Day two of the European Junior Diving Championships in Budapest proved to be another successful one for the British Gas team.

Jack Haslam took the bronze medal in the Boys’ Group B 3m event after a consistent performance that earned him a new P.B. of 436.25.

Another Personal Best was on the cards for British Gas team as Rachel Holland’s 321.80 points landed her just 0.4 away from the medals in the Girls’ B Platform. In the same event Georgia Wingrove secured 6th place, only 4 points off a medal with a P.B. of 318 points.

Oliver Dingley finished 7th in the 1m Boys A final with a score of 459.45 and James Milton also finished 7th in the Boys B 3m final.

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Rad Pursey, a swimming stalwart who married his love of the sport with his professional career to bring sponsorship to the ASA, has passed away.

The Devon resident was instrumental in securing Green Shield Stamps sponsorship for the ASA’s National Age Group Championships in 1973 and later that year supporting England’s first ever National Age Group Swimming Squad, latterly the Green Shield National Youth Squad.  

Pursey, who at the time was the trading stamp company’s Merchandising Manager, had already been involved with the ASA at county level with the then Southern Counties and at the time of the sponsorship deal described himself as a ‘very keen Age Group parent’.

Speaking in the 70s he said he hoped that with the financial backing from his company (initially a total of £50,000 over three years but later extended), Britain may be able to produce another multiple Olympic medallist like Australia’s Shane Gould or America’s Mark Spitz.

Green Shield Stamps’ deal went on to inject more money into English swimming by sponsoring an Inter-District Knockout competition and giving further financial assistance to each of the five Districts.

Pursey continued to use his commercial knowledge to help swimming, becoming a director of the ASA Swimming Enterprises Limited.  Indeed, it was Pursey who came up with the name for the business when the ASA Honarary Treasurer/President, Alfred Turner, decided to form a company in May 1982 to deal with ASA merchandising.

Gordon Alexander, who was a director of the limited company with Pursey, Fred Collins and Fred Latimer, said: “During my association with Rad at that time, we came to become good friends and he impressed me as a man of considerable character who could always be trusted to come up with sensible conclusions to the many problems that arose.”

Upon the death of Fred Collins, Pursey became the company chairman and he remained in that office until his retirement.

Rad Pursey makes the Trophy presentation to the captains of the Southern Counties teams, Brian Lonsdale and Michele Crook, in December 1973.

British Olympic swimmer Keri-Anne Payne is the latest Olympian to enter the inaugural Great East Swim, which takes place at Alton Water near Ipswich this autumn.

The Great East Swim is a one-mile, open-water, mass-participation swim to be held on Saturday 26th September. Bronze medalist from Beijing, Cassie Patten has previously announced her participation.

It is part of the Great Swim, a series of similar mass-participation events open to swimmers of all abilities aged 16 and over that are taking place throughout the UK.

Payne said: “I finished second in the Great North Swim last year behind Cassie and really enjoyed it, so I’m really looking forward to the Great East Swim. Hopefully this time round I can take the honours.

“The event isn’t just for elite swimmers, though.  It’s perfect for leisure swimmers looking for a new challenge and charity fundraisers searching for different and quirky ways of raising funds.  I look forward to seeing everyone on the day.”

Over 700 people have already signed up to take part in the event, where waves of swimmers will be set off at intervals throughout the course of the day and the Great East Swim is set to become one of the biggest events of its kind in the country.

Further information, including entry details, can be found at www.greatswim.org
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For more information please contact Caroline Holmes: caroline.holmes@nova-international.com or call 0191 226 3210, mobile 07894 386 688

Fancy the challenge? We have a limited number of media places available for the Great East Swim. For more information please contact Caroline Holmes as above.

ABOUT NOVA INTERNATIONAL
Nova International, established in 1988 and headed by Olympic Medallist Brendan Foster have established themselves as a market leader in the world of sports marketing and event management. The company’s current brand portfolio includes Great Run the world’s largest mass particpation running programme, based on the Bupa Great North Run, the world’s biggest half marathon with over 52,000 entries.

The last year has seen the company branch into different sports looking at new opportunities and new audiences. Taking the already proven mass participation formula of Great Run and relating it to the new discipline of swimming, Great Swim has been created. Four events being staged acoss the UK make up the series, which is the UK’s biggest mass particiaption open water swim programme.

The Great Britain Swimming Squad for the World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia has been announced. The selection, which was delayed due to the World Championships selection, includes five male and two female swimmers. 

Three of the athletes have experienced the World University Games previously, having been part of Team GBR in Bangkok 2007.  Matthew Clay (University of Bath) returned home from Bangkok with a Bronze in the 50m Backstroke.  Clay was a Gold medalist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and will look to impress in Belgrade this year.  Matthew Bowe (Loughborough University) is another athlete to enjoy his second consecutive World University Games after finishing 8th in the B Final in 50m Butterfly last time round.  Robert Holderness (Florida State University) was the 2008 World Youth Games bronze medalist in the 200m Breaststroke and has been a European Junior Finalist in 2007 and 2008.  Michael Jaimeson from Telford College finished 3rd in the 2008 British Olympic Trials in the 200m Individual Medley and will look to perform well in Belgrade.  The final male competitor, Andrew Hodgson, is one of three swimmers in the Great Britain squad who studies in Florida, USA.  Hodgson represented Great Britain U23s in the Tri Nations Cup in 2008. 

Stephanie Proud (Florida University) finished in 3rd place at the 2008 British Olympic Trials and has been selected to represent Great Britain.  At the World University Games 2007, in Bangkok, Proud didn’t make it past the preliminary rounds and will be hoping for an improvement in Belgrade.  Rachel Lefley (Loughborough University) finished 3rd and 4th in the World Trials in 2008 in Sheffield for both 100m and 200m Backstroke respectively.  

The swimmers are due to arrive in Belgrade later today and begin competition on Sunday 5 July.

The swimming competition commences on Sunday 5 July.  For more information visit www.bucs.org.uk/belgrade.

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For more information, please contact Hannah Marshall, Press Officer – Team GBR at Hannah.marshall@bucs.org.uk +381 65 406 0599 or Jenni Anderson in the BUCS office on 0207 633 5088 jenni.anderson@bucs.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

The World University Games or Universiade was established in 1959 and since then has grown to become the third largest multi-sport event in the World. The 25th Games in Belgrade runs from 1 -12 July 2009 and is made up of 15 sports.

Team GBR will compete in 11 sports: archery, artistic gymnastics, basketball (women), diving, fencing, football (men & women), judo, swimming, taekwondo, tennis and volleyball (men and women).

7,000 athletes and officials from 130 nations will be present in Belgrade, including 190 athletes, officials, medical staff and volunteers from Great Britain.

For more information and to find out who is competing for Britain, please visit the BUCS website at: www.bucs.org.uk/belgrade 

Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) is the Government backed world class further and higher education based talent development programme for sportsmen and women. Each year an average of 1000 athletes, from 47 sports, aged between 16 & 28, receive £3500 worth of sport related support services to enhance their sporting potential, whilst continuing their academic development. TASS is a partnership between the HE & FE sector & the National Governing Bodies of sport and has a network of 84 HE & FE Institutions, who have a commitment to flexible learning, which deliver the sports support services to the athletes.

 

 

The Prince will be among the many avid supporters and spectators at next week’s LEN European Nations Trophy in Manchester when the British Women’s team go head-to-head with Slovakia.
 
The Royal guest will also meet with individual players and key figures within the sport and business communities.
 
Prince William is passionate about the sport and while at St Andrew’s University was a keen member of the water polo team. In 2004 he was selected to represent Scotland Universities in an international tournament and while serving in the Army also played water polo.
 
In 2005, many athletes decided to pursue their Olympic dreams and gave up education and employment to move to Manchester where British Swimming’s High Performance Water Polo Centre is based.
 
However, following a funding cut of 75%, many face real financial hardship as they continue to prepare for London.
 
As a result of the funding cut, the water polo programme itself has been split with the women continuing to prepare in Manchester while the men will eventually be based offshore with professional clubs to continue their development.
 
Prince William’s support of British water polo has been greeted by British Swimming Chief Executive David Sparkes.
 
“The support of Prince William, as someone who has regularly played water polo, is welcomed by everybody at this critical time for British Water Polo – particularly the athletes,” said Sparkes.
 
“The athletes were obviously disappointed to learn their budget was cut by 75% by UK Sport but despite this set back both the women’s and men’s teams have shown dogged determination to continue.
 
“Recent successful results for the men at tournaments in Turkey and Poland have demonstrated this resolve and a hard fought triumph over one of our arch rivals France after a 30-year wait is testament to that.
 
“The Prince’s support will further lift the spirits of our water polo players and coaches, and will renew their commitment and determination to be there in 2012 competing with distinction against the best in the world.”
 
Prince William’s show of support will be welcomed by the British Gas Women’s Team who will have home advantage during the LEN European Nations Trophy at the Manchester Aquatic Centre.
 
Britain will open their tournament on Tuesday 7th July against Belarus before facing Portugal the next day and rounding off their group matches against Slovakia.
 
Switzerland, Croatia, Czech Republic and Ukraine will contest the other group with the final match being played on Sunday 12th July.
 
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For further details contact Dave Richards, British Swimming Media Manager, on 01509 632237, 0778 992 6136 or email dave.richards@swimming.org
 
For details of the LEN European Nations Trophy CLICK HERE
 
About British Swimming
British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain.  It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (ASA), Scotland (Scottish ASA) and Wales. (Welsh ASA)  British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
 
About British Gas
British Gas, the biggest energy supplier in the country, has the lowest carbon intensity of any of the major UK energy suppliers in terms of tonnes of CO2 emitted per megawatt hour of electricity supplied to customers.  The company is one of the biggest investors in renewable power generation, principally offshore wind. Its recently completed Lynn and Inner Dowsing development, off the Lincolnshire coast, is the UK's largest offshore wind development. British Gas is committed to energy efficiency.  Our Energy Savers Report provides free expert advice on how you can cut energy use in the home and, in turn, save money.  So far, the report has shown over 2 million people how they could make an average saving of £175 a year.  To complete a report go to www.britishgas.co.uk/energy-efficiency/energy-savers-report
 
About Speedo®
The world’s leading swimwear brand, Speedo® is passionate about life in and around the water, creating revolutionary new technologies, designs and innovations. Supporting swimming from grass-roots through to elite level, including the phenomenal Michael Phelps, Speedo® is owned by Speedo Holdings B.V and distributed in over 170 countries around the world; SPEEDO, the ARROW device, FASTSKIN, LZR PULSE, SPEEDO ENDURANCE, FLIPTURNS, FASTSKINFSII, SPEEDO BIOFUSE, SWYM and LZR RACER are registered trademarks of Speedo Holdings B.V. The LZR RACER suit has worldwide design rights and patents pending.