August 9, 2016, by Lindsay Hall
What a start to Rio 2016 for our Alumni athletes!
With several of our Alumni athletes in action since the electric opening ceremony here’s a round-up of how they’re all getting on so far.
We’ve had success on the water with the canoe slalom and rowing teams – with some medals hopefully on the cards today! The Men’s Hockey team, featuring three of our former students, have some work ahead to make it through to the next round and there’s excitement still ahead with the Rugby Sevens and Badminton still to come.
Nick Catlin made the scoreboard in Saturday night’s Men’s Hockey match against Belgium, with an equaliser to get the team in the game. Along with team mates and fellow Alumni, Harry Martin and George Pinner, it wasn’t quite the success they were hoping for with Belgium going on to win 4 -1, but Sunday showed more promise in a 2 – 2 draw against New Zealand. The team currently sit 5th in their group and with their match, tonight at 10pm against host nation Brazil, they’ll be hoping to climb the table to try and finish in the top four to make it through to the next stage.
Over on the water, it wasn’t Johny Akiyemi’s day as he unfortunately didn’t make it through the heats of the Kayak (K1). David Florence eased through the C1 Canoe Slalom heats having been so pleased with his first attempt that he decided not to go out for a second run! David went fastest in his heats winning with a fantastic 2.5 seconds lead, and heads out in a strong position for the semi finals later on today and possibly (fingers crossed) the finals at 7pm – can he add another medal to his collection? It doesn’t stop there for David though, after a flawless run in the C2 Canoe Slalom heats, he’s also secured a semi final place on Thursday with partner Richard Hounslow.
Sticking with events out at the Lagoa stadium the Women’s Rowing Eight, including Alumni Melanie Wilson, yesterday powered from third place to pass the New Zealand and Canadian teams, finishing top of their heat and head through to Saturdays finals currently scheduled for 3pm. There are still medal hopefuls out there with Chris Bartley, who made it safely through to today’s semi-finals of the Lightweight Men’s Four which you can watch from 2.30pm on the BBC here.
Former Politics student Chris Wyles takes to the field as part of the USA Men’s Rugby Sevens team tonight at 5pm against Argentina in their first match of the games, followed tomorrow by their match against favourites Fiji at 5.30pm.
Look out later in the week for our National Badminton League stars Chris Adcock and Adam Cwalina as the badminton gets into action. Adam represents Poland in the Men’s Doubles on Thursday with Chris Adcock fighting in the Mixed Doubles for Team GB on Friday. We’ll keep you posted on how they do!
With a continued and increasing investment in sport, the University of Nottingham looks forward to inspiring and coaching the next generation of Olympic athletes. With the new £40 million David Ross Sports Village nearing completion to see there are even more outstanding facilities now on offer.
You can catch all of the action live through the BBC here.
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