Countdown to Rio 2016: Olympic sport this week

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Non StanfordImage source, Bryn Lennon
Image caption,

Non Stanford is the third British woman in a row to win the Cape Town leg of the World Series

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STANFORD LEADS BRITISH ONE-TWO

Triathlon: Non Stanford began her 2016 season with a victory in the third round of the World Series in Cape Town.

The former world champion finished six seconds ahead of British team-mate Jodie Stimpson - who has not been selected for the Olympics - to earn her first gold medal in the World Series since 2013.

In the men's race, Britain's Jonathan Brownlee finished second despite feeling unwell as Spain's Fernando Alarza earned the first World Triathlon Series win of his career.

KENYANS CONQUER AT LONDON MARATHON

Athletics: In a week during which Kenya passed an anti-doping law to quell fears they might be banned from the Rio Olympics, their athletes claimed a London Marathon double.

Eliud Kipchoge finished just seven seconds outside the world record to retain his title ahead of compatriot Stanley Biwott, while Jemima Sumgong recovered from a fall to claim a surprise win in the women's race.

Media caption,

London Marathon: Sumgong wins despite fall

Four Britons confirmed their Rio Olympic selection. Callum Hawkins was eighth overall with a personal best of 2:10:52, while former Eritrean goat herder Tsegai Tewelde also finished inside the qualifying time. Alyson Dixon and Sonia Samuels were the first two British women to finish.

NO KEEPING UP WITH JONES

Taekwondo: Olympic champion Jade Jones began her delayed start to the year following a niggling knee injury by clinching one of three British gold medals at the German Open.

Her housemate and world champion Bianca Walkden won the +73kg category, and Charlie Maddock triumphed in the -49kg final.

Jones easily won each of her four bouts to reach the -57kg final, with scheduled Canadian opponent Ivett Gonda then withdrawing because of injury.

COUCH SITTING PRETTY

Diving: Tonia Couch earned her first individual silver at a World Series as British divers claimed four medals at the fourth and final leg of this year's event in the Russian city of Kazan. Couch led going into the final round of the 10m platform but was overhauled by Chinese teenager Ren Qian.

Tonia Couch on her Chinese rivals

"They are something outstanding and just amazing. It's so hard to get close. They are always number one and two.

"That's why I'm so pleased with my result. I can't believe it."

Tom Daley also clinched silver in the men's equivalent, two days after he and Daniel Goodfellow finished with bronze in the synchronised event to maintain their record of reaching the podium at every World Series this year.

There was a season's best silver medal for Chris Mears and Jack Laugher in the men's synchronised 3m springboard.

EUROPEAN SUCCESS FOR OATES AND POWELL

Judo: Colin Oates and Natalie Powell won Great Britain's first European Championship medals for three years.

Oates earned silver in the -66kg category, while fellow Commonwealth champion Powell beat British rival Gemma Gibbons in a bronze-medal bout in the women's -78kg.

Powell is four places higher than Gibbons in the world rankings, with only one of them able to be selected for the Rio Olympics.

PEATY HEADS OLYMPIC SWIMMING SQUAD

Swimming: Britain have announced a 26-strong Olympic swimming squad, which includes 2015 world champions Adam Peaty and James Guy.

"Every athlete on this team is within 2% - if they get it right - of getting to the podium," said head coach Bill Furniss. "There are no passengers on this team."

NEWS IN BRIEF

Image source, YASUYOSHI CHIBA
Image caption,

Ali Young has become the first British woman to win a world title in a solo Olympic dinghy class

Archery: Reigning men's Olympic champion Oh Jin Hyek will be unable to defend his title after failing to make South Korea's team for Rio.

Canoe sprint: Olympic champion Ed McKeever has been named in the British squad, external for next month's European Olympic qualifying event in Germany, which will be his final opportunity to earn a place in Rio. McKeever could only finish second in the men's K1 200m at last week's British trials.

Equestrian - eventing: William Fox-Pitt will not defend his Badminton title in May after deciding his only entry Parklane Hawk is not ready.

Mountain bike: Britain's Grant Ferguson - a bronze medallist at last year's Under-23 World Championships - finished 17th in the season-opening World Cup meeting in Cairns, which was won by Swiss world champion Nino Schurter.

Road cycling: Dutch rider Wout Poels gave Team Sky their first-ever Monument triumph in a snow-disrupted Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the oldest of cycling's one-day Spring Classic races. Poels' team-mate Chris Froome, the reigning Tour de France champion, crashed early on and finished down in 112th place.

Sailing: Alison Young became the first British woman to win a World Championship title in a solo Olympic dinghy class. The 28-year-old won the 13th and final race of the regatta in Mexico to take the laser radial title by a single point, ahead of America's Paige Railey.

Shooting: Ed Ling was the only British shooter to progress beyond the qualifying stage at the World Cup in Rio, which doubled as an Olympic test event. Ling eventually finished sixth in the men's trap.

Swimming: Brazil's men's 50m freestyle world record holder Cesar Cielo has failed to qualify for an individual event at his home Olympics after coming third at the Rio swimming test event. The 29-year-old could still compete at the Olympic Games in the relays, if picked by the Brazilian selectors.

Table tennis: Japan's Miu Hirano, 16, became the third youngest ever winner of a women's World Tour crown by taking the Polish Open title.

Track cycling: World points race champion Jon Dibben has had surgery on a fractured elbow but British Cycling says his Olympic ambitions "remain unaffected". Sprinter Jess Varnish will not be going to Rio after being dropped from the Olympic podium programme because it was deemed she had no chance of winning a medal.

Meanwhile, International Cycling Union president Brian Cookson is targeting an expansion to the track programme at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Trampoline: Nathan Bailey earned Great Britain's first male trampoline place at the Olympics since 2004. The 22-year-old scored 104.695 points for his two routines at the Rio test event. Britain had already secured two female trampoline places at Rio.

THIS WEEK'S EVENTS

Archery: The 2016 World Cup season gets under way in Shanghai (26 April-1 May). Patrick Huston and Naomi Folkard head Britain's challenge.

Image source, Robert Prezioso
Image caption,

Britain's top-ranked female archer Naomi Folkard is in World Cup action this week

Badminton: The European Championships take place in La Roche sur Yon, France (26 April-1 May) as the battle for Olympic qualification points enters its final few weeks. British married couple Chris and Gabby Adcock are the top seeds in the mixed doubles, and are bidding for a first European title.

In the singles, Kirsty Gilmour is the second seed behind world number two Carolina Marin from Spain, while Rajev Ouseph is seeded fifth in the men's event.

Handball: Rio hosts the Olympic test event from 29 April to 1 May.

Road cycling: Sir Bradley Wiggins headlines the second edition of the Tour de Yorkshire (29 April-1 May). The 2012 Tour de France winner and four-time Olympic champion will be joined by a strong British contingent, including national road race champion Pete Kennaugh, for the three-stage men's race.

Yorkshire-born world champion Lizzie Armitstead competes in the one-day women's race, which will also feature Dame Sarah Storey, Britain's most decorated female Paralympian.

Sailing: Great Britain's Olympic sailors will be out in force on the French Riviera for the third regatta of this year's World Cup series in Hyeres (27 April-1 May). They include newly crowned laser radial world champion Alison Young and Rio-bound windsurfers Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw. Finn star Giles Scott has opted to skip the regatta in preparation for his world title defence next month.

BBC Olympics coverage this week

Wednesday 27 April

19:30-21:00: Olympics - Road to Rio, BBC Radio 5 live

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