LONDON, Sept 10 — Banking giant HSBC has extended its agreement with British Cycling to cover the rescheduled Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo next year, having previously said the deal would end in 2020.

HSBC had exercised a break clause in its eight-year agreement with the sport’s national governing body in February, which would have brought the deal to an end four years early, citing "a shift in its UK marketing and partnership priorities”.

However, the two organisations said the coronavirus pandemic had "severely disrupted” plans for 2020 and a decision had now been taken to extend the deal until the end of 2021.

British Cycling and HSBC UK said they had surpassed their target of getting two million more people on bikes by the end of this year.

British Cycling chief executive Julie Harrington said: "British Cycling has a long-established reputation for setting and hitting ambitious targets — from winning the Tour de France to quadrupling our membership, and working with HSBC UK to get two million more people cycling is a landmark moment in our history.

"I’m incredibly proud of what our two organisations have achieved in the past four years.”

HSBC UK chief executive Ian Stuart, said: "We are very pleased to be able to extend our partnership with British Cycling, supporting the health and wellbeing of our customers, colleagues and communities through the Covid-19 crisis.” — AFP