Day one of the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival saw Team GB in action across tennis and swimming, getting Győr 2017 officially underway following Monday night’s glittering Opening Ceremony.
Fresh from his flagbearer duties, Archie Goodburn continued a memorable start to the Festival in the pool with personal bests in both the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly heats.
Goodburn, who also featured in the Team GB 4x100m quartet who finished 0.1 seconds off a place in the final, eventually came home in eighth in the 100m freestyle final and the 100m butterfly semi-final and is targeting further success, inspired by leading the team out the previous evening.
“Last night was just amazing – better than I could have imagined. It was just so good to have the team behind me,” said the 16-year-old from Edinburgh.
“I was watching the other flagbearers walking out before me trying to work out how best to hold it, so I chose to go high and strong and definitely held it with pride.
“I’m pretty happy with my day today. Three events is tough and that showed at the end but to make the final of the 200m free and semi of the 100m fly have been good results. My times from this morning were great personal bests so I would have been over the moon with anything faster but with that tiredness it just wasn’t meant to be.
“It would be great make to make some more finals this week and this experience is just fantastic – it’s great for my future.”
Also in the pool, three Team GB swimmers booked places in tomorrow’s finals with Charlie Hutchison and Kyle Booth both qualifying third fastest in their respective 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke semi-finals, while Pia Murray finished fifth in her 100m backstroke semi and is the eighth fastest into the final.
Elsewhere, Michaella Glenister finished fifth in the 400min individual medley final while there were top 15 finishes for Sam Osborne, Charlotte Robsinon, Ceara Barber, Oliver Taverner, Rebecca Clynes and Sam Dailley.
“I’m really happy,” said Glenister after moving up from eighth to fifth in the final. “My heat was a good swim but I thought I did even better in the final. I really wanted to pick up the back end, I knew my breaststroke was a bit weak in the heats so I thought if I improved that I might get a PB. It hurt in the final stages but felt so good at the end.”
A rain affected day wrought havoc on the tennis schedule with only two of Team GB’s four tennis players getting out onto the courts in Hungary.
Barney Fitzpatrick negotiated two rain delays but the weather cost him momentum at key times as the 15-year-old from Holmfirth went down 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to Spain’s Mario Fernandez. Holly Staff then needed over six hours to complete her first round match, before also exiting the singles event following a 6-3 6-1 defeat to Melania Delai of Italy.
“It was tough preparation [the poor weather conditions] but it does happen, and she just handled it better than I did,” said the 14-year-old.
“You just have to learn from your mistakes and come back better. She was good opponent, very solid and though I did play well at times, I was also a bit careless at times too. She made a lot of balls and deserved to win.
Tomorrow sees all six of Team GB’s sports in action as cycling, gymnastics, canoeing and judo compete for the first time at Győr 2017.
Britain’s cyclists will take to the streets of Győr in a 10km time trial, the men’s gymnastics squad compete for individual finals and team medals while the canoe sprinters race in the 500m heats and the lighter judo weights take to the mat.
There’s also the start of the doubles events in the tennis and the swimming programme continues at a rate with no less than 14 heats and finals scheduled.
Team GB Results: Day One
Swimming
Men’s 200m Freestyle Preliminaries: Archie Goodburn 7th (1:53.78), Sam Osborne 11th (1:54.08)
Women’s 200m Butterfly Preliminaries: Charlotte Robinson 9th (2:19.78), Rachel Anderson 21st (2:22.99)
Men’s 100m Backstroke Preliminaries: Charlie Hutchison 14th (58:60)
Women’s 100m Backstroke Preliminaries: Pia Murray 10th (1:04.55), Ceara Barber 11th (1:04.64)
Men’s 100m Breaststroke Preliminaries: Kyle Booth 9th (1:05.08), Oliver Taverner 10th (1:05.18)
Women’s 100m IM: Michaella Glenister 8th (4:58.43), Rebecca Clynes 9th (4:59.24)
Men’s 100m Butterfly Preliminaries: Archie Goodburn 8th (55.64), Sam Dailley 10th (55.72)
Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Preliminaries: Great Britain 16th (3:59.24)
Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Preliminaries: Great Britain 9th (3:31.43)
Men’s 100m Backstroke Semi-Final: Charlie Hutchison 6th (57.85)
Women’s 100m Backstroke Semi-Final: Pia Murray 8th (1:04.18
Men’s 200m Freestyle Final: Archie Goodburn 8th (1:55.57)
Men’s 100m Backstroke Semi-Final 1: Charlie Hutchison 3rd (57.85)- progresses 6th fastest to Final
Women’s 100m Backstroke Semi-Final 1: Pia Murray 5th (1:04.18) – progresses 8th fastest to Final
100m Backstroke Men’s Semi-Final 1: Kyle Booth 3rd (1:04.42) – progresses 6th fastest to Final
Women’ 400m IM Final: Michaella Glenister: 5th (4:56.85)
Men’s 100m Butterfly Semi-Final: Archie Goodburn 8th (56:83)
Tennis
Men’s Singles First Round: Barney Fitzpatrick (GBR) lost vs Mario Fernandez (SPA) 4-6, 6-4, 2-6
Women’s Singles First Round: Holly Staff (GBR) lost vs (ITA) Melania Delai 3-6, 1-6
Schedule: Day 2
All times are Győr time (BST+1)
Artistic Gymnastics: Men’s Qualification 10:00-19:00 (Jake Jarman, Pavel Karnejenko, Jamie Lewis)
Canoe Sprint: Mixed 500m Qualifications 08:30-13:00, Mixed 500m Heats15:00-18:00 (Alix Aitchison, Zoe Clark, Enya Dale, Alex Greaves, Thomas Lambert, Ed Nightingale)
Cycling: Women’s Time Trial 11:00-13:30 (Amelia Sharpe, Elynor Backstedt, Ella Barnwell), Men’s Time Trial 16:00-19:30 (Alfie George, Lewis Askey, Sam Watson)
Judo: Women’s -44 (Amy Platten), Men’s -50, -55 (Charlie Young, Dan Rabbit), Eliminations & Repechage 12:00-14:15, Finals 16:00-18:00
Swimming: Heats 09:00-10:30, Finals 17:00-20:00 (Adam Metcalf, Alicia Dingle, Archie Goodburn, Ceara Barber, Charlie Hutchison, Charlotte Robinson, Kyle Booth, Mia Slevin, Michaella Glenister, Oliver Taverner, Pia Murray, Rachel Anderson, Rebecca Clynes, Sam Dailley, Samuel Osborne, William Bell)
Tennis: Men’s & Women’s Singles First Round 09:00-20:00 (Toby Samuel, Lilly Mould), Men’s and Women’s Doubles First round 09:00-20:00
Photo above shows Elynor Backstedt
Report courtesy of Team GB
