Team GB’s gold medal winning gymnasts are back in action on day four in Utrecht as Brinn Bevan (Benfleet) and Nile Wilson (Leeds) return to the Galgenwaard Sports Centre just two days after they won the team title with Jay Thompson.
They compete in the men’s all-around final having qualified in first and second place respectively on Tuesday. They will be joined by Ty Mattis (Tottenham)and Elissa Downie (Nottingham) in the women’s competition after their first and fourth positions in qualification helped the girls to team silver.
“I hope to do well in the finals. I went clean in when qualifying so if I can do that again I’ll be very happy,” said Bevan.
“Nile and the Russian boys were my closest rivals in the qualifying so I’ll need to make sure I beat them, but who knows who else will put in a performance on the day? My ideal situation would be to win the gold with Nile in second, he’d say the other way round of course but we’re competitors and both want to win.”
Back in the pool, Team GB will be hoping to continue their golden run after further success on Wednesday. Martyn Walton (Stevenage), Abbie Wood (Buxton), Laura Stephens (Wix), Luke Gunning (Orpington), Georgina Coates (Leeds), Suleman Butt (Aberdeen) and Julian Lin (Balham) all compete in individual events in the morning and will have their eyes set on the medal races in the day’s second session.
Wood won her second and third medals of the Festival on Wednesday and is confident of further success in the 100m breastroke.
“I can win two more medals. When I came to the EYOF I knew I was ranked high and I just tried to live up to the rankings and tried my best to get a medal. My aim was two medals and I’ve done that,” said 14-year-old Wood.
“My hero is Michael Phelps because he’s got about 22 Olympic medals. So maybe I hope also to get 22 Olympic medals!”
The roads of Het Lint will again be packed with cycling fans as the boys and girls road races are contested throughout the day. Abbie-Mae Parkinson (Liversedge), Grace Garner (Leicester) and Charlotte Broughton (Leicester) will hope to work as a team to emerge victorious and with experience of racing on the roads of The Netherlands, Grace Garner knows what to expect come race time.
“It’s going to be a tough race. When you ride on the continent the girls are always a bit more aggressive than back home but we’re used to that now and it’s just something to deal with,” she said.
“The roads are obviously pretty flat here as well and they are a bit more up and down in Britain, so it will probably be quite a fast race. We were pleased with how the time trial went on Tuesday and just looking forward to getting out on the roads again.”
Over at Tennis Park Den Hommel, Team GB’s boys face the prospect of two matches in a day as both the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the doubles competition are scheduled for Thursday. Thomas Wright (Beckenham) and Harry Simpson (Hull) won through to the quarter final and now face the second-seeded Estonian Siimar brothers, but Simpson says they hold no fear for the Brits.
“No-one wants to win a match by default but it means we’re into the next round and we were winning at the time,” said the 16-year-old.
“Obviously, as brothers, the Estonians will probably be a pretty well-drilled pairing but I feel like me and Tom are getting better with every game we play together. It’d be great to get to the semis as you’re within touching distance of a medal but we’ve got a job to do in the quarters first and we’re just focussing on that.”
And on the judo mats at Jaarbeurs Utrecht, four more Team GB judokas go into battle in search of a medal as Sarah Hill (Andover), Lubjana Piovesana (Birmingham), Enrico Atkinson (Tonbridge) and Jamal Petgrave (Mitcham) compete in the -70kg, -63kg, -73kg and -81kg categories respectively. Having waited four days to start competing, Atkinson is raring to go.
“We only got here on Saturday but it feels longer because we’ve all been itching to get on the mat,” he said.
“It’s great watching other people compete and we’ve been able to get a feel for the arena and what it might be like competing in front of the crowd, but now it’s time to compete.
“Pete Miles got us off to a great start with his silver on Tuesday and the swimmers and gymnasts are raking in the medals so we all want to play our part in Team GB’s success.”