Besik Kudukhov 1986-2013

The Olympic torch relay continues to meander its way across Russia ahead of the Sochi Games next month but one man who was scheduled to help it along its way will no longer be able to take his place in that long line of torch bearers.

On the 29th December it was announced that Besik Kudukhov who has been the silver medalists at 60kg in Wrestling during the 2012 London Games having won bronze four years earlier at 55kg had died in a car crash in Southern Russia. As well as his Olympic medals he had been world champion four time in 2007 at 55kg and from 2009-11 at 60kg.

During his run from 2009 to 2011 he was considered by many in the wrestling world as the best pound for pound wrestler in the world, but his defeat by Toghrul Asgarov or Azerbaijan ended that period of dominance and in the end denied him an Olympic gold to add to his honours.

As it is the 27 year-old Russian has become another sad statistic of those killed on the roads in Russia instead of looking for a third attempt to win the elusive Gold at Rio 2016.

Below is his last gold medal winning performance in the 2011 World Championships



Besik Serodinovich Kudukhov 15 August 1986 – 29 December 2013

The Yorkshire Grand Depart

As I've written before in the 5th July 2014 the Tour de France will be coming to Yorkshire and the three stages that will start the race in Britain that year will not disappoint.

There is no prologue so the peleton will be straight into a road racing stage when they pull out of Leeds. They will head off North off through Otley, Ilkley and Skipton towards the Yorkshire Dales. Then it will roll back south again, around Ripon and finish in Harrogate. Mark Cavendish's mother lives in Harrogate so that might be a nice way to honour here with a British win on stage one on British soil.

Stage 2 will roll out of York and head for Sheffield. Heading off West to Knaresborough,  then south through Keighley, Brontë country as they pass Haworth and Hebden Bridge. It also takes in Holmfirth famous for The Last of the Summer Wine and contains eights climbs many of them in the last 60km.

Stage three then heads off from Cambridge to London. It will enter London from the East via Epping Forrest, visit the Queen Elizabeth II Park (aka The Olympic Park). The Tour always finishes with some shots of the peleton racing along one famous river, this three day excursion to London will add another. From Stratford it will go along the Embankment past Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey before ending where else in an Olympic themed day but on the Mall. With that route it is likely to follow the end of the London Marathon to make it's way to the finish. So should be a sprinters finish hopefully this time Mark Cavendish will get to the front at the right time, it could well be one win in the year that he equals or beat Eddy Merckx's record of 34 stages wins. He is currently on 23 and when his is the team focus he can manage 5-6 wins a Tour.

Yorkshire man and Sky rider Ben Swift says:

"It looks like a really great route. Yorkshire is going to more than to do the Tour justice. 

"The fans are going to be amazing and if we get a nice bit of sunshine, it is going to be beautiful.

"Growing up in and around Sheffield, that's where I rode my bike, but I never thought that's where the Tour de France would one day be.

"I'm also familiar with the North Yorkshire roads and there are a lot of really interesting climbs up there, too." 

British Bronze in World Wrestling Championships

The one woman team that ended up representing Team GB on the Olympic wrestling mat has put the disappointment of her first round defeat at home behind her in the World Championships in Edmonton, Canada.

Olga Butkevych, who gained her British Citizenship earlier this year, defeated Kyoko Shimada of Japan 5-2 in the bronze medal bout to become the first British woman to secure a medal in the World Championships. The Ukrainian born wrestler had been brought in as a sparring partner to the GB programme in 2007 but ended up becoming the contender in the 59kg category lifting European bronze last year.

To manage to get the same gold at the Worlds is some achievement especially as she was in the tougher half of the draw. She is the only shining light of a programme that failed in its Olympic target (even though she was the only hope of acquiring the top eight finish required).

The Head Coach Nikolai Kornieiev who saw a couple of his athletes fail drug tests in the run up to the Games is leaving the programme. But hopefully this bronze from Butkevych may produce some legacy going forward and see some home grown talent aim to reach her level ahead of Rio 2016.