CHELMSFORD’S Ian Stannard is in the five-man British road cycling team that will try to help Mark Cavendish win the gold medal tomorrow.

Stannard, 25, is the current British road race champion, and will join Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and David Millar in a four-man support team for Cavendish.

Another Essex athlete, Chloe Rogers, from Great Dunmow, will get her Olympic campaign under way on Sunday.

Rogers is part of the Great Britain hockey team and will hope to play some part in their opening match against Japan at 7pm on Sunday night. Andie Edwards, who coached Rogers as a youngster at Braintree Hockey Club, said: “She was with me in my coaching group when she was in the under-13s. “I remember Chloe very well and recall that team she was in getting to the Eastern regional finals one year, but I don’t think they actually won anything major. “Her skills were excellent on the ball and her determination to achieve made her stick out a mile. She was far above the rest of her peer group and that shows by what she has gone on to achieve.”