Nick Westby: Yorkshire stars are setting out on different routes which lead to Rio

Put in simpler terms, today marks three years to the day since the beginning of the London 2012 Summer Olympics while the next global gathering of world sport in Rio is a little over a year away. The Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games this weekend helped bring a little of the majesty of that golden summer back into the forefront of our minds; seeing messrs Bolt and Farah and Mrs Ennis-Hill brought memories of Super Saturday flooding back to the surface. For the athletes themselves, it was a chance to give thanks to the supporters and also bask in the adoration and allow their own minds to wander back not so far in time to the crowning moments of their careers. But only for an instant will they have allowed themselves to hark back. Because, with a little over a year to go to the next Olympics, now is the time for forward-thinking, for planning, for fine-tuning and for focus, not for misty-eyed reflection. That is because the majority of Great Britain’s – and indeed Yorkshire’s – Olympians are in world championship season. The aquatic athletes are already in Kazan, Russia, for their world championships, with six divers from the City of Leeds diving club – an organisation that gets stronger each year – bolstering the nine-strong team led by poster boy Tom Daley. They are competing not only for medals, but for qualification places for Rio 2016. A further 29 swimmers will represent the nation in the swimming disciplines from next Sunday, five of them from Yorkshire, three of which train at the City of Sheffield Swimming Club. Again, the chance to lay down a marker and secure a seat on the plane to Brazil has begun. Those athletes who contested the Anniversary Games at the weekend have the far more important matter of their own global titles to pursue when the world athletics championships gets underway in Beijing on August 22, with Ennis-Hill hoping to be fit enough to be competitive and continue her steady progression back to title-winning capacity. The British squad has yet to be announced, and while Yorkshire has never been as well represented when it comes to track and field stars as the county is in other sports, there are still names to look out for, Middlesbrough sprinter Richard Kilty and Barnsley pole vaulter Luke Cutts, both of whom will be hoping their names are included when the squad is announced tomorrow. British rowers are also plotting a course to Rio via a world championships, with their annual global regatta taking place in Aiguebelette, France, from August 30 to September 6, with the event doubling as qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The whole squad has yet to be selected, with Hebden-raised Andrew Triggs Hodge expected to once again be the stroke of the men’s four as he chases a third Olympic gold medal. But there are a few Yorkshire athletes already certain to be crossing the Channel later next month. Leeds’ Paul Bennett is part of the men’s eight crew which defends the world title it won in Amsterdam last year. They need to finish in the top five in Aiguebelette to ensure Britain will have an eight at the Rio 2016 Olympics. The same pressure is on the women’s eight, stroked by Richmond’s Zoe Lee. That crew have shown good signs of form at the past two world cups in Varese and Lucerne, winning bronze medals at both. “Lucerne was a strong performance, both in technique and power,” said Lee. “There are lots of positives to build on going into the worlds, there was not a weak link in that performance.” A Yorkshire girl making her debut at the highest senior level is Todmorden’s Jess Leyden, a world junior champion in 2013, who takes a seat in the women’s quadruple scull. Few will have heard of Leyden outside of rowing, but that should not decrease the chances of her winning a medal at next year’s Olympics, not when she is part of the highly-motivated and repeatedly-successful British rowing operation. After all, who had heard of Middlesbrough’s Kat Copeland three years ago, when she and Sophie Hosking came from nowhere in the final year of preparation ahead of the last Olympics to be the best lightweight double sculls pairing on the water at Eton Dorney. After taking a long sabbatical following her surprise London 2012 success, Copeland is back in business with a new partner in Charlotte Taylor. Theirs has been an up and down season so far, winning World Cup gold and setting a world best time in Varese to just missing out on the podium in Lucerne. Britain will also be represented by a full para-rowing team in France, with a young Yorkshire woman attempting to help the mixed coxed four win a third successive title. Sheffield’s Grace Clough is a University of Leeds graduate who captained Yorkshire at basketball and only took up rowing two years ago after attending a SportsFest event put on by the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield. She was crowned world champion in her first season and in June helped the British crew break the world record twice in three days at the World Cup in Varese. Speaking of Paralympic athletes, there is none bigger in these parts than Halifax’s Hannah Cockroft. Her world championships are not until October in Doha, when the heroine of the 2012 Paralympics will seek to compete over three distances in preparation for a treble assault in Rio next September. Cockroft, who contested the 400m at London’s Olympic Stadium yesterday, goes for gold in the 100m, 400m and 800m races at both October’s world championships in Doha, Qatar and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. The 200m, in which she won the Paralympic title three years ago, has been removed from the T34 schedule for the next Games. Another athlete chasing a world title in the coming months is Otley cyclist Lizzie Armitstead. Already crowned the national champion earlier this month and the leader in the women’s world cup series after two wins in six events, Armitstead chases the rainbow jersey in Richmond, USA, on September 26. Glory at the world road race championships is the only thing missing for Armitstead, who three years ago on Wednesday was the British athlete who got the medal rush started with her daring run to silver in the women’s road race through the pouring rain and crowded streets of London. Tokyo on the mind of young prospects In the coming months, get ready for athletes to tell you they do nothing but eat, sleep and breathe Rio – that well-worn cliche of a sports man or woman preparing for the next Olympics. But beyond that, there are those a little younger that have Tokyo, and the 2020 Olympics, on their minds. Three of which were crowned European junior champions in the last fortnight. Leeds’ Katy Marchant, 22, is a former member of Jessica Ennis-Hill’s heptathlon training group in Sheffield, who turned her focus onto track cycling two years ago. It is proving a wise move. At the European Under-23 championships in Athens earlier this month, Marchant won gold in the keirin. At the same event, Sheffield’s Joey Walker won the continental junior men’s title in the points race. British success in track cycling is no surprise, but Walker is just 17 and certainly one to watch. Barnsley’s Adam Hague is the latest prospect to come off the pole vault production line at Dearne ALC, cementing his growing reputation with a clearance of 5m 50cm to take gold in the European junior championships in Sweden. Three athletes who will be eating, sleeping and breathing Tokyo – unless they accelerate quickly enough to reach Rio.