A complaint made by Jess Varnish about former British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton has been upheld by the governing body.

The 59-year-old is alleged to have told the Great Britain athlete to "go and have a baby" and claimed that she was "too old" to compete after failing to qualify for this year's Olympic Games.

Sutton resigned in April after being suspended while the investigation was conducted, but stated last week that he was "confident" of seeing his name cleared and would return to his old position if that proved to be the case.

An internal investigation into Varnish's claims reported back on Friday, upholding the original complaint that Sutton used "inappropriate and discriminatory language".

"Following an internal investigation, the British Cycling board has upheld an allegation made by Jess Varnish that former technical director Shane Sutton had used inappropriate and discriminatory language," a statement read. "The board wishes to put on record its sincere regret that this happened."

Varnish later released her own statement, which read: "I spoke out because I wanted to shine a light on the culture at British Cycling, a culture that in my mind was incorrect. I've always believed in standing up for yourself, especially when you know things are wrong.

"It wasn't easy for me to talk about this experience and I could've quite easily said and done nothing, but that isn't me. I've always given 100% to my sport, and am still in love with cycling, so I hope that British Cycling can use this investigation as a way to improve and create a better environment for the Great Britain team."

Varnish has previously won medals at the Commonwealth Games and European and World Championships, but was dropped from the world class programme following her failure to qualify for Rio 2016.