OLYMPIC gold medallist Jack Laugher claims seeing coach Adrian Hinchcliffe leave to join Australia's diving team is a "massive insult".
Hinchcliffe helped Laugher, who hails from Ripon, and Chris Mears win Great Britain's first Olympic diving gold medal in Rio when they secured the synchronised three metres springboard title.
However, after a full-time job from his consultancy role with British Diving failed to materialise, Hinchcliffe, employed by Leeds City Council, opted to join Australia Diving as head coach to prepare for Tokyo 2020.
Speaking to BBC Look North, Laugher, a member of City Of Leeds Diving Club, claimed Hinchcliffe's impact had been "really overlooked".
Laugher said: "He (Hinchcliffe) has 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."
Hinchcliffe said he was left with "no option" but to accept the role with the Australian Diving team, while Mears told the BBC it was "a real shame" not to see the likes of his former coach benefit from British Diving's funding increase from UK Sport, which went up from £7.5m to £8.8m following a successful Rio Games.
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