Sport-in-brief - your weekly update from the high performance sports community
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UK Sport 07 August 2014
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games: The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games was a huge success for the Home Nations, with Team England topping the medal table for the first time in 28 years, hosts Scotland finishing fourth with a best-ever haul of 53 medals, Wales surpassing their target of 27 and Northern Ireland securing their best Games medal haul since 1986.
The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games was a further example of the strength of the World Class Programme with more than 300 funded athletes competing for the Home Nations, winning 63 per cent of the medals in Olympic and Paralympic disciplines including 77 per cent of the gold medals.
Relive the fantastic memories from Glasgow 2014 with our day-by-day list of medals won by the Home Nations in our Commonwealth Games news section.
Archery: Archery GB’s para-archery team won nine medals from the recent European Para-Archery Championships in Switzerland. Great Britain came second in the medal table, achieving the highest quantity of medals out of all countries competing at the tournament, which took place from 27 July to 3 August.
Sara Symington, Performance Director of Archery GB, commented: “This has been a fantastic weekend for the para-archery team. We are extremely proud of all the athletes and staff that turned every opportunity into a medal – it’s a well-known fact that Bronze medal matches are some of the hardest there are, so the fact that the GB para archers converted all of them is outstanding. We are now one of the top European archery teams and the archers can’t wait to prove themselves on the world stage at the 2015 World Championships in Germany, where we will be looking to qualify maximum quota places for the 2016 Paralympics.
“It is also important for us to thank UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport talent team, the Worshipful Company of Fletchers and the National Lottery. Without their support since 2012, we could not have achieved all that we have this week.”
Athletics: Goldie Sayers has been announced as Great Britain & Northern Ireland team captain for the European Championships in Zurich, Switzerland 12-17 August 2014.
Sayers, who competed for the GB & NI junior team as far back as 1998 just two days after her sixteenth birthday, has recently returned from a career-threatening elbow injury. Eleven national titles and fourth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics are amongst the highlights of her 16 year representative career.
She said: "Obviously I was thrilled when Neil asked me. Having had a fairly nightmarish past 18 months - and not knowing whether I'd ever throw or compete again - getting back into the GB vest alone has been incredible. To say captaincy is an added bonus, is a massive understatement.”
British Athletics Performance Director Neil Black said: “I was delighted to offer Goldie this captaincy. She has a career that has spanned both junior and senior ranks that sets a real example to the youngsters making that transition. If anyone can offer words of advice and inspiration to our team, I know that she can, and I look forward to seeing her back in the GB & NI vest.”
Cycling: Cycling fans will see Sir Bradley Wiggins racing on British roads this weekend as the 2012 Tour de France winner and multiple Olympic gold medallist races in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic for the first time.
Equestrian: British riders Harry Meade and Nicola Wilson have been called up to join this year’s 2014 Senior Eventing Squad following the withdrawal of Pippa Funnell (Billy Beware) and Izzy Taylor (Allercombe Ellie) ahead of this year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games which takes place in Normandy, France, at the end of the month.
Modern Pentathlon: An 11-strong Pentathlon GB squad featuring Olympic silver medallist Samantha Murray and former world champion Mhairi Spence has been selected to compete at next month’s World Championships in Poland.
The championships, which run from 1-9 September, are the last major competition before athletes begin the process of trying to qualify places for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Jan Bartu, Pentathlon GB Performance Director, said: “We always aspire to medal, whether in individual competitions or as teams.”
See the full sqaud at PentathlonGB
Para-Canoeing: GB Canoeing are competing at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Moscow. The GB Canoeing website will be updated for all the latest news and results.
Para-Swimming: The IPC Swimming European Championships are currently underway in Eindhoven, from 4 – 10 August. Keep up to date with all the record breaking, medal winning action by following @britishswimming on Twitter.
Para-Table Tennis: London 2012 Paralympic bronze medalist Paul Davies will miss next month’s World Para Table Tennis Championships after undergoing surgery.
“It is a great disappointment for Paul and for the team,” said GB Para Table Tennis Team Performance Director Gorazd Vecko. “Paul has been in great form this season and was a definite medal prospect in the singles for us; he and Rob [Davies} would also have been favourites to take the gold medal in the team event so he will be greatly missed. However, it is most important to make sure that he recovers fully from the operation and he will be back stronger than ever next year.”
The World Para Table Tennis Team Championships will take place in China from September 6-15. The GB Team will be announced later this month.
Rowing: The GB Rowing Team's junior squad are currently contesting the World Junior Rowing Championships in Hamburg. Keep up to date with their progress on the GB Rowing Team website: GB Rowing Team
Sailing: British sailors are making steady progress across the board as they contest the Aquece Rio International Regatta. Nick Thompson’s was the star performance of the British team at the midway point of the Olympic Test Event, winning both Laser races held on the Copacabana course, while Giles Scott extended his lead in the Finn event with teammate Ed Wright in third.
Swimming: Commonwealth champions Fran Halsall, Ross Murdoch and Jazz Carlin will lead a 23-strong British swimming squad at the European Championships in Berlin later this month. They are amongst nine home nation individual gold medal winners from Glasgow 2014 to make the line-up.
See the British Swimming website for the full squad.