Busy day of competition on Day 9

Thirty-three medals are available on Day 9. The most of the sixteen days of competition.

It will also be a busy day for the band of supporters as we aim to take in three events. Up first is the start of the Women's Marathon in Tiananmen Square and then hopefully it will be over to the Olympic Stadium to see the finish (we don't know if we've got tickets yet).

Second stop is the final day of the Rowing Regatta and then on to the Badminton to see the Mixed Doubles Final.

Athletics	5 (Women's Marathon, Men's Hammer Throw, Women's Triple Jump, Women's 100m, Men's 10000m)
Badminton	2 (Mixed Doubles, Men's Singles)
Basketball	Preliminaries
Beach Volleyball	Women's Quarter-Finals
Boxing	Quarter-Finals
Cycling - Track	1 (Women's 3000m Individual Pursuit)
Diving	1 (Women's 3m Springboard )
Equestrian	Preliminaries
Fencing	1 (Men's Team Sabre)
Gymnastics - Artistic	4 (Men's Floor Exercise, Women's Floor Exercise, Men's Pommel Horse, Women's Vault)
Handball	Preliminaries
Hockey	Preliminaries
Rowing	7 (Women's Lightweight Double Sculls, Men's Lightweight Double Sculls, Men's Lightweight Four, Women's Quadruple Sculls, Men's Quadruple Sculls, Women's Eight, Men's Eight)
Sailing	1 (Skiff Dinghy-49er)
Shooting	1 (Men's 50m Rifle 3 Position)
Softball	Preliminaries
Swimming	4 (Women's 50m Freestyle, Men's 1500m Freestyle, Women's 4 x 100m Medley Relay, Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay)
Synchronised Swimming	Preliminaries
Table Tennis	1 (Women's Team)
Tennis	2 (Men's Singles, Women's Doubles)
Volleyball	Preliminaries
Water Polo	Women's Quarter-Finals
Weightlifting	1 (Men's 94kg)
Wrestling	2 (Women's Freestyle 63kg, Women's Freestyle 72kg )

Paula Radcliffe will be seeking to erase the disappointment of Athens 2004 if she goes in the Women's Athletics Marathon. Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms will be seeking to turn World Championship Gold into Olympic Gold in the Mixed Doubles Badminton, but Anthony Clark & Donna Kellogg may have something to say about that! There are medal chances for the Women's Quadruple Sculls team of Annie Vernon , Debbie Flood , Frances Houghton and Katherine Grainger and Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter in the Men's Lightweight Double scull at the final day of the Rowing Regatta. Swimming is another sport completing it's programme on 17th August. David Davies (Bronze medallist at Athens 2004) will be competing in the Men's 1500m Freestyle Swimming. The Men's Pommel Horse offers a chance for a Gymnastics medal, with both Daniel Keatings and Louis Smith being specialists in this exercise. In the Velodrome Rebecca Romero is among the favourites for the Women’s Individual Pursuit.
In Qingdao at the Olympic Sailing Centre, the Skiff Dinghy-49er Medals are decided. British pair Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes will hope to again be in contention.

Badminton Team for Beijing 2008

The British Olympic Association (BOA) have selected the Badminton members of Team GB for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Athlete	Event	Final
Gail Emms & Donna Kellogg	Women’s Doubles	15 August
Tracey Hallam	Women’s Singles	16 August
Andrew Smith	Men’s Singles	17 August
Nathan Robertson & Gail Emms	Mixed Doubles
Anthony Clark & Donna Kellogg

Clark & Kellogg win European gold

The British pair of Anthony Clark and Donna Kelloggs won the Mixed Doubles Gold Medal at the Badminton European Championships in Herning, Denmark. They beat Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk of Poland, 16-21 22-20 21-15 in the Final.

Athens 2004 Olympic Silver Medal winners, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, won the Bronze medal.

The Medal matches for the Mixed Doubles is on the 17th August.

Kellogg and Emms win European Silver

The British Women's Doubles pair Britain of Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg lost their European title at the Badminton European Championships in Herning, Denmark.

The pair were beaten 21-18 21-18 by the Danish pair of Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Lena Frier Kristiansen, in the Final.

The Medal matches for the Women's Doubles is on the 15th August.

Quarter Final woes for English Badminton

Britain suffered disappointment at the Badminton World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, with all the remaining competitors falling at the Quarter-final stage.

Defending World champions Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms were beaten in the quarter finals by Indonesia's sixth seeds Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa. The Olympic silver and Commonwealth gold medallists (seeded fourth), lost 21-13 21-16.

Fifth seeds Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg, runners-up to Robertson and Emms in Madrid last September, lost 21-13 21-10 to third seeds Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen.

England won a gold and two silvers at Madrid last year but now their medal hopes rested with Tracey Hallam in the women's singles and Emms and Kellogg in the women's doubles.

Tracey Hallam, the women's singles Commonwealth champion and 16th seed faced the Olympic gold medallist and top seed Zhang Ning. The she lost to the Chinese star at the same stage last year. And it was an action replay as the 32-year-old left-hander went down 21-11 2-9.

In the Women's doubles, Emms and Kellogg, the European champions and fifth seeds, were kept waiting till late into the evening before facing second seeds Gao Ling and Huang Sui. The brave fight ended in a 21-15 12-21 21-17 defeat, following a controversial point deduction for the english pair when the score was 18-17 n the final set.

England weren't alone in disappointment, in a worrying trend with the for the Olympics, not a single European qualified for the semi-finals.

The Medal matches for the Women's Doubles is on the 15th August.

Day 9 - 17th August 2008

Thirty-three medals are available on 17th August. The most of the sixteen days of competition.

Athletics	5 (Women's Marathon, Men's Hammer Throw, Women's Triple Jump, Women's 100m, Men's 10000m)
Badminton	2 (Mixed Doubles, Men's Singles)
Basketball
Beach Volleyball
Boxing
Cycling - Track	1 (Women's 3000m Individual Pursuit)
Diving	1 (Women's 3m Springboard )
Equestrian
Fencing	1 (Men's Team Sabre)
Gymnastics - Artistic	4 (Men's Floor Exercise, Women's Floor Exercise, Men's Pommel Horse, Women's Vault)
Handball
Hockey
Rowing	7 (Women's Lightweight Double Sculls, Men's Lightweight Double Sculls, Men's Lightweight Four, Women's Quadruple Sculls, Men's Quadruple Sculls, Women's Eight, Men's Eight)
Sailing	1 (Skiff Dinghy-49er)
Shooting	1 (Men's 50m Rifle 3 Position)
Softball
Swimming	4 (Women's 50m Freestyle, Men's 1500m Freestyle, Women's 4 x 100m Medley Relay, Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay)
Synchronised Swimming
Table Tennis	1 (Women's Team)
Tennis	2 (Men's Singles, Women's Doubles)
Volleyball
Water Polo
Weightlifting	1 (Men's 94kg)
Wrestling	2 (Women's Freestyle 63kg, Women's Freestyle 72kg )

Paula Radcliffe will be seeking to erase the disappointment of Athens 2004, when she goes in the Women's Marathon. Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms will be seeking to turn World Championship Gold into Olympic Gold in the Mixed Badminton, as will the Women's Quadruple Sculls team on the final day of the Rowing Regatta. Swimming is another sport completing it's programme on 17th August. David Davies (Bronze medallist at Athens 2004) will be competing in the Men's 1500m Freestyle.

In Qingdao at the Olympic Sailing Centre, the Skiff Dinghy-49er Medals are decided. British pair Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks will hope to again be in contention.

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.

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.

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