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Fencing
Britain produced a disappointing showing at the World Championships for the second successive year, with not one fencer making it the last eight.
The best individual result was the last-16 place earned by Corinna Lawerence in the women’s epee. It was a similar story at the European Championships, despite home advantage in Sheffield, where Britain failed to win a single medal. The squad has a new performance director in Alex Newton but will need to raise their game dramatically to challenge this summer.
Key dates: April 7-8: Birmingham Int’nal. June 15-20, European Ch’ships (Legnano, Italy).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Handball
The GB women’s team will be targeting a quarter-final place in London after beating the African champions, Angola, in the Olympic test event at London in November and losing by a respectable eight-point margin against world champions Russia in October.
Lack of funding means the development of the men’s squad has been more challenging but, like the women, they have been offered a guaranteed host-nation place at the Games.
Key Dates: Jan 8: Men, GB v Austria (Crystal Palace). March 22: Women, GB v Poland (Loughborough). May 30: Women, GB v Montenegro (venue tbc). June 2/3 (tbc). Women, Russia v GB.
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Judo
Britain went into the World Championships in September with a target of one to three medals but failed to make the podium. The disappointment has already forced British Judo to lower its Olympic target to just one medal.
A staff shake-up has also ensued, with the arrival of a new interim performance director. The highlight of last year was Sophie Cox’s bronze medal at the Olympic test event, to add to her third-place finish at the European Championships, while Colin Oates achieved a career best-best fifth at the Worlds. But winning an Olympic medal is going to be a major challenge.
Key dates: Jan 21-22: British Closed Ch’ships (senior trials, Sheffield). March 10-11: England Open (Sheffield). April 26-28: European Ch’ships (Chelyabinsk, Russia). May 12-13: British Open (Crawley).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Synchronised swimming
The sport is not considered a medal target by UK Sport, despite significant improvements being made in recent years. British Swimming says it is pleased with the “steady, but sure” progress but admits there is still some way to go before the squad can challenge for Olympic medals.
The pick of the team is the duet of Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison, who where finalists at last summer’s World Championships. The duo have been training with Tammy McGregor, who was the United States head coach at the Beijing Olympics where the Americans took fifth place in the duet. It is hoped her know-how can help Britain achieve at least a top-six finish in London.
Key dates: March 24-25: British Ch’ships (Gloucester). April 18-22: Olympic test event & qualifier (London). April 25-May 4: National team trials (Aldershot). May 16-20: European Ch’ships (Antwerp).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Hard graft: Britain's Chloe Spiteri is held at the wrestling test event
Table Tennis
Britain has guaranteed places in the singles and team events at the Olympics but the team will hope to fare better than they did last month when they failed to make any progress at the Pro Tour Grand Finals in London, which doubled as the Olympic test event.
The country’s progress has been held back by a chronic shortage of funding, which means winning an Olympic medal is not the agenda. Britain’s top-ranked player, Joanna Parker, is 127th in the world, while the country’s leading men’s player, Paul Drinkhall, is ranked 144th.
Key dates: April 11-15: Olympic qualifier (Luxembourg). May 10-13: Final Olympic qualifier (Doha).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Volleyball/Beach Volleyball
The men’s indoor team have made impressive strides and met their 2011 target of defeating a non-European team ranked in the world’s top 25 when the beat Egypt in July. Their aim at the Olympics, where they have a guaranteed host-nation place, is to qualify from their pool to reach the quarter-finals — a feat that will require at least two victories.
In beach volleyball, the GB pair of Denise Johns and Lucy Boulton were fourth in the Olympic test event but face competition for the host-nation spot from rival pair Shauna Mullin and Zara Dampney. If one of the pairings qualifies by right, then both can look forward to a place in Team GB.
Key date: April 16-20: Beach Volleyball Brazil Open (start of 2012 Swatch Tour). May 30-June 3: Beach Volleyball European Ch’ship finals (The Hague).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Water Polo
For the first time since 1997, a British women’s team will compete at the European Championships this month.
By contrast, the men failed to qualify after defeats to Greece and Georgia, though a commendable performance by the men against world champions Italy in December demonstrated the spirit of the team in a sport that has only been professional for a few years. Having not competed at an Olympic Games since 1956, hopes for London are understandably modest.
Key dates: Jan 16-29: European Ch’ships (Eindhoven). March 6: Men’s World Lge, Italy v GB. March 20: Men’s World Lge, GB v Russia. May 2-6: Olympic test event (London).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Weightlifting
Strong personal improvements by Britain’s top weightlifters at the World Championships in Paris have raised hopes that several athletes may for London 2012 qualify on their own merits rather than having to rely on the five automatic host-nation spots.
Zoe Smith, who has taken a year out of school and relocated from London to Leeds, finished 15th in the 63kg at the Worlds but is likely to drop to the 58kg class for the Olympics. Peter Kirkbridge, in the 94kg class and Natasha Perdue in the 69kg class, have also achieved the ‘B’ standard qualification.
Key dates: April 6-16: European Ch’ships (Antalya, Turkey). May 26: British Ch’ships (South Normanton).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
Wrestling
The sport in Britain has been criticised by the head of the international wrestling federation over its decision to concentrate its funding on wrestlers imported from the Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Two Ukrainian-born women, Jana Stadnik and Olga Butkevych, are Britain’s best hopes of an Olympic medal, but there is a complication. Both women are yet to be naturalised as British citizens and cannot submit their passport applications until they have completed their five-year residency period next month. If their passports fail to arrive by the summer, they will not be eligible to compete.
Key dates: March 6-11: European Ch’ships (Belgrade). April 20-22: European Olympic qualifier (Sofia); May 4-6: World Olympic qualifier (Helsinki).
Olympic prediction: 0 medals.
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