ffs

Yup thats me - the clue is in the Avatar

What to make of Rory at 2.2?  Matched at 2.1 already, surely a lay for traders, in anticipation of a drift over the next five months.

I got partially matched @1.9, then a leap frogger put a big block @1.93

mentions man utd in winners speech ........

Given Rory's decision to opt for the Republic of Ireland at the Rio Olympics, does that not mean he will now be in the category of overseas sports personality?

probably makes him an overseas personality shoe in if he wins in 2018

Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson has withdrawn from the England team for the Commonwealth Games due to a stress reaction in her foot, following medical advice.

Swimmer Michael Jamieson says he is targeting Commonwealth Games gold and a world record when he competes in the 200m breaststroke in his home city.
The 25-year-old is the top medal hope for the host nation on Thursday, the first day of competition in Glasgow.
"I've woken up for training every morning with the world-record time on my alarm clock," said Jamieson.

VV Voom. That’s what they’re calling her. VV is Victoria Vincent – the “voom” denotes the wow factor, because at just 13 years old Vincent is the latest diving prodigy to take the sport by storm.

Vincent – who won her first senior British title in June, only nine months after first diving off the 10-metre platform – was spotted by Tom Daley’s coach, Andy Banks, in 2012 and swiftly relocated to Plymouth to train under his tutelage. The work paid off. Not only did Vincent make a name for herself nationally within the sport, but she is now on the verge of her first major international competition, having wrangled with the rule-makers to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this month as the youngest member of Team England.

The rules of Fina, aquatics’ governing body, state that a diver must be in the year of their 14th birthday to compete at the Olympic Games, world championships or a World Cup. Exceptions have been made before at the Commonwealth Games – notably the Canadian Alexandre Despatie, who won gold in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 aged 13 – so Team England lodged a complaint, and won.

Ironically, Vincent was still deemed too young to compete at the European juniors in Bergamo this month, where Great Britain won seven medals, but may well have boosted that tally.

As with Daley, who began doing interviews in the national press at the age of 12, Vincent comes across as remarkably mature for a girl embarking on her teenage years. “Yes, well, I used to be an actress,” she says of her level-headedness, despite the recent media attention. “I worked with Dick & Dom once, for BBC. That was quite fun. Acting makes everything a bit easier because if you’re in the media it could be a bit overwhelming. But having done acting it’s all right.”

Vincent had a queue of offers to pursue an acting career – from West End theatre to films – but after falling in love first with gymnastics and then diving, the world of luvvies no longer held the same appeal.

“I didn’t really take an interest in it after I found sport,” she says. “It didn’t seem as fun as it used to be.” Why not? “Sport has a bit more of a zing and zang, if that’s how you say it,” she says, laughing. Sports coaches, administrators, PE teachers, politicians and health officials will no doubt wish to gold-plate that phrase in the advent of a national enquiry into the issue of girls and sport.

Certainly, Banks is thrilled that his latest prodigy chose diving as her new home, and specifically his Plymouth stable. The coach, who became a household name as a judge on the ITV show Splash!, spotted Vincent at the Armada Cup in 2012 and emailed her father.

“I’d always wanted to become an elite diver,” Vincent says, “but before Andy approached us we actually heard from the Chinese because some of their divers were at the Armada Cup that year. They saw me diving and they gave me an invite to move to China.

“Well, China seemed a bit far. It’s a bit further than Plymouth and our family didn’t really like the idea of moving there because they have quite a strict curriculum. It was all quite amazing. But when Andy emailed my dad it just seemed … really, really, really good. If he wanted me then maybe it would be best that I move to Plymouth. It’s the home of diving.”

Vincent relocated with her mother, an entrepreneur who runs a printing and sandwich business, just in time to start secondary school at Plymouth College, where Daley had eventually settled. “Plymouth College had already had something set up with Plymouth Diving so that I could dive inside of school hours to maximise my training. So that’s worked well.”

Her father, a former biochemist, had to stay in London. “My dad is now a train driver on the underground. He does the Circle line and the Hammersmith & City line.” Vincent has been promised a ride in his driver’s carriage when she returns from the Commonwealth Games. “It’s always interested me, people driving trains. That probably sounds a bit geeky.

“But I’d like to see what my dad does. After the Games I’m going back to London for a bit and I’m going to go to the front of the train and drive with him. So that will be quite cool. Most people don’t have dads who drive a train.”

Vincent’s diving journey began after a PE teacher at her school wrote to her parents suggesting she try out for a talent test at the diving team at Crystal Palace, where she grew up. She instantly loved the sport – “it’s gymnastics with water” – and never looked back. As luck would have it, her journey on the junior circuit coincided with Daley’s rise to stellar status and a new prominence for the sport.

Daley, Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow became idols for the next wave of divers. And now, of course, Vincent is on the same team as them.

“It’s kind of weird to think that a few years back I used to think: ‘Wow, I’ll never know this guy [Daley], but now we talk quite a lot when we see each other at competitions,” Vincent says. “When he was still down at Plymouth we used to talk quite a lot. Now we talk at competitions when I see him.”

Vincent will link up with Daley at the Commonwealth Games. She says the competition will be useful for gaining experience and trying out dives: “My newest dive is the reverse two-and-a-half from the 10m platform. I haven’t had that much experience up there so I just want to grab all the experience I can get.”

After that it’s all about the Olympic Games. Making it to Rio in 2016, and attempting to win a medal in 2020, by which time VV will be 19. And operating at full VV voom, no doubt.

Stevie G retires today. Anyone backing at odds-on tempted to top up at three figures?

The Rory drift is a little slow in kicking in

I agree, if Lewis wins the drivers championship its not contest, and the Glasgow games will probably kick up a few false favs or plunges

Plus he shat on his girlfriend and the MEMs won't like that...and they decide specials

...dominant performance once again from Alastair Brownlee today in the Triathlon ~ missed out on a shortlist place 2 years ago so could get a place and the Yorkshire block vote this year

think we need to add ross murdoch !

indeed !

Nicola Adams should be added, you dont need to be that good if you are a Female to get on the short list

...surely we don't need Max Whitlock and Nicola Adams when we already have Billy Morgan, Chris Smalling, James 'Woody' Woods and Johanna Konta?