Olympic Sporting Update
September 2006
Archery
Naomi Folkard was Britain’s sole medallist at the World Field Archery Championships in Sweden, taking a bronze in the women’s recurve event. Folkard was beaten to the title by home favourite Elin Kattstrom of Sweden, with Slovakia’s Delores Cekada in second.
Meanwhile there was gold medal success for Great Britain at the European Archery Championships in Athens, courtesy of the women’s recurve team. The team, consisting of Lana Needham, Naomi Folkard and Alison Williamson, took the title by a slender one point margin following a tough encounter with Ukraine in the final on 16th September.
Athletics
The IAAF World Cup in Athens saw British athletes representing Europe in two events. The men’s 4x100 relay team of Dwayne Grant, Marlon Devonish, Dwain Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis came home in second place behind the USA, while Becky Lyne was fourth in the women’s 800m.
Badminton
It was an all British affair at the World Championships in Madrid as Olympic silver medallists Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms defeated close friends Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg 21-15, 21-12 in the final of the mixed doubles event.
Clark picked up a further silver medal alongside Robert Blair in the men’s doubles as they were beaten in the final by the Chinese pair Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun. These results represent the best performance at a World Championships for 23 years and led England to a second place finish in the overall medal table. The dominant Chinese team finished the event with four gold medals, including a 1-2-3 whitewash in the men’s singles.
Fencing
Jon Willis clinched a crowd pleasing bronze medal in the men’s epee event at the Commonwealth Championships held in Belfast this month.
Football
England booked a place at the 2007 Women’s World Cup in China with a hard fought one all draw against France in Rennes. This followed a stunning 4-0 victory over Holland at The Valley, home of Charlton Athletic FC, earlier in the month.
Gymnastics
Samantha Palmer added to her 2006 European Championship crown with victory in the Tumbling competition at the last World Cup series event in Salzgitter, Germany.
Palmer of the Lynx Aylesbury club overcame the Russian 2005 World Champion Anna Korobeynikova to take the title and now has her sights set firmly on success at the World Cup Final in Birmingham on 25th November 2006.
Hockey
A relatively young England team performed above expectations to finish fifth in the men’s World Cup held in Monchengladbach, Germany. Ranked 11th at the outset of the competition, England finished the tournament strongly with victories over New Zealand and Pakistan in the 5th-8th play offs to secure their highest placed finish for 16 years.
Ice skating
Three-time British Ice Dance champions John and Sinead Kerr produced some impressive form to take gold at the Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf, Germany. The Scottish pair top scored in both the Compulsory and Free Dance sections to secure overall victory with 166.20 points.
Sailing
Great Britain tasted success for the first time since 1988 at the 470 World Championships in Rizhao, China as Nic Asher, 21, and Elliot Willis, 23, took the gold.
Consistency over the 13 races was the key for the young pair as they defeated a strong line-up including previous World Champions Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page of Australia and fellow Brits Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield, who were victorious at the recent Beijing Olympic Test Event in Qingdao.
Meanwhile 28 year old Ed Wright was busy securing further triumph for Great Britain with victory at the Finn European Championship in Palamos, Spain. Wright has shown remarkable progress during his 18 months of competitive Finn sailing and is now looking optimistically towards the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Shooting
Britain’s double trap shooters scored a spectrum of medals at the recent European Championships with Peter Wilson claiming gold in the junior men’s event. Wilson followed this up by taking bronze alongside Daniel Martin and Luke Gardner in the team event. The men’s senior team, comprising of Steven Scott, Steven Walton and Tim Kneale secured a silver medal.
Tennis
Following his impressive form at the US Open, Scotland’s Andy Murray inspired the Great Britain Davis Cup team to a 3-2 victory over Ukraine in Odessa. The victory means Britain avoid relegation and stay in Euro-Africa zone one where they will next face a home tie against the Netherlands in April 2007.
RISING STARS
Canoeing
18 year old Mark Proctor came away from the European Under-23 Championships at Holme Pierrepoint with a bronze medal.
Equestrian
Laura Collett made a big impact on her Junior debut by taking the individual title at the Junior European Championship in Northern Ireland. Collett also helped Britain’s Junior Eventing team to silver, narrowly beaten to gold by Germany.
Sailing
Scottish 19 year old Mark Andrews excelled to take top honours at the Junior Finn European Championship. This victory, added to his recently acquired Junior Finn Gold Cup title proves Mark to be one to watch for the future.
Table Tennis
London 2012 hopeful Paul Drinkhall added to his growing reputation by defeating Austria’s Stefan Fegerl to take his first single’s title on the ITTF World Junior circuit. Drinkhall, the 2005 European Cadet Boys’ Singles champion also teamed up with fellow Brit Darius Knight to take the doubles title at the Funchal Junior Open.
Taekwondo
Aaron Cooke captured a bronze medal for Britain in the middleweight division of the World Junior Taekwondo Championship held in Vietnam recently.
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