The Team Leicestershire Talent Ambassadors & Athletes aim to blog about their competitions and training sessions at around once a month to keep us at Active Together updated on their progress.
Clicking on an athlete will also give you access to their individual profile and updates.
Last month I competed in the Finnish junior open reaching the quarter finals in girls doubles and mixed doubles. It was a great experience to play against some of the top Indonesian and Malaysian players.
Last weekend I competed in the Yorkshire senior silver coming away with silver in ladies singles and bronze in ladies doubles.
Over the next two weeks I will be competing in my first senior international in Wales and this years u19 nationals where I will hopefully put out some good performances.
Thank you for the support once again.
After a bit of a break post Paralympic Games, I'm now in full swing of Europeans preparations. I fly tomorrow for my 2nd senior tournament and I'm so excited. We hope to bring back a medal 🏅
4 weeks after recovering from COVID I was back on the National start line racing up in Sunderland. My start was not the best and I spent the first lap chasing onto the leading group of 12. Once I made it I raced in the group and ended up racing for 8th place. I was super happy to finish 10th. 10th place means I receive valuable UCI points to improve my gridding. I am really glad I could race for a top 10 so soon after COVID.
I was super excited to get asked to represent Great Britain for the first time at the cyclocross European championships in the Netherlands and asked also to race a World Cup race in the Czech Republic and two more in Belgium. Travelling with, and staying with Team GB has been a fantastic experience and I have memories that I will never forget. My aim was to get a top 10 at the Euro's and that's exactly what I achieved and I am so happy with that performance, especially as it wasn't in the easiest of conditions and I can honestly say I gave it my all and a 10th place as a first junior is something special.
First free weekend of the season as the National League Conference takes a winter break.
Good to finish the first half of the league season undefeated with my team Barford Tigers in second place in the table.
Training continues with indoor hockey and GB EDP camps in the coming weeks.
I've been really busy getting into my winter training the last 6-8 weeks and settling in with my new coach.
Training is going really well, I'm really enjoying my new programme and looking forward to competing in a couple of weeks!
We have been focusing on speed work so I'm doing 2 rounds of 60m indoors at Loughborough Uni in mid December, it will be nice to see where I'm at with my speed at this early point in the year!
This Cyclocross season I have moved teams to Montezuma's Race Team.
I started the season with 7th elite at the first round of the National series in Derby. The week after I travelled to Belgium and the Netherlands for my first taste of international racing this season. It was an amazing experience and I can't wait to get back out there to improve on my results. I then had a disappointing race at the 2nd round of the National Series finishing 17th. I was hit with more disappointing picking up COVID, I am recovering well and back racing!
This weekend me and my crew Flic travelled to Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy to take part in a 2 day event. This was a National Grand Prix event and the RS Feva class Winter Championships.
Day 1 - Very light winds. Perfect conditions for us both. We worked hard and put all of the skills we'd been working on in the previous weeks training in to practice. We were so happy with our results.
3 races - 3rd, 2nd and a 4th putting us 2nd overall.
Day 2 - Very windy. It was gusting 30 knots and it was quite chilly. These were very challenging conditions for us but we held on tight and gave it our all!
3 races - 13th, 8th and a UFD (DQ) which was our discard.
After the 2 days of racing we were exhausted but really pleased with our performance to secure 4th overall.
More Information: sailwave.com
During pre-season of my first year at University I became injured and am currently 3 days away from my op, so times are a little different for me at the minute due to not training and lots and lots of rehab!
Fingers crossed all goes well and I'll be back on court in no time, it's strange not being with the girls, especially being at a new Uni but rehab is keeping me busy!!
Katie has competed in many National Badminton England Tournaments since returning to competition but her focus is the U13 Nationals in December which she is working towards.
She continues to train hard and is enjoying the workshops provided.
Thanks for your support.
Recently I have been in a 15 week training block for some tournaments which I have played,
- Senior Silver Dorset
- Senior English National Badminton Championships - Qtr Final Doubles
- U19 Gold Hertfordshire - Semi Finalist Doubles, Winner of Singles
Senior English National Badminton Championships is the main event of the year for all elite athletes, within this event I only played doubles again as when I played this tournament I was suffering from a pulled glute. This prevented me from playing singles which wasn't what I wanted but you have to make a judgment, and on this occasion I chose not to play singles. I hope to play again in such a high level tournament again soon.
None of these achievements would have been possible without the support from you guys at Active Together and the funding.
I cannot express how grateful I am for your help and support
This weekend me and my crew, Felicity had 2 full days training with the Midlands RYA Regional Feva Training Group at Rutland Water.
A great start to the winter training season. The weather has been pretty mild and there was a good breeze.
We spent both days practicing up and downwind sailing, some fun drills and some racing. Lots of thing to work on but a really good and fun weekend.
Next weekend we are down at the National Sailing Academy in Portland & Weymouth for the next Feva Grand Prix round in the series.
An undefeated start to the season has my team Barford Tigers second top in the National League Midlands Conference.
Training going well.
This weekend we travel for an away match against St Albans.
In October, I represented England at U21 level for the first time. We lost the match against Malaysia but there were a lot of positives as we had quite a few younger players playing together at this level for the first time.
For more information please contact:
Liam Drake
Sports Development Officer
Active Together
I am working flexibly in the office or at home, therefore please contact me via email or phone number provided.
My areas of responsibility are:
- Telephone
- 01509 564865
- Mobile
- 07394567814
- l.drake@active-together.org
