Olympic Sporting Update
February 2008
Aquatics – Diving
Thirteen-year-old diving prodigy Tom Daley is set to become Team GB’s second youngest male athlete at a summer Olympic Games since 1960. Daley’s accomplishment provided the icing on the cake of an outstanding performance by Britain’s diving squad who qualified spots in ten Olympic events for Team GB in Beijing.
Daley required a top-eight finish at the FINA World Cup in Beijing’s ‘Water Cube’ arena to gain automatic Olympic pre-selection, subject to official selection by the British Olympic Association (BOA). Daley achieved pre-selection by placing seventh in the men’s individual 10m platform event. Daley will be aged just 14 years and 94 days when the Olympic competition gets under way in August.
Athens 2004 Olympic silver medallist Pete Waterfield was the only other British diver to gain Olympic pre-selection to Team GB, finishing eighth, one place behind Daley, in the men’s 10m platform individual competition.
Britain’s other eight qualifications were all in the form of quota places on behalf of Team GB, rather than individual pre-selection.
Daley and partner Blake Aldridge claimed the bronze medal and qualification of a quota place in the men’s 10m syncro event. The pair will now be challenged by Olympic silver medallists Leon Taylor and Pete Waterfield for selection to Team GB.
Hayley Sage and Tandi Gerrard recorded a best-ever performance in the women’s 3m synchro to finish sixth with a score of 308.79 and qualify a place for Team GB in the Olympic Games.
Sarah Barrow and Monique McCarroll performed consistently in their first World Cup competition to finish seventh with a score of 313.02 in the women’s 10m platform synchro final, securing an Olympic quota place for Team GB in the process.
Ben Swain and Jodie McGroarty both missed out on the finals, but finished fourth in their respective men’s 3m and women’s 3m qualification events to ensure a quota place for Team GB in both events in Beijing later this year.
In a successful first day of competition, City of Sheffield pair Ben Swain and Nick Robinson-Baker claimed fourth position and with it qualification of an Olympic quota place for Team GB in the men’s 3m synchro event.
Stacie Powell and Brooke Graddon had earlier delivered Britain's first two Olympic quota places from the World Cup with the required top 18 finishes and a place in the women's 10m individual final, where Powell finished 9th and Graddon 13th.
Daley has already experienced the feeling of Olympic success at youth level, when he secured a silver medal as part of Team GB at the 2007 Australian Youth Olympic Festival.
Aquatics - Swimming
The British Olympic Association selected three members of Team GB for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games from the sport of swimming:
Women’s 200m breaststroke
Kirsty Balfour
Men’s 1500m freestyle
David Davies
Men’s 100m backstroke
Liam Tancock
Bob-Skeleton
Thirty-five-year-old British slider Kristan Bromley claimed the men’s bob skeleton World Championship at Altenberg in Germany and in doing so made history as the first athlete to hold the World Championship, European Championship and World Cup titles in the same season.
Bromley finished the competition 0.68 seconds ahead of Canada's Jon Montgomery who took the silver medal and 0.74 seconds quicker then bronze medalist Frank Rommel from Germany. Britain’s other representatives, Adam Pengilly and Anthony Sawyer, finished 10th and 17th respectively.
Bromley had already become the 2007/08 World Cup Series Champion in the Olympic winter sport of Bob-skeleton on 8th February. Bromley’s impressive consistent record in the 2007/08 World Cup competition has seen him finish inside the top six positions at each of the eight World Cup events. This included victory in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as well as a trio of runner-up spots in Calgary, Cesana and at the seventh World Cup event in Konigssee on 2nd February. Bromley confirmed his overall crown by securing sixth place at the eighth and final World Cup event in Winterburg, Germany on 8th February where he fended off competition from his American and Canadian rivals to hold on to the top spot.
Three times European Champion Bromley has tasted success at world level before, winning the overall World Cup series in the 2003/04 season. However this season represents a promising return to top form for an athlete who narrowly missed out on an Olympic medal; finishing fifth at the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
Demonstrating Britain’s strength in depth, Bromley’s compatriots Anthony Sawyer and Adam Pengilly occupy sixth and tenth spots respectively in the final men’s World Cup rankings. Roles were reversed at the 2007 European Championships in Cesana where Sawyer took the bronze medal and Pengilly finished fourth, both behind the Champion Bromley. In the women’s competition 25-year-old Amy Williams is leading the British challenge, sitting in seventh position in the final World Cup rankings.
The 2007 World Championships in St. Moritz saw Britain’s sliders return home without a medal to show for their efforts, despite five top-fifteen finishes. Amy Williams was the highest placed Brit in seventh, followed by Olympic silver medallist Shelley Rudman in tenth, while the best male finish was Adam Pengilly in ninth, followed by Kristan Bromley in eleventh and Anthony Sawyer in fifteenth. Hopes are high that British athletes will be able to make the step onto the podium at this year’s Championships.
Modern Pentathlon
Britain’s Katy Livingston is celebrating the first World Cup win of her modern pentathlon career after striking gold in Egypt.
The 24-year-old, who has already achieved the qualifying standard for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, won the opening round of the 2008 Modern Pentathlon World Cup in Cairo.
Livingston went into the final event of the five discipline competition – the 3k run – in second place behind France’s Amelie Caze, but she passed the French athlete and then controlled the race from the front, holding off the challenge of Ukraine’s Victoria Tereshuk to take gold.
Livingston started the day with a strong performance in the shooting discipline and a personal best in the fencing competition. A solid swim was then followed by a good performance in the show jumping arena, knocking down only one fence, to put her in a medal position ahead of the run.
“Katy produced a really good performance today. It was a fantastic achievement for her personally as well as for the British modern pentathlon programme,” said Jan Bartu GB performance director.
Commenting on her win, Livingston said, "That was my first World Cup win so I'm really happy with it. Nothing really went wrong on the day. At the moment I'm focusing on each competition as it comes. My next competition is the World Cup at Millfield at the end of March. I'm really looking forward to that one because it's on home soil and I'll have lots of friends and family there," she added.
Livingston was one of four British women to make the final, team-mate Heather Fell finished 16th, with Mhairi Spence 30th and Lindsey Weedon 35th.
In the men’s competition 26-year-old Sam Weale was Britain’s sole representative in the final, finishing in an encouraging 11th position. This result yields 37 additional Olympic ranking points, pushing him up the overall rankings significantly and providing a welcome boost to his Olympic qualification hopes. A British male modern pentathlete has not competed at the Olympic Games since Atlanta 1996.
Britain’s Heather Fell and Katy Livingston have already achieved the qualifying standard for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, for which Team GB has qualified two quota places for the women’s event, but none for the men thus far. There is a further qualification opportunity for Britain’s athletes at the World Championships in Hungary at the end of May.
Sailing
British sailors Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson continued their preparations as officially selected members of Team GB for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by winning the Yngling World Championships in Miami.
The Beijing-bound trio sailed consistently throughout the regatta to dominate the 28-boat competition and retain the title they won in 2007 with one day to spare. Double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson and her crew of Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor were in tenth position ahead of the final day of racing.
British sailors have enjoyed a successful start to the Olympic year, winning medals at many world level competitions around the globe. At the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, triple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie clinched a historic fifth title in the Finn class. Ainslie’s British rival Ed Wright won the final medal race, which left him placed seventh overall.
470 sailors Nic Asher and Eliot Willis also claimed gold in Melbourne. Their victory came in dramatic fashion in the final medal race after Willis overcame severely bruised ribs following a collision with Australian pair Mathew Belcher and Nicholas Behrens. Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield finished ninth overall.
Meanwhile, British women’s pair Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark finished their 470 World Championships campaign by taking third in the medal race to finish in seventh position overall. American pair Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving won the title.
Elsewhere, Beijing-bound sailors Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes followed their selection to Team GB by clinching a silver medal at the 49er World Championships in Melbourne. Morrison and Rhodes were narrowly beaten by the home pairing of Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin in windy conditions off the coast of the Sorrento Couta Sailing Club. Fellow Britons Paul Campbell-James and Mark Asquith ended their regatta in ninth place overall, whilst Dave Evans and Alex Hopson came 16th overall, and John Pink and Simon Wheeler finished in 23rd place.
Finally, Paul Goodison returned from a three month injury layoff to finish seventh at the 2008 World Laser Standard Championships at Terrigal in Australia.
For further information please call 020 8871 2677 ext 233 or email Philip.wilkinson@boa.org.uk