British medal watch
Great Britain had a brilliant morning at the rowing, winning
three medals, including two gold. The men’s four beat off a challenge from
Australia to get Great Britain’s day off to the best possible start with
another gold medal. They opened up a lead over the Aussies in the second 500m
and maintained it for the rest of the race to ease to victory. Three of the
team won gold in the same event at Beijing in 2008, and retained their crown at
London 2012. Sophie Hosking and Kate Copeland streaked away to win gold in the
women’s lightweight double sculls. World champions Greece led early on but
Great Britain had levelled by half way and never looked back, winning the race
by more than a length. Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter overcome a mechanical
failure in their boat to claim silver. On the first start, the Purchase’s seat
malfunctioned, but fortunately the rules allow the race to be restarted. The
fault was fixed, and in the second attempt at the race they were beaten their
main rivals from Denmark. The Danes made a late charge in the last 500m after
the Brits had lead throughout, and recorded the victory.
But the golden morning was followed by a golden evening at
the Olympic Stadium. Jessica Ennis set a new British record for total points in
the heptathlon on her way to gold. Earlier in the day she had completed the
long jump and javelin, two of her weaker events. But not only did she minimise
the damage, but she extended her lead with a long jump of near her personal
best, and a javelin throw which exceeded it. Already a shoe-in for gold, she
went on to win her 800m heat to claim gold. The night got better soon
afterwards, as Greg Rutherford claimed victory in the men’s long jump.
Rutherford was an outsider for a medal coming into the final, but took an early
lead with a jump of 8.21m. Amazingly, he later extended that to 8.31m meaning
he actually had the two longest jumps of the competition, a well-deserved gold.
While Rutherford claimed gold, Mo Farah had begun his 10,000m and the
atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium was electric. Mo was amongst the leading
group throughout and was first to kick-on in the last lap. Nobody posed a
significant challenge and the crowd carried Mo to the finish for a truly
incredible win.
In the afternoon, Great Britain had claimed another gold in
the track cycling as the women’s team pursuiters set two world records (in addition
to one yesterday) in the two runs today. In the final they comfortably beat out
the Australians, recording the third gold in the velodrome for Team GB. The
only event completed so far that Team GB hasn’t won is the women’s team sprint,
in which they were disqualified after recording a world record. Jason Kenny is
in the last eight of the men’s sprint. He qualified fastest overall and won his
first two head-to-head encounters. Ed Clancy sits in fourth place overnight in
the men’s omnium, a new event for London 2012 which incorporates a series of
different track cycling disciplines. He is well positioned, with his weakest
events out of the way.
Andy Murray will compete in two finals tomorrow, and is
guaranteed at worst two silver medals, after winning in the mixed doubles
semi-final with partner Laura Robson. They won a Championship tie-breaker
against their German opponents to complete the victory.
Top news
The USA team won gold in the men’s 4x100m as Michael Phelps
claimed his 22nd Olympic medal, and 18th gold, in what he
has said is his final Games. Phelps had overcome a disappointing start to the
Games, missing out on a medal in the 400m individual medley, to win four gold
medals. The Americans beat out Japan and Australia. In the men’s 1500m, China’s
Sun Yang obliterated both the field and the world record as he claimed the gold
medal. The USA took gold in the women’s 4x100m medley, taking the victory while
setting a brand new world record.
American Serena Williams eased to victory over Maria
Sharapova in the women’s singles final. Williams defeated her opponent 6-0,
6-1. It was a good day for the USA at Wimbledon. As the Bryan brothers also
took gold in the men’s doubles.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica is the Olympic women’s
100m champion. Fraser-Pryce won a close race to claim the gold medal. Usain
Bolt, Yohan Blake, Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin all qualified for the men’s 100m
semi-finals with ease. Ryan Bailey was the quickest in the second round,
running 9.88secs. Dwayne Chambers, James Dasaolu and Adam Gemili of Team GB
have also qualified.
Unsung Heroes
The Lithuanian men’s basketball team became the first to
seriously challenge the American ‘Dream Team’ suffering a narrow 99-94 defeat.
Lithuania led in the fourth quarter but the NBA MVP from last year, LeBron
James, came good at the end of the match to assure the USA took the win.
Disappointment
Lashawn Merritt, from the USA, is out of the men’s 400m.
Merritt won the gold medal in that event in Beijing, but pulled up with the
recurrence of an Achilles injury during today’s heat.
Helen Jenkins could only finish 5th in the women’s
triathlon. Jenkins was behind after the swimming but joined the leading group
during the cycling section. She stayed near the front throughout the running,
but during the final lap the leaders stretched out more and Jenkins was left
behind. Switzerland’s Nicola Spiring and Sweden’s Lisa Norden crossed the line
almost simultaneously, but Spiring was awarded the gold.
Team GB’s interest in the football is over after the men’s
team followed the women fro last night in losing a quarter-final. Sunderland’s
Ji Dong-won opened the scoring for South Korea, before Aaron Ramsey levelled it
from the spot. Ramsey missed another penalty as the game finished 1-1 after
normal time, and after extra time. The penalty shoot-out saw eight successful
attempts, including another from Ramsey and conversions from Tom Cleverley,
Craig Dawson and Ryan Giggs. However a miss from Daniel Sturridge gave South
Korea the chance to win and they made no mistake to confirm a 5-4 triumph.
Other news
Ed Clancy has thanked the support
in the velodrome which lifted him and his team-mates to claim gold in the men’s
team pursuit.
Hope Powell, coach of the England and Great Britain women’s
football teams, has
called for Team GB to enter the women’s football competition for the 2016
Games in Rio de Janeiro.
And finally…
The Royal Mail has a busy day tomorrow printing stamps and
painting post boxes. They are making stamps for every British gold medal, and
painting one post box gold in each gold medal winner’s home town. That means
tomorrow they will be printing 6 brand new stamps, and painting 12 post boxes
gold.
Updated medal table
Great Britain took charge of the medal table today, almost
doubling the number of gold medals won so far. Team GB now has 14 golds, 7
silvers and 8 bronze. Team GB is a clear third, behind USA and China in 1st
and 2nd, and well ahead of South Korea and France behind.
Tomorrow’s big events
The flagship event of the Games reaches its end tomorrow as
the fastest man over 100m is crowned. But Great Britain has gold medal
opportunities in the sailing, where Ben Ainslie in the finn and Iain Percy and
Adnrew Simpson in the star have their medal races. Louis Smith is Britain’s
great gold medal hope in gymnastics in the men’s pommel horse final, plus Andy
Murray looks to make up for his crushing Wimbledon loss to Roger Federer by
beating the Swiss to an Olympic gold medal.
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