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UK Sport 12 September 2014
Cycling: British Cycling has appointed Sir Dave Brailsford to take charge of the Great Britain Cycling Team which will compete at the UCI Road World Championships in Ponferrada later this month.
Brailsford, who continues to support the performance team at British Cycling in an advisory position, will travel to Spain, allowing British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton to focus on the performance of the Great Britain Cycling Team riders competing at the British Cycling National Track Championships which will run concurrently in Manchester on September 24 to 28.
Speaking of the decision, Shane Sutton said: “It made sense for me to ask Sir Dave to attend the road world championships as obviously the road is his focus and full-time role. The decision allows me to stay in Manchester with the track riders for the Nationals and to focus on the performances there which are increasingly important at this stage of the Olympic cycle.”
Meanwhile, Great Britain were competing at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Hafjell, Noeway this week. Annie Last was the best placed rider, finishing 12th in the Women’s Cross Country race. Visit the British Cycling website to see the full results.
Diving: Nick Robinson-Baker, has announced his retirement from diving.
Robinson-Baker has represented Great Britain two Olympic Games and three World Championships and recently came home from the 2014 Commonwealth Games with bronze in the 3m Synchro.
“After 21 years of diving and 13 of those competing for Great Britain I have decided to hang up my trunks,” Robinson-Baker said.
“The highlights of my career were definitely becoming the World Series champion, placing 5th in the Olympic final in London in front of a home crowd and to top it off becoming commonwealth bronze medallist.
Equestrian: The Great Britain Dressage and Eventing teams qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with second place finishes at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France while the Show Jumping team will have to wait until the 2015 European Championships to secure qualification.
Judo (Visually Impaired): Great Britain’s Jono Drane won -81kg bronze at the World Championships in Colorado Springs, USA this week. The result meant Great Britain achieved their minimum medal start, as agreed with UK Sport.
Modern Pentathlon: The British team ended their Modern Pentathlon World Championships campaign on a high note by winning silver in the mixed relay in Warsaw on Sunday
Kate French and Joe Evans competed well throughout the day and were just edged out of gold by the powerful Lithuanian pair of London 2012 Olympic gold medallist Laura Asadauskaite and 2013 world champion Justinas Kinderis.
It means the Pentathlon GB team will return home with three medals – one gold and two silvers. Samantha Murray became the 2014 modern pentathlon world champion when she won the individual gold medal on Friday, with Murray, French and Freyja Prentice joining forces to win the women’s team silver the same day.
Para Table Tennis: Will Bayley won gold in the men’s class 7 event at the 2014 ITT Para Table Tennis World Championships in Beijing on a great day for GB as Rob Davies and Sue Gilroy also took silver medals in the singles events.
“When it was 2-1 I thought I needed that fourth set to win the match,” said Bayley, “because I knew if Popov carried on playing the way he was playing it was going to be very difficult if it went to the fifth set. I didn’t do too much wrong on the match points - he played some unbelievable shots and never missed. I just wanted to keep pressurising him as I knew if I could do that he would get nervous and that is what happened.”
Shooting: Ed Ling won silver in the men’s trap competition at the Shooting World Championships in Granada, Spain.
Ling, who qualified for the final one away from equalling the world record of hitting 125 clays, hit 14/15 clays in the final to go into the Gold/Silver medal match against Erik Varga.
Keep up-to-date with the rest of the World Championship results by following @GBShooting on Twitter.
Swimming: Multi-Paralympic medallist Rob Welbourn has announced his retirement from swimming after ten years at the top of the sport.
Welbourn, who is based is Swansea, has competed at three Paralympic Games winning five medals including golds in 2004 and 2008. The British record holder has competed at every level of competition including the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
His season has culminated with him winning silver and bronze at the IPC European Championships and he signed off from his career at National Paralympic Day which was hosted at the London Aquatics Centre.
On his retirement he said: “This has been a big decision for me but I have thought long and hard about it and I think the time is right for me to take the next steps.
“I’m looking forward to the next chapter and what that will hold for me. Swimming will always be important to me and will always hold a special place in my heart.
Wheelchair tennis: Andy Lapthorne won the US Open quad singles final to lift his first Grand Slam singles title while Jordanne Whiley made tennis history, becoming the first British player to win a calendar year Grand Slam after partnering Japan’s Yui Kamiji to win the women’s doubles wheelchair tennis title at the US Open in New York.