Friday 3 August 2012

Eight Golds As First Week Concludes

With the first week of the Olympics coming to a close, Team GB currently sit fourth in the medals table with another three gold medals accumulated today. Our first came in the Women's Double Sculls; Katherine Grainger had three managed to gain three silver medals in previous games, but today she finally found that elusive gold with the help of Anna Watkins.

The British pairing finished almost three seconds ahead of the Australian duo, Kim Crow and Brooke Pratley, to earn GB's second gold medal in the rowing. The overall medal tally for rowing now stands at six after claiming a further two bronzes. The first of which came from Alan Campbell who achieved third in the Men's Single Sculls. Campbell was well off the pace set by gold medal winner Mahe Drisdale of New Zealand and silver medallist Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic, but he did stave off a late fight from Sweden's Lassi Karonen to gain that impressive bronze.

The second bronze medal in today's rowing came in the Men's Pair. George Nash and William Satch claimed the third place but only finished an agonising .66 of a second behind France's Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette. New Zealand's Eric Murray and Hamish Bond took the gold medal.

GB's other two gold medals came in today's cycling events. The first came in the Team Pursuit where the British team set another World Record in the Velodrome. Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas put in an amazing performance to score a time of 3:51:659, almost three seconds ahead of the Australian team who won Silver.

After her disappointing disqualification yesterday, Victoria Pendleton put that behind her to come through and take the Women's Keirin gold medal. Pendleton beat China's Shuang Guo and Wai Sze Lee of Hong Kong to victory, claiming Britain's third gold in the cycling events.

GB also amassed a further two bronzes today. Rebecca Adlington followed up her 400m Freestyle bronze with her second bronze in the 800m Freestyle. Adlington finished almost six seconds behind USA's Katie Ledecky who claimed gold by setting an Americas record. Spain's Garcia Mireia Belmonte claimed silver.

Our final medal today was awarded to Karina Bryant who claimed bronze in the Women's +78kg Judo event. Bryant lost to Japan's Mika Sugimoto in the semi-finals but the Japanese had to settle for silver as she lost to Idalys Ortiz of Cuba in the final.

Jessica Ennis has began her quest for Heptathlon gold by breaking her own personal record in the 100m Hurdles, setting a time of 12.54 seconds which would have won gold in the proper event. She currently has a 184 point lead over Lithuania's Austra Skujyte going into the second day.

Andy Murray has also guaranteed himself silver after providing a fantastic performance to overcome Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Murray won in straight sets, 7-5 7-5, to set up a Wimbledon rematch with Roger Federer. The Swiss overcame Juan Martin Del Potro in the longest ever Olympic Tennis match. Del Potro took the first set 6-3 before Federer fought back, winning the second set tie-break 7-5. The third and final set went into overtime where Federer finally came through with a 19-17 victory.

The disappointment of the day came in the Women's football. Unfortunately, Team GB couldn't continue their fantastic performance against Brazil and ended up losing 2-0 to Canada. The men's team face South Korea in tomorrow's quarter final.               

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