Mixed fortunes at Australian Youth Olympics
15th January 2009There were mixed fortunes for the four University of Bath students representing Great Britain at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival on day two of the competition in Sydney.
The men’s beach volleyball pairing of Jake Sheaf and Adam Smith made their first appearances of the festival today (Thursday) and came away with one win and one defeat.
The pair, who are both University of Bath Sports Performance students, opened their campaign with a two sets to nil defeat to New Zealanders Samuel O’Dea and Sam Wallace-Boyd. The Kiwis won the contest 21-12, 21-14.
But Sheaf and Smith, who have only recently teamed up as a pairing, bounced back to beat the strong Norwegian pairing of Goeran Roenneberg and Martin Stoeyton by 2-1 in their second game of the day. The Norwegians took the first set 16-21, before the Brits levelled the scores 21-17 in set two and then took the decider 15-9 in a game that featured a 20-minute tropical storm.
Smith said: “It feels really good to get the first win under our belts because we only started training together a few months ago. It’s good to get out there and experience what other nations are like and compare yourself against them.”
Both University of Bath players representing Great Britain in the hockey tournaments were also in action again today.
Harriet Pearce, a 19-year-old Sports Performance student, featured in the GB women’s team that beat the USA 4-1. That result, combined with the other scores so far, means Team GB are already guaranteed to meet Australia in the gold medal match on Sunday (18th January). The two sides will also meet before that in their final pool game on Saturday after tomorrow’s rest day.
But the men’s team didn’t fare so well, going down 6-1 to India. University of Bath Sports Performance student Lewis Prosser, whose goal salvaged a dramatic 4-4 draw for GB in yesterday’s opening game against Malaysia, started against India but couldn’t get on to the score sheet this time around.
Team GB can still qualify for Sunday’s final, if they can beat Australia on Saturday.