Great Britain qualify 11 crews for today’s medals races at the Lucerne World Cup while male gymnasts scoop team silver at the European Championships. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Britain will bid for medals on multiple fronts today having qualified 11 crews for the finals of the World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Five crews progressed on Saturday to join the six, which did likewise on Friday.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Sam Scrimgeour and Joel Cassells continued their good form with gold in the non-Olympic lightweight men’s pair.
Britain’s male gymnasts continued their build up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with an impressive silver in the European Championships team final in Bern.
Despite being without pommel horse World Champion Max Whitlock – absent due to a viral illness – the quintet of Nile Wilson, Dan Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Courtney Tulloch and Louis Smith all stepped up to the mark with a string of clean routines.
“It was a great competition with lots of positives for us all individually and as a team,” said Thomas.
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson led the British charge on day one of the Hypo meeting in Gotzis.
Johnson-Thompson, one of a number of British athletes chasing the qualification mark in Austria, currently lies second on 3,932 points, 40 points behind reigning champion Brianne Theisen-Eaton.
The Liverpudlian, who set new best marks in the high jump and 200m, needs just 2,268 points from her three remaining events on Sunday to reach the qualification mark.
Teammate Morgan Lake currently lies 29th overall while British decathletes John Lane (4159) and Ashley Bryant (4121) are well positioned for the Olympic qualification mark of 8100 points at the halfway stage.
Jonathan Schofield believes he and partner Liam Heath are heading firmly in the right direction after grabbing bronze at the canoe sprint World Cup in Racice.
The duo, who also won the same colour at the London 2012 Olympic Games, finished on the podium in the K2 200m, while Rebii Simon also won silver in the women’s K1 1000m.
“It feels like we are going in the right direction but we’re not going to get complacent,” said Schofield.
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India Lee continued her rise up the senior ranks by taking gold at the 2016 Lisbon Triathlon European Championships.
Lee, who won her first triathlon World Cup in Cagliari earlier this month, crossed the line first with Heather Sellars seventh, Lucy Hall tenth and Jessica Learmonth 20th.
“It feels amazing to be European Champion although I am not sure it’s sunk in yet,” said Lee.
“I came out the swim behind the main group and worked really hard on the bike to get back to the lead group before pushing hard on the run for the win.”
In the elite men’s race, Javier Gomez of Spain took the title while Great Britain’s Grant Sheldon finished tenth with Marc Austin in 15th place.
Jamie Cooke recorded the best individual finish by a Brit at the 2016 modern pentathlon World Championships with ninth in the men’s final.
Cooke was in the top ten throughout the day, eventually recording his best World Championships finish since 2013, while the gold went to Frenchman Valentin Belaud in Moscow.
Pentathlon GB’s Men’s head coach Marian Gheorghe said: “This was a very tough competition with the highest quality field as it was the last chance for athletes to qualify for the Olympics.
“It has also been a very competitive and intensive season with events since February so we were pleased to see Jamie in such good form all day.
“Our objective for the World Championships for Jamie was to secure Olympic Qualification and we succeeded with that really well.”
Jamie Murray moved a step closer to returning to number one in the world after he and partner Bruno Soares progressed into the third round of the men’s doubles at the French Open.
The fourth seeds and reigning Australian Open champions defeated French pair David Guez and Vincent Millot 6-2, 7-6 having twice been a break of serve down in the second set.
Fellow Scot Colin Fleming was unable to match Murray though, as he and Jonathan Erlich lost their third-round match, as did British pair Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith in the women’s doubles while Aljaz Bedene lost to Novak Djokovic in the men’s singles.
Nekoda Davis was Britain’s strongest performer on day one of the IJF World Judo Masters in Mexico as she recorded a seventh-place finish.
The Masters, an invite-only competition, represents the final qualification chance for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Davis (-57kg) lost to Sumiya Dorjsuren in the quarter-finals before a golden score against her in the repechage saw her finish seventh.
Davis was joined in action by Colin Oates (-66kg) and Ashley McKenzie (-60kg), but they were unable to make it past their first round contests.
Sportsbeat 2016