Imogen Bankier and Jenny Wallwork trade both insult in twitter spat 
World champion Sarah Stevenson's participation in the Olympics because she underwent surgery yesterday to repair cruciate ligament damage sustained at a recent training camp in Mexico.
Mixed doubles players,and top two women Imgoen Bankier and Jenny Wallwork were involved in an Anglo-Scottish war of words on Twitter as the race for Olympics selection intensified.The row began on Wednesday after Bankier, Scotland's world silver medallist with partner Chris Adcock at Wembley last summer, watched highlights of last weekend's English National Championships, before tweeting in jest: "Why can English people not serve?!".However, it seemed to touch a nerve with Wallwork, who lost in the final with Nathan Robertson to Adcock and Gabby White, when the Lancastrian retorted: "So the one with the 'lighthearted banter' is injured AGAIN! I'd go for the ropey serve any day."
Although Wallwork had suggested that her rival was unfit, Bankier - who won two Scottish national titles on the same weekend - said that "slagging someone for being injured is dangerous". She then said she would end the "banter" before Wallwork said something she might regret.
It didn't end there, though, as a clearly flustered Wallwork snapped that Banker was "usually crippled". She added that she wouldn't regreat anything as it was all "lighthearted banter", in reference to one of Bankier's earlier tweets. Wallwork then told Bankier to "jog on" back to Scotland.
With just under three months until qualifying ends for London 2012, Anglo-Scottish pair Adcock and Bankier are leading their rivals, Wallwork and Nathan Robertson, for the one automatic place on offer for London 2012.
The highest pairing in the world rankings on May 3 will qualify for the Games, although this may not guarantee final selection. Bankier and Adcock currently lie in 14th position ahead of Robertson and Wallwork in 18th.
The heated Twitter jibes come with just under a month to go until the All England Championships in Birmingham, one of badminton's top Premier status events.
As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Adcock questioned China's on court supremacy earlier this week following a spate of what the player described as “clearly thrown” matches against compatriots.
Statistics compiled for all major tournaments last year revealed that walkovers and uncompleted matches for all-Chinese draws were common.
Sarah Stevenson world champion suffers cruciate ligament damage With just under three months until qualifying ends for London 2012, Anglo-Scottish pair Adcock and Bankier are leading their rivals, Wallwork and Nathan Robertson, for the one automatic place on offer for London 2012.
The highest pairing in the world rankings on May 3 will qualify for the Games, although this may not guarantee final selection. Bankier and Adcock currently lie in 14th position ahead of Robertson and Wallwork in 18th.
The heated Twitter jibes come with just under a month to go until the All England Championships in Birmingham, one of badminton's top Premier status events.
As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Adcock questioned China's on court supremacy earlier this week following a spate of what the player described as “clearly thrown” matches against compatriots.
Statistics compiled for all major tournaments last year revealed that walkovers and uncompleted matches for all-Chinese draws were common.
World champion Sarah Stevenson's participation in the Olympics because she underwent surgery yesterday to repair cruciate ligament damage sustained at a recent training camp in Mexico. The 28 year-old has until the end of May to prove her fitness when the Great Britain selectors will nominate their four-strong squad for the London Olympics.
Stevenson will miss the forthcoming Dutch and German Opens and almost certainly the European Championships in Manchester from May 3-6.
She is, though, optimistic of making it to the capital where she will be looking to emulate the bronze medal she won in Beijing.
Stevenson said: "I feel that this is just a blip in my preparation for London 2012.
"I've been through worse and I can get through this. I'm strong mentally and physically and this is only going to make me more determined.
Asha Philip suffer her knee injury, has looked on longingly at the sight of the Olympic stadium taking shape just a mile from her home.
"And with all the support from the best medical staff at GB Taekwondo and the EIS, I'm determined to be at the Olympics."
Stevenson suffered the injury during a training session in Mexico City and immediately flew home for assessment accompanied by coach and husband, Steve Jennings and Great Britain performance director Gary Hall.
However, Hall and the GB selectors are now potentially faced with a difficult selection decision.
Bianca Walkden, the former world number two from Liverpool but currently competing at +73kg, is looked upon as Stevenson's understudy.
"We will be supporting every single girl who is in contention within the -67kg weight category to make sure they are best prepared for the task," said Hall.
"The decision will go to the best person to do the job as there is an open selection procedure."
He added: "If anyone can return from this then Sarah can. She is a consummate professional and will be doing everything in her power to show the selectors she is the girl for the job."
Asha Philip sprints back into contention after terrible injury Stevenson suffered the injury during a training session in Mexico City and immediately flew home for assessment accompanied by coach and husband, Steve Jennings and Great Britain performance director Gary Hall.
However, Hall and the GB selectors are now potentially faced with a difficult selection decision.
Bianca Walkden, the former world number two from Liverpool but currently competing at +73kg, is looked upon as Stevenson's understudy.
"We will be supporting every single girl who is in contention within the -67kg weight category to make sure they are best prepared for the task," said Hall.
"The decision will go to the best person to do the job as there is an open selection procedure."
He added: "If anyone can return from this then Sarah can. She is a consummate professional and will be doing everything in her power to show the selectors she is the girl for the job."
Asha Philip suffer her knee injury, has looked on longingly at the sight of the Olympic stadium taking shape just a mile from her home.But what at times appeared a forlorn hope during her long and painful years of rehabilitation has suddenly become a realistic one following a performance 12 days ago that has shaken the order of British female sprinting.
Competing in the 60 metres final at the low-key London Games at Lee Valley, Philip exploded out of her blocks to win in 7.24sec, smashing her lifetime best and enabling her to leap to No 1 in the UK rankings.
What is more, a couple of metres behind her was Jodie Williams, the teenage starlet who has taken Philip's mantle as the brightest talent of her generation after winning world youth and junior sprint crowns. It was the first time Williams' had been defeated by a domestic rival.
"It was a bit of shock to realise I can run that fast," said Philip, 21, who has to juggle training with her studies as a drama student. "I've been in athletics for however many years now and to come out with that performance, just like that, was a happy, surprising feeling.
"It's given me a nice boost. I've enjoyed my athletics but for the last few years I haven't been able to say, 'Hey, that's really good', and then proceed to the next stage. But that actually put a smile on my face."
Sarah Storey fired Great Britain into a powerful start at the Para-Cycling Track in Los Angeles overnight, winning gold in the C5 500m time-trial.
Storey, from Manchester, who could attempt to win five gold medals at the London Paralympic Games in the summer, made it look almost effortless and posted a new British record and personal best with a time of 37.371 seconds, leaving her head and shoulders above the rest of the field. That "next stage" comes this weekend at the Aviva UK Indoor Trials and Championships, in Sheffield, where Philip hopes to build on her performance by taking one of the two available GB spots at next month's World Indoor Championships in Istanbul.
Williams will be up against her again, along with Jeanette Kwakye, the 2008 world indoor silver medallist who is back in form after her own injury problems. It promises to be one of the races of the championships.
But whatever happens, just to be there on the start-line and in contention is a remarkable achievement for a young woman who was facing the end of her sporting career at the end of 2007.
In July of that year, Philip had announced herself as an outstanding athletic talent at the age of 16 when she triumphed at the World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, becoming the first British female ever to win a global 100 metres title.
Nor did her sporting accomplishments end there. She was also a junior world trampoline champion at the time, and genuinely torn between whether to concentrate on the track or the gymnasium. She had hoped to combine the two but staff at UK Athletics had their doubts. In November, just four months after Philip had claimed her world sprint crown, they were proved cruelly correct.
Competing in the team final of the double-mini trampoline at the senior World Championships in Quebec, Philip landed badly and felt her right knee "disappear" beneath her. It would be four years before she could sprint properly again.
"I tore all my ligaments and I fractured a bone," she said. "Basically, I had to start from scratch again. The doctors said it would probably be two years before I'd be running again, but not necessarily sprinting.
"I knew it was going to be a slow process but my mum and coach just tried to keep me going, because it was a hard time. I'd just turned 17 the week before and to be told your leg's gone and you've got to start all over again, that was very hard.
"I couldn't use the muscle at all. I couldn't even use my leg to get out of bed. I had to learn things like how to go and get a glass of water from the kitchen and carry it back. All those little things that people take for granted.
"My cousins and my close family just saw me get worse and worse but they tried to lift up my spirits. As I got older and learned how to walk again I started to smile a lot more.
"But it was long, long process. I did the accident in 2007 and I only started to run last year, so that's four or five years it's taken me to get to where I am now." Philip's return to competitive sprinting last season showed a glimmer of promise, though her best 100m time, of 11.47sec, was still a 10th of a second down on the British junior record she set as a 16 year-old.
The UK Athletics selectors saw enough to include her in the 4 x 100m relay squad for the World Championships in Daegu, though she was kept in reserve and did not make it onto the track.
But the experience fired her belief that there could she could at least achieve a relay place at this summers,Olympics and her performance 12 days ago has now got her thinking about an individual spot.
"Living so close to the Olympic stadium, I've watched it grow from start to finish," she said. "It's provided me with a big goal and I'm just hoping and praying that I make it." Gaining selection for the World Indoors would provide the perfect platform, though Philip is anxious not to get ahead of herself after the lows of the last five years.
"I've always had the belief that I can actually come back but even if I don't make it to the World Championships, I'm still going to happy because I'm actually running and I'm back there with the girls," she said.
"Whatever I achieve is a blessing, and I'll be happy with any outcome."
Sarah Storey wins gold at Para-Cycling Track in Los Angeles Williams will be up against her again, along with Jeanette Kwakye, the 2008 world indoor silver medallist who is back in form after her own injury problems. It promises to be one of the races of the championships.
But whatever happens, just to be there on the start-line and in contention is a remarkable achievement for a young woman who was facing the end of her sporting career at the end of 2007.
In July of that year, Philip had announced herself as an outstanding athletic talent at the age of 16 when she triumphed at the World Youth Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, becoming the first British female ever to win a global 100 metres title.
Nor did her sporting accomplishments end there. She was also a junior world trampoline champion at the time, and genuinely torn between whether to concentrate on the track or the gymnasium. She had hoped to combine the two but staff at UK Athletics had their doubts. In November, just four months after Philip had claimed her world sprint crown, they were proved cruelly correct.
Competing in the team final of the double-mini trampoline at the senior World Championships in Quebec, Philip landed badly and felt her right knee "disappear" beneath her. It would be four years before she could sprint properly again.
"I tore all my ligaments and I fractured a bone," she said. "Basically, I had to start from scratch again. The doctors said it would probably be two years before I'd be running again, but not necessarily sprinting.
"I knew it was going to be a slow process but my mum and coach just tried to keep me going, because it was a hard time. I'd just turned 17 the week before and to be told your leg's gone and you've got to start all over again, that was very hard.
"I couldn't use the muscle at all. I couldn't even use my leg to get out of bed. I had to learn things like how to go and get a glass of water from the kitchen and carry it back. All those little things that people take for granted.
"My cousins and my close family just saw me get worse and worse but they tried to lift up my spirits. As I got older and learned how to walk again I started to smile a lot more.
"But it was long, long process. I did the accident in 2007 and I only started to run last year, so that's four or five years it's taken me to get to where I am now." Philip's return to competitive sprinting last season showed a glimmer of promise, though her best 100m time, of 11.47sec, was still a 10th of a second down on the British junior record she set as a 16 year-old.
The UK Athletics selectors saw enough to include her in the 4 x 100m relay squad for the World Championships in Daegu, though she was kept in reserve and did not make it onto the track.
But the experience fired her belief that there could she could at least achieve a relay place at this summers,Olympics and her performance 12 days ago has now got her thinking about an individual spot.
"Living so close to the Olympic stadium, I've watched it grow from start to finish," she said. "It's provided me with a big goal and I'm just hoping and praying that I make it." Gaining selection for the World Indoors would provide the perfect platform, though Philip is anxious not to get ahead of herself after the lows of the last five years.
"I've always had the belief that I can actually come back but even if I don't make it to the World Championships, I'm still going to happy because I'm actually running and I'm back there with the girls," she said.
"Whatever I achieve is a blessing, and I'll be happy with any outcome."
Sarah Storey fired Great Britain into a powerful start at the Para-Cycling Track in Los Angeles overnight, winning gold in the C5 500m time-trial.“This is the event, alongside the road race, that I get a little nervous for,” said Storey. “You never know what’s going to happen when the world record holder (China’s Ju Fang Zhou) is in the event.”
Storey put her success down to training with the able-bodied team pursuit squad and to her preparations for the team sprint. “I’ve been working hard on getting more explosive, so it was good to get a PB as it shows I’m notching away towards the world record," explained the multiple Paralympic gold medallist, who will join the Telegraph Sport writing team during the Games.
“Today I was just trying to concentrate on getting out of the gate cleanly, getting the first half snappy and then using my strength in the second lap and a half to drive as fast as I could. It all came together for me and I’m really chuffed.”
The second British success came in the Women’s B/Vi 3km pursuit in which Britain fielded two tandem pairings – Lora Turnham, piloted by Fiona Duncan, silver medallists in the event in 2011, and Aileen McGlynn, piloted by Helen Scott. Both pairings made it through a tough qualification, posting a third and second fastest times respectively.
In the finals, Lora Turnham and Fiona Duncan faced New Zealand’s Phillipa Gray and Laura Thompson in a bronze ride off. The British pairing got off to a good start but lost advantage to the Kiwis after the first few laps and failed to get it back, finally placing fourth.
Aileen McGlynn and Helen Scott were up against Ireland’s Catherine Walsh and Francine Meehan in the finals. Here too, the British pairing started the race better than the opposition but lost their advantage in consecutive laps to place second behind the Irish.
“For a few second in that final I thought, we can have this, but I think we got it all out in the first ride” said pilot Helen Scott after the race. “We went off well trying to hold the same splits but we were a little slower each time.”
However, the silver medal marks a great improvement for the British tandem which qualified 8th in the 3km pursuit last year in Montichiari and both McGlynn, the stoker, and Scott, the pilot, believe they can close the gap on the Irish between now and the London Paralympics Former skating gold medallist winner Robin Cousins gives synchronised swimmers a lift
Robin Cousins, the 1980 Olympic figure skating champion.Now channelling his coaching talents in a new direction to help the preparations of Britain’s synchronised swimming team.
In the finals, Lora Turnham and Fiona Duncan faced New Zealand’s Phillipa Gray and Laura Thompson in a bronze ride off. The British pairing got off to a good start but lost advantage to the Kiwis after the first few laps and failed to get it back, finally placing fourth.
Aileen McGlynn and Helen Scott were up against Ireland’s Catherine Walsh and Francine Meehan in the finals. Here too, the British pairing started the race better than the opposition but lost their advantage in consecutive laps to place second behind the Irish.
“For a few second in that final I thought, we can have this, but I think we got it all out in the first ride” said pilot Helen Scott after the race. “We went off well trying to hold the same splits but we were a little slower each time.”
However, the silver medal marks a great improvement for the British tandem which qualified 8th in the 3km pursuit last year in Montichiari and both McGlynn, the stoker, and Scott, the pilot, believe they can close the gap on the Irish between now and the London Paralympics Former skating gold medallist winner Robin Cousins gives synchronised swimmers a lift
Robin Cousins, the 1980 Olympic figure skating champion.Now channelling his coaching talents in a new direction to help the preparations of Britain’s synchronised swimming team. “There are obvious similarities with figure skating, it is judged, it is set to music and there are technical routines, our pool is frozen, but they are in water,” said Cousins, 54.
“I am coming at the sport at a different angle and with a new pair of eyes, and it is really fun throwing left field ideas at them. The condition these girls are in is amazing.”
Cousins has been working on how the formations could be improved with some classic skating lifts and jumps, and attention to detail.
Synchronised swimmer Katie Dawkins recalled a moment during a training session at Aldershot. “He had been watching us practise for well over an hour and he came he said to us, ‘just rest on the side of the pool for a moment’.
“We sort of laughed and said we said we don’t touch the sides, or even the bottom of the pool at all, he was so shocked he even recoiled a bit. I don’t think he could quite believe we can tread water for so long, but it is second nature for us, we don't really think about it." Qatar tour 2012:Mark Cavendish crashes in final sprint as Tom Boonen wins general classification
Tour of Qatar Mark Cavendish crashed during the final kilometre on Friday after the manxman appeared to be clipped by Roger Kluge before touching wheels with Tyler Farrar.
Tour of Qatar Mark Cavendish crashed during the final kilometre on Friday after the manxman appeared to be clipped by Roger Kluge before touching wheels with Tyler Farrar. Cavendish saw his hopes of winning a third stage in the world champion's jersey dashed after Kluge, a track specialist, brushed by the world champion as riders jockeyed for position ahead of the sprint for the finishing line before the Briton touched wheels with Farrar.
As the British sprinter lay on the asphalt, riders from his Team Sky outfit stopped to help him to his feet before he remounted and slowly pedalled across the finishing line.
Race commissaries, though, may take issue with Cavendish after the world champion rode the final metres of the six-day stage race without his helmet on. Under International Cycling Union rules riders must always wear a helmet.
Arnaud Démare of France, meanwhile, won the stage ahead of Russia's Denis Galimzyanov and Mark Renshaw, Cavendish's former Aussie team-mate.
Cavendish's crash came at the end of a week that saw him almost miss the Tour after he came down with a fever ahead of the race.
Despite his two stage wins in Qatar, Cavendish may wonder if the race is cursed following his dramatic crash during the prologue during last year's edition.
Meanwhile, Belgium's Tom Boonen won the overall general classification after the former world champion claimed his fourth Tour of Qatar title.
Steven de Jongh, Team Sky directeur sportif, said afterwards: "Cav touched the back wheel of Farrar during the sprint. He wanted to go but Kluge came across and he hesitated a bit. He wanted to go again but then they touched wheels with Farrar and went down.
“It’s a pity to finish the race that way. But luckily we have two wins and he has nothing broken so we can move onto Oman now.
"We’ve have two guys in the top 10 with Cav and [Juan Antionio] Flecha and have won two stages so it's been pretty good race for the team overall.
Chicago Bulls and British basketball star luol Deng selected for NBA all star game
Luol Deng's outstanding form for the Chicago Bulls in the early part of this season, two week lay-off with a hand tendon problem, has been rewarded with a place in the Eastern Conference All-Star squad to play the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star game.
Cavendish's crash came at the end of a week that saw him almost miss the Tour after he came down with a fever ahead of the race.
Despite his two stage wins in Qatar, Cavendish may wonder if the race is cursed following his dramatic crash during the prologue during last year's edition.
Meanwhile, Belgium's Tom Boonen won the overall general classification after the former world champion claimed his fourth Tour of Qatar title.
Steven de Jongh, Team Sky directeur sportif, said afterwards: "Cav touched the back wheel of Farrar during the sprint. He wanted to go but Kluge came across and he hesitated a bit. He wanted to go again but then they touched wheels with Farrar and went down.
“It’s a pity to finish the race that way. But luckily we have two wins and he has nothing broken so we can move onto Oman now.
"We’ve have two guys in the top 10 with Cav and [Juan Antionio] Flecha and have won two stages so it's been pretty good race for the team overall.
Chicago Bulls and British basketball star luol Deng selected for NBA all star game
Luol Deng's outstanding form for the Chicago Bulls in the early part of this season, two week lay-off with a hand tendon problem, has been rewarded with a place in the Eastern Conference All-Star squad to play the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star game.
Deng, who has been at the heart of Great Britain's basketball revival in recent years, become the first British player to play in the annual gathering of the great and good which traditionally marks the midway point of the NBA season.
He was ever-present for the Bulls in regular season games and the play-offs last season when his influence on the team was second only to the League's MVP Derrick Rose and little has changed this season.
After arriving in Britain as a young Sudan refugee Deng and his family took British nationality and it wasn't long before he was making a huge impact on the British basketball scene with the Brixton Topcats and the England age group teams.
As a player he was clearly at a level which was outstripping the domestic game and he took the decision to travel to the US to study and further his career at Dukes before he signed for the Bulls where he has been one of the mainstays of the team in recent years.
While pursing his NBA career Deng has also made a massive commitment to the British game, helping with the 2012 bid back in 2005 and then breathing life into the moribund GB team, going on the road with them for two long summers as they sought qualification for the European championships, a prerequisite of them qualifying for the Olympics.
In squads voted for by basketball fans around the world Deng doesn't make the starting five but takes his well earned place in a squad packed with outstanding talent.
Bulls colleague Rose and the Miami Heat duo of LeBron James and Dwayne Wade are the star turns in the East squad with the starter roster completed by Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knick and Dwight Howard of the Orland Magic.
Making up the bench with Deng are Chris Bosh (Miami Heat), Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics), Roy Hibbert (Indiana Pacers), Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers), Joe Johnson (Atlanta Hawks), and Deron Williams (New Jersey Nets).
Lining up against them will be a who's who of basketball from the Western Conference with household names such as Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Tony Parker, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul.
Deng is one of only four European players who have earned selection for the match – the others being France's Parker. Spain's Marc Gasol, and Dirk Nowitski of Germany.
All-Star week tends to be a week off for those not selected and although Deng might have been expecting a quiet week and a chance to top up the rehab on his linger hand injury, the honour of being selection is likely to see him play at least some part in a game that in any case tends to be more of a party and gala occasion than a full-on match.
Bulls colleague Rose and the Miami Heat duo of LeBron James and Dwayne Wade are the star turns in the East squad with the starter roster completed by Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knick and Dwight Howard of the Orland Magic.
Making up the bench with Deng are Chris Bosh (Miami Heat), Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics), Roy Hibbert (Indiana Pacers), Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers), Joe Johnson (Atlanta Hawks), and Deron Williams (New Jersey Nets).
Lining up against them will be a who's who of basketball from the Western Conference with household names such as Kobe Bryant, Blake Griffin, Tony Parker, Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul.
Deng is one of only four European players who have earned selection for the match – the others being France's Parker. Spain's Marc Gasol, and Dirk Nowitski of Germany.
All-Star week tends to be a week off for those not selected and although Deng might have been expecting a quiet week and a chance to top up the rehab on his linger hand injury, the honour of being selection is likely to see him play at least some part in a game that in any case tends to be more of a party and gala occasion than a full-on match.
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