World University Games get underway
SubscribeRussell Langley 21 August 2003
James Gibson, the 50m breaststroke world champion, will be Great Britain's flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony of the World University Games, which officially get underway today in Daegu, South Korea. British Chef de Mission, Jenny Brown, said that the choice of Gibson reflected a successful year in which he has set new world, British and European records on his way to claiming the world title.
"James has had a fantastic year and his selection as flag bearer is richly deserved," she said. "He will act as an outstanding ambassador for the Britain delegation, and I am sure that having a world champion leading them into the arena will be inspiring for the entire team."
The Opening Ceremony, which begins at 10.30am BST, takes place at the magnificent 68,000 capacity main stadium, the scene of two matches at last summer's World Cup. The Ceremony will feature over 700 performers and state-of-the-art computer imagery to help welcome the 7,180 athletes and officials from 172 countries attending the Games. T
he 98-strong British squad competing at the Games includes 13 athletes supported by UK Sport’s Lottery-funded World Class Performance Programme. They are: Naomi Folkard (Archery); Chris Lambert, Goldie Sayers and Matthew Douglas (Athletics); Adam Faulkner, Matt Kidd, Rebecca Cooke, Janine Belton, Helen Don-Duncan, Kirsty Balfour, Chris Cook and James Gibson (Swimming); Sarah Bainbridge (Taekwondo).
The first of these in action will be Folkard on Sunday when she competes in the recurve ranking round at Yecheon Jin Ho Archery Field. Great Britain's men's football team has already played its first match at the Games, beating Mexico 1-0 in a Group C encounter.
Brown added: "In terms of depth of quality this is certainly the strongest squad we have ever sent to a World University Games. The aim is to better the total of ten medals we achieved in Beijing two years ago and we are in good shape to do so."
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