27 July 2012
Lawyers at Leigh Day & Co will have extra reason to be glued to the television over the next couple of weeks as the Olympic games begin. The firm is the exclusive provider of legal services to two of the country’s leading national sport federations, both confident of bringing back medals from the London games.
The Leigh Day sports injury team’s expertise has seen them handle thousands of claims for members of British Cycling and the British Triathlon Federation. The types of claim range from a few thousand pounds, so that competitors can return to training and competing as quickly as possible, to millions of pounds where members have been severely injured.
Sally Moore Head of the Personal Injury Team at Leigh Day & Co said:
“With Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France, coupled with our historic prowess on the track, we can now confidently say we are the world’s greatest cycling nation despite it not being our national sport, not yet at least!
“However, the medals are not in the bag. Expect other nations to be far more competitive this year than they were in Beijing as they have begun to realize they have to work much harder to keep up with Team GB in all disciplines."
Below, Penny Knight, Head of Leigh Day & Co's sports injury team, considers the chances of the athletes in the Cycling and Triathlon disciplines at this years games:
The track events start on Thursday 2nd August and finish on Tuesday 7th August.
The men's Sprint Finals will take place on Monday 6th August at 17:46 and the Women's Omnium events will take place throughout Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th August. For a full schedule of Track events Click Here
In the velodrome Hoy and Pendleton are the household names but watch out for Londoner Laura Trott in the Women’s Omnium and Jason Kenny as the sole Team GB rider in the men’s sprints, after being given the nod ahead of Sir Chris.
The men's team pursuit Finals are on Friday 3rd August at 18:00
Overall the team cannot repeat the number of medals they won in Beijing due to restrictions on the number of riders from each country in each race, but they should medal in every event they're entered. The team pursuit should see a battle in the final between Team GB and Australia with World Records smashed.
The Men's Road Race is one of the first possible medals for Team GB taking place on Saturday 28th July, starting at 10:00am and finishing approximately at 16:00pm.
In the men's road race we can look forward to a similar display of team riding that propelled Mark Cavendish to victory in the world road race championships in September last year.
A strong team will keep the pace high and control the race, against fierce opposition, to hopefully launch ‘Cav’ onto the Mall so he can execute as great a finish as he did on the Champs Elysee to take the final stage in this year’s Tour”
The Men's and Women's Time Trial will take place on Wednesday 1st August. The Women's event starting at 12:30 and the Men's at 14:15.
"As far as the men's time trial is concerned, I can't see anyone on top of the podium apart from Tour de France hero Bradley Wiggins, but expect Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara to be close behind."
The Women's Road Race takes place place on Sunday 29th July, starting at 12:00 and finishing approximately at 16:00pm.
We are also very likely to repeat our gold medal success from Beijing in the women’s road race.
The team, led by Leigh Day & Co client Chris Newton, is even stronger this year, with an extra 4 years of experience on the continental circuit for the riders. My tip for gold at these games is Lizzie Armistead, who rides out as the team leader. She'll be assisted by Emma Pooley, my tip for a medal in the women's time trial, and 2008 gold medallist Nicole Cooke who will play more of a team role for Lizzie unless it comes down to sprint.
The BMX events start on Wed 8th with both finals taking place on Friday 10th August. The Women's event starting at 16:30 and the Men's final soon after at 16:40.
The Team GB BMX heroes, Shanaze Reade and Liam Philips are both medal contenders. Shanaze will be especially determined after her crash in the final of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and Liam will be keen to show that a broken collarbone, earlier this season, has not affected his chances.
The Women's Cross Country event will take place from 12:30 on Saturday 11th August and the Men's Cross Country event takes place from 13:30 on Sunday 12th August.
"We’ll have our first female competitor in the Mountain Biking events since Caroline Alexander in 2000.
Annie Last won her first UCI World Cup race this year and was 8th in the latest World Cup race in La Bresse in France, showing she is a contender for medals on the Hadleigh Farm course in Essex. In the men’s event Liam Killeen will want to improve on his 7th place at the Beijing games which was largely caused by an early crash which meant he had to work his way back through the field to a still credible placing.
Simon Burney a former team manager of the Team GB Cross Country team, and the man who help design the course at Hadleigh Farm in Essex, which is being used in this year's games, discusses Annie and Liam's chances exclusively to Leigh Day & Co:
“I think Annie is in the mix for the group fighting out 5th - 10th; I think its a couple of years too early for her to be a genuine medal contender and to be able to race at the front along with Pendrel, Gould, Nash, Bresset, etc. I think one of the big pre-race favourites was Maja Wloszczowska (Poland) & she's out injured so that's a place closer to the podium for Annie!
Simon continued "I think if she can get in the top 10 it will be a good solid performance & with the experience behind her in 4 years time she will better prepared to fight for a medal in Rio.
"Liam is slightly different in that he has already finished 4th & 7th in the last two Games so experience is not something he's short of. He's not had the best year, hasn't finished in the top 20 in a World Cup yet this year, but has shown over the years that if he's going well he can be competitive. Again, he won't make the podium and a top-10 would be a great result."
The Women's Triathlon will take place from 09:00 on Saturday 4th August and the Men's event takes place from 11:30 on Tuesday 7th August.
Team GB will have three male and three female triathletes in Hyde Park. These include current world number one Helen Jenkins, who leads the country’s three female triathletes, and world champion Alistair Brownlee who leads the men.
Helen’s victory in the ITU world championship series last September made her the first British woman to win the world title in its current form. She was also victorious at the Olympic test event in Hyde Park last August. So my money is on Helen for the gold supported by Vicky Holland and 20-year-old Lucy Hall who both make their debuts in the Olympics.
Current men's world champion Alistair Brownlee who, like Helen, won the men’s dress rehearsal event in Hyde Park last year, will look to build on the 12th place he achieved at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. A race he led until the final kilometers. I think this is his year.
Alistair’s younger brother Jonathan will also be taking part in his first Olympic games; he finished the 2011 season as the world number two and this season has won the two most recent ITU world triathlon series events. Stuart Hayes completes the men’s trio and is a former winner of a world championship series round in Kitzbuhel.”
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