British gymnasts unlucky on the beam, Arsenal Ladies triumph in the Continental Cup and British speed skater finishes 5th in a World Cup Final. Adele Norris has this week’s latest in women’s sport
World Gymnastics: Ruby Harrold and Rebecca Tunney reached Women’s all-round final at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
The two British gymnasts finished 17th (Harrold) and 19th (Tunney) in the 24 woman final after some unlucky mistakes on the beam.
American Simone Biles, 16, won the all round title.
The London 2012 Olympian Tunney, 16, fell from the apparatus and scored 11.966 while Harrod fell twice and took a 11.066 score.
On Saturday Harrold also competed in the uneven bars final alongside other British gymnast Becky Downie.
Harrold finished 7th with a score of 14.33, Downie close behind in eighth with the a score of 13.800.
Harrold told Sport Sister: ‘It was quite nice to go up last in the final and I kept my composure, I never thought I had a medal chance and just wanted to do a job for myself and the routine I’ve been working on.’
Arsenal Ladies win Continental Cup beating Lincoln
Ellen White and Kim Little scored for the 2-0 victory at Barnet’s Hive.
The Continental Cup is the eight Women’s Super League sides put into two groups of four and competing in a round robin. The top two progress to knockout semi-finals and then a final.
The Gunners have won nine consecutive league titles until this yea when Liverpool took the title and Bristol Academy second.
The Cup win is some consolation for the team.
Manager Shelley Kerr told the BBC it’s been a great way to finish the season:
‘We had to be patient because, credit to Lincoln, they were so well organised and I was getting a few grey hairs waiting for us to score,’ said Kerr.
‘But I was confident we would win the game. We knew we would have to be patient and in the end the girls got what they deserved.’
Serena Williams triumphs Radwanska to make it to a final with Jankovic at the China Open.
Williams suffered some back pain in the semi finals to securing the showdown with Serbian Jelena Jankovic.
The 32-year-old Williams has won 72 matches so far in 2013 and ranks world number one, her competition eighth.
She received medical attention during her second set in the semi final against Petra Kvitova but continued to win 6-7 (7-9) 6-1 6-1.
She told press officers after the match: “My back was a little tight. I’ve been playing a lot, so it just got a little tight and I was just trying to release it. It’s been a little tight all week, but it spasmed up a little bit out there today.”
Williams has already won the French Open, US Open and seven other titles this year.
Cycling: GB European Track Championships squad features Olympic medalists
The team includes several Olympic and world gold medalists including women’s team pursuit champions Laura Trott, Dani King and Jo Rowsell as part of the 18-strong line up.
Trott, King and Rowsell won world and Olympic titles as a trio in the 3km team pursuit and set a world record in the new 4km team pursuit with Elinor Barker to win the British title last week.
Katie Archibald is making a debut in the squad along with Jess Varnish who won four sprint titles at the National Track Championships last week.
The European Championships take place from 18th to 20th October in Apeldoorn.
Full GB team:
Sprint: Becky James, Jess Varnish, Vicky Williamson
Women’s Endurance: Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Dani King, Joanna Rowsell, Laura Trott
Speed skating: Elise Christie finishes 5th in World Cup final
British speed skater Elise Christie finished 5th in the 1000m final at the USI World Cup tournament on Sunday with a time of 1:33.812
Christie was the 1000m Champion for the 2012-13 World Cup season.
She made it through to the quarter-finals of the 1000m at the tournament in Korea on Friday by more than 30 seconds in her preliminary race, second in her heat.
She finished 3rd in the semi-finals.
At the World Championships in March she was denied the chance to become the first British woman to win the World Short-Track Speed Skating Championships medal after a collision with Chinas’ Yang Zhou in the 1500m final.
The athlete was selected as one of twelve for young athletes to receive a Sky Sports Scholarship in August.
She receives financial support, media training, mentoring from the programme which is led by former UK athletics National Events coach Tony Lester.
Christie is also part of the GB relay team who came third in the 3000m relay missing a place in the semi-finals but beating their British record with a time of 4:14.743.
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