LONDON, December 20. WHEN England released its selections on Tuesday for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, a pair of reigning champions highlighted the roster. Rebecca Cooke and James Gibson lead a balanced squad that features both experience and youth. The Commonwealth Games will be held in March in Melbourne, also the site of the 2007 World Championships.<\/p>\n
Cooke is looking to defend championships she won in the 400 and 800 freestyle events during the 2002 edition of the competition. Meanwhile, James Gibson is the reigning champ in the 50 breaststroke, an event in which he is a former world champion. Also headlining the roster is Mark Foster, set to race in his sixth Commonwealth Games. He has won medals in his previous five Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
The English unit can expect big performances from Simon Burnett, the University of Arizona standout who has emerged as the nation\u2019s top freestyler over the 50, 100 and 200 distances. Meanwhile, Mel Marshall should carry the banner in the women\u2019s 100 and 200 freestyle events, disciplines in which she is a world-ranked competitor.<\/p>\n
Leading the way for the younger athletes on the English squad is Fran Halsall, the European Junior champ in the 100 freestyle. A 15-year-old, Halsall also won silver in the 50 free and bronze in the 800 free relay at the European Juniors. Team England will be coached by Ian Turner, who has set lofty goals for the nation come March.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt's a smaller team than we had in 2002, but it is a team where the ultimate goal has to be for all selected to be able to make a final,\u201d Turner said. \u201cWe'll definitely be going into the lion's den in March and will be facing a world-dominant Australian female squad, but the team selected has the ability to meet this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are the members of Team England:<\/p>\n
Julia Beckett (Loughborough University)
\nMatt Bowe (Loughborough University)
\nRos Brett (Loughborough University)
\nSimon Burnett (Wycombe District)
\nMatt Clay (Swansea)
\nChris Cook (City of Newcastle)
\nRebecca Cooke (City of Glasgow)
\nChris Cozens (Loughborough University)
\nRoss Davenport (University of Bath)
\nTerri Dunning (City of Birmingham)
\nMark Foster (University of Bath)
\nJames Gibson (Loughborough University)
\nFran Halsall (City of Liverpool)
\nKate Haywood (Loughborough)
\nAnthony Howard (Horwich)
\nJo Jackson (Durham Aqua)
\nMelanie Marshall (Loughborough)
\nDarren Mew (University of Bath)
\nDean Milwain (Loughborough University)
\nKerri-anne Payne (Stockport Metro)
\nKate Richardson (Kingston upon Hull)
\nAlex Scotcher (Loughborough University)
\nKaty Sexton (Portsmouth Northsea)
\nAmy Smith (Loughborough University)
\nLiam Tancock (Loughborough University)
\nMatt Walker (Marple SC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, December 20. WHEN England released its selections on Tuesday for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, a pair of reigning champions highlighted the roster. Rebecca Cooke and James Gibson lead a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n