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Bad decision: Boris Johnson has made a visit to North America to plug his latest book, despite the imminence of the London Olympics
I wish it wasn’t so. I wish I could report on a re-elected and re-energised London mayor leading our great capital through what most of us can agree is a bit of a hard slog. The Jubilee is over, but roads and bridges are still unaccountably blocked. The rain never stops, and nor does the chaos on the Tube. Even the Evening Standard, which enthusiastically urged readers to vote Boris Johnson only a month ago, has now decided that London is currently “heaving under a cloud of impending chaos.”
Simon Jenkins, its Boris-backing columnist, railed earlier this week that “Gun-toting militia, claiming to be police, haul motorists aside in the name of “Olympic security”. Misshapen towers have risen over the City. One in five shops is boarded up. The air is filled with police sirens. This is not the casual, carefree London I used to know. It seems a sinister place where it rains all the time and the river has turned grey/brown, like the Limpopo. Were I sentimental, I would say the old place was weeping in grief. The truth is that London is assailed by trauma.” And where is the mayor, Sir Simon? “The mayor has gone to New York,” he writes, “reportedly mad.”
I cannot vouch for his madness or otherwise, but Johnson’s trip to North America just six weeks ahead of the world descending on his city for the Olympics, just after nearly a million people gave him a second four-year mandate, when his creaking transport system is showing signs of a dangerous nervous breakdown, when his police force is mired in yet another racism scandal and facing the biggest anti-terrorist challenge in its history, is at first glance rather, um, odd.
Even odder is the fact that the mayor of London was not on an official visit on behalf of his city but on a private jaunt – taken as annual leave – to publicise his book ‘Johnson’s Life of London.’ (The sixth book to be published by Johnson, it has been described by A.N. Wilson as ‘the longest personal manifesto’ in mayoral history, in which every page is a ‘coded plea’ for votes.) To this purpose Johnson has undertaken what must have been an exhausting schedule of press interviews – such as with the Toronto Star where he pronounced rather tactlessly that he had never even heard of the city’s mayor Rob Ford – and TV appearances – including an A-list celebrity slot on the David Letterman Late Show.
The Evening Standard, which supported Boris in the Mayoral elections, has since conceded that London is 'heaving under a cloud of impending chaos'
Amidst all the joking about his typically mussed-up hair – ‘How long have you been cutting it yourself?’ asked Letterman – Johnson has pushed his book. He has held it up to the camera, talked about it, said ‘book’ when his hosts weren’t mentioning it, all just in case the point was not being made sufficiently loud and clear. Indeed, on more than one occasion Letterman actually advised the mayor of London to ‘calm down’. Imagine if he were our prime minister!
Johnson’s formidable talents as an entertainer were nevertheless on display for all America to enjoy. He got a good laugh when he promised New Yorkers, facing a ban on large helpings of pop from their own mayor Michael Bloomberg, ‘sanctuary’ from this ‘soda tryanny’ in London. He presented himself as a great fan of Letterman and indeed Bloomberg too – at least until he realised that the Bloomberg anti-soda regime was wildly unpopular.
Much of his airtime, though, was spent plugging his book. But among his pronouncements, when pressed on London, Johnson declared that last year’s riots were not protests or manifestations of a social malaise but ‘eruptions of materialistic randomness,’ and that as part of his great works on transport, 40 per cent of tube lines have air conditioning (actually, they won’t until 2016).
Larger than life: London Mayor Boris Johnson gesticulates wildly as he appears on The Late Show with David Letterman in New York
These assertions would have been news to some people back in London if Johnson’s bizarre departure had been more widely reported. Instead, there has been more of a flurry of interest in a story suggesting that Johnson had hired his first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen to join his Muslim Taskforce – presumably on the basis that she is now married to a Muslim man half her age. Much prominence was given to the fact that the appointment came via a ten-word text from the mayor short on detail including whether she was to be paid or not. An evidently delighted Mostyn-Owen said there had been, however, a mayoral silence ever since.
Indeed, interested observers have found it difficult to track down the said taskforce. Inquiries to City Hall were met with an official response: "We are still in the process of reviewing our community engagement programme and we seek to work with all faiths and all communities across the capital."
Indeed, it was explained that press reports of her appointment or the existence of a taskforce were, perhaps in the manner of Mark Twain’s death, ‘exaggerated’. So there we have it. A ‘reportedly mad’ mayor, a non-existent or at least mysteriously secret task force and a heavily publicised book. Not a bad first month’s work then.
VAUXHALL PROVIDES ANGLIAN WATER WITH FLEET SOLUTION - 3d-car-shows.com
Luton – Anglian Water, the largest water and wastewater service in England and Wales by geographic area, has relied on the versatility, reliability and cost-effectiveness of Vauxhall vehicles for over a decade. Vauxhall models form around 90 per cent of its 2,000-strong fleet.
Anglian Water serves a region stretching from the Humber north of Grimsby to the Thames estuary in the south, and from Buckinghamshire in the west to Lowestoft in the east. Its operators have to service 80,000km of water and wastewater pipes over an area of 27,500 square kilometres, so the demands on its fleet vehicles are significant.
“Put simply, our current fleet is the best, most cost-effective solution we’ve ever had,” said Nigel Allen, Anglian Water’s Fleet Manager. “Vauxhall has worked closely with us to help us get to where we are today and there’s always someone on the end of the phone. We’ve been constantly impressed with the vehicles’ prices, maintenance costs and residual values.
“The two major drivers for our fleet decisions are whole life costs and CO2 emissions, both from an environmental and financial point-of-view. The whole life costs of all our Vauxhall vehicles – both cars and vans – are incredibly impressive and we also see the benefit of the ecoFLEX models in our fleet, including the New Combo and Vivaro ecoFLEX.”
Anglian Water’s fleet of 2,000 vehicles includes 1,200 light commercial vehicles, 600 cars and 200 trucks and heavy vans. Around 90 per cent of the car fleet is comprised of Vauxhalls including Corsa, Astra and Insignia, and Vauxhall commercial vehicles make up more than 95 per cent of the van fleet, including New Combo, Vivaro and Movano models. Having taken delivery of 500 Vauxhalls in 2011, Anglian Water will take on a similar number of new vehicles in 2012.
Nigel continued: “Our fleet vehicles are owned by us for four or five years. We sell the cars on once they clock up 100,000 miles and the vans when they reach 120,000 miles. Given the mileage involved, it’s important our fleet is not only efficient and cost-effective to run, but absolutely dependable.”
When any new parts are required, Anglian Water benefits from next-day delivery through Vauxhall Trade Club, which not only provides the most affordable solution, but reduces downtime as all parts are supplied under warranty and are genuine, quality Vauxhall parts that will fit first time.
In addition to the low emissions afforded particularly by Vauxhall’s ecoFLEX models, Anglian Water’s commitment to reducing environmental impact extends to its vehicle fixtures and fittings.
“Several years ago, we asked our supplier, Bott, about refitting equipment into new vehicles and they came up with a solution,” said Nigel Allen. “Today, fitting out our new models with fittings and fixtures from de-fleeted vehicles provides us with a 25 per cent cost saving, as well as the environmental benefit of not having new equipment manufactured.”
James Taylor, Vauxhall Fleet Sales Director, said: “We are delighted to continue the long-established relationship between Vauxhall and Anglian Water. We have worked hard to provide solutions to the varying demands of the company’s fleet, from its operational support and service vans through to its business cars. Vauxhall’s relationship with Anglian Water perfectly demonstrates our capability to deliver a complete fleet solution, from a wide range of flexible and efficient vehicles through to responsive and cost-effective aftersales.”
COMMENT ON THIS STORY
London Olympics 'to come in £476m under budget' - BBC News
The London Olympics is set to come in under its £9.3bn budget with £476m of the contingency funding left, according to new government figures.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was "fantastic news" that the games would be on time and under budget.
Ministers expect to be able to return the remaining money to the Treasury.
The £9.3bn budget, which included a £2bn contingency, was set in 2007 and was almost four times the estimated cost at the time London bid in 2005.
The budget was revised upwards after taking into account previously overlooked costs such as VAT, increased security costs, and an expanded brief for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to regenerate the lower Lea Valley area.
Addressing the original bid budget of £2.4bn, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said there was a "recognition right from the word go that figure would have to change dramatically on the basis of delivering the Games".
Mr Hunt said: "Britain has proved that not only can we put on a great show for the world to watch like we did with the Jubilee but that we can also deliver big construction projects on time and on budget."
Mr Robertson said the latest figure for the Games, which begin next month, was "a great advert for the British construction industry, for sport and for UK Plc".
Following the success of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the ongoing Olympic torch relay, additional funding of £19m has been earmarked to bolster crowd control and public information for the games.
The money, which will be allocated from within the £9.3bn budget, will pay for additional stewards and crowd flow measures in central London as well as the "last mile" - what organisers describe as the distance between transport hubs and Games venues.
Mr Robertson said: "We know exactly how many tickets have been sold and roughly how many people should be in London. Absolutely nobody knows how many people are going to turn up.
"London this summer is going to be the place to have a party. It is a great national event. It is very difficult for us to know exactly how many people are going to come across on the train, in the car or on the ferry only for a party."
The government confirmed the work of the ODA, which is responsible for developing and building the venues and infrastructure for the games, is 98% complete.
It will not be fully completed until after the Games when the ODA will convert apartments in the Olympic village into thousands of new homes.
London landlords squeeze cash from dead space - Reuters UK
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - London landlords are renting out everything from vacant stores to empty sports fields, rooftops and even an abandoned quarry to cash in on the tight supply of space in the UK capital during the Olympic Games this summer.
Eleven million fans, sponsors and athletes are expected to arrive in Europe's second-most crowded city from July, stoking huge demand for storage, temporary shops and vantage points for TV cameras, in turn allowing landlords to cash in on otherwise dead space.
"You'll see usable space created that doesn't currently exist," said Mark Hughes-Webb, managing director of Space-2 Consultancy, a specialist real estate firm that finds buildings for events and film shoots.
"It's been a long time since the Games were in such a densely populated city," Hughes-Webb said. "People are having to be more imaginative."
London, the European Union's most densely populated city after Paris according to EU statistics, will host the games between July 27 and August 12. Homeowners have already hiked rents by up to six times in anticipation of the influx and commercial landlords are getting in on the act.
Unlike the last two Olympic cities of Beijing and Athens, where neighbourhoods were demolished to create venues, or they were located in more sparsely populated outlying areas, most of the 34 London sites are at the heart of built-up areas.
The Games' epicentre at Stratford in the east of the city has benefited from a 7 billion pound injection of infrastructure, sporting venues and homes, revitalizing an area better known for its polluted waterways and industrial estates.
Sites for hire include a former limestone quarry near the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, southeast England, the owner of which is targeting contractors seeking temporary staff accommodation. Its proximity to a high-speed rail link means it is 30 minutes from the Olympic stadium in Stratford.
VACANT UNITS
Elsewhere the owners of a sports field in Chiswick, west London, are in talks with an overseas group of performers to rehearse for the handover ceremony to Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city that will host the Games in 2016.
Sites like these can cost between 10,000 to 20,000 pounds a week, Hughes-Webb said.
Also in demand are empty shops, particularly those close to busy retail areas like Oxford Street and Covent Garden, which are being snapped up by the likes of high-end U.S. clothing brand Opening Ceremony to house temporary, pop-up stores.
"Enquiries from landlords looking to lease out their vacant units during the Olympics have risen by 50 percent," said Rosie Cann, director at consultancy Pop-up Space.
Rents can be between a few hundred pounds to 20,000 pounds depending on the location and size. Stores generally remain open for between a day and two weeks, agents said.
Vacant shops around train and subway stations or Olympic venues are being rented by smaller sporting and drinks brands in need of makeshift space to store merchandise, Hughes-Webb said.
Not all attempts to find space are successful. Nike Inc's plan to build a temporary two-storey building to host exercise classes in Regents Park was blocked by Westminster council on the grounds it would ruin the park's appearance.
Equally those with empty space near venues may not see a big pay day. The London Olympic organising committee (LOCOG) bans non-sponsors from advertising within 300 metres of venues, keeping demand in check, property experts say.
Official sponsors Cadbury, BMW and British Airways are among those companies expected to seek temporary space near Olympic venues, which include a man-made beach on the Greenwich peninsula on the Thames built specially for the Games.
PANORAMIC VIEWS
Australian developer Lend Lease owns large chunks of land around the O2 arena, also on the Greenwich peninsula and the venue of the gymnastics and basketball competitions. It will lease out land earmarked for redevelopment to Olympic sponsors to make a short-term return and in an attempt to lure permanent office tenants to the area.
"We are most definitely making money from this," Simon Donaldson, Lend Lease's head of retail operations said, declining to say how much but adding it would be substantially more without the LOCOG rules.
Elsewhere demand from film crews keen to capture panoramic views of the London skyline has pushed up prices for rooftop space. Fees are likely to double from their norm outside of the Games to 300 pounds per hour over the period, Hughes-Webb said.
Developers of the 95-storey Shard skyscraper next to London Bridge train station, about six kilometres from the Olympic park, have been approached by a string of broadcasters about filming from western Europe's tallest tower, a spokesman told Reuters, declining to give further details.
Cash-strapped local councils are also getting in on the act. Newham, home to the Olympic stadium, has rented out the upper floors of two largely empty apartment blocks next to the Olympic Park to broadcasters BBC and Al Jazeera, while Redbridge council in northeast London is leasing out a forest to a temporary hotel company to house 4,200 Olympic security staff for an undisclosed sum.
Yet many landlords are missing out as they are unaware of the strength of demand for storage space, or the value of being close to the Olympic park, Hughes-Webb said.
"People are fixated on what the space is, not what it could be. They're looking at it and saying 'it's just an empty field'," Hughes-Webb added. "Well, it's not to us."
(Editing by Tom Bill and David Holmes)
London 2012 legacy: the battle begins on a Newham estate - The Guardian
Competing views about East End life after London 2012 are sharply crystalised amid the public housing architecture of the Carpenters estate in Stratford, which stands on the fringe of the Olympic Park, overlooked by the red spirals of the Orbit tower.
The vision of the planners, led by Newham council's ebullient Labour executive mayor, Sir Robin Wales, is for the Carpenters to make way for a new campus for University College London (UCL), enhancing the life prospects of the neighbourhood and enriching hard-up Newham as a whole.
An estate resident, Mary Finch, takes a bleaker line: "I think that the Olympics has lost me my home." She has lived on the Carpenters for 40 years and is disinclined to depart quietly. "I think they're gonna have to come in here and drag me out. Why should somebody be able to force you out of your home? A home that's got nothing wrong with it, that's standing solid? I do not want to go."
Slow dispersal of the estate's residents, mostly to alternative dwellings nearby, has been in progress for some time. This has been justified for Wales by the need to embrace a host of development opportunities created not only by the draw of the Games and the park but also, just as importantly, by the economic arteries formed by the improved transport hub at Stratford station. Already, the giant Westfield Stratford City shopping centre has been a hit."It's always a balance if you want to do something for an area," Wales says. "What is the wider community getting at the expense of the inconvenience caused to local residents? People in Carpenters are concerned. I would be too. I completely understand that. But with UCL we would get an amazing, top university coming to the area. Our vision is for science and hi-tech providing jobs and skills. It would be such a good offer from the point of view of our kids."
Finch is not alone in being unenthusiastic. Two younger residents, Joe Alexander and Osita Madu, are driving forces in the campaign group Carp – Carpenters Against Regeneration Plan – which has been quarrelling with Wales's pledges to treat residents properly, bombarding him with questions at public meetings. They reason that the Carpenters works well as a community, so why dismantle it? "We're not some kind of social ill or blight on the landscape that needs help," says Maduu. "Somehow Newham council thinks we're a social problem that needs to be addressed."
"We voted for a mayor and got a dictator," adds Alexander.
It is, in many ways, an archetypal urban regeneration conflict between local authorities on a mission to improve, and those on their patch who fear they only stand to lose. Strife also marked the clearance of the Olympic Park site, when a twilit labyrinth of small industrial concerns was removed from the land on which the array of sports venues now awaits the world's athletic elite.
Among them was H Forman and Son, a family salmon-smoking business founded in east London by a Jewish migrant from Odessa in 1905. The proprietor, Harry Forman's great-grandson Lance, had his premises where the Olympic stadium now is. He fought a long compensation battle and celebrated victory with an email to the Games organiser Lord Coe, a former Olympic champion whom he'd been due to cross-examine at a public inquiry. The email said: "You can run, but you can't hide."
The upshot is a handsome, salmon-pink building on a bank of the river Lea, containing not only a smokery, but also a restaurant and an art gallery in a location long called, with glorious suitability, Fish Island. Olympic dignitaries and others now congregate there. The stadium looms across the water. Forman will soon erect a pop-up corporate hospitality venue on a piece of adjoining land he owns, complete with recreational beach volleyball court. Speedo was the first big name to take space in this Fish Island Riviera, and Forman is finalising discussions with others.
"We're going to have some luxury yachts along the riverfront," he enthuses. "Sixty palm trees are being shipped in. We're going to have this beach club that turns into a nightclub."
Forman hopes to emerge a winner from the Games, but says business is still recovering from the disruption caused by compulsory purchase. He hopes to be part of long-term rejuvenation by developing the land his Riviera will briefly occupy, perhaps with a mixture of homes and boutiques, and facilities for the arts community that has flourished in recent years in former warehouses along the towpath in Hackney Wick. Forging links, he invited a graffiti artist to enhance his restaurant's toilets. In the gents, fine silver fish leap skywards above the urinals.
"I think the area was regenerating anyway," Forman says, looking across at the stadium. "But the existence of the park ought to help. I think when people come here they're amazed at how impressive it already is and how easy to get to."
London's outgoing Olympic legacy chief, Margaret Ford, also gives an upbeat assessment of the post-Games future of the 200-hectare park and its immediate surroundings, although she warns that expecting it to be "the catalyst for the regeneration of the whole of east London", has "never been entirely realistic". Citing prior experience with renewing England's coalfield communities, she stressed the need for "continued investment and belief over a long period".
Ford steps down as chair of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) this month, having led it and its predecessor, the Olympic Park Legacy Company, since May 2009. She says the park should be an example of how you "change the psychology" about an area. "You're hoping that the whole view of investing in east London changes by persuading people that it is a fabulous place to come to and do business and invest."
She accepts that a great fear with large regeneration projects is that the wealth they attract fails to benefit existing residents, many of whom are in pressing need. Canary Wharf, whose glass towers pierce the skyline a short distance away, is often condemned as the ultimate example. "The concern is that the park will become a sort of golden city on a hill surrounded by a sea of poverty," says John Biggs, a former City analyst and senior Labour member of the London Assembly, who represents three of the six Olympic boroughs – Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking and Dagenham.
Ford, a Labour peer held in high regard across the political spectrum, says she and her board have been "utterly preoccupied from day one" with ensuring that local people derive the maximum value from the post-Games plans, and with facilitating the Olympic boroughs' goal of economic convergence with the richer west and centre of London. She is proud of creating training and schemes and close links with local schools. "The big game-changers will be jobs and changes in educational attainment and aspiration for a lot of families in east London," she says.
Ford will depart with most of the arrangements made for putting the permanent sporting venues and other attractions to post-Games community use, and with decisions in the pipeline for the three big jigsaw pieces not yet in place:
• The commercial occupants, either a fashion hub or digital "innovation city", for the two buildings the media will use during the Games.
• The long-running search for tenants for the main stadium, very likely to include a football club.
• The determination of planning applications for the future development of the park as a residential area and visitor destination.
Five neighbourhoods will form within the boundaries of the park over the next 20 years, with the first, Chobham Manor, due to be completed at the end of 2014. Ford emphasised the importance of including sufficient genuinely affordable housing. "I think we need to remember there was quite a big promise made to the communities in east London about the houses being affordable – either affordable to rent or affordable to buy. I think it's one they are not going to forget."
While pointing out that the LLDC remains committed to 35% of the up to 8,000 homes it plans to see built on the park being affordable – in addition to 3,000 that the Athletes' Village will be converted into – she felt it was a matter for regret for London as a whole that the government's new funding approach means "affordable" rent can now be up to 80% of local market rates, which even in poorer parts of London are high compared with the rest of the country.
"I think Londoners are desperately short of affordable housing. It's definitely short of good-quality social housing [which has far lower rents]. If we mean what we say about needing to house all of our key workers, we need to house lots of people in lower-paid jobs who make this city work then, yes, I would say moving to 80% of market rents will cause some of those people not to be able to afford properties."
Another Olympic borough mayor, Tower Hamlets' independent Lutfur Rahman, who, like Wales, is a member of the LLDC board, has called for more homes for social rent among the 800 housing units proposed for the Olympic Park neighbourhood to be called Sweetwater, which will fall within his boundaries.
Ford, who has 33 years' experience of delivering regeneration programmes under both Labour and Conservative governments, is to be replaced by the Conservative politician Daniel Moylan, the appointee of London's mayor, Boris Johnson, to whom the LLDC is accountable. The selection of Moylan, an experienced councillor in Royal Kensington and Chelsea whom Johnson made his deputy as chair of Transport for London two years ago, has caused some disquiet among political opponents.
Biggs says that although he likes the urbane Moylan – "he's fun to talk to" – he worries that he is not equipped to follow someone with Ford's track record. "The truth is, he doesn't know anything about regeneration." There's an ideological issue too. "The point of bodies like the development corporation is to do the things the market can't or won't, and Daniel is the sort of politician who thinks red-in-tooth-and-claw market forces will take care of everything."
Ford, though, says she's confident Johnson has made a good choice and praises him for allowing her and her chief executive, Andrew Altman, to produce a new masterplan for the park. The one she'd inherited, she says, "pretty much had the place populated by high rise buildings. Why would you stuff it full of flats when it's an obvious family housing neighbourhood, given the green space and the venues? We didn't want to create some pastiche of the Old Curiosity Shop, but a place that had squares and crescents and little pocket parks – the kinds of things that make London quite higgledy piggledy but recognisably London. Boris was hugely encouraging."
She gathered intelligence for the masterplan on "mystery shopping" excursions – chatting to people in cafes and the old Stratford shopping centre. "They wanted front gardens, back gardens for their kids to play in, really good lighting, lots of storage space, nice green spaces, somewhere they can afford and a decent school – it's not bloody rocket science."
When the park begins to reopen for the public next July, its name will change to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Ford believes the royal touch will enhance local attachment: "It's about creating a different feel about the place. It's about people having a pride in it."
Even so, while Olympic borough schools gear up for the excitement of the summer, renaming their classes Helsinki, Tokyo and Beijing, parents express a mix of views about the value of the changes underway. Martin Sadler, a resident of Hackney who works in education and lives with his wife and two daughters not far from the park, foresees a good and a bad side.
"I think this part of Hackney will start feeling a bit more like central London and less like east London," he says. "I've lived here for over 20 years, and it's always been a traditional East End sort of place – a real mixture of people, plenty of cheap accommodation. It's already becoming more affluent, partly because the schools have improved. That brings good things with it, but there are worries too. I think London could be getting more like Paris – that doughnut effect, with the poorer people having to move out of the centre."
That is not the outcome legacy idealists say they have in mind. Time will tell if they manage to avoid it.
London Olympics 2012: Millar Gets Road Race Nod - ibtimes.co.uk
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On the track, four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy leads the sprint contingent in London, with Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes making up the remainder of the male squad.
Hoy, who in London will compete at his fourth games, is proud to be representing Team GB on home turf.
"It's a huge honour to be selected to represent your country at an Olympic Games," he said. "It's even more special to know I'm definitely part of the team for London 2012. This will be my fourth Olympics but my first home Games, and it's going to be an amazing experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us.
"The standard in the British cycling team is so high and the selection process is always going to be tough, but there's a great atmosphere in the team and we just need to keep putting in the hours in training and make sure we're in the best shape possible for race day.
British Cycling are however yet to decide whether Hoy or Kenny, who edged the Scot in the World Championships in Melbourne earlier in the year, will take the one individual sprint spot for London, an event which the 36 year-old Hoy is currently Olympic champion.
Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish will look to match their gold medal winning performance at February's World Championships, with both making up the female sprint team.
In the endurance events, all attention will be on the male and female sprint quartets hoping to replicate their Melbourne heroics come London, while Laura Trott will hope to build on her omnium world title. Ed Clancy will compete in the men's omnium event.
Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips will hope to build on their Olympic debuts with medals in the BMX competition, while Liam Killeen and Annie Last make up the Mountain Biking team.
Reade is hoping support from her British support can help to glory come this summer.
"I'm really excited to have been selected for the London 2012 Olympic Games," she said. "If the test event and the recent World Championships in Birmingham are anything to go by, the home support will be a massive boost to me. I feel that I am in good form at the moment and I'm really motivated for this. I just can't wait to race."
Team GB Cycling squad:
Track (Sprint):
Philip Hindes, Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Victoria Pendleton, Jessica Varnish
Track (Endurance):
Steven Burke, Edward Clancy, Wendy Houvenaghel, Peter Kennaugh, Danielle King, Joanna Rowsell , Andrew Tennant, Geraint Thomas, Laura Trott
BMX:
Liam Phillips, Shanaze Reade
Cross Country Mountain Biking:
Liam Killeen, Annie Last
Men's Road (five to be selected)
Mark Cavendish, Steve Cummings, Chris Froome, Jeremy Hunt, David Millar, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift, Bradley Wiggins
Women's Road (four to be selected)
Lizzie Armitstead, Nicole Cooke, Katie Colclough, Sharon Laws, Lucy Martin, Emma Pooley
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Aaron Cook: What more could I have done to gain selection for London 2012 Olympics? asks snubbed taekwondo star - Daily Telegraph
All of these performances were in the -80kg Olympic weight category, not -87kg. Based on the listed performance criteria of British Taekwondo’s, I have been overlooked based on a subjective analysis of criteria not listed in the selection policy and due to British Taekwondo casting doubt on the world rankings and the change in wording (not the actual rules) of head shots.
According to my coach, Patrice Remarck, GB Taekwondo also questioned my ability to perform under pressure and how I might perform in front of a home crowd. I find this a strange point as I have a proven track record of success under pressure at home as well as abroad, including seven British Open wins, an Olympic test event win and the European Championship. I also competed in a world Olympic qualification quarter-final at just 16 years of age.
I am incredibly proud to be world No 1. Contrary to the belief that I am a ‘points chaser‘, I have entered only two extra ranking tournaments to that of the GB academy, a grade one and grade two – the latter US Open was originally part of British Taekwondo’s selection events.
I find performance director Gary Hall’s views in the media on the world rankings last week highly disrespectful to the sport of taekwondo. They imply that it is easy to turn up to low level events and win points, thus undermining my status as the world No 1. This is what they specifically did in front of my coach at the third selection meeting.
Although I accept no ranking system is without its flaws, the world rankings are the world rankings. It was interesting to hear Hall on Sunday on BBC Radio refer to them as “great” having previously said that they were “flawed”.
- Key rule change
Sport Taekwondo UK, the governing body’s high-performance division, has argued that international rule changes on how head shots are scored make Lutalo Muhammad a better medal prospect than Aaron Cook, despite their differing rankings, writes Jessica Winch.
Under the new guidelines, a player has only to touch his opponent’s head to score rather than kick it forcefully, something the selection panel believed weighed in Muhammad’s favour, given his height and flexibility. The new head shot rule was in place at the European Championships last month, where Cook secured gold and Muhammad won the -87kg title.
Unfortunately I will never believe or be convinced that my non-selection for my home Olympics was not politically motivated. When my non-selection was announced, I had the right to challenge its process via a quasi legal body called Sports Resolution. Their findings were very conclusive but we are not allowed to discuss them or release them. Given that selection has now been ratified and British Taekwondo is keen on showing their integrity and transparency, perhaps we can all agree to release this to the media and public for their consideration?
Why have I not been selected? Simple. Because I left the British Taekwondo system last year.
Recently I was asked if I would do the same thing knowing what I know now. I replied, absolutely.
Thanks to the help of my team, including my brother Luke and my coach, I am in the form of my life. I have won seven open titles and the Olympic test event; I have successfully defended my European crown against one of my biggest rivals, Ramin Azizov, a player I was never able to defeat while in the academy; I am world No 1.
My form was not good enough while in the academy: I lost three matches in a row, including at the 2011 World Championships. A mere seven weeks prior to the tournament, the GB academy pulled my coach, Professor Moon. I had previously been given assurances that he would be my coach till London 2012, but instead I was forced to work with a coach, Steven Jennings, with whom I had no relationship and who already had responsibility for three other athletes, including his wife, who would fight on the same day as me. It was crazy.
I am disappointed in UK Sport and its stance. I would like to ask Liz Nicholl, their chief executive, what more I could have done to be selected in terms of performance? Also why did UK Sport sign off on a selection policy with so much subjectivity? Why did the BOA also do this? Should its changes to the structure of GB Taekwondo in 2010 have included changes to the performance structure of the sport?
I also find it puzzling how my results from major championships which I personally funded can go towards my national governing body’s right to seek higher investment in the sport, yet entitle me to nothing. GB Taekwondo claims it has won six golds at the last three major championships, but two of these are mine.
Since I left the academy I worked hard to maintain a professional relationship with those at British Taekwondo. As an athlete I would be the first to congratulate the other players on their success. But I have not been treated fairly or respectfully in this whole process.
I am worried for the future: not just my own, but the future of the sport in Great Britain. I made many sacrifices for the sport in pursuit of my dream. I have no education as I left school at 15 to concentrate on my preparations and qualification for Beijing. My family moved 300 miles from Dorset to Manchester to support me. We have all invested heavily to make this dream happen. We were also supported by some great sponsors and a great sports marketing agency.
However, the message to future Olympians is: “It is not about performance. It is about the system protecting itself.”
I have received so many messages of support from the taekwondo family worldwide and from sports fans in the UK. I thank you all. It saddens me that this whole debacle has happened. It brings our great sport into the headlines for the wrong reasons. It worries me that this may not help the sport of taekwondo as it bids to continue as an Olympic Sport with the IOC review in 2013. This may actually be my last Olympic chance. I hope not.
If I am not competing in the London Games, it will not be the ultimate competition. Citius, Altius, Fortius is the Olympic motto. The competitions are meant to represent the best of the best. The world’s top 15 will be there. But not the world No 1 as things stand.
What more could I have done?
- Taekwondo in turmoil: How the story unfolded
- June 18, 2011
Aaron Cook resigns from the Great Britain world-class performance programme to pursue his own training schedule outside the guidance of GB Taekwondo. - May 6, 2012
Cook wins the European Championship in Manchester, reclaiming the title he won in 2010. Lutalo Muhammad had won the European title in the -87kg category, which is not in the Olympics, the day before. - May 23
GB Taekwondo omits Cook from the London 2012 squad in favour of Muhammad. The formal announcement is delayed after Cook appeals against the decision. - May 25
Cook wins an appeal against GB Taekwondo’s initial decision due to anomalies in statistics and with voting. UK arbitrator Sporting Resolutions ask GB Taekwondo to reconsider. The selectors again favour Muhammad. - May 28
Amid growing disbelief over the decision, Cook appeals to the British Olympic Association over his exclusion from the London 2012 squad. - May 31
The British Olympic Association rejects GB Taekwondo’s nomination in the -80kg weight category and orders a third selection panel. GB Taekwondo defends its decision and says it may appeal the ruling. - June 6
GB Taekwondo agrees to reconvene its selection panel and the five-member team meet in Manchester. Once again they omit Cook in favour of Muhammad. - June 7
The World Taekwondo Federation accuses GB Taekwondo of a “lack of transparency” and bringing the sport into disrepute. The WTF decides to investigate the circumstances of the world No 1’s omission from the team. - June 8
The BOA ratifies the nomination of Muhammad in the -80kg category at London 2012. Cook says he will seek legal advice.
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