2012 sporting round up May - August
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UK Sport 29 December 2012
May
Bradley Wiggins won the 2012 Tour de Romandie with victory in the 16.5km final stage Time Trial, recording a time of 28m 56.6s. Wiggins wrested back the advantage from Luis León Sánchez, who had won the previous two stages and had edged ahead of Wiggins on time bonuses. However, Sanchez could not mount a challenge against the clock and finished 83 seconds shy of the winning time. This was Wiggins' second major stage race win of the season following his victory in Paris Nice in March.
Charlotte Dujardin set a world record of 88.022% for the Olympic dressage grand prix special discipline, smashing the previous best by 3% during an event in Hagen, Germany.
In Fencing, Richard Kruse defeated world champion Andrea Cassara on his way to the bronze medal at the Wakayama Grand Prix in Japan. Kruse beat Cassara 15-13 at the round of 16 stage before losing out to eventual champion Jianfei Ma of China in the semi-finals.
Karina Bryant won her seventh European medal as she took bronze on the final day of the individual competition at the European Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Great Britain topped the medal table after reaching the podium in all five events held at the London Boccia Invitational, winning three Gold and two Bronze medals. The competition, which was the Paralympic Test Event, was held at the Olympic Basketball Arena.
British Triathlon was announced as Sport Governing Body of the Year at the annual Sport Industry Awards ceremony in London.
GB’s Disability Shooting team won four medals at the IPC Shooting World Cup in Turkey.
June
Three-time world champion Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips both won time trial silver medals at the BMX World Championships in Birmingham.
Britain’s Heather Fell won the silver medal at the Modern Pentathlon World Cup Final in China.
The Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallist climbed from 10th place to second in the run/shoot in Chengdu to take silver, finishing 16 seconds behind Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite.
The GB team won ten medals at the final Factor 40 Para TT event before the Paralympics in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Great Britain's David Florence made history by becoming the first man to win two gold medals at a Canoe Slalom World Cup across two classes. Competing at the World Cup event in Cardiff, Florence claimed gold in the men’s C1, before partnering Richard Hounslow to victory in the C2.
Lizzie Neave claimed her first medal of 2012, winning bronze in the women’s K1 event at the ICF World Cup two in Pau, France.
The GB Rowing Team won eight medals at the season’s final World Cup in Munich, with three gold, one silver and four bronze medals.
Daniel Purvis recorded a score of 91.550 to retain his title for the third year running at the British Artistic Gymnastics Championships, beating second placed Sam Oldham with a score of 90.050.
July
With a world record breaking time of 10.85, Jonnie Peacock took gold at the US Paralympic track and field trials. Peacock beat Oscar Pistorius and Marlon Shirley who had held the previous world record of 10.91 since 2007.
Following his confirmation as captain of the Team GB Athletics squad, Dai Greene set a PB of 47.84 seconds in the men’s 400m hurdles to take silver behind Puerton Rica’s Javier Culson at the Diamond League in Paris.
Staking her claim as a medal contender, Charlotte Dujardin riding Valegro, capped a near faultless solo performance by becoming the first British rider to break the 90% barrier for a freestyle routine. Dujardin was awarded 90.65%, breaking the record previously set by Laura Bechtolsheimer.
At the Diamond League Meeting in London, Goldie Sayers threw a new British record of 66.17m in the women’s javelin to beat her PB and national by 42cm. Mo Farah dominated the men’s 5,000m event at Crystal Palace, Farah finished in 13:06.04 well ahead of second placed Australian Collis Birmingham.
In the lead up to the final stage of the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins dominated the individual time-trial helping to consolidate his grip on the title in the process. In the final stage itself, finishing in Paris’s Champs-Élysées, Mark Cavendish secured the 23rd stage win of his career making him the most successful sprinter in Tour history whilst Wiggins himself made history in becoming the first Briton to win the Tour de France in its 99th outing, winning with a margin of three minutes and 21 seconds.
August
An outstanding display by Team GB saw all major UK Sport targets achieved in spectacular style at London 2012. In an impressive show of Great Britain’s strength across Olympic disciplines, the athletes secured a total of 65 medals, including 29 golds – the best performance by a British team for more than 100 years. The haul was within the medal range agreed with UK Sport and comfortably beyond the minimum target of 48 medals. The other target – to see more sports represented in the medal tally at London than Beijing – was also attained, with 17 sports adding to the overall total, compared to 12 in 2008. The aspiration of a top four finish in the medal table was also realised with room to spare with a historic third place ahead of the powerful Russian team.
British athletes will continue to be strongly supported by National Lottery and Exchequer cash in the run up to the Rio 2016 Games, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on 12th August. UK Sport will receive around £125 million a year over the next four years, providing sports’ governing bodies with the certainty they need to put long-terms plans in place to try and emulate, or even better, the 2012 medal haul that Team GB has enjoyed.
