London 2012: Richard Strachan hails Linford Christie influence - BBC News
Athlete Richard Strachan is confident he can still make London 2012 with the help of coach Linford Christie.
The 400m runner from Leeds is currently receiving intensive treatment to speed up his recovery from a calf injury
And once back on the track, he believes former Olympic 100m champion Christie can inspire him to qualify for Team GB.
"He's fantastic to work with. To be training for an Olympics and being coached by Linford is a dream come true," he told BBC Radio Leeds.
"He's there every single day of training. We went away on a six-week camp to America recently and he was there the whole time."
Strachan, 25, suffered a grade two calf muscle tear in training, an injury which normally takes three to four weeks to heal, but he is hopeful of reducing that timescale.
"I've been lucky though because the treatment I've had has been brilliant," he said.
"I've had some injections and I'm going in to a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which is where you breathe in 100% oxygen and should help speed up the healing process.
"I can't do much else but think that I'm going to be involved and we're going to be successful. I think about it every single day.
"It's extremely exciting."
London Home Prices May Reach New Record on Haven Status: Economy - Bloomberg
London house values rose to a record this month and the city’s property market may be further boosted as investors seek a haven from the euro-area debt crisis, according to Rightmove Plc. (RMV)
The average asking price in the U.K. capital rose 0.9 percent from April to 469,314 pounds ($742,500), the most since the operator of Britain’s biggest property website started keeping the data in 2002, it said today. Nationally, values were unchanged in May from the previous month.
“The Greek situation means that other countries may well be undermined and you might get a domino effect of people looking to actually put their cash into a safe haven,” Rightmove commercial director Miles Shipside said on Bloomberg Television. “Obviously, as the euro depreciates, the U.K. gets slightly more expensive, but perhaps it’s a better option than what’s facing them in their own countries.”
The pound and U.K. government bonds are already benefiting from haven status as turmoil in Europe threatens to force Greece out of the euro area and engulf Spain. The pound has gained 3.2 percent this year, the most among 10 developed-market peers, data compiled by Bloomberg show, while the yield on the 10-year gilt is close to a record low.
Nationally, Britain’s property market may remain under pressure as the economy struggles to shake off its first double- dip recession in almost four decades, banks curtail lending and consumer confidence remains weak.
Tax Exemption
The average asking price in England and Wales was little changed at 243,759 pounds this month, Rightmove said. Normally, sellers usually try to take advantage of a spring pickup in house hunting and values have risen on average 1.5 percent in May in the past 11 years, Shipside said. The end of a tax exemption in March for first-time buyers of homes costing less than 250,000 pounds has damped demand nationally, he said.
In London, the increase was led by a 2.5 percent increase in Sutton and a 2.4 percent gain in Greenwich. The end of the stamp-duty holiday was “less of an issue” in London since just three boroughs had an average asking price below the exemption threshold, Rightmove said.
The number of British properties coming to market dropped 10 percent in May from April, today’s Rightmove report showed. Five of 10 regions tracked by Rightmove showed declines in asking prices from the previous month, led by a 2 percent drop in southwest England. London led the increase among the regions that showed gains.
‘Uncertain’ Outlook
In a separate report today, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said U.K. gross mortgage lending dropped 19 percent to 10.2 billion pounds in April. Rightmove said it’s a “cause for concern” that the market has lost its momentum as there is likely to be a longer-than-usual slowdown in the summer due to an extra bank holiday in June to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic Games in August.
“Euro zone developments are highly uncertain and have the potential to undermine U.K. economic prospects and conditions in our housing and mortgage markets,” CML chief economist Bob Pannell said. “The underlying picture is likely to be one of easing momentum in the housing market, but with potential for a sharper downwards correction on bad euro-zone news.”
Group of Eight leaders on May 19 urged Greece to stay in the euro area as polls in the country showed a close race between parties supporting and opposing its bailout deal. With the country preparing for a second ballot on June 17, renewed concerns about the currency area were fanned last week as Spain revised its 2011 deficit upward -- even as borrowing costs approached levels that prompted bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
European Summit
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will, for the first time, discuss the euro at a meeting with his newly installed French counterpart, Pierre Moscovici, in Berlin today as European Union leaders prepare to meet in Brussels on May 23.
In the U.K., the British Retail Consortium said today that visits to U.K. stores fell 2 percent in the three months through April compared with a year earlier. With inflation continuing to outpace wage increases, consumers’ real spending power for non- essential items fell 0.9 percent in April from a year earlier, the equivalent of 100 pounds, Lloyds TSB said. Income growth was its weakest since February last year.
Fed Options
Separately, euro-area construction output rebounded in March, rising 12.4 percent after a 10.4 percent drop in February.
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will publish its national economic activity index for April. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart said in Tokyo today that policy makers need to retain the option of starting a new round of bond buying to spur the U.S. economy.
“As popular as it might be in some quarters to rule out” a third round of so-called quantitative easing, “I do not think this option can be taken off the table,” Lockhart said. “QE3 will work under the right circumstances. But I don’t believe such circumstances prevail at this time.”
China should adopt a “proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy” to bolster the world’s second-largest economy, Premier Wen Jiabao said, according to remarks published yesterday by the official Xinhua News Agency. China may announce stimulus actions in the near term, according to a front-page commentary today in the China Securities Journal, which is published by Xinhua.
Elsewhere in Asia, Thailand’s gross domestic product unexpectedly expanded 0.3 percent last quarter from a year earlier, compared with the median forecast for a 0.5 percent decline.
To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Hamilton at shamilton8@bloomberg.net; Jennifer Ryan in London at jryan13@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net
London Collections: Women - vogue
THE British Fashion Council is launching a new initiative to raise awareness of the pre-collections of the country's leading design talents, from Burberry to Roksanda Ilincic. London Collections: Women will comprise various labels showcasing their new offerings from June 18 at different showrooms around London targeted at international buyers and press. The central hub will be held at Somerset House - the official home of London Fashion Week.
"The aim of London Collections: Women is to create a resource for buyers, media and stylists to navigate the breadth of designers selling in London during this time," said BFC CEO Caroline Rush. "Many designers showing at London Fashion Week have now introduced pre-collections, some for the very first time this season. There are great showrooms here in London and we want to encourage as many as orders as possible to be written here."
Labels to take part in the showcase include A lice by Temperley, Anya Hindmarch, Charlotte Olympia, Erdem, House of Holland, Matthew Williamson, Michael van der Ham, Mulberry, Nicholas Kirkwood, Osman, Richard Nicoll, Preen Roland Mouret and Rupert Sanderson. The project builds on an initiative That the BFC launched last year, a guide to the pre-collections, that was well-received by buyers. This year's platform will also feature events and activities to help promote the event.
"Whilst runway is incredibly important, it arrives much later and therefore pre-collections are vitally significant and highly commercial," said Harrods'chief merchant, Marigay McKee. "All of our big International designer and contemporary labels offer pre-collections and increasingly smaller brands are introducing a pre-collection offering, to ensure the floor is constantly refreshed with new deliveries. London Collections: Women will provide brands with an exciting opportunity to showcase and promote their pre-collections, creating a must-see destination for buyers to visit."
YOU SHOULD SEE: Cara Delevingne work Burberry's pre collection...
YOU SHOULD SEE: Charlotte Olympia's incredible latest shoes...
London 2012: Coldplay to headline Paralympic ceremony - BBC News
Best-selling British band Coldplay are to headline the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
They will take to the stage at the Olympic Stadium on 9 September for the ceremony, titled Festival of Flame.
Frontman Chris Martin called it "a great honour" and said the band were "very happy to be involved".
They will be among more than 2,000 performers at the event. The remaining tickets for the 11-day Paralympic Games went on general sale on Monday.
Martin added: "It will be one of the biggest nights of our lives and we're very excited to try to create a performance for the last night of the games that will close London 2012 in style."
The London 2012 Paralympics run from 29 August and will follow the Olympic Games, which take place from 27 July to 12 August.
The closing ceremonies are being co-ordinated by artistic director Kim Gavin, who has worked on Take That tours and staged the Concert For Diana in 2007.
"Our show will be a celebration of the UK as a centre for festivals, which is a fitting finale to the amazing festival of sport that is the London 2012 Games," he said.
London 2012 chairman Lord Coe said he was "delighted" that Coldplay had signed up to help them celebrate the "spectacular" event.
"The athletes involved in the Paralympic Games are incredible sportsmen and women and I urge everyone to take this chance to be there and to form memories that will last a lifetime," he said.
London Broncos 12 Hull FC 14: Super League match report - Hull Daily Mail
IT was with a big sigh of relief that Hull FC coach Peter Gentle sat down to face the waiting media. Arriving in the press room within minutes of the final whistle following his side's 14-12 win against London Broncos, Gentle said he'd left his players tearing into each other in the changing room.
Gentle's work was done for him by a group of players who knew their performance was not of the standard expected, or required for that matter.
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ANOTHER GAME, ANOTHER TRY: Ben Crooks is congratulated by his team-mates after scoring to level matters.
They may have won, and in doing so strengthened their hand in the race for the top four, but Hull have not played as badly all season.
He may have left his players to their own assessment, but when returning to training today a tough video review session awaits.
While he remained quiet in the changing room at the Priestfield Stadium, Hull's players are unlikely to find their coach in such reflective mood today.
A try each for Ben Crooks and Richard Whiting, plus two conversions and a penalty for Danny Tickle, were enough to see Hull scrape over the winning line, but it was the Black and Whites' defence which was the true winner.
On a small football pitch there wasn't too much rugby played, as a game that started poorly for Hull continued that way as play became bogged down through the middle.
The error count went stratospheric, as did the penalty count, as frustration on Hull's part went from simmering to boiling point in a first half where nothing they tried came off.
Against Leeds last time out, Hull gave their best performance of the season. They saved their worst display for their longest road trip and that was only the start of the frustration.
Hull know they are much better than what they served up, but the more they tried to fix it, the worse it seemed to get.
Heading to Manchester this weekend for the second derby game of the season, improvements will need to be made. But such was the determined and disappointed look on the players' faces as they departed Gillingham, it's hard to imagine those improvements won't be implemented.
Hull made two changes for the game with Richard Horne and Joe Westerman returning from injury to take their place on the bench at the expense of Mark O'Meley and Jamie Ellis.
Horne was a late arrival for the final 20 minutes, while Westerman did well in three short spells, despite being far from match fit.
The return of the duo meant Gentle stuck with the same set-up which proved a hit against Leeds with Whiting doubling up as a stand-off and extra second-row runner.
The same devastating effect wasn't on show, but that was down to a lack of execution.
The Hull team bus was an hour late getting to the Priestfield Stadium and in the opening stages it looked like the players had left their heads on the coach.
A flurry of penalties were conceded and some opportune work by Broncos captain Craig Gower meant Hull did nothing but defend their line for the first 10 minutes.
Gower's kicking game caused Hull problems throughout, just as it had done in the reverse fixture at the KC Stadium back in February.
Led by the mercurial Australian, London started with the sort of attitude demanded by the club's board after a woeful first half of the season.
Hull were clinging on desperately and defiantly, but ultimately the mounting pressure told when winger Kieran Dixon was put in on the touchline from two metres out.
Gentle must have hoped the Broncos' try would snap his side out of their slumber, but Tickle's re-start was too long and, making most of the penalty, the relentless pressure from the Broncos continued.
And that's how it stayed until their first good set of the match marched Hull down the field to draw level.
A penalty, awarded for a high tackle on Tom Briscoe as he competed for a loose pass, brought a first repeat set and when Willie Manu found Crooks with a pass out of the tackle, the young centre twisted and spun his way across the line for his second score in successive matches.
Having drawn level Hull played marginally better, but too many penalties and errors still blighted the Black and Whites' play.
Spilling the ball inside their own half, Hull were only inviting London to attack and as they did so the hosts grew in confidence.
Remarkably, a disallowed try for Gower was as close as the Broncos came again to scoring in the first half as their predictability in attack and Hull's defensive heroics kept them out.
No half-time break has been more welcome for Hull and, following some stern words, Gentle's side came out with a fresh approach and a fresh enthusiasm in the second half.
It took 11 minutes before Whiting scored but it had already been one-way traffic.
Whiting found a gap as he ran across play to the blind side and was able to touchdown unchallenged. Following Tickle's conversion, FC had a six-point lead they barely deserved.
In front, the visitors piled on the pressure but the flowing cohesion that had epitomised their display against the Rhinos last time out was still missing.
Fortunately, Hull didn't need to be at their best and when Tickle slotted over a simple penalty from in front of the posts with 11 minutes to go the game seemed to be heading for a Black and Whites' win.
The Broncos had hardly threatened in the second half, but did make it a nervy finish when Gower's kick took a wicked bounce over the otherwise safe Matty Russell's head and Michael Robertson was able to score.
It was too little too late, however, for London, who ultimately paid for wasting so many chances during a first half they dominated.
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