More than £5m (US$6.1m, €5.8m) in funding has been earmarked for potential British Tokyo 2020 Olympic athletes by the support programme set up by leisure operator GLL.

Athletes will be able to apply for support from the GLL Sport Foundation (GSF) until 20 February 2017.

Supported athletes will obtain financial grants, training membership support at GLL leisure centres across the UK, and sport science and physiotherapy programmes.

Over the last cycle before the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics, GSF supported 6,777 athletes with £3.9m (US$4.7m, €4.5m).

In fact, since 2008 – when GSF was launched – 10,600 athletes have been awarded total support value of £6.1m (US$7.4m, €7.1m).

Around 90 per cent of award recipients receive no other source of centralised support. Three-quarters of those supported are aged under 21 years-old.

Sally Gunnell, patron of GSF, said the funding “can be the difference between being talented, and taking the sport up to the elite level”.

She added: “I have experienced first hand the financial struggle of being on the fringes of elite sport, and support programmes such as the GLL Sport Foundation relieves some of the burden so that more time can be spent on performing at the highest level possible.”