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Grace Cullen 01 June 2012
Archery: GB archer Naomi Folkard won the European Championship silver medal on the final day of competition in Amsterdam, losing out on gold to Russia’s Ksenia Perova.
Archery GB Performance Director Sara Symington said: "It's been a great week for Naomi, she's had a fantastic run to the final, and winning a silver medal at the European Championships is a great confidence boost for her. Naomi shot well in tricky conditions, but Perova shot better, and that's the way these things go."
Archery GB
Athletics: Competing at the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, European and former World champion Jessica Ennis enjoyed her greatest ever performance when she defeated most of her major rivals as she smashed the British Heptathlon record and her personal best. Her score of 6906 is the best in the world for almost five years and finally sees the demise of former Olympic champion Denise Lewis’s 12 year-old mark of 6831 points.
World 5000m champion Mo Farah won the Bupa London 10,000m easily in very hot conditions on a course that will be used as a lap for the Olympic marathon. Farah saved his sprint for the last 400m and won in a time of 29:21.
UK Athletics
Badminton: The British Olympic Association has announced the Badminton team for the London Olympics. The quartet is led by Anglo-Scottish mixed doubles pairing Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier, who will be coached at the Games by Peter Jeffrey, who is currently on UK Sport’s Elite Coaching Apprenticeship Programme. The young pairing have already tasted success in the Olympic venue after producing an outstanding string of performances to win the silver medal at the 2011 World Championships at Wembley Arena.
The squad also includes Londoner Rajiv Ouseph, who is five times English National Champion in men’s singles and a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
The most experienced member of the squad is Susan Egelstaff, who won a bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games for Scotland, and is selected to compete in the women’s singles event.
Badminton England
Canoe (sprint): Olympic champion Tim Brabants is set to defend his K1 1000m title in London after winning his race-off with fellow Briton Paul Wycherley. Brabants took the best-of-three series 2-1 by making the final of the World Cup event in Duisburg, while Wycherley went out in the semi-finals.
Also competing in Duisburg, Ed McKeever claimed gold in the men’s K1 200m, while Jon Schofield and Liam Heath won silver in the men’s K2 200m final. The three medal winners were joined by team mate Ed Cox to win gold in the non-Olympic K1 200m relay.
GB Canoeing
Cycling (BMX): Three-time world champion Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips both won time trial silver medals on the opening day of the BMX World Championships in Birmingham. However, both riders crashed on the final day of competition during the super cross event – the Olympic BMX discipline. Phillips broke his collarbone and will now face a fight for fitness in time for the Olympic Games. Leading her quarter-final, Reade crashed from the front but escaped with grazing.
British Cycling
Gymnastics: Great Britain’s men’s artistic gymnastics team are the champions of Europe. Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Louis Smith, Ruslan Panteyleymonov and Max Whitlock become the first British team to ever take a major championships team gold medal after dominating the competition in Montpellier. The British team only had one mistake throughout the whole event to seal a winning score of 266.296 ahead of Russia in second (265.535) and Romania in third (261.319).
The final day of the competition saw Louis Smith claim the pommel horse silver medal with a score of 15.775, losing out to long term rival, Kristian Berki of Hungary, who scored 15.958.
Smith said: “The routine was alright a little bit shaky with a lot of pressure on but I’ve gone clean again, a little bit of form break may have cost me the medal but overall I’m happy. The week has been superb for British Gymnastics with the team title, so to add a silver to that wraps it up nicely. I went for my easier routine today which was the sensible decision; I’ve proved this week I’m capable of big scores so it puts me in a confident mood going forward.”
British Gymnastics
Fencing: The British Olympic Association has announced seven athletes as officially selected to represent Team GB in fencing at the London 2012 Olympic Games. In the last three years British Fencing have won 13 World Cup medals and claimed four European Championship podium places, including Britain’s first major championships team medal in three decades.
Team GB will compete in all three fencing disciplines – epee, foil and sabre - on the Olympic programme, at the ExCel in London Docklands.
The selected athletes are: Louise Bond-Williams (Women’s Sabre), James Davis (Men’s Foil), James Honeybone (Men’s Sabre), Richard Kruse (Men’s Foil), Corinna Lawrence (Women’s Epee), Natalia Sheppard (Women’s Foil), Sophie Williams (Women’s Sabre)
The Team GB fencing squad will consist of ten athletes in total, the Olympic selection for this sport is a two-stage process and three additional athletes to take part in the foil team events will be confirmed at a later date.
British Fencing
Modern Pentathlon: 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.
In the men’s event, Britain’s Nick Woodbridge and Sam Weale just missed out on the medals, finishing fifth and seventh respectively. The result means the Beijing 2008 Olympians will achieve the London 2012 qualifying standard by virtue of their positions on the Olympic ranking list. They join Jamie Cooke, Britain’s reigning world junior champion, in having achieved the Olympic qualifying standard. Cooke finished 19th in Chengdu.
Pentathlon GB
Rowing: The men’s four of Alex Gregory, Peter Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs Hodge won a dramatic race with Australia to take gold at the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne in a time of 5:50.84.
UK Sport’s Sporting Giant graduate Helen Glover and Heather Stanning also claimed gold in the women’s pair final, which saw the World Champions from New Zealand pushed back into bronze by a strong USA crew.
Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger claimed GB’s third gold medal of the World Cup with victory in the women’s double scull from a newly-resurgent Polish crew. Germany took third.
GB added two further medals, a silver in the men's eight and a bronze in the men’s lightweight four.
British Rowing
Shooting: The British Olympic Association has announced ten shooting athletes selected to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The athletes selected have won medals at Olympic, World and Commonwealth level and will be aiming to compete with the best shooters in the world and challenge for Olympic medals this summer.
Team GB will compete across all three disciplines on the Olympic shooting programme - shotgun, pistol and rifle - at the famous Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.
Full GB Olympic squad: Elena Allen (Olympic Skeet Women), Ed Ling (Olympic Trap Men), Georgina Geikie (25m Pistol Women), James Huckle (Three Position Rifle Men), Jennifer McIntosh (Air Rifle Women), Jonathan Hammond (Prone Rifle Men), Peter Wilson (Olympic Double Trap), Richard Brickell (Olympic Skeet Men), Richard Faulds (Olympic Double Trap), Rory Warlow (Olympic Skeet Men)
British Shooting
Disability Swimming: The British Paralympic Association has confirmed that the 26 swimmers who were named in April this year as selected subject to confirmation of slots by the IPC Swimming, have been formally accepted and will compete for ParalympicsGB at London 2012.
In April 16 British swimmers, including double Paralympic gold medallist Ellie Simmonds, were officially selected for ParalympicsGB for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
These slots have now been confirmed and the swimmers have therefore been accepted as full team members.
These athletes are: James Anderson, Gemma Almond, Jack Bridge, Charlotte Henshaw, Josef Craig, Emma Hollis, Graham Edmunds, Elizabeth Johnson, Sean Fraser, Natalie Jones, James Hollis, Nyree Kindred, Sam Hynd, Harriet Lee, James O’Shea, Amy Marren, Daniel Pepper, Natalie Massey, Benjamin Procter, Stephanie Millward, Craig Rodgie, Lauren Steadman, Anthony Stephens, Louise Watkin, Matthew Whorwood and Thomas Young.
In addition, British Swimming have nominated a further two athletes for selection and they have also been confirmed. As a result, the BPA have announced that Morgyn Peters and James Clegg will also compete for ParalympicsGB in London.
British Swimming
Disability Table Tennis: The GB team won ten medals at the final Factor 40 Para TT event before the Paralympics in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Singles gold was won by Rob Davies in Class 1 when he defeated Paul Davies, who took silver. Jane Campbell also won silver in Class 3. Bronzes were won by David Wetherill in Class 6, Will Bayley in Class 7 and Ross Wilson in Class 8.
After their singles success, Team gold followed for Paul Davies and Rob Davies in Class 1 with David Wetherill – partnered by a German – also winning gold. Silvers went to Jane Campbell and Sara Head in Class 3 and Will Bayley and Paul Karabardak in Class 7.
English Table Tennis Association
Taekwondo: The British Olympic Association has announced three athletes as selected to represent Team GB in taekwondo at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The athletes selected today have won medals at Olympic, World and European Championships, and will be aiming to challenge for Olympic medals at the ExCel Arena in London Docklands this summer.
The selected athletes are: Jade Jones, (women’s -57kg), Martin Stamper, (men’s -68kg), Sarah Stevenson, (women’s -67kg)
Sarah Stevenson, who claimed a memorable bronze medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, is the most experienced member of the team and will be attending her fourth Olympics Games. The Doncaster-born athlete is the current reigning World Champion having regained her crown in South Korea last year. Stevenson’s dedication and commitment to taekwondo was recognised earlier this year when she received an MBE for her services to the sport.
Eight-time British Champion Martin Stamper will be looking to build on an extremely successful 2011 where he was named the Olympic Athlete of the Year for taekwondo, having won three gold medals - at the US, German and British Opens - a silver medal at the French Open, and World Championship bronze. His record of 27 wins from 29 fights last year will give him confidence ahead of what will be his first Olympic Games.
Welsh-born Olympic debutant Jade Jones is the youngest member of the team. She is the current reigning Youth Olympic Champion after becoming the very first Team GB athlete to claim a Youth Olympic title at Singapore in 2010. Jones made the step up to senior level by winning 2010 European Championships bronze in St Petersburg before claiming the silver medal at the 2011 World Championships.
GB Taekwondo
Triathlon: Jonathan Brownlee won his second straight ITU World Triathlon race, winning in Madrid a fortnight after claiming the top spot in San Diego.
Brownlee attacked the race from the start, swimming at the front with a trio of strong Russians and Slovakia’s Richard Varga. A group of nine athletes worked together on the tough bike course, before building an unassailable lead at the start of the run. Brownlee made an immediate move to the front and never challenged, winning convincingly from Russians Alexander Bryukhankov, Dmitry Polyanskiy and Ivan Vasiliev.
British Triathlon
Weightlifting: Zoe Smith hit the A standard once again at the British Senior Championships with a performance which broke her own British U23 and U20 records in the snatch, clean and jerk and total. Lifting in the 63kg category, 18-year-old Smith snatched 94kg and lifted 117kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 211kg, surpassing the A standard of 205kg.
Other highlights included Gareth Evans in the 69kg class, where he once again reached the B standard and only just missed out on the A standard with a total of 277kg. In the same category, Shaun Clegg also hit the B standard, the 19-year-old totalling 273kg for the silver medal.
In the women’s 48kg class, Jo Calvino staked her claim for one of the two female spots on the team with 153kg, the second time she has reached the B standard. And her clean and jerk of 88kg equalled her own British senior record.
Also hitting the B standard was Calvino’s club-mate Halil Zorba, who reached 292kg to put himself in the frame for Olympic selection. And a third Crystal Palace athlete, Emily Godley, also hit the B standard again with 182kg in the 63kg class to take silver in the championships.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Peter Kirkbride also hit the B standard for a second time, totalling 325kg in the 94kg class.
British Weightlifting
Wheelchair Basketball: Following successful performances at the BT Paralympic World Cup, the British Paralympic Association have announced the 24 wheelchair basketballers who will comprise the men’s and women’s teams at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Head Coach Murray Treseder confirmed the squad, saying: “We believe we have selected the strongest possible team to bring success in London 2012. There is one significant change to the team that won the European Championships with Jon Pollock’s inclusion after a nine month absence.
“We have been pleased with the progress we have made in the last few months and we know we have a lot of upside in our team structure work. It’s also great to include four players in the squad who will be making their Paralympic debut in Ian Sagar, Dan Highcock, Gaz Choudhry and Matt Sealy.”
Commenting on the women’s squad, Garry Peel said: “It was a really tough decision and we left it right until the last game at the BT Paralympic World Cup on Saturday to make the final choice. It’s a really tough when you have 15 girls who all deserve to go but we can only take 12 and we feel we’ve got the right 12.”
Men’s team: Abdi Jama, Matt Byrne, Peter Finbow, Matt Sealy, Ade Orogbemi, Jonathan Pollock, Jon Hall, Ian Sagar, Simon Munn, Gaz Choudhry, Terry Bywater, Dan Highcock
Women’s team: Sarah McPhee, Laurie Williams, Clare Strange, Louise Sugden, Helen Turner, Helen Freeman, Natasha Davies, Sarah Grady, Judith Hamer, Maddie Thompson, Caroline Maclean, Amy Conroy
British Wheelchair Basketball
