Four British Paralympians to Watch

The London Paralympics in 2012 should be a great event for British paralympians. Not only does Britain have some of the finest Paralympic athletes in the world, but they will also have the advantage of being on home soil, able to enjoy the huge morale-boosting factor of having the crowd supporting them during the Games.

In particular, five British paralympians are tipped to make their mark this year, both in the Olympics, and in the Betfair 2012 Olympics odds.

Darren Kenny is a cyclist who made his Paralympics debut in Athens, in 2004. Not only did he win two golds and a silver, but he also broke two world records in the process. His amazing debut at Athens was followed up at Beijing, in 2008, when he won a stunning total of four golds and one silver.

Susie Rodgers is a 27 year old swimmer, who has only just made her international debut. Last July, at the European Championships, she was one of the British team’s star performers, winning five golds.

Simon Munn has already represented Great Britain at basketball in five Paralympics. One of the mainstays of the GB wheelchair basketball team, Munn is hoping to compete in his sixth games in London. 

He has already won silver and bronze in previous games, and is going for gold in 2012. This will be his last Paralympics before retiring, so it would be great for him to go out on a high.

Tom Aggar is a rower, who is unbeaten at World Championship level. The former Saracens rugby player has four gold medals to his name, so far. He is hoping to retain his Olympic title in the single sculls on Eton Dorney rowing lake, this summer.

Dr Ludwig Guttmann first organised competitions for disabled people to coincide with the London Olympic Games in 1948, and is seen as the founder of the Paralympics.

The Olympic-style games had become a major event by 1960, but the official title of Paralympics was not adopted until 1984. Since the 1988 Seoul Games, the Paralympics have been held in the same venues as the Olympics, and cities are required to bid for the Olympics and Paralympics as a joint package.

Begin your Olympics preparations with London 2012 free bets.

Zabaleta can see United falter

Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta has admitted he can see rivals Manchester United making the same mistakes as his side, as the Premier League title race continues to hot up.
The Citizens themselves held a healthy lead at the top of the table for a number of months, but a couple of slip ups, combined with a decent run of form from a resilient United side who have been there and done it, saw the Red Devils leapfrog their ‘noisy neighbors’.
However, having held an eight point lead at one stage, United have been pegged back to just a three point margin ahead of the Manchester derby at the Etihad Stadium on Monday with the premier league betting struggling to separate the two great rivals.
It’s not hard to see the similarities in United recent dip in form to the one suffered by the rivals just across the city, with neither team seemingly happy to have the pressure of being the soccer betting  favourites.
The likeness has not passed Zabaleta by and the Argentine international, who has been an important figure in the City squad this season, believes the tables might just have turned once again.
He told the club’s official website: "We've never stopped believing in ourselves, but to be honest, after the Arsenal  defeat I thought our chance had probably gone.
"We've been five points clear before so we know how it feels, but United losing against Wigan and dropping points at home to Everton shows that in football you have to believe, because you just never know.
"If we have another chance for the title, it's because we deserve it. We've kept going and we will continue to do that and see what happens.”

The Open returns to Lytham

This July sees something of a landmark in Open history, as the only Major based outside the United States is staged on English soil for the second consecutive year.

Royal Lytham & St Annes is the chosen venue, following on from Royal St George’s in Kent, 12 months ago.

The Lancashire course was established as long ago as 1860, but first hosted The Open in 1926, the year that American Bobby Jones gainedthe first of his three successes in the time-honoured event.

Most of the layout has remained true to its original shape since the early days, with just the odd extra bunker added in the early 1920’s, for a total of more than 200.

The course was lengthened as well at that time to provide a stiffer test, and that it certainly does, aided and abetted by a stiff breeze that rolls in off the sea, hence its reputation as one of the hardest links courses.

It was not until 1952 that the Open returned to Lytham, and this time it was another Bobby – Locke – that triumphed in what was to be the third of his four Open successes in all.

The Open record is held by one Harry Vardon, who was nigh on invincible at the turn of the 20th century, and who was good enough to gain a sixth Open in 1914, eighteen years after his first.

As for Lytham, tough as it might be, it was no match for an Australian, Peter Thomson, in 1958. He tamed ‘The Beast’, just as he had Royal Birkdale and St Andrews earlier. He also won at Birkdale in 1965.

Two years earlier, New Zealander, Bob Charles, had his name engraved on the roll of honour, and, since then, some of the most famous names in golf have triumphed at Lytham.

Since 1969 the Royal course has welcomed the television cameras six times, and we have shared the joy with the likes of Tony Jacklin, Gary Player, and the late, great Seve Ballesteros, who liked it so much he did it twice.

The last Open here, in 200, saw David Duval of the United States come out on top; will a European oblige this time? Rory McIlroy is the highest-ranked European in the British Open betting.