British medal watch
Charlotte Dujardin put in sensational performance to claim
gold in the individual dressage competition. Dujardin and her horse, Valegro,
went last and scored over 90%, edging out a Dutch rider in second. Laura
Bechtolsheimer won the bronze medal, while Carl Hester came fifth. Dujardin has
come a long way, originally a stable girl whose potential was seen by team mate
Hester. The pair have worked together, and Valegro is owned by Hester. And the
work has now paid off twice in a week, with the trio having won team gold on
Tuesday. Dujardin performed her medal winning routine to the tune of a number
of patriotic anthems, including The Great Escape theme, Live and Let Die by the
Paul McCartney & Wings, Land of Hope and Glory and I Vow to Thee My Country, and received a
standing ovation after her routine from the Greenwich Park crown. Bechtolsheimer
performed to a Lion King medley.
Yorkshire won another gold medal as Leeds’ Nicola Adams
dominated her opponent, the world champion Ren Cancan from China, in the women’s
flyweight boxing final. Adams became the first woman ever to win a gold medal
in boxing at the Olympics. She looked like winning right from the off, and
never trailed in points. At the end of the match, she led 16-7 for a
comfortable victory. She even managed to knock Ren to the ground in the second
round. Jade Jones has won Great Britain’s first ever gold medal in taekwondo,
overcoming China’s Yuzhuo Hou in the final of the women’s under 57kg category.
Jones won the bout 6-4, with a strong second round providing the basis for her
historic win.
Top news
Usain Bolt has become the first man in history to win back-to-back
Olympic sprint doubles after coming home first in the 200m. Bolt clocked a time
of 19.32secs, coming home ahead of Yohan Blake, winning his second silver
behind Bolt of the Games. Warren Weir took bronze to complete a Jamaican 1-2-3.
Bolt’s time was just outside that which won him the 200m in Beijing, 0.13secs
slower than his own world record.
Also at the track, Kenya’s David Rudisha set a new world
record in winning gold in the men’s 800m, annihilating the field in a strong
display. Ashton Eaton of the USA won gold in the decathlon, ahead of world champion
and fellow American Trey Hardee. Another American, Christian Taylor, won the
gold in men’s triple jump to go alongside the world championship crown he won
alst year.
Ireland’s Katie Taylor took boxing gold in an electric ExCel
Arena this afternoon. Taylor had dominated her opponents so far in the
competition, but this final was a much tighter affair. She trailed by a point
at half-way, but in the third round turned up the heat and opened up a lead.
Russian opponent Sofya Ochigava had no response as Taylor won Ireland’s second
medal, and first gold, of London 2012. It is the first Irish gold since Michelle
Smith won three in swimming at Atlanta in 1996.
South Africa’s men’s 4x400m relay team has been given a reprieve
and will enter Friday’s final, giving Oscar Pistorius the opportunity to achieve
an Olympic first. The team had been knocked-out in the semi-final after a
collision with a Kenyan runner saw Ofentse Mogawane fall on the track. But
after an appeal, it was determined that the incident was the Kenyan runner’s
fault. As a result, South Africa will take Kenya’s place in the final.
An entertaining encounter in the women’s football final
between the USA and Japan saw the Americans come out as 2-1 victors to claim
the gold medal. The USA took a 2-0 lead over world champions Japan, who pulled
one back to set up a grandstand finish. The Americans managed to hold on to
continue their domination of Olympic women’s football, having won three of the
previous four events (only missing out on gold in 2000 when Norway took the
crown). Earlier, an injury-time goal saw Canada overcome France in the third-place
play-off and claim the bronze medal. France had outplayed their opponents
during the match, but Diana Matheson made them pay for a lack of ruthlessness
by converting at the back post shortly before full-time.
Disappointment
Great Britain’s men’s hockey team will play-off against
Australia after suffering a 9-2 hammering at the hands of the Netherlands.
Britain went two down in the first half before pulling one back, but then the
Dutch went on the rampage scoring seven in a row before Britain scored a late
consolation. The Netherlands take on Germany for gold, while Great Britain will
win bronze if they can overcome the Aussies.
Kerri-Anne Payne just missed out on a medal in the women’s
10km marathon swim. The swim, which took almost two hours to complete and took
place in the Serpentine, is one of the most challenging events of the Games.
The race ended in a sprint finish, with Payne edged out by less than a second, and
is without a medal. Eva Risztov of Hungary took the gold medal.
Other news
Great Britain’s Tom Stalker, who was adjudged to have lost
his boxing light-welterweight quarter-final to Munkh-Erdine Uranchimeg of
Mongolia, has had an
appeal against the result rejected.
And finally…
Two of Great Britain’s most successful Olympians at London
2012 have
announced that they are an item. Laura Trott, who won gold in the women’s
team pursuit and omnium events, and Jason Kenny, who won men’s team sprint and
individual sprint gold, chose to reveal their relationship now that the
pressure of the Games is over. Kenny also won a gold and a silver in Beijing.
Robert Harting, the German discus gold medallist, had
an eventful night after winning his medal. Harting ran the 100m hurdles and
tried to take a part of the Olympic cauldron before leaving the stadium, then
found himself getting drunk on a German cruise liner. His Olympic accreditation
was then stolen after he had passed out.
Updated medal table
Great Britain is back to winning ways, and has now accrued
25 gold medals. The USA has stormed ahead of China on total medals, now leading
90-80, while also have a two medal advantage in terms of golds. Germany has
become the sixth nation into double figures of gold. Ireland, who appeared on
the medal table yesterday after a show jumping bronze, has climbed again with Katie
Taylor’s gold. Australia has made their first appearance in the top ten. 80
nations have now won at least one medal.
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