WHITEWATER champion Ian Wiley has said that next year's world championship season may be his last after it was confirmed that the canoe slalom event, in which he finished fifth in Atlanta, will not be staged at the next Olympics.

Although reassurances of its inclusion were being made up until a week ago, the International Canoe Federation has now been informed by the IOC Executive that the canoe slalom has been withdrawn from the Sydney 2000 schedule because of the organisers' refusal to build a whitewater course.

The news was greeted with dismay by Wiley. "This is going to hurt the sport hard. It probably won't affect teams like Germany or France, but the smaller nations like Ireland will be hit harder because we'll lose our Olympic funding."

With the cost of competing at the top level reaching £35,000 a year, Wiley says that the loss of up to £15,000 in Olympic grants will force him out of the sport unless other funding can be found. "I simply wouldn't be able to afford to continue. My main focus at the moment is the world championships next year but this decision means that 1997 could be my final year, he said.