Beach Volleyball

British Volleyball have appointed two new coaches in its goal to qualify in beach volleyball for the Olympics at Beijing in 2008 and London 2012. At Athens, we were asked several times if we had been to the Beach Volleyball. Although we had enjoyed the Volleyball preliminaries that we saw, we couldn't understand what the fuss was about. Since that time I have twice encountered this fast moving, dynamic sport. It is an event that has been added to our Olympic Experience list as one that we would like to see in Beijing.

Form

Britain's best women, Lucy Boulton and Denise Johns, are ranked 79 in the World. The pair made their first appearance on the FIVB World Tour at Porto Santo, Portugal in September 2006. The pair have recently returned from competing in the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour where they were beaten finalists at Port Macquarie.

Olympic Qualification

The Olympic Beach Volleyball tournament is a 24 team event.

All FIVB World Championships, World Tour and Recognised Continental Championships Final events between 1 January 2007 and 20 July 2008 will count to Olympic Rankings, but only two teams per country may complete.

The Olympic tournament must include at leat one team from each continent
and the host nation (China).

What to Watch

The women's pair may qualify for Beijing, but are very unlikely to be in medal contention. The target for them is probably London 2012. We want to see some of the sport as part of our Olympic Experience, so will be trying to get some tickets for preliminary round games.

Beijing 2008 Online Accommodation Booking Centre Announced

The Beijing tourism administration said it will open an online accommodation booking centre on its website before March for visitors going to the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The site will be linked to the official Beijing 2008 website,.

The People’s Daily reports that the website will feature pictures of hotels and information in three languages – Chinese, English and French.

About 1,000 budget hotels providing 100,000 beds will be recommended on the site.

All the hotels must have service guides, signs, menus in Chinese and English, Internet connection in all rooms, and the ability for visitors to pay by credit card.

The tourism administration has named 134 star hotels in Beijing as “green hotels”. They have all passed the state standards which require the setting up of eco-friendly managerial systems and facilities, and the adoption of technology that conserves water, energy and reduces waste, reports People’s Daily.

About 500,000 international visitors are expected in Beijing during the Games and Xiong said she believed the city has the capacity to accommodate all the visitors.

The full report can be found at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/18/eng20061218_333541.html

Women's Football

Great Britain have never competed in the Football competition at the Olympics. But, this year the team qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1995.

Form

England qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup from Group 5, ahead of France, Holland, Austria and Hungary, and have been put into the top rank of seeds.

Olympic Qualification

The 3 best ranked European teams at the FIFA Women's World Cup will qualify for Beijing. The FIFA Women's World Cup 2007 will be held in China from September 10-30 2007. England are competing against Norway, Sweden, Germany and Denmark for the coverted Olympic place.


The Women's Olympic Tournament is a 12 team competition with the remaing teams being

• Host nation China
• United States and Canada (who qualified at the 2006 CONCACAF (Central America) Women's Gold Cup in November 19-26, 2006)
• two teams from the AFC (Asia) Preliminary Competition to be held in Feb 2007
• one team from the CAF (Africa) Preliminary Competition held between Oct 2006 - Mar 2008
• one team from the CONMEBOL (South America) Preliminary Competition to be held in February 2008
• one team from the OFC (Oceania) Preliminary Competition to be held March 23-30, 2008
• the final team will come from a special CAF-CONMEBOL Play-off.

A Great Britain Football Team in Beijing?

There has been a lot of fuss about the entering of a football team for London 2012, but there is a very real possibility that England will secure a place for Great Britain at Beijing 2008. But, will the Football Associations put aside their differences to enable the team to play?

Form

England qualified, for the playoffs, from Group 8 ahead of Switzerland and Moldova. In the palyoff, England beat Germany to qualify for the UEFA European U-21 Championship.

Qualification

In October, England, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Israel teams made it through the UEFA European U-21 Championship play-off stage, to join hosts and defending champions the Netherlands in the UEFA European U-21 Championship. The top four teams in the finals will qualify for Beijing 2008. The competition is to be held between 10 and 23 June 2007.

The Men's Olympic Football is a 16 team competition. The remainder of the teams will come from:

Asia (AFC): 4 teams will qualify – including host nation China PR
Africa (CAF): 3 teams will qualify
North and Central America (CONCACAF): 2 teams will qualify
South America (CONMEBOL): 2 teams will qualify
Oceania (OFC): 1 team will qualify

What to Watch

For us, Football is not a major Olympic sport. We may look to get tickets for a preliminary game, but there are much better opportunities to see medals during the final days. Football is a passion, and we do watch it on the television, but there are better opportunities to see this sport live. I suspect that he Chinese will fill every ground.

Badminton

Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson won the silver medal in Athens 2004. At Sydney 2000, Simon Archer and Joanne Goode had secured Bronze.

Form
Britains best hope for a medal in 2008 again seem to be in the Mixed Doubles event, where there are currently three pairs ranked in the top 10. Robertson & Emms won the Commonwealth Games title in Melbourne, March 2006. Robertson & Emms also won the World Championship in Madrid, September 2006, beating another English pair Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg in the final.

In the Men's Doubles, Anthony Clark and Robert Blair won Bronze in Melbourne and Silver in Madrid, but are currently ranked 6 in the World. Women's Doubles pair, Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg also won Bronze in Melbourne and are currently ranked 10 in the World. In the singles events, the highest ranked lady is Commonwealth Champion Tracey Hallam (17), whilst Andrew Smith is also ranked 17 for the Men.

Qualification

Qualification for Beijing will be primarly from the IBF ranking system for the period 1 May 2007 to 1 May 2008. It will provide all 16 pairs in each doubles event and 38 of 64 athletes in each singles event. The host nation (People's Republic of China) shall be entitled to enter 2 players in total, but more than 2 players are permitted if they all qualified under qualifying regulations.

What to watch

We didn't see any Badminton in Athens, so preliminary games are on our Olympic Experience list for 2008. It is also on one Medal Chances list so we will also hope to get tickets for the session when the Mixed Doubles Final is to be played.

Men's Hockey

Form

The Men lost to Malaysia in the Bronze Medal match at the Commonwealth Games and finished third in the World Cup Qualifying Competition, before climbing to fifth in the recent World Cup. They will be looking to finish in the top three at the European Championships in Manchester (18-25 August 2007) to secure qualification. England are currently ranked eleventh in the World, but fourth in Europe. Given results from 2006, where they have managed to beat teams ranked above them, they should qualify, but there is still a big question mark over whether they can perform in the big tournaments.

Qualification (12 team tournament)

China (Host)
Korea (Asian Games Champion, Doha, Qatar, 1-15 December 2006)
Pakistan (Asian Games bronze medalist, extra quota place)

Champion of the 15th Pan American Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 13-29 July 2007)
Champion of the African Olympic Qualification Tournament (Nairobi, Kenya, 14-22 July 2007)
Champion of the 11th Men’s EuroHockey Nations Championship (Manchester, England, 18-25 August 2007)
Champion of the 5th Oceania Cup (Australia, 10-17 September 2007)

Two extra quotas places for Europe:
Silver medalist of the 11th Men’s EuroHockey Nations Championship
Bronze medalist 11th Men’s EuroHockey Nations Championship

The last three spots for the 2008 Olympic Games women’s hockey competition will be determined during three Olympic Qualification tournaments in March or April 2008. These tournaments will take place in Japan, Chile and New Zealand.

What to watch

As previously mentioned, Hockey is the sport that we play so will feature as one of our Olympic Experience options. In Athens, we saw the Australia beat Netherlands in the Men's Finals, and saw GB lose to Spainin a preliminary round game.

In Beijing, the hockey is at the main Olympic Complex, but the Men's Final is on the same day as the final day of the Athletics, a session we would also not wish to miss. So we'll be carefully looking at the schedule to see if we can attend both events. Our aim will be to attend the finals day in Beijing (23rd August) and see Great Britain play in a preliminary game during the first week.

Women's Hockey

With the first two places for the Olympic Hockey tournament allocated at the Asian Games yesterday. Now's a good time to look at Britain's chances and qualification for the Women's Hockey tournmament at Beijing 2008.

Form

Recent form suggests that the Women are probably more likely to win a medal that then Men. The England team narrowly missed out on a semi-final place at the recent World Cup, but slipped to finish seventh. However they did win but won a Bronze Medal at the Commonwealth Games and won the World Cup Qualifying Competition. They will be looking to finish in the top three at the European Championships in Manchester (18-25 August 2007) to secure qualification. England are currently ranked eleventh in the World, but fourth in Europe so automatic qualification on home pitches should be a distinct possibility.

Qualification (12 team tournament)

China (Host nation)
China - Champion of the 15th Asian Games - Doha, Qatar, 1-15 December 2006
Japan - 1 extra quota for Asia. Therefore, the next highest placed team (other than the Champion and China) at the 15th Asian Games qualifies directly for the 2008 Olympic Games, together with the Asian Champion and China.
- Champion of the 15th Pan American Games - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 13-29 July 2007
- Champion of the African Olympic Qualification Tournament - Nairobi, Kenya, 14-22 July 2007
- Champion of the 8th Women’s EuroHockey Nations Championship - Manchester, England, 18-25 August 2007
Europe - 2 extra quotas. Therefore, the runner-up and bronze medalist of the 10th Women’s European Nations Championship qualify directly for the 2008 Olympics Games, together with the European Champion.
- Champion of the 5th Oceania Cup, Brisbane, Australia, 10-17 September 2007

The last three spots for the 2008 Olympic Games women’s hockey competition will be determined during three Olympic Qualification tournaments in March or April 2008. These tournaments will take place in Vancouver, Canada, Azerbaijan and Russia.

What to watch

Hockey is the sport that we play so will feature as one of our Olympic Experience options. In Athens we saw the Women's Finals, but did not go to any of the preliminary games as Great Britain failed to qualify (despite being seeded one at the qualifying tournament).

Our aim will be to attend the Women's finals day in Beijing (22nd August) and see Great Britain play in a preliminary game during the first week.

Sports Personality of the Year

Last night, BBC's Sports Personality of the Year saw four Beijing hopefuls competing for the top prize, which was won by Equestrian's Eventing World Champion Zara Phillips, with Britains first Gymnastics World Gold medal winner, Beth Tweddle third. They were separated by the Golfer Darren Clarke.

The two other Olympic hopefuls who were short-listed were Tennis star Andy Murray and Road Race Cyclist Nicole Cooke.

Chris Hoy (Cycling), Caitlin McClatchey (Swimming), Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson (Badminton), Dean Macey (Athletics), Tim Don (Triathlon), Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (Athletics), Gregor Tait (Swimming), Mick Gault (Shooting) and Steve Williams (Rowing) were amongst those nominated, but not short listed.

Equestrian in Hong Kong

The Equestrian events were one of the highlights of our trip to Athens 2004.

However, the events are being held in Hong Kong in 2008, so will require additional planning, should we wish to attend. We would like to go, as the two days at the Eventing were a major highlight last time.

Medal chances

Events that we are considering seeing for the chance of seeing a British medal.

• Archery (specific events)
• Athletics (specific events)
• Badminton (Mixed doubles)
• Canoe/Kayak - Slalom (specific events)
• Cycling - Road Race (Women's road race)
• Cycling - Track (specific events)
• Diving (specific events)
• Gymnastics - Artistic (specific events)
• Hockey (Women's finals)
• Judo (specific categories)
• Rowing (specific events)
• Swimming (specific events)
• Taekwondo (specific categories)

Olympic Experience

Events that we are considering seeing for the enhancement 'Olympic Experience'.

• Badminton (preliminaries)
• Basketball
• Beach Volleyball
• Closing Ceremony
• Cycling - Mountain Bike
• Gymnastics - Rhythmic
• Handball
• Hockey (preliminaries)
• Opening Ceremony
• Volleyball
• Water Polo

Planning for tickets

The planning paid off last time, and we were lucky enough to see the union jack raised ten times in Athens (five of which were in the Gold medal position). So, without being able to do much planning, on the journey front, in the next couple of months, I suspect that this blog will be evaluating Britains medal hopes in the next few postings!

What to see?

Bidding for tickets begins sometime in early 2007. I suspect that it will be March. In order to determine what events that we want to try and see we have identified the events that we want to see. These are categorised as either Olympic Experience (events that intensify the enjoyment - including top class sports where there is no reasonable expectation of British medal hope or particaption) and the Medal chances (events that we have identified as being hopes for British success).

Last Chinese lesson for 2006

Well, the last Chinese language lesson has been and gone. This weeks session dealt with 'Holiday and Travel', so will be very useful. The next block of lessons starts in the second week of January.