Friday 3 August 2012

Olympics - day 7

Keeps getting better and better - 5 medals on Wednesday, 6 yesterday, and 7 today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

In today's round up:

  • Two cycling medals on offer in the velodrome, and two golds for Team GB - one for Pendleton in the Keirin, making amends for yesterday, and one for the men's pursuit team who took the Aussies apart in the final with a new world record.
  • Three medals today in the rowing bringing us to six for these Olympics at Eton Dorney (equalling the Beijing rowing total with one more day of rowing finals to go). The highlight has to be seeing Katherine Grainger (along with Anna Watkins) finally get the gold she deserves so much after silver at the last three games. Bronze for the men's pair and for Alan Campbell in the single sculls, who was properly tired and emotional after his race.
  • Judo medals on consecutive days with Karina Bryant taking bronze. No medals in judo in the last twelve years and then 2 in 24 hours.
  • Adlington got another bronze in the swimming, making her our most successful Olympic swimmer ever.
  • Ennis had a great first day in the heptathlon. The high jump and shot put were both OK, but her first event of the day, the 100m hurdles, was just amazing. She ran 12.54s - equalling the time that won the 100m hurdles individual event in Beijing! A strong finish to the day as well with a PB in the 200m, and Ennis leads on 4158 points, 184 in front of her nearest challenger.
  • An amazing day in the men's tennis semi-finals at Wimbledon. Federer and Del Potro slugged it out in an epic match, Federer finally coming through 19-17 in the third. Eventually, Murray and Djokovic came out for their match, and Murray did it in straight sets, and will battle Federer on Sunday for gold in the final. A repeat of the Wimbledon final last month, but hopefully with a different result this time!
  • In the hockey, the men's team beat Pakistan, and so after three games are equal top of their group with Australia. (So want Team GB to get through to the semi-finals and to get drawn in the game we are going to see!)
  • In the sailing, Ainslie had a good day, finishing 6th and 1st in the two races, and is only two points behind the Dane going into Sunday's double points medal race. Provided he beats the Dane on Sunday and comes no lower than 7th, the gold is his. In the men's star, we're in an even stronger position, first by eight points with just Sunday's race to go.
  • The only sad news of the day was in the women's football, as we went out in the quarter-finals to Canada.
Wow, what a day, and I can't wait to see what Super Saturday will bring ...

TEAM GB
Today: 3 gold, 4 bronze
So far: 8 gold, 6 silver, 8 bronze
Medal table position: 4th