Tanni Grey-Thompson: Paralympic World Cup can help London 2012 be catalyst for greater success

The lure of 2012, and the development and legacy potential that it could bring to change the face of disability sport, still felt a long way off and it should be recognised that the World Cup as an event has delivered many positive things in the interim.

Because of the media profile and the sponsors, it continues to attract athletes like Oscar Pistorius who benefit from strong British support. And let’s face it, the media and public love him.

It has also given a number of up-and-coming athletes the chance to compete against the world’s best. Young athlete Jonny Peacock competed at the PWC as he built his career and he has been fast tracked to GB representation.

It was also the event that I chose to retire at.

In terms of audiences the event has worked hard to generate a wider base of spectators who were willing to do more than switch over on their TV remote control, but who would come out and watch the event in real life. This has become even more important as we move towards 2012 and want people to turn out and watch Paralympic events.

But after seven years, the question has to be: does the Paralympic World Cup still have any relevance to the athletes? The timing of the event has always been an acknowledged challenge for the organisers. Trying to get the best athletes in a variety of sports, who all have different competition calendars has not been easy.

Generally most athletes and sports have tried to work around it for the greater good of the movement. Athletics, whose event programme is busy at this time of the year, has found it hard though.

This year is the first time that there won’t be any wheelchair racing at the event due to a clash on the calendar. There are two major track meets and a marathon in Switzerland this week (all on lightning fast tracks) and virtually all of the world’s best have chosen to go there.

For those with 2012 at the back of their minds, they have little choice as the qualifying marks they need to achieve are tough and they can’t afford to not reach them. Although I am a little disappointed, you can't argue with athletes choosing other events.

It is also a shame that we aren’t going to see a head- to-head just yet with Pistorius and Jerome Singleton, after blistering races at the World Championships earlier this year.

But as with all sprinters, there will probably be a fair amount of avoiding each other as much as they can this year. What would be exciting is if the event could attract the likes of Jason Smith (the visually impaired Irish runner) who like Pistorius has aspirations, and not a little chance, of qualifying for the Olympics next year.

One thing that was talked about in earlier years was the possibility of the Paralympic World Cup becoming part of a world wide series.

This has not happened yet, and to be honest, in this format seems unlikely, as coordinating the calendar across a number of countries would be impossible. Far better to work on a series of integrated events on the mainstream calendar, which will do more to develop the sports around the world.

What has been great to see is the rotation of sports introducing boccia and sitting volleyball for the first time. Boccia, despite previous strong Paralympic successes, has struggled to get the media attention that it deserves. Inclusion should help provide that, giving the athletes access to wider spectators.

Sitting volleyball, as a sport, has been developed from virtually scratch in the last couple of years and this has been brought about because of 2012. While, historically, standing volleyball (for amputees) has been successful, having a games on home soil has forced this development.

It has been strongly supported by the mainstream governing body who want to build a reputable team and it also seems to have caught the imagination of the public.

One or two years ago I thought that the PWC might struggle to sustain itself through to the Paralympics. If it continues to look at putting on the best sporting competition though, then 2012 might be a catalyst for greater success.

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French Open 2011: Kim Clijsters crashes of Roland Garros following defeat to Dutch world No 118 Arantxa Rus

The world No 2 was playing her first tournament after two months out with an ankle injury and looked rusty in her first-round win over Anastasiya Yakimova.

She seemed to be playing better in the early stages on Thursday but her level dropped midway through the second set and the decider was a horror show from Clijsters, whose first appearance at Roland Garros since 2006 was expected to see her challenge for the title.

Rus, ranked 114th in the world, must have feared the worst when Clijsters raced through the first three games but he dug in and began to trouble her opponent off the ground.

The second seed always had the edge though despite the windy conditions and a run of five hard-fought games in a row gave her the first set, and a 3-0 lead in the second.

Again Rus battled back, and the errors continued to come frequently from the Clijsters racquet, but it always seemed only a matter of time before the 27-year-old strung enough points together to finish things off.

However, after failing to take advantage of a match point at 5-2, she lost six of the next seven points to give her opponent a sniff of a chance, and Rus then saved another match point before levelling proceedings at 5-5.

The 20-year-old was now playing extremely well and she broke Clijsters - whose dream of a third grand slam title in a row was fast fading - for a second successive time before taking the second set with her fifth game in a row.

The Belgian, who did not appear to be moving particularly well, stopped the rot with a gutsy hold at the start of the third set but then let three break points slip away on the Rus serve.

When the Dutchwoman followed up by breaking again, the prospect of an early exit for Clijsters began to look a distinct probability.

The second seed had an outrageous slice of luck when a ball hit the top of the net and then the net post before dropping back into play but any thoughts that might indicate it was her day after all were swiftly dispelled.

A double fault handed Rus a 4-1 lead and she clinched a famous victory and a place in the third round of a grand slam for the first time on her second match point with a backhand winner.

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Snooker World Championship 2011: Judd Trump reaches semi-final

Judd Trump has warned it will take a lot to stop him after powering past another former world champion to reach the Crucible semi-finals.

The 21-year-old, who grew up in Bristol, had to come through qualifying for the Betfred.com World Championship, but is now just two wins away from landing the title.

He finished off 2006 champion Graeme Dott 13-5, with breaks of 67 and 78 seeing him complete victory in just two frames this afternoon, and goes on to face either Ding Junhui or Mark Selby for a place in the final.

'I do feel a little bit invincible at the moment, it's a good feeling to have,' Trump said.

'But at any stage of this tournament anybody could beat me 13-3 or 13-4 because the standard is so high. But I know I can do that to the rest of the players.'

Trump now faces the one-table situation at the Crucible for the first time, with his semi-final getting under way on Thursday afternoon.

With one table being removed from the arena tonight, the other will be moved to centre stage, which is precisely where Trump wants to be for the rest of his career.

'I think I'll go out and enjoy it a little more now,' he said.

'I've got the whole crowd to entertain now, which is going to be good, rather than having just half the arena to myself. I think I'll go out there and enjoy the experience.'

Wins over last year's champion Neil Robertson and Martin Gould carried Trump through to the tussle with Dott, which was surprisingly one-sided.

'It was a little bit easier than I thought it was going to be,' Trump added. 'Not that Graeme played badly, I just went out there from the start and played really well.

'I put pressure on him every time I got in. I knew that if I was clearing up every time there would be that extra bit of pressure on him.

'I feel I can win the title. I don't want to give off a too cocky image, but I'm very confident in myself and I think you need to be.

'A lot of the older players want to go out and teach you a lesson and batter you and put little scars on you for when you come here in the future. I just need to keep winning and keep that freshness.'

Dott, 33, was complimentary about his conqueror.

The Scot said: 'I was trying everything I could do but sometimes you go out there and you feel flat, you don't feel involved in the match.

'But that's probably all credit to Judd. He kept me off the table. Any time I did get a chance there was something awkward.

'I just couldn't get involved in the match. Judd played fantastically and thoroughly deserved to win.

'If he plays as well as that all the way through he's got a chance to win it, obviously, because it's very hard to stop someone that's potting like that.

'But the World Championship is supposed to test every aspect of somebody's game.

'It'll test your technique, your temperament, your safety play. But he's not been asked any of that yet.

'All we know is that he's potting absolutely everything, and that will be good enough to win the title.

'But the big question comes if he stops potting everything. How's he going to cope? Is his safety game going to be good enough? Is his temperament going to be good enough?'

Earlier on Wednesday, Mark Williams reached the last four for the first time since 2003, the year he landed his second world title.

The 36-year-old Welshman was a 13-5 winner over Northern Ireland's Mark Allen and takes on John Higgins or Ronnie O'Sullivan next.

He will take the occasion in his stride, just as he has all his matches so far.

Williams was chatting about football in the media room just five minutes before his second session began against Allen on Tuesday night.

'That's the way I am really,' he said. 'I'm mostly relaxed most of the time.

'I'm lucky enough I don't get butterflies when I go out there, I just really float around.

'It's only a snooker match. I try 100 per cent to win and the worst thing that can happen to you is you lose, which isn't that bad is it?'

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Snooker World Championship 2011: Judd Trump set to beat Graeme Dott in last eight

Judd Trump, the qualifier who has become a serious contender for Crucible glory, sprinted 7-1 clear of Graeme Dott to close in on a place in the semi-finals of the Betfred.com World Championship.

The youngest man in the tournament, 21-year-old Trump strongly believes he can land the title, even though he was an 80/1 shot just a month ago.

That price has been slashed to 6/1 after his surprise first ranking event triumph at the China Open plus wins in Sheffield against Neil Robertson, Martin Gould and the opening session of his clash with Dott.

Dott, who was runner-up to Robertson last year and champion in 2006, was outshone by the man 12 years his junior and might have trailed 8-0 but managed to sneak the fourth frame from 68-0 behind.

Trump had breaks of 68, 86, 64, 58 and 55 as he left Dott in his seat for most of the session, with the Scot now requiring a strong display on the resumption this evening to replenish his hopes of reaching the final four.

The match concludes on Wednesday, unless Trump gets to the 13 required for victory in the eight they play tonight (Tuesday).

Wales' two-time former champion Mark Williams engineered a 5-3 lead from the opening session of his match against Northern Ireland's Mark Allen.

Williams took the opening frame on a re-spotted black, added the second with a run of 73, and after Allen had cut his lead with a break of 78, a 125 from the Crucible veteran restored his two-frame advantage.

He pulled four clear after breaks of 78 and 66, but Allen, who overcame Matthew Stevens and Barry Hawkins in final-frame deciders to reach the last eight, saved his best potting form for the final two frames, rolling in 100 followed by 102.

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James DeGale eyes world title shot after clash with former friend George Groves

James DeGale is grateful opponent George Groves beat him when they were amateurs as he can take revenge and move one step closer to becoming world champion.

Olympic champion DeGale is putting his British super-middleweight title on the line to fight Commonwealth champion Groves at London’s O2 Arena on May 21, as the two former friends go toe-to-toe.

The pair attended the Dale Youth ABC in west London, where Groves beat DeGale in an amateur competition and the pair have since fallen out.

DeGale has stepped up the trash talking, saying he will beat Groves inside four rounds and hopes a title shot will follow soon after.

He said: ‘Do you know what, I’m glad ugly kid (Groves) won that fight all those years ago. If he hadn’t won, we wouldn’t be here now talking about this exciting fight, a match-up which takes me one step closer to becoming world champion.

‘The bottom line for Groves is that he’s chinny. And I promise I will expose that. He got knocked out as an amateur, he got dropped in training by Carl Froch in training and he was all over the place in his second to last fight with Kenny Anderson.

‘He’s the one who’s looking nervous at the moment. He looks scared in interviews, he’s been beaten by the size of the occasion already.

He continued: ‘I’m sticking by my prediction of winning inside four rounds. But that’s only if he comes to fight me. If he tries to get all technical, he’ll drag it out longer. But this fight is definitely not going the full 12 rounds.

‘Groves is fixated with emotion. He even claims this won’t, in a technical sense, be his hardest fight. Trust me, this fight will test everything.

DeGale and Groves will slug it out on the undercard of Nathan Cleverly’s world light-heavyweight title clash with Jurgen Brahmer, a night of boxing which will be broadcast on Sky Box Office.

And DeGale expressed his surprise that Amir Khan decided against having his fight with Paul McCloskey shown on Sky after the plug was pulled on the pay-per-view event and moved to the fringe channel Primetime.

‘I think moving away from Sky was the wrong idea, said DeGale. ‘The channel stuck by him after he was floored by Breidis Prescott so maybe he should have shown some loyalty to them.

‘But boxing isn’t just a sport, it’s a business and he did what he had to do.’

And with the London Olympics just over 15 months away, DeGale is excited at the prospect of revisiting the Games, but this time as a spectator, four years after he won gold in Beijing.

‘I can’t wait for the track and field events. They produce the most memorable moments at every Games so I’m hoping to be there for the sprint finals and hopefully catch some of the field events, too,’ said the Olympic middleweight champion. 

‘But its not just about being at the marquee events, I’m looking forward to just being part of it all and sharing the moment. Hopefully my gold medal will count for something when applying for tickets!’

To apply for London 2012 tickets visit tickets.london2012.com any time between now and 26 April 

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Purvis wins World Cup gold medal

Scotland's Dan Purvis delighted the home fans with a gold medal performance at the Gymnastics World Cup event in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall.

The 20-year-old beat Germany's recently crowned European champion Phillip Boy into second place, with Spain's Rafael Martinez third,

"It was a bit of a shock to be honest," said Purvis, who trains in Southport.

"Coming back from the Europeans I just wanted to have fun but I managed some clean routines and came first."

But he added that he would not be resting on his laurels. "It'll be straight back to training on Monday," he continued.

"I've still got quite a few competitions coming up so my aim is to just keep fit and at the same time continue to compete well."

Gold in the women's competition went to Romanian teenager Amelia Racea, ahead of Venezuela's Jessica Lopez and another Romanian, Raluca Haidu.

Britain's Hannah Whelan had a mixed event but produced a strong final floor routine to finish fifth.

Gymnastics' international governing body introduced the revised World Cup format to showcase the world's top gymnasts in six events.

The Glasgow leg of the competition was one of four in which gymnasts will compete on every piece of apparatus - six for men, four for women - with one overall winner.

There are two other World Cup legs featuring individual apparatus finals only.

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Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield take gold in the 10 metre synchro at FINA World Series event in Sheffield

"This is our second international competition together so we didn't expect anything.

"We wanted to come here and put in a good performance and if we got a medal it was a bonus. To get a gold medal is amazing."

Daley admitted this week the synchro was his best shot at a medal at next year's Olympics despite the 16 year-old being world champion in the individual platform.

He admitted a victory at such an early stage of his partnership with the 30-year-old Waterfield would be a significant boost to their confidence, especially after claiming a rare win over the Chinese who had won all but one of the 17 gold medals on offer at World Series this year.

"The Chinese don't lose, especially with those two young Chinese divers who when you come up against them most people say silver is gold," Daley said.

"We just went out there and did our best; if you put the Chinese under pressure they don't like it.

"It normally takes years to get the right timing on the board and we are very lucky to naturally have that timing. We just need to now work harder and harder because we have lots more to get out of the list.

"Like Pete said we missed our first two dives, so we can do a lot better.

"But, honestly it does feel amazing especially to do it in front of a home crowd."

Daley's victory was made more emotional after his ill father was able to make the trip up to Sheffield to see his son claim gold.

Doctors last month diagnosed Robert Daley with a second brain tumour which has left him in poor health.

The 40 year-old had only previously missed Daley's gold medal-winning performance at the Commonwealth Games last year and made a late journey to see his son's latest triumph.

"It was good to see him earlier because he wasn't sure if he was going to be here," Daley added.

"He got a bit upset actually because it gave me that extra bit of motivation and drive to see him there in the audience.

"He has a t-shirt that says 'Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning.'

"Apparently I am the oil in his lamp and I keep him burning.

"He's a little bit teary, he didn't think he was going to get up here because things obviously haven't been going well -it's been a tough time.

"I was glad he was up here to see me and Pete do as well as we have done today."

In the women's 3m synchro Rebecca Gallantree and 14-year-old partner Alicia Blagg proved they are able to compete with the best after finishing fifth.

While they never truly threatened the medals they finished less than nine points behind third place, with China's He Zi and Wu Minxia maintaining their perfect record at this year's World Series to win gold.

Earlier, junior world champion Jack Laugher underlined his growing reputation by posting an international personal best in the 3m springboard.

Laugher overcame cramp in his right leg mid-way through the competition to score 436.90 and continue his improvement in his first year in senior ranks.

The competition was eventually won by China's Qin Kai who again beat his countryman and Olympic and world champion Chong He while Hu Yadan won the women's 10m platform in the night's final event.

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Carl Froch to be flown to Denmark by private jet to make world title fight with Mikkel Kessler

Carl Froch is set to be flown to Denmark by private jet today - to ensure Saturday's world title fight with Mikkel Kessler goes ahead.

That should beat the threat posed to commercial flights by volcanic ash.

And the result could be explosive as the Nottingham fighter bids to ram taunts down the throats of the Dane's followers.

Froch had earlier taken a strict "no flight, no fight" stance yesterday.

Before his emergency travel arrangements were confirmed last night, Kessler's promoter Kalle Sauerland said: "I do not care if he puts himself into a car, on a ferry, in a submarine or a helicopter.

"There are several ways to come into Denmark from England. Perhaps he wants a way to get out of the fight because he knows that he has no chances against Kessler and the 10,000 fans in Herning."

Wbc super-middleweight champion Froch hopes to arrive in north Germany or Denmark this afternoon, after admitting earlier yesterday the fight would be off if his scheduled flight tomorrow from London Stansted was cancelled.

Froch was refusing to travel by car and ferry if his Ryanair flight did not take off due to Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul eruption that has grounded flights in northern Europe.

Froch, 32, was due to arrive in the remote Danish town of Herning on Saturday, and then had a rearranged flight today also cancelled.

The Nottingham fighter insisted he would not be left fit to box if he was forced to make a marathon journey by road and sea to get to Scandinavia to face local hero Kessler in the third defence of his world title.

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London to stage 2011 Badminton World Championships

Fresh doubts, as revealed by The Daily Telegraph, were raised by the Badminton World Federation in December over the long journey times from the Olympic park, despite athletes being offered hotel rooms and training venues close to the venue for the duration of the tournament.

Badminton England understandably wants to use the World Championships as a test event ahead of the Olympics but has been unable to persuade the BWF to make a decision so that further planning can be put into action. The International Olympic Committee will have the final say on the matter next month.

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Stephen Hendry in the dark over Chinese teenager Zhang Anda at World Championship

Seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry has not won a title since 2005. Zhang, 18, is an unknown quantity for the 41-year-old Scot, who said: "I know nothing about him. Absolutely nothing. I've never seen him play, never met him, so it's tales of the unexpected."

The pair will meet for the first time just minutes before they take to the table and Hendry said: "It can be a bit of a banana skin, because you don't know how he plays. Is he an aggressive player? I'm sure he is because all the players are these days. But is he slow? Is he fast? Is his long-potting a speciality?"

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Hendry is chasing his eighth world title but has not won a ranking title since 2005. However, he said: "My form's good in practice but that doesn't count for anything really," he said. "To win the world title, you need the confidence of tournament wins which I haven't had.

"All I can do here is take one match at a time and even when I was winning the World Championship I never found my best form in the first round, it was always in the final. You get better as the rounds go on.

"If I'm still here next week then who knows what might happen.

"The concentration levels have just dipped and I've been missing easy balls by getting down on a shot and not knowing what I'm going to play, and it's frustrating.

"You benefit from deep inner belief of having wins behind you, so you get to the table and you know you're not going to miss.

"And if you haven't got that confidence then you come to the table and you're doubting yourself and you get down on a shot and you're second guessing. But that doesn't happen when you're winning, you just go down on a shot and you're on autopilot."

Sheffield is set to be confirmed as the home of the Betfred.com World Championship until 2015. World Snooker have agreed a one-year extension to the deal announced during last year's Crucible tournament.

Sheffield Theatres chief executive Daniel Bates told the Sheffield Star: "Having snooker at the Crucible is worthwhile on many levels.

"The money is useful but it is more about the profile of the theatre.

"There will be an announcement during the tournament that the Crucible is to host the tournament for another five years, rather than the four announced last year."

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World champion Jessica Ennis voted European athlete of the month following Doha heroics

Jessica Ennis has been voted the European Athlete for March after her victory at the World Indoor Championships in Doha.

The 24-year-old from Sheffield added the pentathlon gold medal to the world outdoor heptathlon title she won in Berlin last August.

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