England women’s rugby sevens side finish third in the opening rugby World Sevens Series in Dubai and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Chris Walker-Hebborn pick up medals at European Short Course Championships. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
It was a strong final day for England women’s sevens team as they edged a thrilling third-place play-off match with France.
They started the day with a quarter final win over Canada before going down 19-12 to Russia in the semis.
But a 10-5 win in the Series’ penultimate match with France – after Heather Fisher scored in the final minute of sudden death extra time – meant England finished third overall – much to the delight of Michaela Staniford.
“It was quite close but I’m very pleased, very proud and I think if we were offered that before we came here we would have taken it,” she said.
“It’s exciting because last year we won the plate final so to come in the first competition and be third is a good place to start.”
England sevens head coach Simon Amor believes his side produced some brilliant performances as they won three from three to top Pool D in the Dubai World Series.
England set up a quarter final clash with Argentina in Saturday’s quarter finals and Amor believes his side have found their feet early this season.
“It’s an interesting first tournament and you go into it undercooked and make a few mistakes,” he said. “Even though we finished fourth in the World Series we never got all three wins in one day so it was a big focus for us to get that result.” Read more here.
Great Britain’s medal tally at the 2015 European Short Course Championships now stands at seven after Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Chris Walker-Hebborn picked up a silver and bronze respectively in Netanya, Israel.
O’Connor, who set a new British standard on her way to the 100m individual medley final, touched just behind double world champion Katinka Husszu, who set a new world record.
Walker-Hebborn also battled hard to take bronze in the 100m backstroke behind Radoslaw Kawecki and Stanislav Donets.
Triple world champion Adam Peaty progressed fastest through to Saturday’s final of the 100m breaststroke.
Great Britain head coach Bobby Crutchley says it was too little too late as his side were downed 4-2 by Argentina and, despite a late rally, had to settle for sixth place in the Hockey World League Final.
Four penalty corner goals for Pedro Ibarra and Gonzalo Peillat did the damage for Argentina though goals for Simon Mantell and Phil Roper in the second half made it a closer-run affair.
“We gave away some cheap penalty corners and didn’t defend them very well, which with the corner threats they have is always going to make life difficult,” he said.
“We played better in the second half but by then it was too little, too late and the damage was done.”
Damon Sansum is confident Great Britain's taekwondo stars will be in the best possible shape ahead of this weekend's Grand Prix finals in Mexico City after sleeping in altitude tents.
There will be a stellar lineup in Central America with world champion Bianca Walkden and Olympic champion Jade Jones both set to compete along with Lutalo Muhammad.
And, after losing out to teammate Muhammad in Manchester, Sansum is hopeful that he can bring his best in the -80kg division as he looks to end the season on a high.
"You learn lessons at every tournament and carry them forward to the next one," he said.
"I will sacrifice quarters in the last two to win the last one. I reckon this is going to be a good one for me and I am really excited.”
Laura Deas sits second in the IBSF world rankings after finishing fourth in the second World Cup race of the season in Winterberg.
Deas, who claimed her maiden World Cup gold in Altenberg seven days ago, narrowly missed out on a consecutive medal.
Victory went to German Tina Hermann, with Deas 1.09 seconds behind and fellow Brit Donna Creighton 14th.
In the men’s competition, Dom Parsons was seventh, with Ed Smith 19th and David Swift 21st.
Sportsbeat 2015