Isobel Pooley wants to qualify for the World Championships in style as she seeks to retain her national title and Heather Watson produces brilliant performance to book third-round spot at Wimbledon. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Isobel Pooley is determined to book her World Championship spot when she looks to retain her British crown in Birmingham this weekend.
It is set to be a star-studded high jump at the British Championships with rising star Morgan Lake also taking part.
The pair battled it out at this year’s Indoor Championships in Sheffield with Pooley third best on that day and Katarina Johnson-Thompson coming out on top.
But since then Pooley has found some for and jumped 1.94m at the European Team Championships in Cheboksary.
And she wants to scale the same heights again as she looks to confirm her spot for the Worlds in Beijing next month.
“I’d like to get 1.94 again at least to attain automatic selection. I think that would feel amazing, to know on the day that I’m going to Beijing and have that in my pocket,” she said.
“The title is a massive deal, it’s always fantastic to be a champion, not just a winner but a champion. So that is a huge target especially with the domestic field as strong as it is. To jump high in front of a home crowd would be amazing.”
Heather Watson insists the prospect of squaring up to world number one and five-time champion Serena Williams doesn't frighten her after she stormed into the third round at Wimbledon with a straight sets victory over Daniela Hantuchova.
Watson made light work of Hantuchova in the end as she ran out a 6-4 6-2 winner to make the third round at SW 19 for the second time in her career.
And despite the setting up a clash with Williams next, Watson believes anything is possible as she targets the fourth round.
"It’s not fair when people predict the future, but Serena’s a great player. She is a great champion and always the one to watch, always the favourite. I look forward to playing her," she said.
Elsewhere Liam Broady's competition came to an end after he was beaten in straight sets by David Goffin 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 6-1
Head coach Bobby Crutchley believes his Great Britain hockey side are capable of beating the best after victory over Pakistan set up a Hockey World League semi-final clash with Australia.
First-half strikes from Chris Griffiths and Alastair Brogdon put the Brits in control but a 48th minute strike from Muhammad Umar Bhutta made for a tense finish.
However, they came through in the end and move a step closer to qualification for Rio 2016
“It was job done really. I’m pleased we got through,” said Crutchely. “There were a lot of key performances in the team and we showed we can work hard when the games get tight.
“We’ll prepare well for Australia. It’ll be a tough game but we’re looking forward to it. We played them a couple of times recently and had a win and a loss. We showed we’re capable of beating them and we’ll be hoping to do it again.”
After their Baku expedition Kieran Slater, Amy Oliver, Naomi Folkard and Nicky Hunt will all make the trip to this year’s World Championships in Copenhagen.
Slater will be joined by Larry Godfrey and Patrick Huston in the recurve while Oliver, Folkard and Hunt are the trio selected for the women’s event.
In the compound Naomi Jones, Danielle Brown and Lucy O’Sullivan all get the nod while Adam Ravenscroft, Mark Rudd and Duncan Busby go for the men.
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