READING'S Olympic diving champion Chris Mears has spoken of his frustration after see his coach defect to Australia.

Adrian Hinchliffe guided Burghfield Common's Mears and partner Jack Laugher to Olympic gold in the men's synchronised 3m springboard in Rio.

It was Team GB's first ever Olympic gold medal in any diving event and, as a result, UK Sport revealed a funding increase from £7.5m to £8.8m for British Diving in preparation for Tokyo 2020.

However, Hinchliffe, who is employed by Leeds City Council, was not offered the chance to turn his role as a consultant with British Diving into a full-time position.

Hinchliffe today announced he has now joined Australia Diving as their head coach.

Mears, 23, a former Willink School pupil, said: “After the Games it's really tough for sports not knowing what they'll receive, but ours actually went up.

“Unfortunately we haven't seen that money travel to the coaching staff which is a real shame.”

Mears' frustrations with British Diving were echoed by Laugher, who also told BBC Sport: "He's achieved things as a coach that no-one in this country has ever done before and it's a massive insult to me and to Ady.

"British Diving and the national performance director [Alexei Evangulov] have really overlooked how much of a key part he is.

"To have someone like Ady say 'sack this I'm leaving', well it should never have got to this point."

Hinchliffe revealed he felt he had 'no choice' but to leave his current position to join Australia Diving.

He said: “To really help those like Jack and Chris keep improving, I needed to be in a full-time role.

"British sport is so successful at the moment and we need to examine all of the components behind that, but in my particular case I just don't think that's happened."