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    Friday Nearly Day For Team GB

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    Team GB was on track to achieve their best medal performance in over 100 years at the 2012 London Olympics, though they narrowly trailed Russia in total medals. While several athletes won bronze medals in various events, there was also disappointment as the men's 4x100m relay team was disqualified in the final and some individual athletes suffered earlier-than-expected losses. Heading into the final two days of competition, Team GB remained poised to finish third overall in gold medals won.

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    Friday Nearly Day For Team GB

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    Team GB was on track to achieve their best medal performance in over 100 years at the 2012 London Olympics, though they narrowly trailed Russia in total medals. While several athletes won bronze medals in various events, there was also disappointment as the men's 4x100m relay team was disqualified in the final and some individual athletes suffered earlier-than-expected losses. Heading into the final two days of competition, Team GB remained poised to finish third overall in gold medals won.

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    Team GB was on track to achieve their best medal performance in over 100 years at the 2012 London Olympics, though they narrowly trailed Russia in total medals. While several athletes won bronze medals in various events, there was also disappointment as the men's 4x100m relay team was disqualified in the final and some individual athletes suffered earlier-than-expected losses. Heading into the final two days of competition, Team GB remained poised to finish third overall in gold medals won.

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    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    28 views2 pages

    Friday Nearly Day For Team GB

    Uploaded by

    api-90487491
    Team GB was on track to achieve their best medal performance in over 100 years at the 2012 London Olympics, though they narrowly trailed Russia in total medals. While several athletes won bronze medals in various events, there was also disappointment as the men's 4x100m relay team was disqualified in the final and some individual athletes suffered earlier-than-expected losses. Heading into the final two days of competition, Team GB remained poised to finish third overall in gold medals won.

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    Friday Nearly day for Team GB

    Team GB's athletes on Friday closed in on third place in the London 2012 medal table, their best performance for 104 years, despite mixed fortunes on the penultimate full day of sporting action. Although narrowly behind Russia in terms of overall medals, with strong remaining hopes for both nations in the final two days, Great Britain is virtually assured of third spot in terms of gold medals won. Third place exceeds the fourth place secured in Beijing, itself considered a huge achievement at the time. It was another rare day without a gold, but among the additional medals racked up was a bronze for the women's hockey team to ease the heartache of losing in the semi-finals earlier this week. They beat New Zealand 3-1 to match their best performance in an Olympics and were congratulated in the dressing room by the omnipresent Duchess Of Cambridge, who had watched from the stands with Dame Kelly Holmes and rowing gold medallist Kath Grainger. But while the narrative of these Olympics for those in a Stella McCartney-designed GB tracksuit has largely been one of unalloyed success, Friday also showcased the flipside to the soaring highs. Adam Gemili, the British teenage sprinting sensation who appeared as if from nowhere to qualify for the Games, was involved in a bungled changeover in the final leg of the 4 x 100m relay that led to the team being disqualified. The disappointment was compounded by the fact that the team finished second in their heat behind a Jamaican team that featured Yohan Blake (Usain Bolt was rested) in the fastest time in the world this year. Their big rivals from the US also made it through to Saturday's final. Although Team GB have defied expectations at almost every turn in London, the sense of regret at failing to get the baton around the track safely felt more familiar. "We really could have been in contention in the final if we'd made it. In a stadium like this it's hard to hear," said a disconsolate Gemili. And while GB Taekwondo was celebrating its first ever Olympic gold medal from 19-year-old Jade Jones late on Thursday night, there was heartbreak for Sarah Stevenson the following day. The world champion fought back from a serious knee injury in record time to be at her fourth Games but suffered a surprise first round loss to the American Paige McPherson. The Doncaster player had endured a traumatic 18 months in which she lost both her parents and underwent intensive rehabilitation to heal her knee in time for the Games. Stevenson, who read the Olympic oath on behalf of all the 10,500 competing athletes on the night of the opening ceremony, said she had given her all and had no regrets. "I went out there really, really focused and I wanted to win and wanted to be here and to fight. This is the Olympics, this is not life and death. We should be here to have fun and to go for it, give everything, and that's what I did." There may be awkward questions for GB Taekwondo after Lutalo Muhammad, selected over world number one Aaron Cook after a protracted and controversial process that involved a series of challenges, went out in his quarter-final and was forced into the repechage in the search for a bronze. Shanaze Reade, the BMX rider who went into the Beijing Games as a hot favourite in a new Olympic sport but crashed on the final bend in the final, also finished outside the medals. Since her Beijing trauma Reade has suffered with injuries but hoped a noisy home crowd that featured the obligatory politicians (David Cameron and George Osborne) and celebrities (David Beckham and his three sons) would inspire her. Despite impressing in the heats, a poor start in the final left her struggling to catch up and Reade finished sixth behind the Colombian Mariana Pajon.

    Liam Phillips crashed in the men's final, but having recovered from a broken collarbone earlier this year said he had done well just to be at the Games. "I've defied all expectation to be here let alone be a contender, so I should be pleased with my performance even though I'm disappointed now," he said afterwards. Earlier this week British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan said the growing number of athletes for whom silver represented crushing failure was evidence of how far British sport had come over the past eight years. There was more evidence for his theory on Friday off the Dorset coast, as Saskia Clarke and Heather Mills missed out on gold in the 470 class. Mills appeared close to tears afterwards: "We were both gutted. I felt I had let everyone down and got a bit emotional, which was probably a bit stupid. Sport's hard, the margin between winning and losing is tiny. We made a tiny mistake and got punished so hard for it." In the men's 470 Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell had a different take on silver after narrowly failing to overhaul their Australian rivals. "We're happy, happy boys. We're in paradise. It's not the gold, but there's plenty of time. We're young boys," said Patience. The results mean that Team GB finish the Weymouth regatta with five medals, at the top end of the target range set before the Games but behind the Australians for the first time in four Olympics. Of those five, only Ben Ainslie's fourth gold medal at consecutive Games was of the most sought-after hue, with the rest silver. Performance director Stephen Park said he was satisfied but not ecstatic with the return from a sport that has been one of Britain's most consistent performers over recent Games. "We're conscious the results could have been better. We had two gold medal opportunities today. We had a gold medal opportunity in the Star. It could easily have been four," he said. Mo Farah may add to the gold medal tally on Saturday in the Olympic Stadium as he aims to complete a 5,000m and 10,000m double that London 2012 organising committee chairman Lord Coe said would make him perhaps the greatest British athlete of all time. Farah, who won one of three golds during a magical hour for British athletics exactly a week earlier, fears he will now be a marked man in the shorter race after getting buffeted during the heats. British boxers Luke Campbell, Fred Evans and Anthony Joshua are guaranteed at least silver medals after semi-final wins on Friday. Their teammate Anthony Agogo had to settle for a bronze medal after losing his semi-final to Esquiva Florentino.

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