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Giants take Nottingham by storm

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Matthew Crawcour 10 May 2007

History was made on Saturday morning as 40 hopefuls took to the starting line on a journey they hoped could lead to representing Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games. A further 140 triallists followed in their footsteps over the Bank Holiday weekend, as the nation’s first mass public appeal for tall and talented athletes got to the business end.

The venue was Nottingham and the sport handball. Of the 3,800 individuals who had applied following UK Sport and the English Institute’s call for Sporting Giants, 180 had been identified as having the right characteristics for handball – young, tall and athletic, with a background in team ball sports.

Any doubts anyone might have had about the process were quickly dispelled as the coaches – a number of whom had been flown in from Denmark for the weekend – started putting Saturday’s group of male athletes through their paces. The quality of the field meant that the coaches were going to have a harder time determining who wouldn’t make it through to future stages of talent identification, than shortlisting the successful ones.

The same pattern was repeated on Sunday and Monday, resulting in a total of 30 women and 45 men being shortlisted by the coaching team – headed by Allan Lund, British Handball’s Technical Adviser. Lorraine Brown, the World Class Handball Programme Performance Manager, was excited by the quality of the field:

“All the athletes were selected because they showed huge athletic ability on paper, and the day was about looking at their potential and ‘trainability’ within the handball environment. The athletes arrived at the beginning of the day having never touched a handball, and it was amazing to watch their transformation as they quickly learned the rudimentary skills of the game to then go on and play a mini tournament at the end of the day“, said Lorraine Brown,

“Although not world class now, there are definitely a number of athletes within this group who could go all the way and help the GB Handball Team to a credible performance in London 2012 Olympic Games.”

Aside from handball drills, the ‘Giants’ had their jumping and sprinting ability put under the microscope and had their height, armspan and hands measured as part of the overall assessment. Finally, a mini ‘Olympic’ tournament, created a competitive environment for the athletes to showcase their newly acquired skills and demonstrate their ability to perform under pressure.

The next hurdle in the talent identification process for the 75 successful candidates is a two day camp in Sheffield in June. Those sessions will be coordinated by Ian Yates from the English Institute of Sport who was delighted with the flying start made last weekend:

“The standard of all those who came to us through the Sporting Giants appeal was exceptionally high. Whilst it has caused the coaches some headaches, it is the right sort of problem to have and provides a high degree of confidence in the process as we move forward.”

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