SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT

22 SPORT TUESDAY 9 AUGUST 2016
CITYAM.COM
OLYMPIC GAMES
Brits out to upset odds in swimming and showjumping
FRANK DALLERES
@frankdalleres
GREAT Britain has gold medal hopes
in multiple events on Tuesday in Rio
– including swimming, eventing,
gymnastics and canoeing – without
being a strong favourite in any of
them.
James Guy and the men’s 4 x
100m freestyle relay team stunned
repeat winners the United States at
last year’s World Championships
and will look to repeat that feat in
Brazil. Heats start around 6:15pm
UK time, with the final at 3:38am on
Wednesday morning.
Minutes earlier, Commonwealth
champion Siobhan-Marie O’Connor
goes in the women’s individual
medley (Wednesday 3.29am).
Elsewhere in the pool, Michael
Phelps, the most decorated
Olympian of all time, will attempt to
avenge his London 2012 defeat to
Chad le Clos in the men’s 200m
butterfly (final 2.28am). Le Clos
vowed to defend his title despite
his parents both battling cancer,
while Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh is
the form horse and could
leave both men battling for
silver.
William Fox-Pitt shoulders
British hopes of preventing
Germany from retaining
their individual and team
showjumping titles (from
2pm), less than a year after a
fall left him in a coma.
Scottish slalom canoeist David
Florence is perhaps the strongest
Team GB fancy of the day.
He has won successive
silver medals at the last
two Games but is the
reigning world champion
in the C-1 (final 7:15pm).
Fox-Pitt competes just 10
months after an accident
that left him in a coma
It would take a major shock to
deny the United States gold in the
women’s team gymnastics final
(8pm) but Britain, who won bronze
at the World Championships last
year, harbour medal hopes.
The British men’s rugby sevens
team kick off their campaign
against Kenya (4pm) and Japan
(9pm), while sailor Giles Scott gets
his bid to emulate countryman Sir
Ben Ainslie in the Finn class
underway (5pm).
OLYMPIC GAMES
Peaty vows to
better his gold
standard show
ROSS MCLEAN
@rossmcleanRMAC
OLYMPIC champion Adam Peaty has
vowed to continue his gold rush after
winning Great Britain’s first medal of
the Rio Games with a world record
100m breaststroke swim in the early
hours of Monday morning.
The 21-year-old became the first
British man to win Olympic swimming
gold since Adrian Moorhouse in
the same event at the Seoul Olympics
in 1988, breaking his own world
record with a time of 57.13 seconds –
1.5 seconds clear of his nearest rival.
Peaty is set to compete in Friday’s 4
x 100m medley relay but has set his
sights on improving his searing pace
when he returns to work at Repton
School and Loughborough University
with City of Derby coach Mel Marshall
after Rio.
“I’m not going to settle for this. I’m
going to push forwards,” said Peaty,
who also has double Olympic champion
and four-time medallist Rebecca
Adlington as a mentor.
“I’m sure every gold medallist says
that, but me and Mel operate differently,
always pursuing excellence and
self-improvement.
“It’s going to be good to go back to
Repton, go back to Loughborough and
pick up on those areas we can improve.
I’ve got one of the best mentors
in the world in Mel. She’s been there
and done it all.
“And I speak to Becky quite a lot.
She’s been there and done it all. But
for now enjoy it, get this relay done
and hopefully get another good performance
for Team GB.”
Uttoxeter-born Peaty was already
world, European and Commonwealth
champion but joined the list of fellow
Britons David Wilkie in 1976, Duncan
Goodhew four years later and Moorhouse
in winning Olympic breaststroke
gold.
Welsh swimmer Jazz Carlin followed
Peaty’s lead in securing a podium finish
by winning silver in the women’s
400m freestyle.
Peaty will go
for a second
gold medal in
the 4 x 100m
medley relay
IN BRIEF
RUSSIA TO FIGHT IPC’S
BLANKET BAN DECISION
£ PARALYMPICS: Russia has
vowed to mount a legal challenge to
the International Paralympic
Commission (IPC) decision to ban
all of the country’s competitors from
the Rio Paralympic Games, which
start this month. Olympic chiefs
resisted imposing a blanket ban on
Russia, instead asking sports to
make their own rulings. “What
comes first, the crime or the
punishment?” said Russian
Paralympic chief Vladimir Lukin.
VAN VLEUTEN ON MEND
AFTER ROAD RACE CRASH
£ CYCLING: Dutch rider Annemiek
van Vleuten has sought to reassure
fans that she is recovering quickly
from her horror crash in the
women’s road race on Sunday. Van
Vleuten was leading when she came
off her bike and was later diagnosed
with three fractures to her back and
severe concussion. She said:
“Waiting for some research and
hope I can leave [hospital] today.”
AUSSIES BACK HORTON IN
ROW WITH CHINESE RIVAL
£ SWIMMING: Australia have hit
back at China in a war of words over
Mack Horton’s 400m freestyle
victory over Sun Yang. Horton
labelled his beaten rival a “drug
cheat” on Saturday, in reference to a
previous doping ban which Sun
blamed on heart medication.
Chinese swimming chiefs on
Monday demanded an apology, but
the Australian Olympic Committee
responded by saying Horton had
“spoken out in support of clean
athletes”, adding “good luck to him”.