Showing posts with label Becky James. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

As UK Sport's record £355m investment in British athletes begins, Sportsmail speaks to those who have already seen gold

EXCLUSIVE: As UK Sport's record £355m investment in British athletes begins, Sportsmail speaks to those who have already seen gold from the funding boost

PUBLISHED: 22:00, 31 March 2013 | UPDATED: 13:07, 1 April 2013

This Monday marks the start of UK Sport’s record £355million investment in British athletes in the run up to the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The message is simple: Britain wants to become the first country to better its performance four years after hosting the Games.

It is an ambitious target after the staggering success of London 2012, in which Great Britain won 65 Olympic medals and 120 at the Paralympics and finished third in the medals table in both events, but British sport has aimed high since National Lottery funding was introduced in 1997. It is hard to believe Britain won just one gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Joy: The Olympic Parade which celebrated all the British success during the Olympics and Paralympics

Glory boys: Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent were the only GB gold medalists in Atlanta

Here, some of the athletes who have benefited from UK Sport funding tell Sportsmail exactly what it has meant to them…

Sir Ben Ainslie, 36

Four-time Olympic gold medallist, sailing

‘Trying to become the first nation to better our performance after a home Olympics is a fantastic goal. For me, it shows just how far British sport has come.

‘I’m not thinking about Rio right now because I’m in San Francisco with my America’s Cup team but you never know – it’s still a few years away.

History: Ben Ainslie won a record fourth sailing gold medal after a titanic battle in London

'I’m happy with the decisions I’ve made in my career so far and I’ll definitely be in Brazil in some capacity, even if I’m not racing.

Sir: Ainslee was knighted for his heroics

‘I started receiving funding in 1997. I went to my first Olympics in 1996 and won a silver medal, but we didn’t do very well as a team. We won just one gold medal – in rowing, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent in the men’s coxless pair. It was a pretty poor performance overall.

‘Then UK Sport funding came in and I think, straight away, you could see a big change in the way we were able to train. We enjoyed a big jump up the medal table in Sydney (from 36th to 10th) and that continued all the way to London.

‘British sport became more professional, but the rest of the world upped their game as well. When I started travelling to compete internationally most people were sleeping in tents or in the back of their cars and trying to hold down jobs as well as training.

'There were very few full-time athletes. I think that’ s been the biggest change: we have always had the passion but we simply didn’t have the time to train and recover properly.

‘I was lucky because I was still studying, but I relied on my parents an awful lot. I’m sure they were very relieved when funding came on, as a lot of parents must have been.

‘The medical support has been unbelievable. I had a back injury six months before London and it really was a difficult time. I had to have surgery and a lot of physio but the support I received was phenomenal. It made a huge difference to me and my chances of winning that gold medal.

‘Could I have achieved what I did without funding? It’s a difficult one. I was fortunate in that I had success early on and was able to attract commercial sponsors, but I couldn’t have done it without the coaching and medical support there in the background.

'It was about setting up a long-term strategy to win medals and they certainly got the right people and the right strategy to do that.’

Perri Shakes-Drayton, 24. Double European indoor champion, athletics

‘It meant a lot to win two gold medals at the European Indoor Championships (in the 400m and 4 x 400m relay) in Gothenburg. You train to win medals and to be a champion was even better.

'The training that I’ve done and any doubts I may have had have gone away. I can do it and I want more. It gave me that confidence that I am as good as the rest of the girls and I want to maintain it.

Champion: Perri Shakes-Drayton won gold in the Women's 400m at the European Indoor Athletics

‘It meant a lot after the Olympics. I finished on a high and I kept running close to my personal best but it was a disappointment (failing to make the final of the 400m hurdles). But rewards will come. The European titles have put the Games behind me. It’s a good feeling.

‘The 400 metres isn’t my event and hopefully I can transfer that speeds to the hurdles now. I enjoy them – there is a lot more to think about, but I haven’t achieved what I want to do yet over the hurdles.

'I’m not saying “bye” to them yet. Hurdling comes naturally now. I see a hurdle and I know how to attack it.

‘I want to come home with a medal from the World Championships in Moscow in August. I want one and I have to win one. That’s my aim.

TeamGB's Perri Shakes-Drayton

Pedigree: The British quarter cruised to victory in the Women 4 x 400m relay

‘Chris Zah has been my only coach, for the past 11 years. He took me from the grass roots to the world-class athlete I am today. It’s not really common for that to happen, but we’ve grown as a team and learnt together.

‘We’ll stay in Mile End, not move to Loughborough. We’ll stay in that gritty, crusty gym in east London because it’s working for us. It’s a good set up and I’ m not going anywhere for the moment.

‘National Lottery funding just makes life so much easier for me. The money I receive in support helps with training camps – I’m going to Daytona in Florida for a month on April 2.

I don’t take it for granted because it makes life so much more stress-free. All I have to do is worry about getting to training on time and being the athlete that I have to be to achieve my goals.’

Becky James, 21. Double world champion, track cycling.

‘I couldn’t have made my career without Lottery funding, I’ve had it since I was 15 and it’s been a huge support for me. Without it, I couldn’t make a career out of cycling because women get paid differently to men if, say, I was on a road team.

'It gives you such a lift when you first get on the programme and you become part of British Cycling, too. It’s been a great help.

‘I’m sure I wouldn’t be a double World Champion if I had a part-time job. I worked until I left home – I used to work in a kitchen doing all the food prep and washing up, which wasn’t the most glamorous job. Then I did a bit of waitressing and then I worked in a cake shop for two years in Abergavenny – serving coffee and cakes. It probably wasn’t the most productive thing to do for my sport, but it was fun.’

Double: Becky James won two gold medals at the World Cycling Championships in Scotland

Funding: UK Sport have been a key part of James' immediate success

Quillan Isidore, 16, joined UK Sport’s World Class Performance Programme as a Development athlete in November 2012 after winning the Boys Under-16 category at the UCI BMX World Championships in Birmingham last May.

Winner: James with her gold medal in the individual sprint

‘I always looked up to people in the GB team and wished I could be one of them. It was a dream when I made it onto the Olympic development programme for BMX because there are only five of us: four boys and one girl. It’s really good when we all go away for training – that’s what I want to live my life like but I’m still at school so I have to be patient. But I’m proud to represent the British team and follow in the steps of people like Sir Chris Hoy.

‘I still live at home in south London so I get a set programme to follow from my coach. I’m very dedicated – I never miss training at all. We’re not the richest family so I’m really thankful for the support.

‘You can get pretty bad injuries in this sport so it’s good to know the back-up is there, too. I’ve been very lucky so far, but it’s impossible to be injury-free.

'I’m aiming for the 2020 Olympics but I’ve got 2016 in the back of my mind. I believe that if I work really hard it can be done. We’re all working really hard to get up the rankings and try to get GB three spots in Rio.

‘I do think BMX is becoming more of a recognised sport. I got into it because my friend just took me to a track in Brixton one day when I was eight. It only had about five jumps but I just loved the feeling of getting my front wheel off the ground. I got my first bike for my eighth birthday and have been hooked ever since.’

UK Sport, funded by The National Lottery, is supporting Britain’s best athletes on the #RoadtoRio. Follow their progress @uk_sport

Monday, 25 February 2013

Becky James leads dominant Great Britain to top of Minsk medal table with two golds

James leads dominant Great Britain to top of Minsk medal table with two golds

By MATT MCGEEHAN, PRESS ASSOCIATION

PUBLISHED: 09:51, 24 February 2013 | UPDATED: 15:43, 24 February 2013

Becky James survived on adrenalin to win a second stunning gold medal of the 2013 Track Cycling World Championships within 24 hours in Minsk and cap a stellar showing from Great Britain.

Britain defied a London 2012 hangover to finish top of the medal table with five gold medals, with James the undoubted star.

The 21-year-old from Abergavenny became the first Briton to win four medals at a single World Championships with victory in the women's Keirin on the fifth and final day.

Golden girl: Becky James celebrated her second win at the Track Cycling World Championships

Winner: James with her keirin gold medal

James won her maiden senior World Championships title on day four in the women's sprint and had a fitful night's sleep as she tried to come to terms with her triumph.

Further success followed as James claimed her second gold, to add to two bronze medals won in the opening two days of competition. She finished with the same medal haul as fourth-placed France.

'After last night, I woke up this morning and I should've been tired, but I wasn't tired at all,' said James, who got "a couple of hours' sleep".

Decorated: James won four medals in Belarus

Champion: James won the women's sprint earlier in the week and was too good in the keirin on Sunday

'I was just trying to lie in the dark. My room-mate, Vicky Williamson, she was racing today as well.

'I was just tossing and turning, replaying the day in my head and trying not to think about it and trying to get to sleep for today's racing.

'I just thought 'this is the last day, get everything out'. I really did. I got every little bit out of my legs.'

The physical toll from five days' of racing, which began with team sprint bronze with 19-year-old debutant Williamson on Wednesday's opening day and was followed by 500metres time-trial bronze on day two, was the main indication of her success.

'I feel like it's a complete dream apart from the pain in my legs,' she added. 'Two gold medals!'

First to the finish: James led from the front in her keirin victory

First to the finish: Becky James led from the front in her keirin victory

James entered her third senior World Championships targeting top-eight finishes in each of her four events.

Her Keirin triumph was full of class.

Leading from the front in the event which begins behind a motorised Derny bike, James fought off repeated attacks to cross the line first before, as she did on day four, celebrating with her grandparents Kathleen and Ioan James.

Cuba's Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez was second with Gong Jinjie of China third, while Germany's Kristina Vogel crashed out.

'After the second round I was feeling it in my legs and I really struggled getting up from the back,' James said.

'I just thought if I can get to the front, they're all going to have to come round me.

'It just worked out so well. I was in so much pain, but I just pushed and pushed and I finished in the front.'

Podium: Laura Trott won silver behind USA's Sarah Hammer while Australian Annette Edmondson came third

Happy: Trott with her silver medal in Minsk

The World Championships are taking place without two of the great female sprinters - the now retired Victoria Pendleton and Australia's Anna Meares, who is taking a sabbatical - with James filling the void.

James, girlfriend of Wales rugby union wing George North, won two junior world titles in 2009 and now has two senior titles. Pendleton won nine and three times won three medals at one championships, most recently in 2009, but never did she win four.

Meares won four in Melbourne last April and was challenged by an 18-year-old James at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

James won silver, but has only belatedly recovered her form after appendicitis and an Achilles injury which meant she was not in contention for London 2012.

In hindsight, James admits missing the Games was a blessing.

'I'm reaping the benefits now,' said James, who watched Hoy win the Keirin in the London 2012 Velodrome.

Second best: Trott was forced to settle for silver as Hammer gained a measure of revenge for the Olympics

Hammer time: The American Hammer (right) extended her lead to an unassailable six points

Britain finished the first World Championships on the road to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with gold medals for the women's team pursuit squad of Laura Trott, Dani King and Elinor Barker, Jason Kenny in the men's Keirin and Simon Yates in the men's points race, to go with James' double.

Olympic champion Trott had to settle for silver in defence of her women's omnium title as London 2012 runner-up Sarah Hammer claimed her second gold.

The United States' Hammer had a five-point overnight lead, which she increased to six entering the last of six disciplines, the 500metres time-trial.

Trott's Achilles heel remains the points race and, unlike in Melbourne and London, she was unable to respond to win gold.

Small gains: Trott (left) was third overnight and was able to improve to silver medal position today

Not quite: But she didn't quite have enough to overhaul Hammer's large lead

'I normally leave it to the 500m,' Trott said.

'I came here hoping I wouldn't do that. The points race let me down again. She beat me by seven places in the points race and overall by four.'

Britain's Simon Yates and Owain Doull were 11th in the Madison, won by France's Vivien Brisse and Morgan Kneisky, while Stefan Botticher won the men's sprint.

The German fell into the repechage on day four after being beaten by Kenny, but the Olympic champion was eliminated and Botticher seized his second chance, beating Russia's Denis Dmitriev in the final.

Mirror woman: Trott rounds the bend in the flying lap leg of the omnium race

Out in front: Britain's Becky James (leading) made it through to the final of the women's keirin on Sunday morning

Sunday, 24 February 2013

Becky James takes Pendleton's Track Cycling Sprint World Championship title

James takes Pendleton's Track Cycling Sprint World Championship title

By CHRIS POWER

PUBLISHED: 17:47, 23 February 2013 | UPDATED: 20:40, 23 February 2013

Becky James succeeded Victoria Pendleton as Britain's sprint queen by showing the same blistering power and speed of boyfriend George North at the World Championships on Saturday night.

James, 21, inherited six-time world beater Pendleton's individual sprint title in Belarus just hours after North had helped his Wales side to a Six Nations victory in rain-lashed Rome.

Golden girl: Becky James (left) beats Germany's Kristina Vogel

But Jason Kenny's hopes of adding the world sprint title to his Olympic crown were left in tatters after he lost his quarter-final to New Zealand's Sam Webster in two straight races.

James added gold to the bronze medals she had already bagged in the 500m time trial and team sprint with victory in the individual event over Germany's Kristina Vogel in a thrilling third-race decider.

Pride and joy: Becky James celebrates Gold with her grandfather Ioan James

The Abergavenny rider led out in the first race after swooping down off the banking but as she just faded in the home straight, Vogel snatched it in a photo-finish by millimetres.

But, in the second race, James arrowed in on her rival's rear wheel to take the ride on the line and force a third and deciding battle.

And after a delay, caused by a technical fault, she returned to the track to lead from the front and fend off Vogel for a first senior title.

Golden girl: A jubilant Becky James celebrates her victory in the sprint event in the world championships

With the keirin event to come today, she could finish these championships with an incredible four-medal haul and rival Laura Trott, whose hopes of another double gold are in the balance in the omnium, as the golden girl of the track.

James showed her rich promise with a double gold at the worlds juniors in Moscow in 2009 and a Commonwealth Games silver the following year.

In contention: Jason Kenny qualified seventh fastest in the men's sprint in Minsk

But after that, injury and then illness struck. Belittled by constant stomach pains she was forced to have her appendix removed last February.

She had to be content with a reserve slot as Britain tore the track up in London last summer and Pendleton made her weepy exit.

Since then, though, all the reports were that she was flying in training and James proved that here with personal best marks in the time trial and then in the qualifying heats for the sprint.

Kenny, bare-chested, slumped down in his seat in the British pen in the Minsk arena and began an immediate inquest with sprint coach Ian Dyer who was soon back on his feet with James, who was next up, for her crucial second race.

On the chase: Jason Kenny (right) is closed down by New Zealand's Webster Sam

And his sixth place in the team sprint showed he was not quite at his best here. Kenny never looked like progressing to tonight's medal rounds as Webster easily overtook him in the first race.He may have won the keirin on Friday night with a storming finish, but he had ridden his luck in the earlier rounds to get through to the final.

The New Zealander then took advantage as he was allowed to open up a significant gap in the second race to cross the line well ahead.

Philip Hindes and Matt Crampton went out in the earlier rounds of the sprint, while there was no British double in the points race as Dani King was unable to match surprise gold medallist Simon Yates, finishing eighth.

KATCHING MY I

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