British medal watch
One family from Yorkshire won two Olympic medals early this afternoon, as Alastair Brownlee won the gold medal in the men’s triathlon, and his brother Jonathan took bronze. The pair excelled throughout the race, amongst the leaders leaving the water after the swimming section and staying in the leading group throughout the cycling. The running saw the competitors start to fragment, with Alastair streaking away at the front. Jonathan was forced to serve a 15 second penalty during the run for a technical infringement earlier in the race, which robbed him of the chance of challenging for gold or silver. Spain’s Javier Gomez took the silver medal.Team GB added another equestrian gold in the afternoon as they won the team dressage event. The trio of Charlotte Dujardin, Laura Bechtolsheimer and Carl Hester put in another set of top class scores to beat out the German team for first place. All three remain in contention for individual medals.
There was another incredible day in the velodrome as two of cycling’s greats took their final bows at the Olympic Games. Sir Chris Hoy has said he plans to retire after the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, while Victoria Pendleton has said London 2012 is her last competition. Both came away with medals on the final day of track cycling. But it was Laura Trott who got the day up and running with gold in the omnium. Trott went into the final event knowing she needed to finish above America’s Sarah Hammer by three places, and did just that by winning the event while Hammer finished fourth. Pendleton was up next, but could only achieve silver as Australia’s Anna Meares took gold in the women’s individual sprint. Pendleton had won the first race, but the win was handed to Meares due to an infringement by Pendleton. Meares than won a tactical second race to secure the overall win. But Chris Hoy got the team back on track with gold in the men’s keirin. Hoy took to the front with two and half laps remaining and, despite temporarily falling into second, surged back to the front to take the win. Hoy ends his Olympic career with six gold medals and one silver.
Nick Dempsey won a silver medal in the men’s windsurfing. Dempsey went into today’s final race needing only to finish in the top six to secure the silver medal, and he did so with ease ending the race in third position. The Netherlands’ Dorian van Rijsselberge took gold. Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell in the men’s 470 class are now guaranteed at least a silver medal. They are in competition with Matthew Belcher and Malcolm Page of Australia for gold. The Australians have a narrow leading going into the medal race.
Robbie Grabarz took a bronze medal in the men’s high jump, after three jumpers could not be separated in joint third place. Ivan Ukhov jumped clear at 2.38m to take the title, with Erik Kynard of the USA taking silver, and Derek Drouin of Canada and Mutaz Essa Barshin of Qatar also taking a bronze medal each.
Great Britain’s men’s hockey team has joined the women in the semi-finals of that tournament. They needed a win against Spain to guarantee progress after Pakistan were defeated earlier in the day, and they achieved just that with a 1-1 result.
Top news
Australia will take on the USA in the semi-finals of the women’s basketball competition. The American’s trounced Canada in their quarter-final, whereas the Aussies had a closer game against China. Russia scraped through to the semis with a 66-63 win over Turkey, and will face France who also won a close match-up, against the Czech Republic. In women’s handball, all four quarter-finals were close encounters decided by three points or less. The semi-final lines up sees Norway take on South Korea and Spain facing Montenegro.The USA is guaranteed the gold and silver medal in the women’s beach volleyball as both pairs of its pairs in the tournament reached the gold medal match. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Smith have won the last two Olympic tournaments, but to make a third victory they will have to get past compatriots April Ross and Jennifer Kessy. In the men’s event, Brazil’s Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego have reached the final, and will take on the German pair of Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann.
The men’s hockey semi-finals will see Australia face Germany and Great Britain take on the Neterlands. Australia trounced Pakistan to confirm their place in the top of Pool A. The Netherlands have remained the only team in the competition with a 100% record after victory over South Korea.
China took gold in the women’s team event table tennis. They defeated Japan 3-0 in the final. Singapore took bronze after defeating South Korea in the play-off. Brazil and Japan will contest the first semi-final in the women’s volleyball after victories today. The USA has also qualified for the semis and will face South Korea after they came from behind to defeat Italy.
The USA and Spain will fight it out for gold in the women’s water polo after both teams came through their semi-finals with victory. Both teams are guaranteed a medal, whereas the semi-final losers, Australia and Hungary, will have to battle for bronze.
Germany’s Robert Harting took gold in the discus with a throw of 68.27m. Also in the athletics, Australia’s performance at the Games has markedly improved as Sally Pearson collected the gold medal in the 100m hurdles in an Olympic record time. Meanwhile controversial Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi, who was originally disqualified from the Games before being reinstated for not trying in the 800m, took gold in the men’s 1500m in a dominant performance.
Mexico is guaranteed an Olympic medal in men’s football after a come-from-behind victory over Japan. Yuki Otso opened the scoring after 12 minutes, but goals by Marco Fabian after half an hour, and Oribe Peralta after a little more than an hour put Mexico ahead, a lead they would not relinquish. Javier Cortes added a third in injury time to complete the scoring at 3-1. In the final they will face Brazil who cruised to victory over South Korea 3-0, thanks to a first half goal from Romulo and two goals in quick succession either side of the hour mark from Leandro Damiao. This means the bronze medal match will be an all-Asian affair.
Unsung Hero
Marina Alabau won Spain’s first gold medal of the Games in the RS:X windsurfing discipline. Alabau led heading into the medal race, and won that race to ensure that she would take home the gold.Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina of Russia became the first gold medal winners in synchronised swimming at London 2012, winning the women’s duet free routine competition.
Disappointment
Phillips Idowu crashed out of qualifying in the men’s triple jump after failing to record a jump long enough to place him in the top twelve, who qualify for the final. Idowu has had various problems coming into the Games, suffering from niggling injuries but also having a war of words with UK Athletics. Women’s javelin hope Goldie Sayers also failed to qualify for her final. An elbow injury flared up in practice and Sayers recorded three no throws to be eliminated. She has vowed to continue on to Rio 2016.China’s Liu Xiang, winner of gold in the men’s 110m hurdles in Athens in 2004, pulled up before the second hurdle with an Achilles injury in this morning’s heat. Xiang had to be helped from the track and is now out of the competition. Xiang also missed out on a medal at his home Olympics, Beijing 2008, due to injury. He reached the final, but pulled out at the last minute.
Other news
Seven Cameroonian athletes have gone AWOL, Olympic officials have said. It is thought they may be intending to remain in Europe rather than go home with the colleagues.Alastair Brownlee has criticised the penalty which saw his brother Jonathan drop gown to third in the men’s triathlon earlier today.
And finally…
British pole vaulter Holly Bleasdale put in a disappointing performance in her final yesterday, finishing sixth. However her day did take a turn for the better, as she revealed her boyfriend proposed to her after the final, and she accepted.Updated medal table
China has extended its lead over the USA to four gold medals. Great Britain, on 22 golds, has now won more gold medals at this Olympics than in Beijing in 2008. Team GB has now also won gold medals in more different disciplines than the USA, and excluding swimming (in which the USA won 16 golds) Team GB would be comfortably ahead of their American rivals.Interestingly, after today’s events Yorkshire has now won 5 gold medals which, if it were a country, would place it 11th, ahead of Australia, Japan and Spain. The Brownlee family on its own sits equal 37th alongside Lithuania and ahead of Mexico, Serbia and Argentina.
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