhat disappointing but she did her best under difficult and not always ideal circumstances."

Butkevych and fellow Ukrainian-born wrestler Yana Stadnik were inititally recruited as sparring partners but started competing for Britain in 2007.

Stadnik's British citizenship bid failed to come through in time for London 2012, but both she and Butkevych are due to be the only GB representatives at the women's World Championships in Strathcona County, Canada, which are due to begin on Thursday (September 27).

"The only way forward is to take a realistic view of the many issues that we face," said Malcolm Morley.

"[We need to] be positive instead of negative, learn from the past, but remember history can never be changed." 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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