Her jump, which added a huge 16cm to her previous lifetime best to catapult her to the top of the 2012 world rankings, was all the more remarkable because it was achieved off a shortened, 14-stride run-up, raising the prospect of even further improvement in the build-up to the London Games.

All eyes will now be on her performance at the UK Indoor Trials in Sheffield on Feb 11-12 and, more importantly, at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul in March, where Isinbayeva, the Russian two-time Olympic champion, could well be in action. Having cleared 4.80m at Saturday’s low-key meeting in Lyon, France, Bleasdale elected to raise the bar to 4.87m with the aim of taking the second spot on the all-time indoor list. She then amazed herself by clearing it.

“When I got 87, I was so happy I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I just lay still on the bed in astonishment. The crowd was absolutely electric and this was an amazing boost.”The 20 year-old from Chorley, Lancashire, then made an attempt on Isinbayeva’s world record of 5.00m but this time she was unsuccessful.

“Everyone was on their feet shouting, and when I attempted 5.01 the atmosphere was just out of this world,” she said. “I’ve never experienced it like that before. “I ran through twice and had one good attempt. I was lucky to have the chance to attempt a world record but next time I will be more mentally prepared. “I can’t wait to watch the videos and get back into a little block of training before the trials, where I will be off a full approach and hoping the crowd can spur me on some more.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Norfolk’s tourism bosses have been urged by the culture secretary not to miss out on the “once-in-a-generation” to put the county on the map which will be created by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for culture, Olympics, media and sport, said the county was well placed to profit from the Games themselves, but also from a major campaign urging British people to holiday at home.

Mr Hunt hosted an Olympic summit at the OPEN venue in Norwich city centre, where he issued a rallying cry to more than 200 hoteliers, businesses and tourism bosses to make the most of the opportunities the games will present.

He said a £4m television campaign would encourage people visiting the games to travel further afield than London, while also urging people who might otherwise head abroad to think about holidaying in the UK - in places such as Norfolk.

And he even suggested Londoners who want a break from the six weeks of sport in the capital from July and August might want to escape to Norfolk.

Mr Hunt’s visit to Norwich was part of the government’s GREAT campaign, a drive to promote UK tourism and to get local firms to sign up to a new website offering a 20.12pc discount scheme.

Mr Hunt said: “Last year, nearly 10m visitors came to the East of England, supporting more than 240,000 jobs and generating £2bn through overnight stays.

“Next year, with the Games and our biggest-ever tourism marketing campaign we can do even better.

“With the Torch Relay passing right through the area we have a once-in-a-generation chance to show the world the very best of Norwich and the East of England.

“From the natural beauty of the Norfolk Broads, to cultural and historic sites like Holkham Hall and Gainsborough’s House and Michelin-starred restaurants like Morston Hall. the East of England has it all - and we need to make sure the whole world knows.”

He said events such as the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, the Latitude Festival, Norfolk’s medieval churches, Norwich’s castle and cathedral were all big cultural draws to entice people to the region.

And Mr Hunt also suggested people might even make their way to Norfolk and Suffolk to escape from the Olympics. He said: “I think you are benefiting and will benefit from the fact that you are so close to what will be the most exciting city on the planet for six weeks this summer. It will be one of the greatest years in London’s history and in Olympic history.

“Norfolk will benefit from that, but what I also want to make sure is the people who come to London think about going to Norfolk as well and, of course, you’ve got that great market of people in London and the South East who may want a break from what’s happening and you’ve got a lot to offer them.

“The main message is that, if we think of the amazing summer we are going to have as six weeks of fun, which it will be, we are going to miss the huge business opportunity we have to really put Norfolk on the map.

“We are going to have the spotlight of the world on Britain this year and television stations from Beijing to Barcelona are going to be talking about our country and I want them to know not just about London but about what’s happening in the East of England and Norfolk.”

Mr Hunt was joined by VisitNorwich chairman Caroline Jarrold, Essex County councillor Stephen Castle, the chairman of the East of England, London 2012 Nations and Region group), Martin Green, head of ceremonies at London 2012) and James Berresford, VisitEngland’s chief executive.

With tourism worth around £2.6bn to the Norfolk economy, supporting 49,000 jobs, Ms Jarrold said: “The East of England is one of the most popular tourism destinations in the UK offering a wealth of different experiences for many types of visitor, whether to vibrant historic and cultural centres such as Norwich and Cambridge, the magnificent coastline of the countryside and the distinctive experiences of the Broads.

“The area is well placed to benefit from the 2012 games, with many points of relatively easy access to the sites through the rail and coach networks.?“The torch relay will also pass through the area, including an overnight stop here in Norwich [July 4], with many cultural activities around it.”

The campaign, and its emphasis that people from home, as well as abroad, should consider Britain as their holiday destination, was welcomed by Norfolk tourism businesses.

Simon Egan, co-founder of BeWILDerwood, near Horning, said: “It was nice to be at an Olympic event where everyone seemed to be so positive.

“It’s nice to have a big campaign focusing on British tourism. The whole holiday at home idea is brilliant. We think this year is going to be one of the biggest we’ll have seen for staycationing.”?Ian Hacon, chief executive of Blue Sky Leisure, which is the parent company of Kelling Heath near Weybourne and Woodhill Park near Cromer, also welcomed the high profile television campaign and website.

He said: “I think for us, in North Norfolk, it makes what the government are doing more attractive, because, with the public transport links, I don’t think we’re going to get people coming up to us from London during the games.

“I think Norwich will benefit from that, but for us, the campaign to get people holidaying in Britain, and beyond just the duration of the games, is very welcome.”

Simon Wright, Norwich South MP, said: “I think Norfolk has undersold itself in the past, although that is beginning to change.

“We have so much to offer, whether it’s the beauty of the Norfolk Broads or the wonderful medieval buildings of Norwich and we really need to sell that nationally, so the Olympics are a good way to do that.”

• The 2012 Larking Gowen - EDP Tourism Business Survey is collecting information from organisations on the issues which matter.

Open until January 29, Larking Gowen chartered accountants and business advisors will help analyse the data before the results are presented during English Tourism Week in March.

You will be able to see the results online at www.edp24.co.uk/tourism survey, in the EDP and in a glossy brochure.

You can also take part at http://services.edp24.co.uk/norfolk/tourism-business-survey

• Don’t miss the next edition of the Evening News’s Olympic preview supplement, London Calling, on Tuesday, January 31.

Read the rest of this entry »

Scotland Yard and the Royal Marines are joining forces for a string of "familiarisation exercises" to avoid catastrophe in London this summer. The Metropolitan Police's Marine Policing Unit and army members will provide a rare glimpse of Britain's top secret security plan as they take to the water.

The drills "are designed to make sure that everyone has the same level of knowledge about how the river operates and how our tactics work together," police said. Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, head of the force's security operation for the Games, said: "All of our planning is designed to mitigate against potential risks during the summer of 2012, and this is an example of where we will be using specialist military capability to support us. "This exercise is not in response to any specific threat, but is part of our planning to pre-deploy certain specialist assets to bolster our operation.

"This will be a summer like no other in London. The Thames runs through the very heart of our capital and will be a popular place for people who want to be part of the Olympic spirit. This is all part of our planning to ensure this summer's events take place safely and securely."About 44 marine police officers in rigid inflatables and fast response boats will be joined by up to 94 military personnel and a Lynx Navy helicopter.

Crime and security minister James Brokenshire said: "This exercise forms part of the comprehensive testing and exercise programme that is crucial in securing the Games. "We are leaving nothing to chance to ensure we deliver a safe and secure Games that London, the UK and the world can enjoy."Typhoon jets and HMS Ocean, the largest ship in the Royal Navy's fleet, will eventually be deployed to protect the London 2012 Games along with up to 13,500 military personnel. The Government has stressed that operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere would not be affected by the security plan costing hundreds of millions of pounds. Typhoon jets will be stationed temporarily at RAF Northolt, and Puma and Lynx helicopters will operate from HMS Ocean.

Read the rest of this entry »

The US have picked eight players who won gold in Beijing in 2008 - their 13th men's Olympic title. Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Deron Williams also return having played in the 2008 squad. The roster will be trimmed to 12 players in time for the Games.

The rest of the squad includes LaMarcus Aldridge, Chauncey Billups, Tyson Chandler, Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay, Eric Gordon, Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Love, Lamar Odom, Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook.

The United States are due to play a number of warm-up games ahead of the Olympics, including a friendly against Great Britain in Manchester in July. Anthony, James, Odom and Wade also played at the Athens Olympics in 2004, where the American team had to settle for the bronze medal. "I feel like we have an outstanding blend of talents from the 2008 Olympic and 2010 World Championship teams that won gold," said USA manager director Jerry Colangelo.

"Reducing to the official roster limit of 12 players will be an even tougher decision, but we'll evaluate how guys play during the 2011-12 NBA season and, as we've done with our teams in the past, we'll attempt to select the very best team we can."

The United States will be favourites for gold in London having finished among the medals in all 16 Games in which they have competed. They won the first seven Olympic men's titles, only succumbing to the Soviet Union three seconds from the end, 51-50, in the dramatic Munich final in 1972.

The Americans have won gold in every Games, except 2004, since 1992's 'Dream Team', the first time NBA players were able to take part. Great Britain has one player in its ranks who plays for an NBA side, Luol Deng of Chicago Bulls.

Read the rest of this entry »

Participating in just her second-ever marathon, the Marblehead native qualified for this summer's Olympic Games in London by winning the U.S. Marathon Trials in Houston Saturday morning.

With a blistering time of 2 hours, 25 minutes and 38 seconds, Flanagan set an Olympic Trials record in a field of 152 runners — crushing the previous record by 2:47. She was one of five women who ran sub-2:30 races, also a Trials record.

A member of the Oregon Track Club Elite running club, the 30-year-old Flanagan will represent the United States in the marathon at the London Olympic Summer Games (July 27 to Aug. 12) along with Desiree Davila and Kara Goucher, who finished second and third Saturday, respectively.

The Women's Olympic Marathon is scheduled to be run on Sunday, Aug. 5, at 11 a.m. BST (British Summer Time, or 6 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time) in London. Both Flanagan and Davila took turns holding the lead between miles 21 and 24 before the former Marblehead High and University of North Carolina superstar — who now calls Portland, Ore. home — took the lead for good.

In doing so, Flanagan bettered her previous marathon time by better than three minutes. "It was a huge day, I think one that all of us will remember," Flanagan told USA Track and Field (USATF.org) after the race. "The last mile was a cross between savoring the moment and just being really grateful that I was almost done.

"I knew Desi was charging hard and I told myself I had to have one last gear if she came up on me. I tried to view it as a track race for the last mile. I didn't really enjoy that last mile; it felt really long. I'm just grateful to be on the same team with these women."

Davila cramped up down the homestretch but still finished just 18 seconds behind Flanagan in 2:25.55, while Goucher crossed the line in 2:26.06. "I didn't have enough confidence in being able to catch Shalane and I didn't want to lose the spot I had," Davila told USATF.org.

A bronze medalist in the 10,000 meters at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China who also went to the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece, Flanagan placed second in her only other 26.2-mile distance race: the 2010 ING New York City Marathon.

As one of the most decorated U.S. female runners of all time, Flanagan helped Team USA to a bronze medal finish at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain, finishing third individually in 25:10. She is also the current American record holder in the 10,000 (outdoors), as well as 5,000 and 3,000 meters (indoors).

Read the rest of this entry »

The hugs and high fives at the end of an enthralling evening at London’s 02 Arena spoke volumes for their delight. After a superb collective performance containing none of the errors that wrecked their chances of qualifying at the first attempt at the World Championships in Tokyo in October, the British team restored their wounded pride by finishing comfortably on top of the standings in the eight-nation competition. Their overall score of 358.277 points was a huge 7½ points ahead of second-placed France, with Spain taking third place and Italy finishing fourth.

A top-four team finish was all that was needed to qualify a full complement of gymnasts for London 2012, and Britain achieved it in style. As a measure of their superiority, Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas and Daniel Keatings took the top three individual places.

The result will be a massive relief to British Gymnastics, which has enjoyed spectacular progress on the men’s side of the sport following Louis Smith’s breakthrough bronze medal on the pommel horse at the Beijing Olympics four years ago.

Smith, the poster boy of the sport in Britain, has also won two bronzes at world level, while Keatings became the first Briton to win an all-around silver medal at the World Championships in London in 2009. Purvis also made it to the World Championship podium in 2010 when he bronze on the floor. But the huge strides made by the British men would have counted for little had the team failed to qualify. A finish outside the top-four would have meant the nightmare scenario of having only one male gymnast competing for Britain in London.

On paper, the British squad should never have been in such a precarious situation in the first place but paid the price for a string of errors at the in Tokyo, where Britain finished 10th overall, outside the top-eight finish needed to guarantee their qualification. That left them with just one final chance to qualify last night in a make-or-break showdown involving the eight nations ranked from ninth to 16th in Japan. Ominously, the apparatus facing the British team in the opening rotation was the high bar, the piece on which they came so dramatically to grief in Tokyo, but this time there were no alarms.

First up was Keatings, whose high-bar fall in Japan had started the rot for Britain, and his relief was evident as he punched the air in celebration after an error-free display earned him a solid 14.533 points.
That set the tone for the rest of the rotation as each of the British gymnasts came through their routines without any mishaps, receiving thunderous applause from the 02 crowd. And any residual nerves appeared to have disappeared by the end of the second rotation on the floor as Purvis led the way with a score of 15.400. After the meltdown in Tokyo, GB performance director Tim Jones had taken the decision to play it safe with the routines, calculating that it was better to concentrate on getting the execution right than gambling on too much difficulty.

But there was nothing easy about Smith’s routine on his signature pommel horse, though he needed all his strength to avoid a fall as he lost momentum halfway through. Fortunately, he held things together to achieve a decent score of 15.133, reflecting the high difficulty, and with Keatings picking up 15.100 with an excellent, clean routine, an outbreak of flag-waving in the crowd greeted the news that Britain were second on the leaderboard at the halfway mark. There were a few palpitations in the British ranks when Max Whitlock broke a hand-grip during his rings routine, but with only the top four marks counting for each team, his low score of 11.600 could be eliminated.

For the first time, Britain were now in a narrow overall lead, and that advantage was extended after a brilliant team performance in the vault spearheaded by Purvis’s score of 16.266. Another effective team display on the parallel bars confirmed the victory.

Read the rest of this entry »

The London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games has recently revealed that it had previously committed a mistake by overselling four events of the synchronized swimming.

The number of tickets that have been over sold for the four sessions of the synchronized swimming are 10,000 in all.

As a result of the glitch committed by the LOCOG, the buyers of the tickets have been offered alternatives to the synchronized swimming sessions that they got. Both LOCOG as well as Ticketmaster, the agent which is helping LOCOG with the ticket sales, have been busy in offering the buyers with suitable alternatives over the Christmas holidays.

The LOCOG commented on the matter in the following words, “In December we contacted around 3,000 customers who had applied for tickets in the four sessions during the second round sales process. We are exchanging their synchronised swimming tickets for tickets in other sports that they originally applied for.”

As compensation for the mix up that is being blamed on human error in the processing of the applications for the tickets, both LOCOG and the Ticketmaster has decided to provide the buyers tickets for those events which were their other preferences in the ticket applications. However, these events include some of the most sought-after events of the Olympic Games.

One of these sports include the most coveted event of the London 2012 Olympic Games which is the men’s 100 final. This sporting event has more demand because it has the added value of being played in the Olympic Stadium.

The tickets that will be made available to the buyers who bought the extra tickets will be obtained from the ones that have been kept in store for selling in May of this year. These tickets are 1 million in all, however, 10,000 of them have been allocated for the purpose of compensation for the error made by the LOCOG and the Ticketmaster.

This is not the first time that the ticketing system of the London 2012 Olympic Games has failed to deliver. During the time when the ticket sales were being made last year, the ballot ticketing system was much criticised by many quarters.

Read the rest of this entry »

In merely seven months, London will host the 2012 Olympics. For many, the Olympics are a high-flying festival of fun, with the world's finest athletes competing under the global media spotlight. For others, the games are a hyper-commercialised pageant of corporate power that encourages jingoism while devouring taxpayer money.

Thanks to the glitzy gerbil wheel of spectacular Olympism, we tend to plunge ahead to the next Olympics without seriously considering what happened at the last one. But Britons would do well to think about the Olympics' track record, and what, in some ways, has become the customary chasm between pre-games word and post-games deed.

Looking back at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is a great place to start. The Vancouver Organising Committee (Vanoc) made grand avowals regarding sustainability and potential benefits for all Canadians in general and aboriginal people in particular. Revisiting these promises gives us much-needed perspective on some of the assurances London organisers are dishing out today.

Powerful people bandying about the term "sustainability" demands our healthy skepticism so sustainability doesn't simply mean "sustaining" capital accumulation, but actually means "sustaining" the environment. In the 1990s, astride a burgeoning global environmental movement, the International Olympic Committee hopped on the green train, folding ecological concerns into its rhetorical portfolio. By the end of the 1990s, "Agenda 21" was born (pdf), and Olympic bigwigs were declaring the games should be "an effective contribution to sustainable development" (pdf). Even IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch got the fever, editorialising in the Olympic Review that he wanted to put "the Olympic Games at the service of the quest for excellence, solidarity and respect of the environment" (pdf).

By the time the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics rolled around, "sustainability" was enshrined as the third pillar of the Olympics, along with sport and culture. Olympic boosters dubbed Vancouver "the greenest Games ever". However, according to a report from the University of British Columbia's Centre for Sport and Sustainability (pdf), greenhouse gas emissions increased steadily during the delivery phase of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and rose eight-fold during the games themselves. A significant chunk of this derives from the inevitable need to travel to Vancouver to participate and spectate. More than half the energy used for the games came from fossil fuels that exacerbate climate change. Additionally, the production of solid waste during the games was ten times as much as before the games were delivered and staged. And this damning data, it should be remembered, were largely supplied by Vanoc itself, not an independent source.

According to London's original bid, sustainability "is integral to every aspect of London 2012's vision for the games" (pdf). The bid championed the theme of "Towards a One Planet Olympics", which aims to reduce carbon emissions and waste while conserving biodiversity and promoting environmental ethics/awareness. After surveying London's green cred, academics Graeme Hayes and John Horne recently argued that "London 2012 offers only a hollowed-out form of sustainable development." London organisers have time to prove their critics wrong, but shiny-packaged rhetoric is not enough. London has the built-in advantage of a relatively strong environmental politics culture, replete with a willingness to address climate change, especially when compared to perennial foot-draggers like the United States.

It is important to note that Agenda 21 also deals with issues of issues of social sustainability, or how traditionally marginalised groups might actually benefit from the games. For an instructive example from Vancouver, one need only look to the Four Host First Nations, a non-profit organisation that was established to facilitate aboriginal inclusion in all aspects of the 2010 games. In return for helping Vanoc host an outstanding party, the hosts, and aboriginal people generally, were promised they would come out ahead in these high-stakes corporate games.

Did they? The Centre for Sport and Sustainability report (pdf) shows the number of aboriginal people with Vanoc jobs "decreased rapidly" from 11-13% in 2008-2009 to 1-3% in the lead-up to and during the games. The authors of the report offer no reasons for the decline and do not provide other measurable indicators for benefits to aboriginal people.

Londoners who believe they will capitalise on the 2012 games thanks to promises of regeneration and the Olympics' positive "legacy" take heed: aboriginal people were positioned as one of the main beneficiaries of the much-vaunted legacies from 2010. Their involvement was so important that Jack Poole, chairman of the board for Vanoc, stated: "If it hadn't been for the full support of the Four Host First Nations in our bid, we likely wouldn't be talking about Vancouver 2010 today."

Olympism and its stated commitment to foster "social responsibility" (pdf) is understandably an easy sell. Because aboriginal people experience disparities on almost every social indicator imaginable, it is not hard to see how many would be attracted to assurances of an Olympic windfall. But the two-and-a-half-week sportstopia took advantage of the indigenous equivalent of "greenwashing", shunting the already marginalised further toward the edge.

And this is to say nothing of Olympics economics, which, for many, has become a gold-medal hoodwink, with "lowballing" the costs of the games during the bid process becoming a competitive sport in itself. Just take the small slice of the Olympics budget designated for security. Vancouver initially estimated policing would cost $175m. By the time the games rolled around, the price tag had ballooned to more than $1bn.

Same thing for London where initial estimates for venue security were £282m. London organisers recently announced these costs had nearly doubled to a whopping £553m. This led the National Audit Office to write, in typically understated fashion, that "the likelihood that the games can still be funded within the Public Sector Funding Package is finely balanced, with minimal room for costs to increase." In bureaucrat-speak that translates to "Britons, get ready to pull out your wallets."

For those who care about both the Olympics and issues of social justice, it behoves us to pay close attention to the past and to challenge the IOC to live up to its high-minded rhetoric. Sport and equity can rhyme, but it takes honesty, vigilance, and a willingness to press beyond standard-issue five-ring rhetoric.

Read the rest of this entry »

Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee, marking 60 years of her reign, will be celebrated in June followed by England's appearance at the European soccer championships before the Olympics open on July 27.

Sebastian Coe, the double Olympic 1,500 metres gold medallist who is now head of London 2012 organisers LOCOG, this week likened the sequence of events to the appearance of Halley's Comet which flashes across the night sky roughly every 75 years.

London will be the only city to have hosted the summer Olympics three times, after 1908 and 1948, and the latest will be easily the biggest sporting event Britain has ever staged. With a budget of 9.3 billion pounds ($14.31 billion), fears of transport chaos and more British troops assigned to protect the Games than are currently serving in Afghanistan, there are plenty of potential clouds to darken the horizon.

Coe, who says he will wake up on New Year's Day with the same excitement he had as an Olympic athlete, prefers to see the Games as a chance to show Britain at its best while also raising spirits both at home and abroad at a time of financial hardship.

"Waking up just 200 days away from the biggest thing this nation will have delivered in living memory is a massive responsibility," he told the Guardian newspaper. "And at a time when the world is a pretty difficult place for a lot of people, I think we also know we have a responsibility to try and help lift people's spirits."

BRITAIN CONFIDENT
With just over 200 days to go, Britain is confident its athletes are on track to hit the stated target of winning more medals from more sports in more than a century. Britain finished fourth in the medals table in Beijing in 2008 with 47 from 11 sports, including 19 golds.

"We have recently reviewed the data for 2011 across all World Championship and other relevant world events and rankings in every Olympic discipline for 2011," British Olympic Association (BOA) chief executive Andy Hunt said on Thursday. "This shows Team GB finishing in sixth position with 59 medals across 13 different sports in what would be a relative Olympic medals table."

Hunt was however mindful of the fact that some major nations do not always send top athletes to championships in the year before a Games and that London promises to be the most competitive Olympics yet.

The building of venues and infrastructure is 90 percent finished with the formal handover of the Olympic Park in east London to LOCOG due in early 2012. "In 2012 we will complete our task, finishing the Olympic Village, Water Polo Arena, shooting venue at Woolwich and parklands, as we work alongside the Organising Committee to prepare for next summer," said John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Jan. 9 will mark 200 days to the opening ceremony while the 27th, after an international gymnastics test event, will be the six month milestone. The 100 days to go date will come up on April 18 while the Torch Relay around Britain and into Ireland starts at Land's End on May 19. ($1 = 0.6497 British pounds)     (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by John Mehaffey)

Read the rest of this entry »

Although you never say never, Reade is now almost certain only to compete in the BMX in which she has won the world title in four of the last five years and, for good measure, took the Olympic test event at Stratford back in August.

Reade might be a former double world champion in the team sprint on the track with Vicky Pendleton, when the event was admittedly in its infancy, but she has found combining the two training regimes increasingly difficult - a process not aided by the injuries she tends to pick up when BMX racing. In the meantime, young Jess Varnish has stolen a march on her and is now established as Pendleton’s lead-off rider in the team sprint.

Varnish is now regularly ducking under 19 seconds for that first 250metres from a standing start while Reade has yet to achieve that mark although if you talk to the GB coaches there is no doubt they believe she has the power and potential to smash through that barrier with something to spare at some stage in her career.

“At this point my main focus going into London 2012 has to be the BMX,” admits Read. “But if Jess gets injured or anything else happens then I’m sure I can still step up to the mark and perform on the track. I’m more of a reserve at the moment but I am also still keeping that door open. I don’t want to close it and think I will never do it again.

“I did a block of training for the track over a few weeks this winter to see where I was at and things were going really well but it’s just trying to find the time to combine them both. The skill levels for BMX are getting higher all the time and if I do track cycling it does slightly compromise the BMX. I have to make sure I am not just strong but also technically at the top of my game.

“Doing two completely different sports isn’t easy and it’s always going to be a bonus if I get selected for the track because I’m not 50/50 in terms of how I prioritise. I’m always around 90 per cent BMX and 10 per cent track, time-wise, so if I made it off just that much dedication then to make the team it would be a huge bonus, regardless of my results of the Olympics. But I need to be very mindful that I don’t take anything away from my BMX.”

Reade, who starts her racing year on Jan 7 at the Revolution 35 event at the new state-of-the-art Indoor BMX centre at Manchester, remains the dominant figure in women’s BMX racing. That was underlined again this summer, not least at the Olympic test event on the track next to the Olympic velodrome when the women’s course was rated as extremely demanding, with strong winds and a wet track after heavy rain tested competitors to the limit. Reade battled through to beat New Zealand’s Sarah Walker and Australian Lauren Reynolds and although the track designers have promised minor modifications before next August, her victory should hold her in good stead.

“There was a great atmosphere that day even though only one of the two stands was up at the time, and it was a real taste of what this year should be like. I’ve raced in front of big home crowds before, but that has usually been on the track when Vicky takes most of the cheers.

“When me and my coach sat down last winter to set our goals for 2011, I put the test event higher than the World Championships. All the top riders were there and I won, so it was perfect to see exactly where I was at. A lot was made of how big the track was and how high the jumps were, but I loved it - you can really open up. We definitely got a lot of positives from the event and it was a big boost for me, but we’ve also picked up on things we know we need to work on."

One of those “things to work on” is that 8 metres start hill, a rapid descent into the fray in which gaining bike speed is all-important for the rest of the race. It could be that Reade, whose fighting weight is normally just under 12 stone, might look to add a few pounds to that, simply to get down the hill quicker. “I have a nutritionist I work with and we are looking at it. I can lose and gain weight pretty easily but we need to be sure that being slightly heavier will be an advantage.”

Despite all her gold medals in World Championship events – she won again in Copenhagen this year despite being doubtful to compete after wrist surgery - it is Olympic failure in Beijing that still rather cruelly defines Reade in the minds of the general sporting public who will switch on to BMX once every four years. In China she was promoted as Britain’s most “nailed-on” gold medal in the cycling which was patently ridiculous in an event with so many random crashes.

What did register with the British public, though, was how, in the final, when she entered the final bend in second place behind French girl Anne-Caroline Chausson, Reade refused to settle for an easy silver and went for a ‘Hail Mary’ manoeuvre that might just have snatched gold. In the event she crashed out and went home with assorted bumps and bruises, a displaced pelvis and broken wrist, although she now looks back on that huge disappointment as a good thing.

“I really wanted to win the Olympics in Beijing but if I had done so I would have won everything I could have. Would I then have had the same motivation and determination as I do now heading into London? I don’t really think I would, because I would have achieved everything. Every day you have it in the back of your mind that you want to become Olympic champion and I’ve never been that before. I really want to know what it feels like. What happened in Beijing has helped me grow up as a person and an athlete and it’s given me more motivation for the home Olympics.”

In the meantime there is also a ‘home’ World Championships to prepare for at the NIA in Brimingham in May, which some might consider a distraction in Olympic year. Not Reade. “If we could sit down and say what the best preparation would be for us, then it would be to have the World Championships on home soil next year,” insists Reade. “It will be like a mini-Olympics, with all the top girls there in front of lots of people – it will be the perfect event to build me up for the Games.”

Read the rest of this entry »