Martine Wright says sitting volleyball players will find their own funding to reach the Rio Paralympic Games in 2016

Great Britain's women's sitting volleyball team in action in London

Paralympian Martine Wright has expressed her disappointment at the withdrawal of funding by UK Sport for indoor volleyball.

Wright, who represented Great Britain at sitting volleyball in the London Paralympics, believes the decision to withdraw all support for her sport questions the 2012 Olympic legacy pledge.

However, the 40-year-old says she and her fellow athletes are determined to secure their own funding to help them achieve their goal of competing at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro and help make the sport accessible to future participants.

Wright said: "I was shocked to find our funding had not just been cut but cut completely.

"We are so determined for the programme to carry on and it will carry on and it will start in January and we will be on the path to Rio."
Martine Wright

"Sitting volleyball has been our whole life for the last few years. Like any other athlete we've put in blood, sweat and tears.

"I think the advantage of sitting volleyball is we don't need a lot of equipment. We need a net, a ball, our bottoms and lots of enthusiasm.

"So we've got to look at things positively. We've worked so hard the last two and a half years so this is not the last you've seen of sitting volleyball.

"The exposure after the summer has been huge and we have so many people interested in it that I think we've just got to go out and find our own funding. I'm sure there are private investors out there who would love to invest in us.

"We are so determined for the programme to carry on and it will carry on and it will start in January and we will be on the path to Rio.

"There was a Paralympic sportsfest recently and we had an unprecedented amount of kids asking for sitting volleyball.

"You can't turn round to those kids now and say "You can't actually play sitting volleyball because we haven't got a programme." It's our responsibility as sportspeople to carry on."