Tuesday 15 September 2009

Be there to welcome Team GB home!

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Heathrow Airport have kindly agreed to reserve an area in Terminal 3 Arrivals for Team GB supporters who would like to greet our athletes when they touch down on Thursday morning.

It's at a very early time in the UK - 6.20am - but your presence would give such a boost to our athletes after more than three weeks away in most cases.

Keep watching this site for further details.

Monday 14 September 2009

Day 9 Report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Badminton

Disappointment for Bagga

Rajeev Bagga's quest for gold faltered at the final hurdle when he was narrowly beaten (16-21, 21-17, 20-22) by Artemy Karpov of Russia.

The result is Bagga's first defeat to any Deaf competitor in 20 years of competition and his silver medal follows Singles gold at the previous five Deaflympics.

Bagga was a point away from glory at 20-19. But the Russian was returning Rajeev's smashes strongly and made it 20-all, before edging ahead to 21.

On the vital point, Karpov played a light drop serve which Bagga left, and it ooked to have landed out. But the umpire judged that the shuttlecock had fallen onto the line and Karpov fell to his knees in triumph.

Karpov - on a reputed €100,000 to win the title - took the first set when a netted Bagga backhand gave him a match point, which he took.

Immediately after the set, Team GB Badminton Manager had to stride onto court to ask for a third Russian official to be removed, as only two are permitted courtside.

In the second set, Bagga went from 11-15 down to 18-15 ahead and took the set five points later when he had Karpov straining and failing with a shot from the floor.

The quality of the badminton on show was superb and the two players exchanged the early points with some fierce rallies in the final set.

Karpov stayed in touch with Bagga throughout the last set and it really was very close to call. The British fans in the gallery were about to explode when Bagga reached 20 points but it was not to be.

Rajeev - who first won gold in Christchurch 1989 and carried his run through Sofia 1993, Copenhagen 1997. Rome 2001 and Melbourne 2005 - afterwards donated his silver medal to Lithuanian competitor Tomas DovyDaitis who had badly damaged his ankle in competition.

As one onlooker commented, "Rajeev may have lost the gold but he still has a heart of gold".

Team GB Badminton were in unison afterwards to point out that 22 year-old Karpov had been extremely well supported by the Russian structure. A five-month training programme was fully funded and his salary was understood to be covered during that period.

There was also disappointment in the Men's Doubles as Bagga and Carl Sadler lost their Bronze medal play-off match to a Korean pairing Lee and Sin in three sets.

Athletics

Serena Blackburn made a late surge up the field to bag a bronze for GB in the Women's Marathon.

Serena had finished third in the most recent World Deaf Athletics Championships and proved that result was no fluke by passing three runners in the last five kilometres to move from sixth place up to the bronze position.

Serena had left the Team GB base before 4am for the 6am start outside Taipei but this inconvenience was worth enduring to be on the podium.

Team GB Athletics Manager Brian Kokoruwe was delighted with Serena's "amazing determination" and the medal caps a good haul for his squad, who have two silvers and two bronzes from Taipei.

Timothy Stones was one of the runners to complete the Men's Marathon. A number of runners dropped out in the punishing heat and humidity.

Brian K explained that Timothy had travelled to Taipei from his base in South Africa, "where it is a completely different climate at the moment, so he's done really well to stick it out in today's conditions".

Football

Team GB continued their recent good form to finish top of the 9-16th play-offs. In their last game of the Deaflympics, the 2005 Champions beat Spain 3-0.

An own goal set GB on their way and further strikes from Jamie Clarke and Chris Beech sealed a comfortable win and left the squad thinking of what might have been.

Table Tennis

Team GB completed their matches today (Andrew Calloway narrowly losing 3-2) but the squad will put Taipei 2009 down to experience as they look ahead to Athens 2013.

Day 8 Report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Swimming

Another medal for Hannah Fitton!

A sensational swim by multiple medal winner Hannah Fitton gave Team GB their third silver of the Games this evening.
Hannah's time of 09:24.91 for the 800m Freestyle was 36 seconds better than her last recorded swim at that time in Deaf competition and means she now has a silver medal plus three bronze medals - half of Team GB's total.

Hannah's medal haul now reads:

* 200m Freestyle (bronze)
* 400m Freestyle (bronze)
* 800m Freestyle (silver)
* 200m Individual Medley (bronze)


"What a wonderful bonus to have on the last day of competition", beamed Swimming Team Manager Vincent Dickson.

Hannah - born in Scunthorpe - flies to her current home of Wisconsin, USA early tomorrow morning (14th) but will have the good wishes of GB Teammates ringing in her ears after her exhilarating performances at these Games.

Details of an interview with Team GB's star performer will appear shortly.


Badminton

Rajeev Bagga is one step away from landing his sixth consecutive individual Badminton gold when he booked his place in the final in front of a big British crowd at the Taipei Gymnasium this afternoon.

Bagga's opponent, Cheang Hok Teh of Malaysia was a familiar face - he has lost previous Deaflympics finals to the former India player.

Team GB Badminton coaches Denis Cleary and Kevin Harper were impressed afterwards:

"Teh is a very good player", they agreed. Harper went on: "But Rajeev has played at a high standard all the way through this tournament and deserves to be in the final".

After 90 minutes break, during which Rajeev was given a revitalising massage by GB Badminton sports physio Caroline Bird, it was on with the Doubles.

Things looked to be going GB's way when Bagga and Carl Sadler took the first set 21-13.

Their Russian opponents changed their tactics for the next set and some aggressive play saw Karpov and Efremov level the tie with a 21-10 win.

The decisive final set saw some extremely high quality badminton, which could have only impressed the visiting British Olympic Committee delegate who was observing proceedings.

The two pairs traded points, and when it looked like the Russians would get too far ahead at 10-7, Bagga played some sublime shots right onto the edges of the court to haul GB level, then in front, 11-10.

The tension cranked up with every point and by 19-19, it was almost unbearable.

Karpov and Efremov wasted one chance at 20-19 but made no mistake with the next and go on to play Malaysia (with Teh) in the final.

Bagga and Sadler aim to oust Korea for a bronze medal in the third/fourth play-off tomorrow.

But the main event of the day will be what promises to be a historic achievement by Bagga, when he plays Karpov for the gold medal at 2pm local time.


Athletics

Team GB's Candy Hawkins just missed out on the medals when she ran the 5000m on an eventful night in Taipei Stadium.

The Gold medal was never in doubt from early on as Australian runner Melinda Vernon lapped the field, breaking the world Deaf record by nearly 40 seconds in the process.

Candy, running a solid race, appeared to have finished fifth.

However, it was soon revealed that a mistake by the Polish entrant Zareba, who finished a lap too early, meant that she was disqualified from third place.

The revised result placed Candy fourth, with a personal best time of 19:15.70.

While the race was being run, the crowd roared its approval when a Venezuelan athlete registered a world Deaf record throw of 73.47m in the Men's Javelin.


Football

Team GB Women missed out on the bronze medal when they lost by a single goal to Russia.

The Russians, who had beaten GB 6-2 earlier in the competition, were kept quiet by some solid defending and close marking.

The goal came in slightly controversial circumstances when a water break was given with Russia about to take a corner kick.

When play resumed, a distracted GB defence could not clear their lines and the goal was conceded in a
penalty box scramble.


Table Tennis

There was a glimmer of hope for Team GB this morning when lead player Andrew Calloway won his morning game to maintain a 100% record in the Group stages of the Singles.

Andrew, as did Nicholas Gilmour and James Meyers, had to face superior opposition in the afternoon/evening matches and there will be no GB representative in the knockout stages.

Day 7 Report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Tennis

Gold for Anthony Sinclair and Catherine Graham!

It was Gold at last for Anthony Sinclair and Catherine Graham as their tremendous display saw them triumph in the Mixed Doubles final.

Sinclair and Graham broke the stranglehold on the title held by Italy's Gianpaolo Damiani and Barbara Oddone, who suffered their first loss since Christchurch 1989.

Sinclair, 25, and 26-year-old Graham edged the first set against the Italians, but dropped serve in the final game of the second set to take the match to a decider.

However, after finishing fourth in the mixed doubles at the last two Deaflympics, Sinclair and Graham were not about to end with any hard luck stories this this time and secured a double break to give them a 5-1 cushion in the final set.

Although the Italians recovered one break, the British second seeds steadied themselves and held their nerve to clinch Britain's first Deaflympics mixed doubles gold medal for more than 50 years.

Men's Doubles pairing Lewis Fletcher and Darren O'Donnell could have joined their fellow players on the medals board but were beaten by two sets to love in the 3rd/4th play off.


Athletics

Lauren claims a silver medal in 800m!

Lauren Peffers added a second silver medal to her collection when she grabbed second place in the Women's 800m in Taipei Stadium on Saturday night.

Lauren's collection now contains one gold and three silvers at the two Deaflympics she has taken part in - Melbourne 2005 and Taipei 2009.

All those hard nights of training at Edinburgh Athletics Club paid off for Lauren as she toughed out some early jostling in the pack to be in contention at the half-way mark.

However, Lauren appeared to be struggling and on the final bend, it looked like she could miss out on a medal altogether.

But the Scot dug in and summoned up one last burst of pace and somehow, somehow snatched silver on the line.

Lauren crumpled on the track after the finish, looking totally spent. And there was a reason:
"I was in so much pain", Lauren confessed afterwards and Team GB athletics Team Manager Brian Kokoruwe quickly discovered that his runner had been feeling an injury before the race.

Whatever the cause, it was nothing short of a magnificent recovery which sparked happy scenes amongst the British supporters in the stadium.

Earlier in the evening, Lauren's fellow Scot John Ruddy was running in his first-ever Deaflympics final - the 200m.

Ruddy, the youngest in the final line-up, looked sharp and was delighted to shave a hundredth of a second off his personal best when finishing fifth.

On this form, 18-year old Glaswegian Ruddy will definitely be challenging at Athens 2013 and Kokoruwe is convinced that the sprinter "has a bright future".

On a busy night in the stadium, James Schofield also achieved a PB as GB's representative in the High Jump.

Despite suffering a broken nose in training last week, Schofield looked smooth and composed in his early leaps.

The eventual medal winners jumped to a very high standard, going for the Deaf World Record and there was no shame at all in James's jump of 1.93 metres.


Badminton

Rajeev Bagga had a busy day on court but remains on track for gold in the Men's Singles and Doubles.

Bagga sailed through his Singles last 16 and quarter final matches despite German Oliver Witte taking a 11-4 lead in the latter match.

While Bagga and Carl Sadler were taking three sets to beat their Chinese opponents in their morning Mens Doubles match, Dominic Caswell and Alexander Hurley were on their way out, having lost 2-0 to an Austrian pair.

Late in the afternoon, the Bagga/Sadler combination had to fight all the way in a tough match against Za and Lu (China) before securing a semi-final berth.

Earlier, there was no joy for GB at Mixed Doubles when all of our three pairings were knocked out of the competition.


Table Tennis

Team Manager and lead player Andrew Calloway gave GB a boost when he won his first group match of the Men's Singles this evening.

A clean sweep 3-0 against Rene Ganahl of Austria made up for the losses suffered by James Meyers and Nicholas Gilmour and the withdrawal from competition of Martin Strutt.

Next up for Calloway are matches against South African and Chinese opposition tomorrow at 10.30am and 2.30pm Taipei time.


Football

Team GB made sure of at least 10th place in the competition after comphrensively beating Denmark 5-1 in their last match of the Games.

Their next match will be against Spain - the winner will claim 9th place.

Day 6 Report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Swimming

There was great news for Team GB this evening when 16 year-old Hannah Fitton scooped her third bronze medal of the Games.

Hannah surged through the field in the 200m Freestyle event to land third place and add another medal to the two she won for GB earlier this week.


Hannah's bronze collection is now 200m Freestyle, 400m Freestyle and 200m Individual Medley but her third success needed a slice of luck.

Team GB Swimming Manager Vincent Dickson explained:

“Hannah made a mistake in her morning heat, which meant she was only able to finish ninth in the list of qualifiers.

“However, a withdrawal meant that she moved up into eighth place and in the race itself she came in from absolutely nowhere to grab the bronze.”

“In doing that, she broke the British record by three seconds!”


Athletics

GB had three representatives in the Women's Hammer Final at Taipei Stadium this evening but it was Joanne Davison who gained a place on the podium.

Joanne, a gold medallist at the 2005 Games had to settle for a bronze this time with 47.06 metre. Gold was taken with a huge throw (60.27) from the Norwegian newcomer Trude Raad.


Football


Team GB Women will have to aim for a repeat of their Melbourne bronze medal after losing their semi final 2-1 to holders USA.

Two quick USA moves saw GB 2-0 down at the interval but the second half was a different story as the British team had the better of the play.

USA were restricted to one meaningful shot on goal and substitute Catherine Eyley won a free kick on the right with less than five minutes to go.

Eyley got up to cross into the box, where captain Esther Maycock powered home a header.

The game was on but despite the best efforts of Eyley and a tireless Camilla Willis, the holders held onto reach the final, where they will play Germany who stormed back from 3-0 down to beat Russia, 4-3.

Team Manager George McGowan was frustrated afterwards: "USA had four days' rest (because of a smaller group) - we only had one day. We were very close".

GB will be hoping for revenge on Russia after losing 6-2 to them in their final group game earlier this week.


Badminton

Team GB's two pairings moved through to the next round of the Mixed Doubles event as the day was closing here in Taipei.

Carl Sadler and Andrea Hardwick were composed as they beat their French opponents in two sets.

At the same time on a nearby court, new pairing Xander Hurley and Kirstie Allen had to pull out all the stops to beat their Indian challengers in a tough last set.

Earlier, it had been the Battle of Britain when Dominic Caswell took on the might of Rajeev Bagga in the Men's Singles.

Bagga swiftly moved on with his aim of a sixth straight title but he won't be joined by Hurley who lost against Muller of Switzerland.

Caswell and Hurley regrouped in the afternoon to make it through in the Men's Doubles but Hardwick and Allen went out of the Women's event in a morning match.


Table Tennis

Team GB were in doubles action this evening, with Andrew Calloway and Nicholas Gilmour playing an Italian pairing. Calloway and Gilmour took a game from the opposition but 1-4 was the final score.

Days 5 Report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Tennis


Team GB are through to the final of the Mixed Doubles Event after a superb performance from Anthony Sinclair and Catherine Graham



The duo guaranteed themselves at least a silver medal when they beat Japan's Tetsuya Matsushita and Yachiyo Abe 6-1, 6-1.




The British second seeds will play Italian top seeds Gianpaolo Damiani and Barbara Oddone in the final.



The Italians are unbeaten in the mixed doubles at any Deaflympics since 1989.


"We're thrilled to be in the final", Sinclair commented afterwards.



"Catherine and I are going to try our hardest to break that (the Italians') hold on the trophy".


Saturday's final will take place in front of the TV cameras on Centre Court, where Lewis Fletcher and Darren O'Donnell exited at the semi-final stage today in the Men's Doubles.



Football


Team GB Men put the disappointment of not making the medal stages behind them by thumping South Africa 5-0 in the 9-16th play-off.


In slightly cooler conditions than in previous games, GB took the lead via Nick Gregory.



Matthew Byfield, and shortly afterwards, Daniel Hogan with a great shot put GB in control of the game at 3-0.


Oliver Monksfield returned from suspension to get in on the act, adding the fourth before Steven Gardiner put the seal on things with a header.


"Four out of my nine goals for GB have been headers", Gardiner remarked modestly afterwards. "So I suppose I'm quite good at them!"



Badminton


Taipei schools have each been allocated a nation at the Deaflympics to support and Team GB are being backed by the kids from Dun Hua Junior High School.


Our friends with their flags were out in force today at the badminton venue this afternoon, cheering on Team GB in their Men's singles matches.


Carl Sadler won his game when his opponent retired but his exit from the competion overall allows him to focus on the doubles, where he will partner Rajeev Bagga.


"I rather enjoyed it", said a surprised Sadler of the attention he got today.


"They were even taking photographs of me as I was leaving the court, but it was great".


Xander Hurley is through to the last 32, as is Dominic Caswell, who has an all-British tie against Bagga tomorrow.



Kirstie Allen and Caroline Bird were in Ladies Singles action this morning but both players lost their matches.

Thursday 10 September 2009

Day 4 report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Badminton

Rajeev Bagga started his quest for a record sixth straight consecutive Deaflympic gold today.

He was first in action this morning, winning in two sets before returning in the afternoon (the early stages of Singles in Badminton are played in 'round robin' format) to again win in two sets.

Andrea Hardwick and Xander Hurley were the pick of the other players, taking their higher-ranked opponents to close games.


Athletics

Team GB's field athletes competed for the first time in these Deaflympics this evening at the Taipei Stadium. Joanne Davison and Bethan Lishman were both in the final of the Women's Discus event but the specialist hammer throwers could not progress beyond the first stage.


Tennis

After their superb displays yesterday, both Lewis Fletcher and Darren O'Donnell crashed out of the Men's Singles in the third round. Catherine Graham also made an exit in the Women's Singles.

But there was brighter news in the afternoon, when Anthony Sinclair and Graham teamed up to win their Mixed Doubles match. Anthony and Catherine are now through to the semi-finals, due to take place tomorrow afternoon.


Swimming

Breakthrough 16 year old swimmer Hannah Fitton reached her third final today; qualifying in 8th place but finishing a respectable seventh out of a strong field.


Table Tennis

The boys on the small green table were in action today, trying their best in the defeat to Belgium, 3-1.


Football

Team GB Women now face a tough semi final against reigning champions USA on Friday after losing 6-2 to Russia in their final group game.

An early penalty from Danielle Evans put GB in the lead but by half-time the Russians had surged ahead 3-1.
A Camilla Willis goal from an Esther Maycock cross in the second half gave GB hope but it was mostly
one-way traffic after that as Russia added three more goals.

Wednesday 9 September 2009

Day 3 Report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Athletics

Lauren Peffers secures GB's first silver medal!

Team GB squad members mingled with supporters to cheer on Lauren Peffers in her bid to win the 400m in the Taipei Stadium this evening.

Peffers was always going to be there or thereabouts after her storming semi-final run but despite straining every sinew down the straight, she could not quite catch her Belarusian rival Tsiarentsyeva.

Lauren now turns to defend her title in the 800m.


Swimming

Hannah Fitton grabs second bronze medal

Hannah Fitton, who landed GB's first medal of the Games, repeated her bronze feat of yesterday. This time, she took third place in her preferred event, the 200m individual medley.

Hannah's efforts mean she has two medals in her first-ever Deaflympics at the tender age of 16.

Team Manager Vincent Dickson was ecstatic:

"Hannah sacrificed her social life to put in hard work at the swimming pool and this is the result - a bronze medal with five seconds off her PB. Fantastic!"


Football

Team GB's hold on the gold medal is over after they crashed to a 3-1 defeat against USA.

Jamie Clarke put GB ahead but the Americans equalised on 24 minutes with a high shot that was beyond the reach of Gary Spotswood.

There was a further setback for Team GB when USA went ahead just before half-time. USA now needed to score just one more goal to send GB crashing out at the first stage and it came with a free kick.

This left GB with a mountain to climb and they threw everything forward in the last few minutes but the ball just would not go in the net.

"It was just not meant to be", said a rueful captain Jon Evans afterwards.

Team GB finished level on points with the USA but with a poorer goal difference.


Tennis

Lewis Fletcher continued his good form by swiftly seeing off the challenge of his Slovakian opponent 6-2, 6-1 to book his place in the next round.

Darren O'Donnell raced into a 5-0 lead against Gunnar Kett from Germany with the help of some sublime lobs and won the first set, 6-3.

The German took the next set but always looked in some discomfort and walked off the court, seemingly injured while 3-1 down in the decider.

Fletcher and O'Donnell teamed up later on to come back from a set down to win their Doubles match, making it a superb day on court for the British duo.

Anthony Sinclair was in a battle of the baseliners against Japanese teenager Reiki Kajishita. Sinclair took the first set 6-3 but was rattled by an outrageous line call at a crucial point in the second, which he lost 6-4.

A crowd gathered to watch the players in the deciding set, which Kajishita swept away Sinclair's singles hopes, 6-0.

Daniel Tunstall only had an outside chance against his highly-ranked Hungarian opponent and went out in two sets. Tunstall also lost his Doubles match, with Jamie King.


Great Britain currently hold 31st place in the overall medals table, with a total of 3 medals: 1 silver and 2 bronze

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Day 2 Report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Swimming

16 year-old Hannah Fitton has given the GB camp a huge lift by landing the first medal of the Taipei Games.

Hannah qualified in fifth place for the final and Swimming Manager Vincent Dickson thought she might have an outside chance.

She did better than Dickson hoped, holding off the challenge of two Russians to win the bronze by 0.91 seconds.

Dickson was elated:

"Not only did Hannah grab the bronze, she knocked a whole four seconds off her personal best. What a fantastic performance - I'm so proud."

Hannah, who was born in Scunthorpe but is now of Wisconsin, was only called up to the squad when her father emailed coach Dickson his daughter's PB (personal best) times on the off chance.


Athletics

Lauren Peffers lit up the Taipei Stadium as darkness fell by breaking the Deaflympics record in her semi-final for the 400m. The previous best was 56.67 but Lauren powered away at the 200m mark to win with a time of 56.12

Under a blazing morning sun at the same venue earlier, young sprinters Nelson Bolumbu and John Ruddy both powered through to the Men's 100m semi-final the same evening.

Ruddy was first to run but could only finish seventh, the same position as Bolumbu. Both runners will now concentrate on the 200m, which starts on Friday.


Tennis

Lewis Fletcher had the match of the day at the riverside tennis courts when he fought back from a set down to beat Austrian second seed Daniel Erlbacher 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Catherine Graham had been slightly apprehensive at the Team breakfast this morning as she believed her Japanese opponent, would be "a player with the game to slow me down".

It was Catherine who appeared to be in a hurry however, as she raced through through 6-0, 6-0.

In the Men's Doubles Daniel Tunstall got some action after his walkover Singles result yesterday when he teamed up with Jamie King to go through to the second round after beating an Australian pair 7-6, 6-4.


Football

GB Women put 18 (yes, 18) past a hapless Thailand in their morning kick-off. Long-haired striker Danielle Evans collected a triple hat trick, to make her tally 12 goals in two games.

The 18-0 result sees GB safely into the semi finals ahead of their last game against Russia on Wednesday.


Badminton

Team GB were facing a tough task against Chinese Taipei and it proved to be one just beyond the players in the Team event. GB put up a brave fight but went down 3-2 to the host nation.

Our badminton interests now turn to the Singles and Doubles events which start on Thursday.


Table Tennis


It was another tough day with the bats for Team GB who succumbed 3-1 to Poland. Despite the losses, the team feel these Games will be good experience for the younger players, Nicholas Gilmour and James Meyers.


Reaction

Reviewing Day Two, Team GB Chef de Mission Chris Gywnn commented:

"It's great to get off the mark for medals - let's hope this is the spark we need to go on and get some more".

Full results will be available at the official Deaflympics website. Photos from Day Two can be viewed in the UKDS gallery.

Day 1 report

Provided by UK Deaf Sport

Taekwondo

Andrew Yick made history by becoming Great Britain's first-ever Deaflympic competitor in a martial arts event but could only finish fourth in the Tae-kwon-do (58kg) event. Cheered on by a pack of colourful British supporters, Yick fought his way through a tight first bout.

A muscle tear did not help Yick's chances of progress however and he was later outclassed by Muhammed Guler (Turkey), who went on to win gold.


Andrew needed hospital treatment for a foot injury after losing his 3rd/4th play-off bout but was back at the training camp this evening to accept commiserations from fellow athletes.


Men's Football

In an early kick-off, Team GB had to settle for a 0-0 draw with Ireland. The result leaves both teams level on 4 points at the top of their group.

GB had beaten Japan 2-1 in their first game on a waterlogged pitch but conditions were much better today.

A tight match of few chances saw two Irish players sent off and they were joined by GB's Oliver Monksfield, who was dismissed for retaliation after a tackle.

Young striker Jamie Clarke went closest for GB with a late shot that hit the post.

Monksfield will miss GB's next game, their final group game against the USA on Tuesday. That match kicks off at 2.30am British time.


Badminton

In the Team Event, Team GB were drawn a tough start against a strong South Korea.

GB pushed their opponents all the way in each of the five games (two singles and three doubles matches) and the 0-5 scoreline did not reflect the quality of the team's play.

Team Manager Janet Thompson was confident results would improve for the afternoon match with Hong Kong and she was proved correct as GB romped to an easy 5-0 win.

Opening ceremony flag bearer Andrea Hardwick was in action, teaming up with Kirstie Allen - making her Deaflympics debut - to win their afternoon rubber.

The matches took place in a terrific atmosphere as badminton is an extremely popular sport in Taiwan. Many locals waved flags for Chinese Taipei, GB's next opponents.


Table Tennis

GB Table Tennis saw their hopes in the Team event come to an early end in the Taipei Arena where games were being beamed live on TV.

It was always going to be difficult against highly-ranked Japan but one defeat turned to two when GB were beaten by Austria in the afternoon.

Coach David Evans still had special words of praise for Nicholas Gilmour who "played out of his skin" to beat the Japanese world No.2 in his morning match.


Tennis

GB Tennis were also out this morning with Anthony Sinclair and Daniel Tunstall both in action... or nearly.

Sinclair progressed against Jurgen Scheutz of Austria in the Men's Singles first round. Tunstall, meanwhile put in a perfect performance by turning up on court with his racket - his Nigerian opponent failed to show up!

Full results will be available at the official Deaflympics website. Photos from Day One can be viewed in the UKDS gallery.

Reports from Days 1 and 2 in BSL

Full reports of the first two days in Taipei are available in BSL here

Friday 4 September 2009

Great Britain Deaflympics schedule announced

The schedule of events for the Great Britain team has been announced.

The full schedule can be found here

Deaf athletes ready to achieve sporting dreams 

Deaf athletes from every corner of the British Isles will be chasing their dream of winning a gold medal when they compete at the Deaflympics, starting on 5 September.

On 31 August, the British Deaflympics Team (Team GB) will have fully assembled at their base in Taipei, venueof the 21st Summer Deaflympics. They will join 4000 athletes from over 80 countries at these Games, which take place from 5 - 15 September.

The 80-strong squad is led by outstanding Deaflympian Rajeev Bagga, who is hoping to land his sixth individual gold medal in badminton.

Team GB are defending Deaflympic champions in Men's football, having clinched the gold medal with victory at the Melbourne 2005 Games. Lee Farrell, who scored the dramatic late winner in the 2005 final, is in the squad, which is captained by Jon Evans. 

Team GB also includes a Women's football squad, who will be aiming to improve on their impressive bronze medal placing of four years ago.

The athletic squad boasts current gold medallists in Joanne Davison (Women's hammer) and Lauren Peffers (Women's 800m). Several Team GB track and field athletes will be making their Deaflympic debuts.

Team GB is also represented in swimming, table tennis, tennis and - for the first time ever - in martial arts. Andrew Yick carries the hopes of Britain in the Tae Kwon Do event .

Derek Simmons, Honorary President of UK Deaf Sport (UKDS), commented:

"We are tremendously proud of our athletes who have arrived in Taipei, ready to compete in the 21st Deaflympics.

"They have worked extremely hard to secure their places in Team GB and to compete against the world's best Deaf athletes.

"Following the UK Goverment's decision not to provide funding for Team GB, UKDS is very grateful to the many sponsors who have helped make it possible for the athletes to be in Taipei.

"While some athletes received donations, it is important to stress that a number of our squad took out personal loans in order to be able to compete at this level and represent Great Britain.

"We salute our athletes for their commitment to their country and to their sport. Now, we hope their efforts will be rewarded with a haul of medals from Taipei 2009."

Deaflympics kick-off in Taipei!

The 21st Summer Deaflympics are due to officially start tomorrow (5th) in Taipei and Hearing Times is bringing you exclusive coverage of the games in association with UK Deaf Sport.

A full schedule of events for the games can be found here

For a list of when and where the Great Britain team are taking part please visit the UKDS website here

We will be keeping you updated with all the results, interviews and photos direct from the games so keep checking back!