Sport-in-brief - your weekly update from the high performance sports community
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Michael Grady 22 May 2014
Badminton: BADMINTON England has this week launched its search for a new Performance Director to lead its talent programme through to medal-winning success at World and Olympic level.
The new Performance Director will get the opportunity to shape a talented squad of players leading up to the Olympics at Rio 2016, following this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and World Championships in Denmark.
For more information about the Performance Director role and to view the full Candidate Brief go to the BADMINTON England website.
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games: Team Scotland, Team Wales and the England Commonwealth Games Team made squad announcements ahead of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games this week.
To keep up-to-date with the latest squad announcements, visit their respective websites:
Gymnastics: Great Britain’s senior women’s artistic gymnastics team won European silver with an incredible performance in Sofia adding to Becky Downie’s gold in the uneven bars earlier in the week.
Hannah Whelan, Rebecca Downie, Rebecca Tunney, Claudia Fragapane and Ruby Harrold all contributed superb routines under high pressure for the team total of 170.663 points.
Rebecca Downie said: “We’ve all come together and gelled as a team in the last few months, everyone stepped up today and put in a performance for each other, I’m so proud of all of them.”
Meanwhile, Great Britain’s junior male gymnasts have claimed their fourth straight European team title as the women won a host of medals, including team silver, all-round bronze and a string of individual medals.
Find out more on the British Gymnastics website.
Hockey: England’s men and women competed in Four Nations tournaments in Germany this week as their preparations for the Hockey World Cup continued.
The women’s team finished the competition on a high after beating Japan following defeats against Germany and Australia. The men however struggled against tough opposition and suffered defeats against the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
Keep up to-date with the hockey World Cup on the England Hockey website.
Modern Pentathlon: Britain’s young women pentathletes were in impressive form last weekend winning team gold at the World Youth A Championships.
The Pentathlon GB trio of Francesca Summers from Dorking, Eilidh Prise from Aberdeen and Kerenza Bryson from Plymouth won team gold at the competition in Budapest.
There was also an individual bronze medal for Francesca Summers, which means she has achieved the UIPM (Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne) qualifying standard for this summer’s Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
ParalympicsGB: Over 500 people joined Paralympic athletes and 20 Paralympic summer and winter sports at Sports Fest in Manchester last weekend.
The attendance figures mean that close to 2,500 people have attended a Sports Fest in the 18 months since the first event, which was designed to capture the enthusiasm and inspiration from the London 2012 Paralympic Games, was held in December 2012.
The Sportcity-based event was supported by ParalympicsGB’s most successful summer Paralympian, Dame Sarah Storey, and first ever ParalympicsGB winter gold medallist Kelly Gallagher. The pair were at the event to sign autographs, have their photos taken and show off their medals to participants.
Dame Sarah Storey said: “I’ve been blown away by the numbers here today, I don’t know what I expected, but it’s been remarkable in terms of how busy every stand has been. There’s a real buzz in the room and the constant noise level tells you that lots of stuff is going on. It’s just been superb.”
Paratriathlon: Great Britain Patatriathletes won four gold medals at the ITU World Triathlon Yokohama. With eleven medals from fourteen athletes, British Triathlon Performance Director, Brendan Purcell was more than pleased with the results.
Purcell said: “The team was more professional that I’ve seen. They’ve been able to score points that will help them qualify for the European Championships, that was the objective and they’ve achieved it.”
Rowing: The GB Rowing Team sent a squad of seven para-rowers to Italy to compete across three events at the Varese International Para-Rowing Regatta.
In the LTA (legs, trunk and arms) mixed coxed four, GB took four members of the squad which won a gold medal at the World Championships last year in Korea.
In the LTA (legs, trunk and arms) mixed coxed four, world champions Pam Relph, James Fox, Oliver Hester and cox Oliver James were joined by newcomer Grace Clough and raced to a strong victory in Saturday’s final. An injury then saw the crew withdraw from Sunday’s final.
Laurence Whiteley of Tees RC produced a stunning performance to win gold medals on Saturday and Sunday, producing the fastest time seen internationally in the TAM1x final on Saturday, winning by over eight seconds. He then took another comfortable victory in Sunday’s final.
Four-times World Champion Tom Aggar, of Royal Docks Rowing Club won silver medals on both days of the regatta in the AS (arms and shoulder) men’s single scull.
Sailing: British Finn sailor Andrew Mills has made the ‘tricky decision’ to hang up his sailing boots and end his quest for Olympic gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The Ashford-born sailor has decided to call time on his eight-year journey in the heavyweight dinghy class, having been offered a career opportunity outside of the sport that he couldn’t refuse.
He said: "It has been a really tricky decision – much as it would be great to keep sailing, do what I love to do among some great friends, the time comes where you have to look at your own interests and your own future.
“There are so many people to thank within the team for their contributions, support and expertise over the years which have been paramount to my achievements,” Mills added.
“However, I would like to say a special thanks to my family for all their support, to the RYA and UK Sport for backing and investing in me, and also to my coach Matt Howard and training partners Mark Andrews and Giles Scott.”
Swimming: British Swimming has launched a new performance funding programme to target over £100,000 worth of investment at athletes and programmes across a number of clubs.
Funding is targeted at clubs where at least one podium athlete and/or three podium athletes are based and will enhance a number of programme elements designed to maximise athlete development and performance.
British Swimming Head of Performance Services Adam Clarke commented: “Performance club funding is an important part of our strategy to ensure a number of our key clubs have the support they need to provide a quality training environment for World Class Programme athletes. 19 athletes currently on Programme will benefit directly from this investment into their home club.”
Table Tennis: European champions Paul Davies and Rob Davies won gold in the men’s class 1 team event at the Slovakian Open this week. There were also silver medals for Will Bayley and Paul Karabardak (men’s class 7), Aaron McKibbin with the Belgian Marc Ledoux (men’s class 8) and David Wetherill with Valentin Kneuss from Switzerland (men’s class 6) and a bronze for Jane Campbell and Sara Head (women’s class 1-3).
The British Table Tennis Association for people with Disabilities