Olympics

British competitors won 19 golds in Beijing to finish fourth in the medal table with a haul of 47 medals in total.
I didn't watch the last few days of the Olympics but Britain's James DeGale secured our nineteenth gold by winning the middleweight final. The successful medallists came home in Boeing with a specially painted gold nose!


The outstanding performances - in terms of gold medals - were from Chris Hoy with three and Becky Adlington with two.

Our 18th Gold

Tim Brabants powered to a superb victory in the final of the men's K1 1000m to win Great Britain's 18th gold medal of the Olympics. The 31-year-old dominated the race from the start, finishing almost a boat's length ahead of the defending champion, Norway's Erik Veraas Larsen. Brabants crossed the finishing line in 3 min 26.323 sec to win Britain's first ever canoeing Olympic gold medal.



Shanaze Reade crashed out of the BMX final while in second place on the last bend - she wasn't going to settle for silver. It was gold or nothing. Nothing - except a possible broken hand. But at the age of 19 "There's always London 2012...."



Meanwhile, Heather Fell got an excellent silver in the modern pentathlon.

Have you got it?

Have you got it? I’ve got it.


Oops, no I haven’t. If it wasn’t the USA I’d feel sorry for them....



But then... We passed the baton ouitside the yellow line... Or was it on... the debate continues as I write this....

So far, so brilliant...

Iain Percy and Andrew (Bart) Simpson have won GB another Gold Medal in the sailing – in the final race of all at Qingdao in the Star Class. This has been the best Olympic regatta in history for the British team.


As I head off to Exeter to stay with Helen and Ian the medal tally stands at 17 Gold, 11 Silver and 11 Bronze for GB. we are still third in the table.

We never had it so good..

In 1996 ‘we’ (i.e. our representatives in Atlanta) came home with just one Gold medal. So far we have now got 16. Absolutely brilliant.



British cyclist Chris Hoy claimed a superb hat-trick of gold medals after beating team-mate Jason Kenny in the sprint. Kenny’s silver was an addition to his gold in the team sprint. The 32-year-old becomes the first Briton in 100 years to win three golds at the same Olympics, after his earlier success in the team sprint and keirin. The Scot was pushed to the limit in the first race by his 20-year-old opponent, edging the opening duel in the best-of-three by half a wheel's length. Hoy dominated the second race, giving a victory salute as he crossed the line.


Victoria Pendleton won Britain's sixth track cycling gold of the 2008 Olympics with victory over Australia's Anna Meares in the women's sprint final. The 27-year-old was in a class of her own, winning the first two races of the best of three, with relative ease. She led out in the first race before outsprinting her opponent and then gave Meares the chance to lead in the next but the result was even more emphatic.


In the Bird’s Nest stadium our high jumper Germaine Mason took the stadium by storm and gained an unexpected and very welcome silver medal.



This was shortly followed by a Gold when Christine Ohuruogu's stunning 400m victory brought Team GB's gold medal haul to 16 as Britain sealed their best Olympic performance for a century.


The Americans commented the other day that we only won our medals sitting down – a bit of jealousy over our sailing and cycling records, I think. We most definitely proved them wrong the last couple of days... (And one could argue that they win all their medals in the water - when we don't beat them!)



Britain's Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten took silver and bronze in the 10km swim.



Bryony Shaw took the Bronze medal in the Women’s RS:X wind-surfing medal race at the end of a very long week. An emotional Bryony promptly jumped in the water and was dragged into the BBC boat where she was 'over the moon' - "I am just so happy. It was such a hard race and I had such a hard week. It's the best thing in the world. I love my mum and dad so much, they are so supportive. And my boyfriend Greg. My coach Tom is such a legend. I am so (unacceptable word for morning television) happy." That was like Gwyneth Paltrow but with genuine emotion," said BBC presenter Adrian Chiles.

Cyclists demoralise the opposition

The Track Cycling Men's Team Pursuit gold medal final was held at Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing, China, on August 18, 2008. The British team claimed the title in this event and broke the world record with a time of 3:53.314. Our cycling team has just totally demoralised the other countries.



Gold Medal thirteen for team GB came with Paul Goodison in the Laser class sailing.

Super Sunday

By Sunday lunchtime (our time) Britain was third in the Gold Medal table with 11 golds. Three blondes in a boat got the gold in the Yngling class.



Ben Ainsley got a third career gold in the Finn class sailing.



The lightweight scullers (Zak Purchase and Mark Hunter) got a brilliant gold in their little boat and the Woman’s quad got silver with which they were devastatingly disappointed but it seemed like good going to me. It’s all about expectations.



Rebecca Romero got the gold in the women’s pursuit cycling with Wendy Houvenhaghel getting the silver. Rebecca was only the second ever woman to get a medal in two entirely different disciplines in the summer Olympics – she was part of the silver Women’s quad scullers who won silver in 2004.



Mara Yamaguchi came sixth in the marathon but the unfit Paula Radcliffe had to be content with finishing. Liz Yelling was just behind her des[pite a fall very early in the race which left her bruised and with cracked ribs.

The men's team pursuit cyclists made it into the Final beating their own world record time in the process - so another gold or silver has to be earned tomorrow.



If Michael Phelps were a separate country he would be in seventh place in the medal table - as it is his eight golds are the difference between the USA and ourselves at the moment.

Olympics – Britain’s First medals

Nicole Cooke won the Women's road race in awful conditions

The women have kicked off the Olympics well with Nicole Cooke winning gold in the cycling road race yesterday and Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson taking Gold and Bronze respectively in the swimming – 400m freestyle at the Water Cube. This is Britain’s first women’s swimming gold since the days of Anita Lonsborough in the 60s.
I’m also enjoying the fact that the host nation are currently leading the medal table with 9 golds in Diving, Weightlifting, Judo and Shooting. They will soon be overtaken but it’s good that they’ve had a fair start.




Adlington and Jackson celebrate in the pool



Adlington shows off her Gold Medal

Olympic Openers

U.S. Swimmer Michael Phelps demolished his own world record to take a first gold on Sunday in the quest for an unprecedented eight wins. Listening to hip-hop on headphones as he walked to the block, Phelps went on to win the 400 metres individual medley at China's futuristic and full-to-capacity Water Cube. His time was 1.41 seconds quicker than a previous best he set just six weeks ago.

After the first race of a thrilling morning at the pool, Phelps raised his arms to celebrate triumph in what he calls his weakest event. He was watched by President George Bush and cheered by flag-waving compatriots and thousands of Chinese. Even if the lanky 23-year-old with the perfect swimming physique wins only half his eight race competitions, he will hold more Olympic gold medals than any other athlete. But he looks in great shape to match his own six golds at Athens 2004 then maybe go one further than Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven wins at one Games.

After Phelps thrilled the Water Cube, Australia's Stephanie Rice followed suit to smash the world record and win the same 400m individual medley event for women.

Park Tae-hwan won the men's 400m freestyle to give South Korea a second gold while Zhang Lin became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming medal when he grabbed the silver.
With 14 golds being awarded on Sunday, the hosts were well-placed to add to their first-day tally of two, with favourites in shooting, fencing, judo and diving.



Chinese diving queen Guo Jingjing, the supermodel and local airhead, steps up to the springboard to defend her 3-metre synchronized title. China dominates world diving and has a reasonable chance of winning all eight golds in the discipline. Chinese fans are also focused on Sunday's basketball blockbuster between the hosts, led by 7ft 6in NBA player Yao Ming, against a star-studded United States still smarting from their bronze in Athens 2004. It could be the most-viewed sporting contest ever in China.

Women cyclists face a tough but shorter road race on the same route between Beijing's Forbidden City and the Great Wall that the men had on Saturday. A third of the men withdrew from their race, blaming suffocating heat, humidity and pollution. The agonies endured by the men's cyclists bode ill for other endurance athletes, such as marathon runners.