gymnastics
Beth Tweddle is recovering swiftly from the knee injury that ruled her out of the European Championships, according to Tim Jones, the British Gymnastics performance director. The 27-year-old three-time world champion had minor knee surgery last month and was left out of the Great Britain squad for the event, which will be held in Brussels next week.
She is already back in training at British Gymnastics' base in Lilleshall and is practising her full bars routine, although she has not resumed training on her other piece of apparatus, the floor. Jones is confident that she will make a full recovery in time for the Olympic trials. "She's not hobbling around, she's in good shape and she's working out so we're confident we can get her in good shape for London," he said. "The European title is one she's won more than once so there was no point to prove there. Obviously the long game with Beth is getting her into full shape and full fitness for London."
Dan Keatings, the Scot, and Sam Oldham, who missed out on selection for the European Championships, are also both closing in on being fully fit.
Oldham is working his way back to fitness after injuring his shoulder before the World Championships last November, while 2009 all-around world champion Keatings injured ankle ligaments two weeks ago.
"Dan could probably compete on four pieces now," said Jones. "We could have risked him on a number of pieces but it makes no sense to do that. We have to look forward to our Olympic aspirations and, with someone like Dan, we want to protect him so he cam come through the trial process and hopefully book himself a place on the team."
FORMULA ONE
Bathgate's Paul di Resta bounced back from Wednesday's disasters to go sixth-quickest in testing in Mugello, Italy yesterday, writes Lorin McDougall. The Force India driver managed just 14 laps the previous day because of hydraulic problems and was only 13th-fastest out of 14, but the car ran smoothly yesterday as the Scot clocked 1min 23.071sec, almost two seconds quicker than on Wednesday.
golf
Jack Senior, the rookie pro from Lancashire who was one of Great Britain & Ireland's Walker Cup heroes at Balgownie last September, holds a one-shot lead on seven under par after a weather-affected second-day of the PGA EuroPro Tour's BGC British Masters at Lingfield Park, Surrey, writes Colin Farquharson.
Heavy rain waterlogged parts of the course and delayed the start of the second round until 2.15 and, with almost six hours lost, it was decided to make a cut using the first-round scores and proceed with the top 50 and ties playing the final 36 holes. Players who had carded one-over 72 or better made the cut. Scots who missed out were Shaun McAllister (Craigielaw, 73), Ross Cameron (Ellon, 73), Elliot Saltman (Archerfield Links, 73) and Eric Ramsay (Carnoustie, 82).
Senior had four birdies to be seven under for the tournament with seven holes to play this morning. Wallace Booth (Comrie) and John Gallagher (Swanston) were among those on four under through 11 and sharing fifth place. Cawder's Chris Kelly is level par after 11 holes. John Henry (Clydebank & Dist) is one over par after 11 while Duncan Stewart (Grantown on Spey), tied for fifth place with two holes to play on Wednesday evening, is now well down the field on two over after 11. Scots who completed their second rounds were Paul Doherty (72, 70 for 142), Myles Cunningham (72, 74 for 147), Ed Wood (71, 77 for 148)
Taekwondo
Damon Sansum, from Elgin, lost out in his opening match in the European Championships in Manchester when he was beaten 6-5 on golden point by the German Volker Wodzich, writes Roddy Mackenzie. Sansum had stepped up from Under-80kg to the heavyweight class for the event but found the step up too great and could not build on a 3-0 lead.
He had gone into the event with high hopes of an extended run after winning the German Open in Hamburg earlier this year, but the defeat seriously dents his hopes of making this summer's Olympic Games. "Damon was hoping for big things but, unfortunately, he just missed out against a very good player," said Gary Hall, the Great Britain performance director. "He did a great job making the weight and can be proud of his efforts."
tennis
Edinburgh's Emma Devine kept Scottish interest alive in the AEGON GB Pro-Series Edinburgh yesterday when she teamed up with Sarah Borwell, the former British doubles No.1, to reach the semi-finals with a 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 10-5 victory over the British pair Danielle Konotoptseva and Jessica Ren. Seeded third, Borwell and Devine, face the second seeds, Eva Wacanno, of Netherlands, and Australia's Karolina Wlodarczak, in today's semi-finals, not before 1pm on Court 1. Play today starts at the Craiglockhart Tennis Centre at 10am, and entry to spectators is free.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article