Sport-in-brief - your weekly update from the high performance sports community
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Lizzy Yarnold
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Grace Cullen 10 January 2013
Badminton: BADMINTON England has announced the staging of the inaugural National Badminton Awards, to take place during the week of one of the world's most prestigious badminton events, the Yonex All England Open Badminton Championships.
The event, in association with Wedlake Bell LLP, recognises the Players, Coaches, Volunteers and Clubs who have made an outstanding contribution to badminton in England over the past 12 months.
Adrian Christy, Chief Executive of BADMINTON England said of the awards: "We are absolutely delighted to be able to stage such an event and I am grateful to our partner Wedlake Bell LLP and all the award sponsors for their generous support. We have just come out of a year where the profile of the unsung heroes of sport as well as those coaches and athletes who are so integral to success, has never been higher.”
Boxing: Two Olympic silver medallists and three reigning European Champions will box for the British Lionhearts in its next home fixture against the USA Knockouts at York Hall in London on Thursday 17 January as the team looks to extend its unbeaten home record in the World Series of Boxing to three wins from three.
The Lionhearts will box a USA team which features London 2012 bronze medallist, Michael Conlan from Ireland and Daouda Sow of France who won silver in Beijing. It sets-up a mouth-watering contest at Bantamweight where Conlan will be seeking revenge on Andrew Selby after the Welshman defeated him 25-24 in a thrilling quarter-final contest at the 2011 AIBA World Championships in Baku, where Selby eventually went on to claim silver.
At lightweight it pits two Olympic silver medallists against each other as Ireland’s 2012 finalist John Joe Nevin takes-on Daouda Sow who won lightweight silver four years earlier in Beijing.
Tickets are on sale for this match and the British Lionhearts next two home fixtures against top-of-the-table Astana Arlans Kazakhstan (Thursday 7 February) and the Ukraine Otamans (Friday 1 March). Tickets prices start at £20 and can be purchased at British Lion Hearts.
Fred Evans said: “It’s been great to get back in the ring after the Olympics and I am really enjoying the competition. I think I am adapting well to the different demands of World Series Boxing and am looking forward to my next bout as I feel I am improving all the time in this format.”
Andrew Selby said: “I’ve adapted well to the challenges of World Series Boxing and have been comfortable in both of my bouts to-date. It’s been great to compete in front of home crowds. I have really enjoyed the support and hope it will be more of the same when we come to York Hall in January.”
Tom Stalker has taken the decision to join the professional ranks of boxing.
Rob McCracken, Performance Director at GB Boxing said: “It has been very good working with Tom over the last three years when he has shown himself to be a fine boxer with the ability to win medals at major tournaments. It is disappointing for us that Tom has decided his future lies away from the GB Boxing squad but he departs with our best regards and we wish him every success in his future career.”
Bobsleigh: Great Britain bobsleigh pair Paula Walker and Gillian Cooke were unhurt after crashing on the second run of their FIBT World Cup race in Altenberg.
Walker and Cooke were on course for their first World Cup podium place of the season, having finished the first run in third place.
But their sled overturned on the penultimate bend and they crossed the line upside-down before walking away.
Great Britain’s four-man and two-man teams both finished in 11th position at Altenberg.
British Olympic Association: The British Olympic Association (BOA) has announced the six Olympians who have been elected by their peers to serve on the BOA Athletes’ Commission. Each of the athletes has been elected for a four year term.
The athletes elected include a trio of Olympians who were members of Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games: rowing gold medallist Katherine Grainger, hockey bronze medallist Kate Walsh and athletics sprinter Christian Malcolm, who is a veteran of four consecutive Olympic Games.
Grainger and Taylor were re-elected for what is the second of a maximum three terms which they are eligible to serve, while Walsh, Malcolm, Cracknell and Fell were elected for their first term.
The composition of the BOA Athletes’ Commission now includes 14 athletes from 10 sport disciplines. The 11 summer and three winter Olympians bring to the commission the combined experience of having participated in 40 Olympic Games (summer and winter) and having won 12 Olympic medals.
The Commission, which was formed in July 2010, is an advisory group that represents the perspective and expertise of athletes and provides input to the many initiatives and programmes offered by the BOA. The creation of the Commission followed a recommendation from the International Olympic Committee to ensure that athletes possess a meaningful voice in the decision-making processes of National Olympic Committees.
Curling: Scotland’s women claimed the silver medal at the European Championships in December. Eve Muirhead’s side were unable to defend their crown, going down 5-6 to Russia in the final.
Muirhead said: “Anyone would be happy in a European final to be going into the extra end with last stone, it just wasn’t to be for us. The extra end could have gone either way – their second made a fantastic double and took out one in the house too, so we just knew they were going to make that final shot.”
Judo: Two of the stars of British Judo’s successful London 2012 campaign will return to action at the 2013 British Championships as Olympic silver medallist Gemma Gibbons and Paralympic silver medallist Sam Ingram both compete on Sunday 20 January at EIS Sheffield.
Gibbons said: “I’m really looking forward to returning after my time out through injury and it’ll be great to return in front of a home crowd.”
Paralympic silver medallist Sam Ingram, who has aspirations to compete at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, will take on the country’s leading fully sighted judoka in Sheffield.
He said: "I'm really looking forward to fighting in the British Championships once again. I always enjoy the challenge of fighting fully sighted judoka and I can’t wait to get back on the mat in front of a home crowd.”
Adult Day Ticket: £10 / Concession (under 16’s and OAP’s) Day Ticket: £5
Adult Weekend Ticket: £15 / Concession (under 16’s and OAP’s) Weekend Ticket: £7.50
Spectator tickets are available at EIS, Sheffield from 07:30 during the event weekend (12th and 13th Jan 2013)
Skeleton: Britain's Lizzy Yarnold narrowly missed out on her third World Cup podium of the season when she finished fourth in the women's skeleton FIBT World Cup in Altenberg.
Yarnold improved from fifth place after her first run to finish 0.06 seconds behind third-placed Noelle Pikus-Pace of the US.
World Cup leader Marion Thees of Germany won the event with another US slider, Katie Uhlaender, in second.
Shelley Rudman, who won the World Cup race in Winterburg last month, finished in 17th place after suffering a bout of flu, while team mate Donna Creighton was seventh.
Yarnold remains second in the overall standings behind Thees while Rudman is in sixth place.
In the men’s race, GB had two athletes in the top ten, with Kristan Bromley in sixth place and team mate Ed Smith in tenth. Third Brit Dominic Parsons was just behind in 12th.
Wheelchair Basketball: Standard Life GB men’s wheelchair basketball player, Jon Pollock, has announced his retirement from the game. Pollock, who was part of the team that finished fourth at London 2012, has decided to retire after a series of long term injuries.
London was Jon’s fourth Paralympic Games and it capped an illustrious career spanning 20 years in which he won two Paralympic Games bronze medals in Beijing 2008 and Athens 2004, a World’s Silver Medal and numerous bronze and silver European Championships medals.
Commenting on his retirement, Jon, said “I have had a great career not just as a player but also a GB Bulldog. I started playing this game after seeing it during the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games and made my senior debut at the 1997 Europeans’ in Madrid where we won silver, I can leave this game knowing that during my time, GB has never been out of the top 5 in the world and I take a huge amount of pride saying that.”
Wheelchair Tennis: Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Lauren Jones are starting 2013 as the world No. 1 junior wheelchair tennis players after the International Tennis Federation published the first world rankings of the New Year.
