August 11, 2016, by Lindsay Hall
A mixed week for our alumni athletes in Rio
It’s been a mixed week for our alumni athletes out in Rio – there’s been disappointment on the water with David Florence and Chris Bartley not making it through to the next stages of the canoe slalom and rowing but there’s still chance to claim some medals in the coming days as we cheer on the teams heading into their finals (with a second chance for David Florence in the C2 slalom finals) and the start of the badminton competition.
The GB Hockey team, featuring team mates and alumni Nick Catlin, George Pinner and Harry Martin, recovered from their earlier defeat and draw in the games to overwhelm host nation Brazil in a mighty 9 – 1 victory, including a goal from Harry Martin. However a 2 -1 loss against Australia today has placed team GB fifth in their group, and with only one match left against pool leaders Spain (Friday at 9pm) it’s looking unlikely that they’ll make it into the top four to progress through to the quarter finals.
As the wind causes havoc out on the water at the Lagoa stadium Chris Bartley fought in a tightly-bunched lightweight men’s four rowing semi-final. It just wasn’t to be as Italy, France and New Zealand pulled forward to take the top three places and through to the finals.
Melanie Wilson awaits her turn to go for gold as part of team GBs women’s rowing 8 who will take to the water in this Saturday’s finals at 3pm (weather permitting).
At the Whitewater stadium it was a tough result for David Florence in the C1 canoe slalom finals as he missed out on a medal. However he’s still in with another chance of adding to his medal count in today’s C2 finals with partner Richard Hounslow which start at 6.15pm.
Over at the Deodora stadium alumni Chris Wyles represented team USA in their rugby sevens matches against Argentina and Fiji, they unfortunately haven’t made it through to the medal playoffs but have one more match to go today against Spain.
The next few days sees the start of the badminton competition with our National Badminton League stars Chris Adcock and Adam Cwalina taking to the courts. Adam, representing Poland in the men’s doubles, lost his first match today against Korea but heads into his next two matches facing Denmark on Friday at 9.25pm and team GB on Saturday at 7.30pm.
Chris Adcock starts his medal campaign in the mixed doubles tonight against China and goes on to face Denmark tomorrow at 1.30pm followed by Poland on Saturday at 2.45pm. We’ll be watching these guys closely over the weekend to see how they progress through their groups.
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 and keep up to date with results here.
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