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Grace Cullen 13 March 2012
Athletics: The GB & NI team won nine medals, including two gold, three silver and four bronze, at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, marking their best ever haul at the event.
Yamile Aldama won triple jump gold at the age of 39, setting a season’s best of14.82m. GB’s other gold came from the women’s 4x400m relay team who achieved a world best time of three minutes 28.76 seconds to beat the United States. Silver medals were won by Jessica Ennis, who lost out to Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska in the pentathlon, Tiffany Porter (60m hurdles), Dwain Chambers (60m) and the men’s 4x400m relay team. Bronze medals were won by Shara Proctor (long jump), Andrew Osagie (800m) and Holly Bleasdale (pole vault).
UK Athletics
Badminton: Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier's run at the Yonex All England Championships came to an end in the quarter-finals after another gripping three-game battle. Fellow Brits Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork also failed in their bid to reach the last four of the mixed doubles.
World silver medallists Adcock and Bankier lost the opening game 21-16 but once again hit back to level the contest by taking the second game. In the decider they went 3-0 down and were never able to reel in their Malaysian opponents, who won on their second match point with a 21-16 15-21 21-17 scoreline.
Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork lost a close first game 21-19 against fourth seeds Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir in the next match on court. But the England pair roared back in the second game, taking the second game 14-21. But the Indonesians started the decider strongly and took the contest 21-6 after 55 minutes.
Badminton England
Fencing: British Fencing, in conjunction with their sponsor, Beazley, has launched BritishFencingTV on YouTube. The channel is designed to give viewers access to fencing specific content including interviews with athletes and an insight into what is happening behind the scenes.
British Fencing
Modern Pentathlon: Britain’s Mhairi Spence made a terrific start to her 2012 campaign by winning the silver medal at the opening Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the year.
Spence produced a strong all round performance at Charlotte in North Carolina, USA to take silver behind Lena Schoneborn, Germany’s Olympic champion. As the competition for places on the GB team for the 2012 Olympic Games intensifies, British team-mates Samantha Murray and Heather Fell also produced impressive performances, finishing sixth and seventh respectively.
Spence said: “I’m really happy, a little overwhelmed in fact. It was a really good day and it was nice to finish well. I’ve worked really, really hard. I had a decent season last year and I’ve picked up on a couple of little things I needed to work on over the winter.”
In the men’s final, Britain’s Nick Woodbridge produced a strong performance but just missed out on the medals at the first Modern Pentathlon World Cup of the year, finishing sixth.
Pentathlon GB
Rowing: In the GB Rowing Team Senior trials, Katherine Grainger beat her world champion women’s double scull partner Anna Watkins to wrest back the crown she lost to Watkins last year. Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge won the men’s pair from Alex Partridge and Alex Gregory. Alan Campbell reigned supreme for the eighth time in the open men’s single scull but there were surprise winners of the lightweight men’s and women’s single sculls in Adam Freeman-Pask and Kat Copeland – the latter having joined the senior squad after winning the world U23 title last year.
Earlier in the day’s racing, Helen Glover and Heather Stanning powered to victory in the women’s pair from team-mates Jess Eddie and Louisa Reeve.
Great Britain’s two adaptive men’s single scullers – aiming for a place at the first world cup of the season but also with an eye on this year’s Paralympic Games – went head-to-head in their own Trials at the squad’s training centre at Caversham. Tom Aggar, the reigning Paralympic Champion beat Andy Houghton by six seconds.
GB Performance Director, David Tanner, said: “The venue has delivered, we’ve had good weather and a lot of British public here and that support has been exceptional. I think we have all got the feeling and the message now that the Olympic Games are close and we will and can step up to them and having our Olympic trials here finishing in the sunshine has been just the starter we needed for the 2012 season.”
Tanner also commented on the outstanding support given to the squad by the National Lottery and Siemens, the GB Rowing Team’s High Performance Partner and said: “Many in the crowd will have bought their lottery tickets this week and we really appreciate the massive backing the public are giving us through the National Lottery.”
http://www.britishrowing.org/
Sport Industry Awards: UK Athletics, British Cycling and British Triathlon have all made the shortlist for the Sport Governing Body of the Year Award, sponsored by the Daily Telegraph, completing the shortlist line-up for the Sport Industry Awards 2012.
Nick Keller, the Chairman of the Sport Industry Group, commented: “A number of governing bodies the world over have had their ethics and leadership questioned in recent years, but every organisation that entered this year’s Sport Governing Body of the Year Award can point proudly to fantastic efforts at transparency and leadership.
“The six governing bodies who have been shortlisted for the Award can confidently state that they are the best of a strong group of bodies in this country whose performance, achievements and strategic planning bode well for the future of British sport in this summer’s Olympic Games and beyond.”
The Sport Industry Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 2 May.
http://www.sportindustry.biz/
Swimming: Following last week’s Olympic swimming trials, the British Olympic Association has confirmed a 38-strong squad who will compete at the Olympic Games which includes double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington, open water silver medallists Keri-Anne Payne and David Davies, and 400m freestyle bronze medallist Joanne Jackson.
UK Sport chief executive officer Liz Nicholl said: "As one of our most promising Olympic sports in terms of medal potential for London 2012, UK Sport is proud to have backed Britain's swimmers with over £25 million of National Lottery, Exchequer and Team 2012 funds in the current Olympic cycle.
"Beijing 2008 was a real breakthrough for British swimming, and the entire team has taken inspiration from that Games and built on it in their preparations for London 2012.
"Congratulations to the selected swimmers, their coaches and support staff, who have just had a fantastic week at the British trials in the Olympic pool, where competition just to make the team has been fierce.
"This bodes extremely well for London, and I have no doubt our swimmers will shine in front of their enthusiastic home ground this summer."
Athletes selected for Team GB so far:
Women: Rebecca Adlington (400m and 800m freestyle), Sophie Allen (200m individual medley), Georgia Davies (100m backstroke), Eleanor Faulkner (800m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle), Ellen Gandy (100m & 200m butterfly), Fran Halsall (100m butterfly, 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle), Kate Haywood (100m breaststroke), Joanne Jackson (400m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle), Jemma Lowe (200m butterfly), Jessica Lloyd (4x100 freestyle), Caitlin McClatchey (4x200m freestyle), Hannah Miley (200m and 400m individual medley), Keri-Anne Payne (10km open water), Elizabeth Simmonds (200m backstroke), Amy Smith (100m freestyle, 50m freestyle), Gemma Spofforth (100m backstroke), Stacey Tadd (200m breaststroke), Rebecca Turner (200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle) and Aimee Willmott (400m individual medley)
Men: Robert Bale, (4x200m freestyle), Craig Benson (100m breaststroke), Adam Brown (4x100m freestyle), Simon Burnett (4x100m freestyle), Ross Davenport (4x200m freestyle) David Davies (1500m freestyle), James Disney-May (4x100m freestyle), Daniel Fogg (1500m freestyle), Craig Gibbons (4x100m freestyle), James Goddard (200m individual medley), Michael Jamieson (200m breaststroke), Ieuan Lloyd (4x200m freestyle), Roberto Pavoni (400m individual medley, 200m butterfly), Robbie Renwick (200m & 400m freestyle), Michael Rock (100m butterfly), Joe Roebuck (200m & 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly), Daniel Sliwinski (100m breaststroke), Liam Tancock (100m backstroke) and Andrew Willis (200m breaststroke).
British Swimming
