Eleven Leeds alumni and current students are taking part in the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
Olympics
Matt Holland & Ed Scott
(GB Men’s Water Polo)
Preliminaries 31 July, 4, 6 August // Quarter Final, 8 August //
Semi Final, 10 August // Final, 12 August
With Team GB facing the Gold, Silver and Bronze medallists from Beijing in their group it will be a tough test, but we’re sure they’ll be up for the challenge.
Ashleigh Ball
(GB Women’s Hockey)
Preliminaries, 31 July, 4, 6 August // Quarter Final, 8 August //
Final and Bronze Medal Match, 10 August
With 47 England caps and five for Great Britain, Ash will be adding the Olympic Games to her playing CV after already competing at both the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and World Championships in 2011. The midfielder scored some crucial goals in this year’s Champions Trophy against China and Germany to help Great Britain finish in second place.
Rebecca Gallantree
(GB Women’s Diving)
3m Springboard preliminaries, 3 Aug // Semi Finals and Final, 4 Aug //
10m Platform preliminaries, 8 Aug // Semi Finals and Final 9 August
Rebecca competed at the Olympic pool in London during the diving World Cup and is raring to go for the Olympics. Now settled in Leeds having studied Sport and Exercise Sciences she is on course to compete in two separate diving events.
Jack Oliver
(GB Weightlifting)
77kg Class Heats and Final, 1 August
Jack smashed the British under 20 and under 23 records at the World Championships held at Disneyland Paris in November last year. Having rapidly risen through the rankings over the last six years Jack was selected to represent England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi finishing eighth.
Jonathan Hammond
(GB Prone Rifle Men)
Qualifying and Final, 3 August
Jonathan will be making his second appearance at an Olympic games for Team GB and after winning Bronze, Silver and two Gold medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games he has a great opportunity for Olympic success.
Alistair Brownlee
(GB Men’s Athletics)
Triathlon, 7 August
Alistair is one of the great medal hopes for Team GB this summer after winning Gold at both the World and European Championships last year. He goes into the Olympics as the world number 1 so we have high hopes of him being able to win a medal this summer.
Jonathan Brownlee
(GB Men’s Athletics)
Triathlon, 7 August
Jonny is also one of Team GB’s medal hopes, coming in second behind his brother at the World and European Championships last year. Hopefully we’ll be seeing both Brownlee brothers leading from the front at London 2012. In the last year Jonny became the World Sprint Champion and won the Team Triathlon World Championship, going into London 2012 with these successes will hopefully mean we will see two Brownlee’s on the podium.
Paralympics:
Claire Cashmore
GB Class S9 Swimming, 30 August
This will be Claire’s third Paralympic Games and she will be hoping to add to the three bronze medals that she has already won.
Kim Daybell
GB Class 10 Table Tennis
Preliminaries from, 30 August
Ranked 8th in the world Kim stands a real chance at getting in the medals. He has represented England in able-bodied table tennis despite being born with Poland’s syndrome. He has spent this year building up for the Paralympics as well as studying in his first year of Medicine.
Karen Darke
GB Hand Cycling, H2 time trial and H2 Road Race, 5, 7 September
After watching the Beijing Paralympics on television hand cyclist Karen was determined to compete at London 2012. She qualified for the London Paralympics by winning two bronze medals at the World Championships last year and now has her eyes set on Paralympic glory.
Further information:
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