The British Olympic Association (BOA) has announced today four more athletes from three sports – athletics, beach volleyball and canoe sprint - as selected to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games later this month.
With the addition of these four athletes, Team GB now consists of 542 across all 26 sports on the Olympic Programme. The full Team GB athlete selection will be finalised on Monday 9th July at the Delegation Registration Meeting (DRM), where the complete list of Team GB athletes selected to compete at London 2012 is submitted by the BOA to the London Organising Committee (LOCOG).
The four athletes added to Team GB today are:
Athletics
Gareth Warburton - men’s 800m
Beach Volleyball
John Garcia Thompson – men’s competition
Steve Grotowski – men’s competition
Canoe Sprint
Abigail Edmonds – women’s K2 500m
The BOA has confirmed today that 800m runner Gareth Warburton has been selected to Team GB for the London 2012 Olympic Games, following an appeal against his non-selection. Warburton joins the 77 track and field athletes previously selected to complete the Team GB athletics line-up.
Ed Warner, Chairman of UKA was the chair of the Appeals panel, he said:
The men’s beach volleyball pair Steve Grotowski and John Garcia Thompson will compete at the iconic Horse Guards Parade venue from the 28th July to 9th August. London 2012 will be the first time that Team GB has been represented in the men’s beach volleyball competition, since the sport joined the Olympic programme at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
On his selection to Team GB, Steve Grotowski said:
John Garcia Thompson said:
A delighted Abigail Edmonds said:
Congratulating Edmonds on her selection to Team GB, Canoe Sprint Performance Director John Anderson said:
Staying on the water, the two women’s open weight rowing spares have also been confirmed today by the BOA as Jo Cook, 28, and Emily Taylor, 25. Both have experience of competing and medalling at major international championships in recent years.
Jo was a member of the women’s eight crew which took bronze earlier this year at the 2012 Belgrade World Cup in May, and also won bronze in the same discipline at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled. Emily was also a member of the women’s eight which took bronze in Belgrade, and followed this up with another bronze medal in the same discipline at the Munich World Cup last month.
Finally, the BOA has also confirmed today the two reserve men’s hockey athletes who will support the 16-man squad this summer. They are Richard Mantell, 30, and George Pinner, 25.
Richard was a member of Team GB at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and scored twice for England in the 2009 European Championship final, when they beat Germany 5-3 to win the European crown for the first time. Goalkeeper George made his international debut against Australia in June 2009. He was part of the Great Britain squad that competed at the 2011 Champions Trophy in Auckland, and will be understudy for James Fair at London 2012.