Johnson-Thompson targets Rio glory
Federer to miss Olympics
LONDON, July 26, (Agencies): Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson has set her sights on winning a first Olympic heptathlon gold medal in Rio next month after she confirmed her good form with some fine individual performances at the London Anniversary Games last weekend.
The 23-year-old won the long jump on day two of the Diamond League event with a season’s best 6.84 metres on Saturday and produced an outdoor best 1.95m high jump the previous day.
Returning from injury, Johnson -Thompson clinched a place in the Olympic team after she accumulated the required 6,200 points at the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis in May to join compatriot Jessica Ennis-Hill in the Rio lineup.
Roger Federer has pulled out of the Rio Olympics and said he will miss the rest of the season as he needs “more extensive rehabilitation” following knee surgery earlier this year if he wants to prolong his career.
“I’m extremely disappointed to announce that I will not be able to represent Switzerland at the Olympic Games in Rio and that I will also miss the remainder of the season,” the 17-times grand slam champion and former world number one said on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
“Considering all options after consulting with my doctors and my team, I have made the very difficult decision to call an end to my 2016 season as I need more extensive rehabilitation following my knee surgery earlier this year.
“The doctors advised that if I want to play on the ATP World Tour injury free for another few years, as I intend to do, I must give both my knee and body the proper time to fully recover. It is tough to miss the rest of the year.”
Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber is targeting Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro to build on a successful 2016 that has already seen the German capture her first Grand Slam title.
The 28-year-old became the first German to win a Grand Slam crown since Steffi Graf in 1999 when she beat Serena Williams in the Melbourne final in January.
Kerber then lost to the American in the Wimbledon final a fortnight ago, and Williams, the top-ranked player in the world, is the defending Olympic champion and the name to beat in Rio.
But Kerber, the world number two, is heading to Brazil buoyed by her success so far this year and eager to get amongst the medals when the Olympic tennis tournament starts on Aug 6.
Canada will send 313 athletes to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics determined to improve on the one gold medal won at the London Summer Games.
Trampolinist Rosie MacLennan, who won Canada’s only gold four years ago, is back to defend her Olympic title and will lead the team of 187 women and 126 men into the Rio Games opening ceremonies on Aug. 5 after earlier being named the country’s flag bearer.
The Canadian team, announced on Monday includes 100 athletes who have competed in at least one other Summer Games and Georgia Simmerling, who is attempting to become the first Canadian athlete to compete in a different sport at each of three Olympics.
Simmerling, who will be competing in track cycling at Rio, was a member of the Canadian freestyle ski-cross team at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the Alpine ski team at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.
Bradley Wiggins has backed Chris Froome to emulate his 2012 Tour de France and Olympic time trial double success but felt his former Sky team mate’s task is more difficult as next month’s Games are in Rio de Janeiro.
Froome, who will join Wiggins in the Great Britain cycling team, clinched his third Tour de France on Sunday and will now be attempting an unprecedented treble as he also plans to take part in both the time trial and road race at the Rio Games.
Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard will play at the Rio Olympics next month, after weighing the risks posed by the Zika virus and security concerns in Brazil.
“It was a hard decision for me and I definitely thought about all the pros and cons,” Bouchard told the media at the weekend as she prepared to play in the WTA hardcourt tournament in Montreal.
Olympic sailing champion Jo Aleh’s preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Games have included plenty of planned trial and error, which has led to a level of consistency that places her and Polly Powrie among the favourites in the women’s 470.
New Zealand’s Aleh and Powrie are the top-ranked duo in the cen-tre board 4.7m-long dinghy heading into next month’s Games, having finished no lower than fourth in 22-of24 World Sailing events they have competed at since the London Olympics.
Some top golfers have passed on the Olympics because of a hectic schedule and others have health concerns, but three-times major winner Padraig Harrington is thrilled to be going and dreams of gold.
“I’m really looking forward to Rio. My whole family are going,” the 44-year-old Irishman told Reuters after a long session on the practice putting green on a sizzling hot and stormy Baltusrol, where the PGA Championship begins on Thursday.
USA Gymnastics said on Monday it agreed to buy a portion of the Texas-based training center for the US women’s gymnastics team where celebrated coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi worked with some of the alltime greatest gymnasts.
The complex, which will be called the USA Gymnastics Athlete Development Center at the Karolyi Ranch, opened in 1984 and has played a vital role in making the US women’s team a dominant force in global competitions.
Indian shot putter Inderjeet Singh said on Tuesday he has been notified by the national anti-doping agency (NADA) that he has returned a positive test for banned substances in his A sample.
Inderjeet, who won the gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in 2015, told local television he had been informed of the failed test late on Monday and that all his earlier tests had been negative.
British canoe slalomist David Florence never got to blast off into space but the 33-year-old Scot will try to go where no Olympic paddler has gone before by winning the C1 and C2 gold medals at the Rio Games.
Had things gone to plan for the mathematics and physics graduate it could have been Florence rather than Tim Peake who became the first Briton to walk in space this year.