GB weightlifters secure two spots at Olympics while Emma Pooley will return to road cycling at Tour de Yorkshire. Here's our review of the last 24 hours.
British Weightlifting have secured one men’s and one women’s place for Team GB at this summer’s Olympic Games following an outstanding week at the European Championships in Norway.
The seven-strong women’s team topped the Olympic qualification team classification, boosted by a fantastic performance from Mercy Brown in the 75+kg category on Sunday.
The men’s team finished in fifth with the remaining six quota places secured by Turkey, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Finland and Slovakia.
Tommy Yule, British Weightlifting performance director said: “We are very proud of the teams’ performances this week and to return from Norway with six medals, a number of personal bests and, crucially, two Olympic qualification spots is a tremendous achievement.
“The pressure was on all of our athletes to deliver and they did just that; it’s the first time that we have qualified both a men’s and women’s place through the team classification at the Europeans and for the women to finish top is fantastic and testament to their hard work and preparation to give themselves the best possible chance of qualification.”
The British Championships in June are the final opportunity for athletes to prove their credentials before nominations are made to the British Olympic Association for Team GB selection.
Emma Pooley is raring to get back on the road after announcing she will race alongside world champion Lizzie Armitstead at the Women's Tour de Yorkshire on April 30.
Pooley retired from professional cycling following the 2014 Commonwealth Games to focus on long-distance triathlon and duathlon events.
But the 33-year-old will return to road cycling as part of the Great Britain team for the Tour de Yorkshire later this month with one eye on the Olympic Games in Rio later this summer where she is expected to be selected in support of Armitstead for the road race as well as taking on the undulating time trial course.
Pooley won Olympic time trial silver at Beijing 2008 but in the short-term, she is excited for the 135km Tour de Yorkshire which begins in Otley and ends in Doncaster.
"I'm really looking forward to joining up with my Great Britain team-mates for the Women's Tour de Yorkshire race and I'm looking forward to racing on the road again," Pooley told British Cycling.
"The Tour de Yorkshire race will be awesome because it's on the same course as the men's race, and Yorkshire has seen such amazing growth in cycling in the last few years. It looks like a great course."
Great Britain men’s ice hockey coach Pete Russell praised his side’s spirit as they scored in overtime to claim their second victory of the World Championship with a 4-3 win over Estonia.
Craig Peacock opened the scoring after just 26 seconds, before Russell Cowley netted either side of an Aleksandr Petrov strike.
Petrov scored again to take the tie to 3-2, only for Andrei Makrov, who plies his club trade for Telford Tigers, to find the back of the net to force the game into overtime.
But it didn’t take long for Sheffield Steelers’ Robert Dowd to score his second goal of the Championship and seal maximum points for the second time in successive days after Great Britain’s win over hosts Croatia on Sunday.
Russell said: “It was not pretty but we found a way to win the game.
“It shows the spirit of the squad in that we did not panic and found a way to claim the extra point.”
Great Britain will face Lithuania in their next fixture on Wednesday.
London 2012 saw Team GB’s boxers walk home with an impressive haul of three gold medals, one silver and one bronze.
But if last week’s European Olympic qualifying event is anything to go by, Rio 2016 could be even more of a banner Olympic Games in the ring as nine Brits booked their place in South America in style – Nicola Adams, Galal Yafai, Qais Ashfaq, Muhammad Ali, Joe Cordina, Josh Buatsi, Lawrence Okolie, Joe Joyce and Antony Fowler.
Heading into the event in Samsun, Turkey, the men knew that a top-three finish would see them claim a named place at Rio, while coming in the top two was the requirement for the women to earn the same.
That ensured that Friday’s semi-finals would be pressure-filled for the nine Brits still remaining in the competition and they stepped up admirably with eight of the nine reserving their places on the plane to Rio with victory.
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British number three Kyle Edmund is through to the second round of the Nastase Tiriac Trophy following a 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) win over Lukas Rosol.
The 21-year-old won both sets on a tiebreak against his Czech opponent in Bucharest, and will now face Spaniard Guillermo García-López, who had a bye in the first round, in his next match.
“It was my first match on clay so I needed to make adjustments from hard to clay,” Edmund told atpworldtour.com. “I never expected to play my best tennis today.
“The weather has been hot and warm, which is quite different than in England, so it is taking me a bit of time to adjust to the conditions.”
Sportsbeat 2016