Paralympics Closing Ceremony

The ceremony begins with horn blowers signalling the entry of the wind and the dreamers awaking to protect the Agitos (the Paralympic symbol).

The next segment honours servicemen and women and Captain Luke Sinnott hangs the Union Flag followed by the Earl of Wessex and Sir Phillip Craven being driven around the track in a custom-built car.

Lissa Hermans sings the National Anthem and then Rory Mackenzie delivers the opening speech.

The flag bearers then enter the stadium with their respective colours, David Weir and Sarah Storey carry the flag for ParalympicsGB.

The flag bearers formed a heart shape which lights up the stadium and burns into the ground.

Then the festival begins with a procession of flamethrowers carving the ground and a parade of metal dinosaurs and various animal based vehicles entering the stadium.

Two athletes are then awarded for "fair, honest and uncompromising values" which are Michael McKillop and Mary Zakayo.

Tribute is then given to the a selection of the 'Games Makers' by six athletes and Coldplay begin their set on stage with the song 'Us Against the World'.

This is followed by 'Yellow' and a great performance of 'Paradise as 19 fireflies entered from the air.

A group of dancers set free a fellow dancer from a cage of ice while Coldplay sing, the dancer is playing the Snow Queen and is Viktoria Modesta.

Snow confetti comes down from the roof of the stadium as Coldplay continue with aerialists Laszlo Simet and Lyndsay Adams performing.

Lindsay goes on to ignite a ball of energy and leads the festival on to Spring.

Another Coldplay hit rings around the stadium  as 120 enter carrying  parts of a fish symbolised by 600 hub caps.

Coldplay's first special guest enters the stadium - Rhianna and she joins them in singing and then the British Paraorchestra plays to the crowds accompanied by Chris Martin.

Rhianna sings 'We Found Love' while swinging across the centre of the stadium followed by  'Viva la Vida' by Coldplay.

Summer fades away and the Paralympic flag is lowered and the Paralympic Anthem is played by the British Paraorchestra.

The flag is then passed from Boris Johnson through IPC President Phillip Craven and onto Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes.

The Brazilian National Anthem is then played and the Brazilian flag is raised. 2016 will be the first ever Paralympics to take place in South America.

Rio begin their segment of the ceremony and just like in the Olympic equivalent there is a main focus on dance.

As the segment ends the sky is filled with fireworks to light up the stadium.

Lord Coe and Sir Craven enter the stage and give speeches. Lord Coe says ' We have shared some wonderful days.... incredible people have performed feats we never thought possible.' He then tells two stories, the first about a medical games maker who was on his way to the boxing event.

The Games maker (Andy) says he was on duty on 7/7 and said he wasn't sure he could face the event but had seen the worst of mankind and now the best of mankind.'

The second was about Emily another games maker who took part in wheelchair basketball who said' It raised the cloud of limitation'

Lord Coe then thanked the volunteers and said disability would be never be thought of in the same way and quoted ' the cloud of limitation.'

London 2012 - made in Britain his last words caused rapturous applause as Sir Phillip began his speech.

He remarked that these games had been 'the most incredible games and that LOCOG has inspired a generation and the country has enjoyed a feel good factor like never before.'

He went on to thank the thousands of games makers and the British armed and emergency services which caused a massive cheer from  the crowd.

He closed with the words, 'I declare the London 2012 Paralympic games closed but they will live on for an eternity and I call on all nations to meet in Rio in four years to display your sporting excellence' and thanked the entire UK population.


Jonnie Peacock and Ellie Simmonds extinguish the Paralympic flame and the Festival of Flame resumes.

Rhianna reappears joined by Jay-Z singing 'Run This Town', Jay-Z then sings an adapted version of 'Paradise before being accompanied by Coldplay who then thank the athletes and sing 'The Scientist'.

While they are playing a montage of the events of the past 11 days is shown with many success and accolades featured.

Chris Martin asks the crowd to celebrate by thanking all the athletes and volunteers and says goodbye to London with the final song 'Every Teardrop is a Waterfall' which is accompanied by flowing water fountains and a mix of dancers.

The stadium lights up and a barrage of fireworks set off and light up the evening sky to create a very artistic masterpiece. The firework display ends with a sign saying ' Thank You London, Thank You UK.'

What a great four weeks it has been both in the Olympics and Paralympics!



(This blog will stay up for you to come back to reflect on the events of the greatest ever games.)

Paralympics Final Day

The final day of competing saw some success for GB in the marathon with David Weir securing gold in the T54 to secure his fourth gold of the games while Shelly Woods sealed silver in the female equivalent.

They proved to be the last medals for ParalympicsGB and meant they finished third behind Russia and runway winners China as you can see in the final medal table below.

Paralympics Day 10

Paralympics 2012 entered the penultimate day with medal hopes still alive in a good number of events.

Athletically, Hazel Robson finished 7th in the T36 100m and Nathan Stephens missed out on the javelin final so no GB success there today. On a side note, Oscar Pistorius secured the T43/44 400m by 3.5 seconds (a new Paralympic record) ahead of a USA 2-3 with bronze medallist David Prince who set a new WR in the T44 classification with the front two both T43's.

Stephen McGuire misses out on bronze in Boccia while David Smith takes silver after a 7-0 defeat in the final to Pattaya Tadtong.

 Cycling success came from David Stone who captured gold in the T1-2 road race to add to his time trial bronze.

Ellie Simmonds scored a silver in the pool beaten to gold by American rival Victoria Arlen but 2 golds, a silver and a bronze means she has had a spectacular games. Harriet Lee takes bronze in the SB9 100m breaststroke, very brave too after being in intensive care only four months ago.

Jack Bridge set a new British record to seal a final place in the male equivalent of the SB9 but finished fourth in the final.

With one day left, GB sit third to Russia and China with their target of medals complete their other target was to claim second overall so something big needed tomorrow.

Paralympics day 9

After Thriller Thursday saw a wave of success, Day 9 became known as Frustrating Friday with mixed results.
In Athletics,  Josie Pearson breaks the WR by winning the F51/52/53 discus but no further medals as Richard Whitehead finished 7th in the T42 100m, Kyron Duke finishes 8th in the F40 javelin, Mickey Bushell finished 4th in the T53 200m, Shelly Woods finished 6th in the T54 1500m.

Boccia saw David Smith guarantee silver by winning the BC1 semi 5-2 against Norway's Roger Aandalen.

Rachel Morris sealed bronze in cycling in the individual H 1-3 road race but as she and team mate Karen Darke crossed hand in hand over the line together but rules don't stretch to giving both a medal but thankfully both have a medal with Karen Darke earning one earlier in the games.

A mere 0.03 seconds stopped the GB relay team from taking gold in the 4x100m medley relay and meant they had to settle for silver but the team of Heather Frederiksen, Claire Cashmore, Steph Millward and Louise Watkin were very proud to take second.

Elsewhere in the pool, Louise Watkin reaches the S9 100m freestyle final with Lauren Steadman joining her as a fastest loser. Later on Watkin finishes 5th with Steadman in last.

Will Bayley, Ross Wilson and Aaron McKibbin took bronze after winning their team table tennis play-off against Germany 3-0 and the women’s pair of Sara Head and Jane Campbell battled back from two matches down to beat Italy 3-2 and secure Class 1-3 bronze.

Success in the wheelchair tennis as the doubles pair of Jordanne Whiley and Lucy Shuker take bronze who sealed the medal with an ace for a 6-7 7-6 6-3 win over their Thai opponents

 GB stay second and hopefully will improve in the final two days.

Paralympics Day 8

Day 8 was Thriller Thursday and the thrills lit up an amazing day of success for Paralympics GB.

Athletics caused the most thrills with Jonnie Peacock (current WR holder) clinching gold in the T44 100m with Oscar Pistorius only managing fourth and David Weir sealing his third gold of the games in the 800m.

Ola Abidogun sealed bronze on his Paralympic debut in the T46 100m and a new Paralympic record for Hannah Cockroft in the T34 200m while Paul Blake netted bronze in the T36 800m.

Ben Rushgrove took bronze in the T36 200m with team mate Graeme Ballard in fourth while Bev Jones wins bronze in the F37 Discus.

Golden girl Sarah Storey wins gold in the C4-5 road race to equal Tanni Grey-Thompson's record of 11 Paralympic golds. Paralympics GB won their first ever medals in sailing as Helena Lucas sealed gold in the 2.4MR one-person keelboat and SKUD 18 team Niki Birrell and Alexandra Rickham sailed to bronze.

Swimming yet again was the home of medal success beginning with Heather Fredriksen storming to gold in the S8 100m freestyle and it became the 103rd medal of the games for GB meaning their total from Beijing 2008 had been eclipsed.

Susie Rodgers broke the European record to seal bronze in the 400m freestyle S7 with a time of 5:18.93. Gold for 15-year old Josef Craig as he smashes the WR to win the S7 400m freestyle in a time of 4:42.81 with former WR holder Jonathan Fox back in fourth.

Silver and bronze for Stephanie Millward and Louise Watkin in the SM9 200m IM with Claire Cashmore in fourth.


GB move to joint second with Russia with GB placed ahead by way of more silver medals but both still behind China.

Paralympics Day 7

Day 7 saw more success but with several Paralympians adding to their earlier successes.

In Archery, In the men's team recurve, ParalympicsGB beat Taipei 195-179 in the quarter-finals.

Over in the Athletics, David Weir strolls through the T54 800m heats but a mixed result in the Women's 200m T37 heats as world champion Katrina Hart bows out in fifth while Bethany Woodward and Jenny McLoughlin both reach the final with Bethany Woodward going on to claim silver and McLoughlin in fifth. Stef Reid and Sophie Kamlish qualify for the T44 200m finals as a fastest loser and third respectively and David Devine seals bronze in the T12 800m to add to the 1500m bronze he won earlier in the games.

Cycling took to the roads and Sarah Storey brought her Velodrome luck along as she bagged her third gold of the games  with victory in the C5 individual time trial but in the male equivalent Jon-Allan Butterworth finishes 13th after an injury. Mark Colbourne seals silver in the C1 individual time trial and Karen Darke also claims silver in the handcycling H1-2 time trial and special notice to former F1 driver Alex Zanardi of Italy who claimed gold in Handcycling.




In Sailing, Paralympics GB ensured that they will receive at least a bronze and a silver as Helena Lucas is second in the 2.4mR class with one race to come and Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are guaranteed bronze in the SKUD class.
Swimming success seems to be growing more each day and today saw Liz Johnson and Charlotte Henshaw qualify for the SB6 100m breaststroke final in first and second each breaking the Paralympic record but sadly they missed out on the gold but thankfully took a 2-3 with Henshaw taking silver and Johnson the bronze. Ollie Hynd stormed home to gold in the SM8 200m IM winning by two clear second with brother Sam back in fourth.

Rob Welbourn seals bronze in the S10 400m freestyle ans Louise Watkin took silver in the S9 50m.

Wheelchair Tennis pair Peter Norfolk and Andy Lapthorne take silver in the quad doubles and that medal means GB sit third in the medal table with Russia in second with three more golds but GB have 92 of the 103 medals predicted.

Paralympics Day 6

Day six of  the 2012 Paralympics and the medal total continued its rampant increase with medals across the board.

In Archery, Danielle Brown retains her gold in the individual compound with team-mate Mel Clarke sealing silver.

Over in the stadium, bronze for David Devine in the T13 1500m setting a new PB while Paul Blake won silver in the T36 400m. David Weir notched up his fourth career Paralympic gold by flying to victory in the T54 1500m and Katrina Hart, Bethy Woodward, Jenny McLoughlin and Olivia Breen sealed bronze in the T35-38 100m relay after a nervy baton-change.

In Boccia, the BC1-2 team took bronze by defeating Portugal 7-5 at the ExCeL but the BC4 mixed pairs lost out on bronze in a defeat to Canada 8-2.


Equestrian success for the two Sophie's as Sophie Wells takes the silver in grade IV freestyle and Sophie Christiansen seals a golden hat-trick by winning the grade 1A freestyle dressage while Deb Criddle wins silver in the grade III freestyle.

Shooter Matt Skelton secures bronze in the R6 50m rifle prone to add to his silver from earlier in the games. Over in the pool, success seems to be everlasting as Ollie Hynd seals bronze in the S8 100m backstroke while Ellie Simmonds takes bronze in the S6 50m freestyle in what she says is her weakest event. Heather Frederiksen seals 100m S8 backstroke gold while Stephanie Millward takes silver in the S9 400m freestyle and Matt Walker takes bronze in the 50m S7 freestyle.

GB still hold second in the medal table but some distance behind China.

Paralympics Day 5

 Day five and more success for ParalympicsGB with gold for Mickey Bushell with an amazing ride in the T53 100m with a new Paralympic record of 14.75 seconds.

David Weir took third in the T54 1500m heats to reach tomorrow's final while David Devine strolled to victory in the heats of the T12 800m.

Gold for Natasha Baker in the grade II individual freestyle to secure her second gold of the games while gold medal favourite Lee Pearson had to settle for bronze in the individual freestyle dressage.


Over in the pool, golden girl Ellie Simmons broke the WR early in the day in the SM6 200m individual medley heat with a time of 3:06.97 and smashed it later on in the final to power away from the rest of the field in a time of 3:05.39 to secure her second gold of the games with fellow Brit Natalie Jones taking the bronze missing out on a GB 1-2 by 1/100th of a second.

Sascha Kindred won silver in the Men's equivalent and Susie Rodgers sealed bronze in the Women's 100m S7 freestyle while GB won silver in the Women's 4x100m relay.

Paul Davies secured bronze in the Table Tennis and in Wheelchair Basketball, the women's team qualified for the quarter finals to face Germany and the men also reach the quarters.

GB stay second in the medal table with China surely impossible to catch with 112 medals to GB'S 63.

Paralympics Day 4

Day four saw more medal success for ParalympicsGB but also the foundations to success for many athletes.

In Archery, Danielle Brown reaches the semi finals and is joined by Mel Clarke who celebrated her 30th birthday to the chorus of 'Happy Birthday' from the crowd.

A medal haul in the Athletics which began with Stef Reid taking silver in the F42/44 long jump, but sadly Shelly Woods finishes 8th in the T54 5000m final.

Gold for Aled Davies with a new PB  of 46.14 in the F42 discus while Libby Clegg guided by Mikhail Huggins sealed silver in the Women's T12 100m. Silver for Graeme Ballard in the Men's T36 100m and a atmospheric roar from the crowd greeted David Weir home to gold in the T54 5000m at around 10.20pm

 In the Velodrome, Anthony Kappes (piloted by Craig Maclean) take gold ahead of Neil Fachie (piloted by Barney Storey) who take silver in the all-British individual B sprint final while the trio of Darren Kenny, Jon-Allen Butterworth and Rik Waddon take silver in the C1-C5 mixed sprint behind China who broke the WR but only won by a margin of 0.065s and Aileen McGlynn (piloted by Helen Scott) took bronze in the individual B sprint.

After yesterdays success in the Equestrian, the medal haul increased here again with gold for Sophie Christiansen in the dressage while Sophie Wells seals silver in the grade IV equestrian and also a silver for Deb Criddle in the Grade III.

Over at Eton Dorney, gold for the mixed coxed four of Pam Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith and James Roe while in the pool, Jessica-Jane Applegate causes a surprise and takes gold in the Women's S14 200m. James Clegg took bronze in the Men's 100m S12 butterfly while Hannah Russell added bronze in the female equivalent to the silver she won earlier in the week.


In the Table Tennis, Will Bayley won silver after a defeat to Jochen Wollmert (Ger) in the class 7 singles final by 3-1.

GB now sit second in the medal table between China and Australia on 54 medals.

Paralympics Day 3

ParalympicsGB's medal haul increased massively today on what was dubbed 'Superhuman Saturday' with success across many sports.


In Archery, the only success came via Sharon Vennard who qualified for the quarters of the Women's individual recurve standing after winning 6-2. Many of the competing GB archers bowed out in their various quarters/eliminations they were John Cavanagh, Murray Elliot, Leigh Walmsley, Kenny Allen and Paul Browne.


Over in the Olympic Stadium, Gemma Prescott sealed bronze by scoring 1015 points in the Women's club throw F31/32/51 final with team mates Josie Pearson (5th - 919) and Maxine Moore (12th -708).

Libby Clegg partnered by guide Mikail Huggins sets a new WR in her heat of the Women's 100m T12 with a time of 12.17 seconds. However the record was soon broken tweice in the next two heats meaning that the record had been improved four times in one morning.

Gold for Richard Whitehead in the Men's 200m T42 while setting a new WR of 24.38 while Hazel Robson finishes fifth in the Women's 200m T36. Bronze for Robin Womack in the Men's shot put F54/55/56 final with a new PB of 11.34m while Stef Reid and Sophie Kamlish both reached the final of the Women's 100m T44 by finishing fourth and fifth in their respective heats and Claire Williams sealed bronze in the Women's Discus F11/12 final with a throw of 39.63m.

Off to the Velodrome and yet more success to cap the first two days with Sarah Storey winning her second gold of the games in the Women's individual C4-5 500m time trial. The gold rush continued with Neil Fachie and Barney Storey in the Men's individual B 1km time trial with a WR time of 1.01.351.

After being disqualified yesterday, Jody Cundy took bronze in the Men's indivdual C4 pursuit by lapping opponent Diego German Duenas Gomez and Jon-Allan Butterworth secured silver in the C5 pursuit and set a WR time of 4.35.026 in qualifying for the final which was later broken by Australian Michael Gallagher.


The equestrians joined in on the medal haul with Lee Pearson winning silver in the grade Ib dressage which was won by Australian Joann Formosa. This meant Pearson missed out on a tenth consecutive Paralympic gold medal. Gold came in though for Natasha Baker in the dressage II with a Paralympic record of 76.857%.

Judo success for Samuel Ingram by winning silver in the Men's -90kg after losing in the final to Cuban Jorge Hierrezuelo Marcillis by way of Yuko.

At Eton Dorney, Nicholas Beighton and Samantha Scowen win their repechage in the mixed double sculls TAMix2x to qualify for tomorrow's A final with a time of 4:05.91.

In the Shooting, silver for Matthew Skelhorn in the mixed R3-10m air rifle prone-SH1 with James Bevis sealing bronze in the mixed R5-10m air rifle prone-SH2.

Like the velodrome, the pool has been a base of success and that continued with Ellie Simmonds blitzing home to gold with a new WR in the Women's 400m freestyle S6. Matthew Whorwood took bronze in the Men's 400m freestyle S6 with Ireland's Darragh McDonald taking the gold.
 
Sascha Kindred and Thomas Young miss out on medals in the men's 100m breaststroke SB& after finishing fourth and fifth with times of 1:23.53 and 1:23.69 respectively.

In the Excel centre for the Table Tennis, Ross Wilson will battle for bronze in the class 8 division after losing his semi-final 2-3 while William Bayley wins his class 7 semi-final 3-1 to guarantee him a medal and his celebration is one many will remember for a long time.

Day 3 done and dusted and GB sit third in the medal table behind China and Australia.

Paralympics Days 1 and 2

Paralympics 2012 are in full swing and Great Britain is already enjoying a massive early medal haul which the first medal, a silver won by Mark Colbourne in the men's Individual C1-2-3 1km time trial, behind surprise winner Li Zhang Yu of China.

 GB's first gold was won by Sarah Storey in the Track Cycling with her storming to a massive win over Anna Harkowska by securing an overtake with more than half of the race to go after earlier breaking a WR in the heats which became her 72nd career WR. Fellow Brit Crystal Lane finished fourth narrowly missing out on a medal.

Hannah Russell secured the second silver of the day  after a thrilling contest in the women's S12 400m freestyle, she won her heat in WR time and narrowly missed out on gold to Russian Oxana Savchenko by just 0.71 secs.

Nyree Kindred a bagged a silver medal in consecutive games after finishing second to Dong Lu in the women's S6 100m backstroke.

Jonathan Fox broke the world record in the men's S7 100m backstroke heat with a time of 1:09.86 to continue the success in the pool which he added to later on by storming to gold in the final.

In Judo, Ben Quilter missed out on gold but secured bronze after defeating Japan's Takaaki Hirai but had been a pre- games favourite for gold but hey bronze is better than nothing.

Zoe Newson won a brilliant bronze medal on her Paralympic Games debut in the women's -40kg power lifting by lifting 2.23 times her own bodyweight.

GB ended the day on seven medals - 2 gold,  4 silver and 1 bronze.

Day 2 saw the promise of yet more medals and the promise was fulfilled with gold on the track for Hannah Cockcroft with a new Paralymic record of 18.06 in the women's 100m T34 having broken the record she set in the heat of 18.34.

Just like in the Olympics, the velodrome seems to be the home of GB success as today saw a gold, three silvers and a bronze won. Mark Colbourne secured gold in the Men's individual C1 pursuit adding to his elver from yesterday. Jon-Allan Butterworth claimed silver in the Men's individual 1km time trial C4-5. However, defending Olympic champion Jody Cundy had a wheel spin from the starting block and asked for a restart which was refused and as sich was classified as DNF.

The Men's C3 individual pursuit saw a 2-3 for Great Britain as Shaun McKeown finishes second to American Joseph Berenyi with teammate Darren Kenny in third. Aileen McGlynn (piloted by Helen Scott) took silver in the women's individual B 1km time trial with. Lorna Turnham (piloted by Fiona Duncan) in fourth.

Eton Dorney like the Velodrome saw massive succes in the Olympics and the Paralympic hopes started well as Tom Aggar, ( defending Paralympic champion) in the men's single sculls, reaches the final and Nick Beighton and Samanthan Scowen finish second in their heat of the mixed double sculls, and head into the repechage to compete for a place in the final.
Pam Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith, James Roe and cox Lily van den Broecke reach the final of the mixed cox four, after winning their heat.



More success in the pool as James Crisp takes silver in the final of the Men's 100m backstroke S9 while Chloe Davies, the youngest member of ParalympicsGB at the age of 13, sails through to the final of the Women's 100m backstroke S14, by winning her heat.

Jessica-Jane Applegate and Natalie Massey also qualify after finishing third and seventh respectively.A silver for Heather Frederiksen in the women's 400m freestyle S8 with a time of 5:00.50. Bronze and silver in the Men's 400m freestyle S8 for Sam Hynd and older brother Ollie Hynd.

 Stephanie Millward wins silver in the final of the women's 100m backstroke S9 after finishing second and brings GB's medal total to 20.

The 2012 Paralympics are open!

Two weeks ago, we said goodbye to the 2012 Olympics in an amazing closing ceremony and the success stories were paraded across various TV shows and papers with  the main parade still to come on Sept 10th.

Now is the time to shine for the Paralympics and despite some criticism on the coverage from those who don't realise the budget gap between Channel 4 and BBC, the coverage of the ceremony in my view wasn't perfect but wasn't too bad either. The main negative was the slight lack of enthusiasm in the countries entrances when compared to the excitable commentary of BBC''s Olympics. But the setup of channels and online videos and pictures really made up for the negative.

As for the ceremony itself, it began with a speech by Professor Stephen Hawking who inspired the audience with the words ' Look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. The world did just that and saw a star studded three and a half hours which featured a flypast by Aerobility (a charity that trains disabled pilots), a choir of 430 singers and a giant Newton's apple.

Professor Hawking's appearance came ahead of the 'Big Bang' scene to act as a aid to Miranda who became the theme of the show based on the character from Shakespeare's The Tempest. He added to his earlier words with yet another inspirational line, 'Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.' 

Star of stage and screen Sir Ian McKellen added to the emotion and inspiration of the night with reference to 'the beautiful diversity of humanity'  which was clear to see in the crowds and athletes who paraded into the stadium later on. The appearance of the Queen raised the biggest roar of the crowd as she was introduced alongside Prince Edward and IPC president Sir Philip Craven

A mix of disabled and able bodied performers created a fantastic routine to the sound of Rhianna's Umbrella, a song which many believe caused the floods which ravaged the UK weeks after the songs release in 2008. This time the rain stayed away and allowed the athletes to parade from each of the 164 competing countries in dry weather with the crescendo being the entry of ParalympicsGB who appeared to a rapturous roar from the stadium.

This was followed by Lord Coe 'welcoming home' the Paralympics after its inception at Stoke Mandeville in 1948 and told the masses to be prepare to be dazzled and to be moved. This led to the official opening of the games by the Queen which set off a stunning sequence of fireworks with the conclusion of the ceremony staged by an aerial wheelchair show from six Paralympics including Dame Tanni-Grey Thompson.

Professor Hawkings final words paid tribute to the athletes, 'The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world. We are all different, there is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.The Games provide an opportunity for athletes to excel, to stretch themselves and become outstanding in their field. So let us together celebrate excellence, friendship, and respect. Good luck to you all.' The speech proved that no matter who we are we are all different and can all excel in certain fields we never thought possible.

The lighting of the Cauldron began with a stellar zip-line entry from Royal Marine Joe Townsend who is an athlete for the future and is hoping to compete at Rio 2016. Joe brought the torch down from the Orbit Tower then via David Clarke (the longest serving member of the Men's blind 5-a side football team) it was passed to the Margaret Maughan, the first Paralympic gold medallist for Great Britain,she lit the beautiful sculpture and fireworks lit up the city to start what will hopefully be a successful medal haul for Great Britain

London 2012 Closing Ceremony

After an amazing sixteen days, London 2012 closed emphatically with a three hour closing ceremony which was opened by Emeli Sande singing 'Read all about it' leading to a montage of tabloid-clad dancers and Timothy Spall reciting Tempest as Winston Churchill leading to an electric by Madness  (Our House, Parklife) followed by the Pet Shop Boys and One Direction with all accompanied by theatre group Stomp.

Ray Davies appeared next singing 'Waterloo Sunset' linking to Emeli Sande to continue 'Read
All About it'. The procession of flag bearers filed into the stadium to a rapturous fanfare with the athletes popping through the crowd as Ben Ainslie brings in the Union Flag to the sound of 'Open Arms' by Elbow.

The procession continued to the sound of Elbow singing One Day Like This' with the opening songs on repeat until the end of the procession. 303 blocks were placed in the stadium to represent the 303 events in the games which were accompanied by highlights of some of the events accompanied by Kate Bush.

The final medal ceremony of the games and a long tradition, the Men's Marathon won by Steven Kiprotich (Ugn) with Abel Kirui (Ken) taking the silver and Wilson Kiprotich (Ken) the bronze.

The Medallists depart the podium and 'Imagine' is sung by a choir with a video of the legendary John Lennon singing, really spine-tingling to see and a great way to open the 'Symphony of British Music'

The seats transform into a piano as 'Freedom' is performed by George Michael, nice to see him back  and he ends with 'White Light' as Kaiser Chiefs enter on UK themed motorbikes and singing 'Pinball Wizard' followed by a tribute to British Fashion to the tune of David Bowie's 'Fashion'

Annie Lennox sings 'Little Bird' in what looks like a replica of  Viking Longboat and leaves the stage to rapturous applause while Ed Sheeran appears centre stage singing Pink Floyd's hit 'Wish You Were Here'

Russell Brand as Willy Wonka enters the stage and sings 'Pure Imagination followed by 'I Am The Walrus'. Fatboy Slim's 'Right Here Right Now' plays as the man himself (Norman Cook appears out of a bubble in the Wonkamobile and begins a DJ session of 'Rockerfeller Skank'.

 The bubble seems to have formed into an Octopus and as the music slows down Jessie J appears to sing 'Price Tag' in a 'nude' body stocking and joined by Tinie Tempah who sings 'Written In The Stars' a song which always reminds me of Super Sunday on Sky Sports.

Taio Cruz enters with 'Dynamite and the trio of Jessie, Tinie and Taio sing the Bee Gees classic 'You Should Be Dancing' Surely all male eyes are drawn to Jessie J, the eye candy of the show so far.

Five cabs enter the stadium and out pop the Spice Girls looking as amazing as they sing 'Spice Up Your Life' and really get the crowd going then out pops Liam Gallagher singing the classic 'Wonderwall' accompanied by Beady Eye. The classics keep on coming with Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)'s Mr Blue Sky pumping through the stadium while a cyclist equipped with a propeller rides around the stage and flies off.

A large cannon is lit and 3,2,1, off goes the humans cannonball, or not whoops a misfire as Eric Idle appears to be the poor fella and sings possibly one of the best classics ' Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' with whimsical whistling and winged nuns. The nuns depart and Legions appear fronted by a Bollywood style dancing crew to send Eric Idle into confusion and to then break into the Robot and get a face full of dust to then resume' Bright Side Of Life' do do do do do do do do which ends with a human cannonball across the stadium safely in the net.

Muse on the piano with 'Survival before bursting into an electric guitar solo which lights up the crowd and a Freddy Mercury video screen appears with him encouraging the crowd making them ready for the legend that is Brian May making amazing sound on the guitar to lead into 'Brighton Rock' and 'We Will Rock You' as Roger Taylor joins to form the Queen duo and the stunning Jessie J reappears to sing and the crowd do their bit to match the superb sound of her voice as she shows why she was chosen to end the 'Symphony of Music'

The concert ends and the serious stuff begins as the Greek anthem plays and the London Welsh Male Voice choir perform the Olympic anthem. The dignitaries appear on stage with Jacques Rogge,Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) and Eduardo Paes (Mayor of Rio) to exchange the Olympic flag and declare Rio the next host city and the Brazilian anthem plays, not one many will know unless you are an F1 fan, Ayrton Senna made it famous for me of course and just like that Brazil becomes the first South American host of the Olympic Games and presents its carnival for the world which to be fair was mediocre.

Jacques Rogge and Lord Coe both give inspiring speeches and hopefully London 2012 will 'inspire a generation'. The Cauldron splits as Take That sing 'Rule The World' and the phoenix above the flame is joined by Darcey Bussell who flies down in her own phoenix to join 200 fellow ballerina and produce a toe-tapping routine as the Olympic flame begins to be extinguished and after three hours finally its THE WHO!

Best way to finish what has been an amazng two weeks with 'Baba O’Riley', 'See Me, Feel Me' 'Listening to You' and the very apt 'My Generation' as the stadium erupts and the fireworks set off.

Paralympics on the 29th next and hopefully it will come close to the history made in these last two weeks.

London 2012 Day 16 Eventing

Athletically, Lee Merrien finishes 30th in the men's marathon in a time of two hours 17 minutes with Scott Overall is 61st in 2:22:37.

 The success in the Excel continued with gold and silver for GB,Anthony Joshua sealed the gold medal in the men's super-heavyweight (+91kg) division after finishing on 18 points with defending Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle (Ita) and Joshua was awarded the win via countback with compatriot Fred Evans securing silver after losing 17-9 to Serik Sapiyev of Kazakhstan in the men's welterweight (69kg) final.

The events closed with the Modern Pentathlon won by Laura Asadauskaite (Ltu) with GB's Sam Murray taking the silver to end the games with GB on 65 medals and the best haul since the historic 1908 games.

The final medal table looks like this...

London 2012 Day 15

Gold for Great Britain in the Canoe Sprint for Ed McKeever in the K1 200m ahead Spain's Saul Craviotto Rivero and Canada's Mark de Jonge while fellow Brit Jess Walker finishes seventh in the Women's K1 200m with Lisa Carrington of New Zealand.taking the gold.

Liam Heath and Jon Schofield take bronze in the men's kayak pairs sprint, behind winners Russia and silver medallists Belarus and Tom Daley qualifies for the final of the Men's 10m Platform diving by finishing in fourth in the semi finals with a score of 521.10.

Mo Farah becomes a double Olympic champion with gold in the 5000m after an amazing run to become only the seventh man to complete a 5000/10000m double at the same games by winning ahead of Gebremeskel of Ethiopia who took silver.

An blitzing run by Jamaica secured a 6th gold for Usain Bolt and a new WR in the 4x100m relay ahead of USA and Trinidad and Tobago who took silver and bronze.

Gold for Great Britain as Luke Campbell seals GB's 28th gold of the games in the Men's Bantamweight Boxing by beating Ireland's John Joe Nevin by 14-11.

Tom Daley secures a well deserved bronze in the Men's 10m Platform diving behind China's Qui Bo who took silver and American David Boudia who took gold.

Penultimate look at the medal table....

 

London 2012 Day 14 Part 2

In the Olympic stadium, Shana Cox, Lee McConnell, Eilidh Weir and Christine Ohuruogu finish third in the heats of the 4x400m to qualify for the final while Christian Malcolm, Dwain Chambers, Danny Talbot and Adam Gemili were disqualified from the men's 4x100m heats after a baton handover between Talbot and Gemili is seen to be outside the designated area.

Conrad Williams, Jack Green, Dai Greene and Martyn Rooney finished fourth in the final of the men's 4x400m and in the Women's 5000 final, Jo Pavey and Julia Bleasdale finished seventh and eighth.

Lisa Dobriskey and Laura Weightman finished 10th and 11th in the Women's 1500m final and Sophie Hichon finished 12th in the Women's Hammer final.

Medals are getting closer in the Men's Boxing as Anthony Joshua, Luke Campbell, Fred Evans all make the finals of their respective weights but Anthony Ogogo loses his semi but seals a bronze medal.

Liam Heath and Jon Schofield are through to the final of the men's kayak (K2) 200m after a second-placed finish in the semi finals and in the BMX, Shanaze Reade finishes sixth in her final and Liam Phillips finished last in the Men's final.

Tom Daley sneaked into the semis of the Men's 10m Platform diving by qualifying 15th out of 16th while Pete Waterfield finished 23rd.

Bronze in the Women's Hockey as GB beat New Zealand 3-1 with goals from Alex Danson, Crista Cullen and Sarah Thomas and another bronze came courtesy of Lutalo Muhammad by winning in the Taekwando repechage.

After Patience and Bithells Silver this morning in the Men's 470 class their female compatriots equalled them with another silver for GB making the medal table just that bit better.  

London 2012 Day 14 Part 1

In the Canoe Sprint, Ed McKeever sets a new OR of 35.087 in the heats and also performs well in the semis to reach the final of the K1 and has a great chance of a medal.

Sarah Stevenson loses her opener in the 67kg Taekwando and has to go in the repecharge with bronze her best hope.

Silver for Great Britain as Stuart Bithell and Luke Patience seal second in the 470 class Sailing narrowly missing out on gold which went to Australia.

Jess Walker reaches the final of the K1 200m by finishing second in her semi behind Russia's Lobova.

London 2012 Day 13 Part 2

Gold for Great Britain and history in the making as Nicola Adams wins the inaugural Olympic gold in Women's Boxing by beating Red Cancan of China by 16-7.

Andrew Osagie finishes eighth in the men's 800m final while Liam Phillips qualifies for the BMX semis by finishing second in each of the three qualifying heats.

Gold for GB as Charlotte Dujardin wins in the Individual Dressage to seal her second Olympic gold of the games with fellow Brit Laura Bechtolshiemer sealing the bronze and Carl Hester in fifth.

The chance of a medal in the Men's Hockey is only bronze after losing 9-2 to Netherlands in the Semi and will play Australia for the bronze medal while Keri Ann Payne misses out on a medal in the 10km Swim by finishing fourth.

Historic gold for Great Britain as Jade Jones wins GB's first ever Taekwando gold after an amazing day taking her from the prelims to the final which she won 6-4 against China's Yuzhuo Hou but sadly it was not a double success as Martin Stamper lost in the bronze medal match of the Men's 56kg to Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpai.

The medal table is looking better every day.....

London 2012 Day 13 Part 1

In the Canoe Sprint Women's kayak single, Rachel Cawthorn finished sixth and missed out on a medal. Jade Jones books her place in the last eight in the Taekwondo with a 15-1 win and Martin Stamper qualifies for the last eight of the Men's competition with a 5-2 win.

GB's 4x400m relay team reach the final after qualifying in 3rd place with South Africa's Oscar Pistorius missing the chance to run after a teammate dropped out.

London Day 12 Part 2

Medals didn't come today for the first time since Day 1 but the foundations for further medals were laid. In the 1500m, Lisa Dobriskey qualified for the final automatically and Laura Weightman qualified via a photo finish but Hannah England missed out after finishing ninth.

Lawrence Clarke finished fourth and narrowly missed out on bronze in the 110m Hurdles final and sad news as Daniel Awde bowed out of the Decathlon competition due to a knee injury he suffered in the Long Jump. In the Boxing, Nicola Adams guaranteed a silver by reaching the gold medal match of the Women's flyweight 56kg.

No further medals but still looking good in the medal table...

London 2012 Day 12 Part 1

At Eton Dorney in the Canoe Sprint final, Tim Brabants sadly failed to defend his Olympic title as he finished eighth with Norway's Eirik Veras Larsen taking the gold.

Daniel Awde began his Decathlon campaign with a PB in the 100m with a 10.71 to win his heat while Sophie Hitchon scores a new British Record in the Hammer of 71.98m.

Sad news in the Decathlon as former Olympic champion Roman Sebrle (Cze) pulls out of the competition after the 100m stage and Daniel Awde struggles in the Long Jump stage to leave him 19th overall.

Double gold looks good for Mo Farah as he qualifies for the 5000m final safely and Lyndsey Sharp qualifies for the semis of the 800m by finishing second in her heat while Steve Lewis vaulted 5.50m in the Pole Vault to put him in contention for the final.

London 2012 Day 11 Part 3

Bronze for Great Britain as Robbie Grabarz seals third in the High Jump while Lawrence Okoye finished 12th in the Discus final.

After an historic medal haul the medla table looks even better tonight....

London 2012 Day 11 Part 2

Gold for Great Britain as the Dressage team of Laura Bechtolsheimer, Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin sealed an historic 20th gold medal meaning that London 2012 is GB's best haul of golds for 104 years since London 1908 and eclipses the 19 of Beijing 2008.

Drama in the Velodrome as Laura Trott seals her second Olympic gold in her first games in the Women's Omnium ahead of American Sarah Hammer and Australia's Annette Edmondson. Laura needed to finish the final event three places ahead of Hammer and cruised home in 1st with Hammer in 4th sealing her second Olympic title.

However, Victoria Pendleton missed out on the final gold she wanted to end her career after losing 2-0 to her biggest rival Anna Meares of Australia. Race 1 went to a photo finish and VP was relegated for coming out of her lane despite being bumped into by Meares and in race 2 she was outpaced on the final lap and had to settle for silver. A great career and a real ambassador for Women's cycling in Victoria Pendleton but as she retires the future is bright in Laura Trott.

Sir Chris Hoy wins gold in the Keirin for a SIXTH Olympic gold and closes what may ultimately be his final Olympics in style ahead of Germany's Max Levy and a joint bronze for New Zealand's Simon Van Velthooven and Mulder of Netherlands.

London 2012 Day 11 Part 1

In the Velodrome, Sir Chris Hoy seals a place in the semi finals of the Men's Keirin ahead of New Zealander Simon van Velthooven.

Success in the Athletics as Lawrence Clarke reaches the 110m Hurdles semis with second place in his heat while Andy Turner wins his heat and also reaches the semis.

Goldie Sayers bows out of the Javelin competition after three successive no throws, Phillips Idowu's Olympics lasted less than an hour after failing to reach the Triple Jump final by finishing 14th in qualifying which was a bit of a shame after the weeks of controversy surrounding his fitness.

Julia Bleasdale safely qualifies for the final of the women's 5,000m with a new PB of 15.02.00 and she is joined by Jo Pavey who finishes with a time of 15.02.84 but fellow Brit Barbara Parker fails to qualify coing in in 15.12.81.

In the 200m, Christian Malcolm reaches the semi-finals by finishing 2nd in his heat with James Ellington finishing sixth in his heat and missing out on the final which features medal favourite Usain Bolt who cantered home in the heats in just over 20 seconds.


Over at Eton Dorney, Rachel Cawthorn qualifies for Friday's final of the women's kayak single 500m by finishing second in the semis while Abi Edmonds and Louisa Sawers qualify for Friday's B-final of the women's kayak double 500m.

Silver for Nick Dempsey in the Windsurfing RS:X class takes GB up to 41 medals so far but the count soon rose in the Triathlon as the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonny seal gold and bronze despite Jonny suffering a 15 second penalty for mounting his bike wrongly and the pair sandwiched Javier Gomez of Spain who took the silver. The gold equalled GB's haul of wins from Beijing with five days of eventing still to take place including many medal favourites from GB.

London 2012 Day 10 Part 2

At the Olympic stadium,  Tiffany Porter qualifies for the semi-finals of the women's 100m hurdles after coming third in her heat while Andrew Osagie qualifies automatically for the semi-finals by finishing third in his heat of the Men's 800m.

Margaret Adeoye and Abiodun Oyepitan are through to the semi-finals of the women's 200m but sadly Anyika Onuora misses out.Holly Bleasdale finished 6th in the pole vault final which is sort of a success with her only starting in the sport in 2009 and Dai Greene missed out on a medal after finishing fourth in the men's 400m hurdles. 


Gold for Great Britain and Jason Kenny wins the Men's team sprint beating Frenchman Gregory Bauge in the final. Laura Trott fresh from the weekend's gold success leads the Women's Omnium after the first discipline while Victoria Pendleton reaches the semi of the Women's sprint.

Gold in the team jumping event as GB beat Netherlands in the final while over in the North Greenwich Arena, Beth Tweddle seals bronze in the uneven bars behind Russian Aliya Mustafina and the silver went to China's Kexin He.

Both the Women's Hockey and Synchronised Swimming teams had success with the Hockey team reaching the semi finals and Jenna Randall and Olivia Federici qualifying for the Synchro Swim finals having finished in ninth in the duet competition.

London 2012 Day 10 Part 1

Tim Brabants reaches the semi final of the K1 canoe sprint  in the fifth and final qualifying spot while Tiffany Porter reaches the semis of the 100m Hurdles in third place.

Later on Tim Brabants safely qualifies for the final of the K1 canoe sprint by finishing fourth in the semi and has a chance of a medal in Wednesday's final but sadly Michael Rimmer bows out of the 800m finishing fifth despite leading after 250m.

Hannah England successfully qualifies for the 1500m semis by finishing fifth in her semi, she is joined by Lisa Dobriskey and Laura Weightman who finished 1st and 6th in their respective heats.

Lawrence Okoye qualifies for the Discus final. 

London 2012 Day 9 Part 2

Sailing duo Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson were pipped to gold by by Sweden in the Star class but clinched a well earned silver medal, the success continued as Ben Ainslie became the best Olympic sailor of all time with his fourth Olympic gold medal in the Finn class ahead of Denmark's Jonas Hogh-Christensen.

Over at Wimbledon and a surprise as Novak Djokovic (Srb) loses in straight sets  to Argentinian Juan Martin Del Porto who secured a the bronze medal. Gold for Great Britain and Andy Murray with an amazing straight sets victory (6-2 6-1 6-4) over World number 1 Roger Federer (Sui) to claim the first of two possible Olympic golds.

Two medals in the Pommel Horse final as Max Whitlock claims silver and Louis Smith wins silver narrowly missing out on gold to Krisztian Berki (Hun) as the two had the same score except Berki had a higher execution score and took gold. Later on in the Velodrome, Ed Clancy secured bronze in the Men's Omnium with gold going to Denmark.

Back at Wimbledon, Andy Murray and Laura Robson won the first set (6-2) of the mixed doubles against Max Mirinyi and Victoria Azerenka of Belarus but sadly lost the second set 6-3 and then the resulting tie-break 10-8 but secured a well deserved silver and Murray goes from Wimbledon finalist to double Olympic medallist in just under a month.  Robson receives Olympic silver at the age of 18 which will hopefully be the starting success of a great career.

The evening session focused in the Olympic stadium as GB's athletes had mixed results, Dwain Chambers finished fourth in his 100m semi but missed out on the final. Yamile Aldama finished 5th in the Triple Jump final with Kazakhstan taking the gold. Ross Murray and Andrew Baddeley missing out on the 1500m final finishing 8th and 10th in their semis.

Christine Ohuruogu sealed silver in the 400m as USA's Sanya Richards-Ross took the gold in a pulsating final which saw a US 1st and 3rd woth DeeDee Trotter with the bronze.

The night ended with the event everyone had waited for in the Men's 100m final which saw the four fastest men on earth all in the same race and after a heart-racing 9.63 seconds Usain Bolt flew over the line after a average start to claim the OR and become double Olympic 100m champion with compatriot Yohan Blake taking the silver ahead of USA's Justin Gatlin.

The medal table looks even better after todays wins...

Courtesy of the BBC.

London 2012 Day 9 Part 1

Today is the day after the night before sort of like a hangover after a night out as GB continue to go for gold but with Super Saturday unlikely to be rivalled.

GB's Victoria Pendleton set a new OR of 10.724 seconds while qualifying for the individual sprint and in the Women's Marathon Brit Mara Yamauchi stops at 5k with an injury and is devasted to bow out.

London 2012 Day 8 Part 2

Andy Murray and Laura Robson reached the Mixed Doubles semis by defeating Australian's Sam Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt 2-1 and met Christopher Kas and Sabine Lisicki of Germany and later on sealed a place in the final winning again 2-1 meaning Murray is at minimum a double Olympic silver medallist.

Gold for GB courtesy of Mo Farah in the 10,00m becoming the first ever GB winner of the event, his win formed part of a triple gold in the Olympic stadium as Greg Rutherford clinched gold in the Long Jump final and Golden Girl Jess Ennis stormed home in the 800m to become Olympic champion to rapturous applause and cheering as she sped across the line.

Christine Ohuruogu qualified for the semis of the 400m finishing second in her heat and Holly Bleasdale reached the Pole Vault final.

Dani King, Laura Trott and Jo Rowsell win gold and set a world record of 3:14.051 in the women's team pursuit final meaning they have broken a WR in all six rounds of the competition.

Team GB were beaten in a penalty shootout 5-4 by South Korea after drawing 1-1 after extra time with the losing penalty by GB missed by Daniel Sturridge.

A superbly Super Saturday with SIX golds in one day only two short of the 1908 record win which 56 in all were won so here is a golden looking medal table..

London 2012 Day 8 Part 1

At the Velodrome, Great Britain's Jason Kenny sets a new Olympic track cycling record for the men's sprint, while South African Oscar Pistorius reaches the semis of the 400m making Olympic history as the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics.

No GB medals in the Triathlon as Helen Jenkins narrowly missed out in 5th with Lucy Hall in 23rd while Jess Ennis continues her chase for Heptahlon gold with a massive Long Jump of 6.48m which is worth over 1000 points and puts her in a great position for gold.

Gold for Great Britain at Eton Dorney as the Men's Four win GB's ninth gold of the games ahead of Australia with Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland taking the gold haul to 10 with  win in the Women's double sculls.

Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter win silver after leading from the start to the last 50m when Denmark stormed through for gold in the Men's double sculls.

London 2012 Day 7 Part 2

The medals continued as Team GB beat their own world record as they defended their men's Olympic pursuit title to win yet another cycling gold and this was soon added to by Victoria Pendleton who won second Olympic gold medal as she captured victory in the women's keirin.

Rebecca Adlington sealed silver after her and fellow favourite Lotte Friis were blown away by 15 year old American Katie Ledecky in the Women's 800m freestyle with Belmonte Garcia sealing silver.

After last month's Wimbledon final loss to Roger Federer not many would have predicted that Andy Murray would have the chance to redeem himself in a repeat but today he achieved that chance by shocking World number one Novak Djokovic (Srb) in straight sets 7-5 7-5 to set up a chance for Olympic gold vs Federer. However, Murray could be Olympic champion before having won Wimbledon itself which would eradicate the defeat at SW19 and even spur him on for next year but a silver as a minimum is a massive accolade for him.

Over in the Heptathlon, favourite Jess Ennis lead into day two after mixed results after her blistering 100m Hurdles win in the High Jump, Shot Put and 200m.

London 2012 Day 7 Part 1

A great morning for Great Britain at Eton Dorney as George Nash and William Satch secured a bronze in the Men's Pair followed by Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins cruising to gold in the Women's double sculls and the morning ended with Alan Campbell clinching bronze in the Men's single sculls after a very energy sapping race.

Jess Ennis got her heptathlon gold chase off to an amazing start as she blitzed home in the 100m Hurdles in 12.54 seconds and sets a new British record and the fastest time by a Heptathlete and Dai Green reached the 400m hurdles semi-finals in 48.98 to win his heat.


Karina Bryant loses her Judo semi to her Japanese opponent but claims a bronze medal after winning the bronze mdal match against Ukrainian Iryna Kindzerska to double the target for Judo medals for GB and puts GB on 19 medals and still in 4th on the medal table.

London 2012 Day 6 Part 2

GB's afternoon is going great as Gemma Gibbons reaches the final in the Judo and wins a silver with USA taking the gold.

Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott seal gold in the Men's Canoe double with the gold rush continuing with Peter Wilson with gold in the Double trap shooting.

David Florence an Richard Hounslow seal silver in the Canoe double.

GB's team sprint cyclists set a new WR only to have it beaten by China but still qualify second quickest for the next round but were disqualified for changing over in the wrong part of the track.

The Men's pursuit team break the WR with a new time of 3.52.499 to qualify for tomorrow's next round.

Gold for the Men's Team Sprint with an WR of 42.6 secs with Sir Chris Hoy winning his 5th Olympic gold.

London 2012 Day 6 Part 1

At Eton Dorney, the Men's four reached the final by winning their semi ahead of Australia and the Women's Lightweight double sculls also won their semi with Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland beating Greece by three seconds. Hunter & Purchase also reach their final by winning their Men's Lightweight double sculls semi ahead of France.

Over in the pool and in heat 1 of the Women's 800m freestyle, Ellie Faulkner finished sixth in her heat to miss out on the final but fellow Brit Rebecca Adlington stormed home in the third heat to go into the final as fastest ahead of Dane Lottie Friis who had won heat 2.

Missy Franklin won the last heat of the Women's 200m Backstroke, with Stephanie Proud of Great Britain fourth in 2:10.01.This meant that proud will be joined by Lizzie Simmonds in the semi finals after she came home fourth in her heat. 

In the final of the Men's double sculls New Zealand took the win ahead of Italy and Slovenia with Britain in fifth, Silver for GB in the Men's lightweight four as South Africa took the gold woth Denmark third.

London 2012 Day 5 Part 2

Golden success for GB continued as Bradley Wiggins stormed home 42 seconds ahead of German Tony Martin to secure his place as Britain's Best Olympian (in terms of medals) now with four golds two silvers and a bronze and cap off two great months after his Tour De France victory. Chris Froome secured a bronze to add to his second place in Le Tour.

GB's boxers Luke Campbell (bantanweight) advanced to the quarter final after an 11-9 victory over Italian Jahyn Vittorio Parrinello and Anthony Joshua defeated Erislandy Savon of Cuba 17-16 in the men's super heavyweight.

GB's football team advanced to a tie with South Korea after beating Uruguay 1-0 thanks to a Daniel Sturridge goal. In the All-Round Gymnastics, mistakes cost GB pair Kristian Thomas and Dan Purvis the chance of fighting for a medal as they finished 7th and 12th respectively.

After a great morning at Eton Downey, the succes continued with Charles Cousins, Stephen Rowbotham, Tom Solesbury and Matthew Wells finishing third in their semi-final to advance to the final with the Men's Pair winning their semi to reach Friday's final.

Andy Murray's chase for gold continued despite dropping the first set to advance to the quarter finals after defeating Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 6-1 6-4 .

Another night in the pool came with mixed results, Michael Jamieson came close to gold and was only beaten by a WR swim by Gyurta to secure silver bu Andrew Willis finished in eighth.


Caitlin McClatchey, Rebecca Turner, Hannah Miley and Joanne Jackson finished fifth in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay with the gold going to Team USA with a new OR.

James Goddard and Joe Roebuck both advanced to the semis of the 200m IM with successes in the heats and Southport's Fran Halsall finished fourth in her 100m freestyle semi to advance to the final but sadly Amy Smith missed out.

Jemma Lowe finishes 6th in the women's 200m butterfly final with James Goddard adding to his earlier success with a third place in the 200m IM semi behind American's Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps to reach the final but in the other semi Joe Roebuck came in seventh and missed out on the final.

London 2012 Day 5

Day 5 got off to a great start with swimmers Fran Halsall and Amy Smith both qualifying for the semis of the 100m freestyle and both in with a shout of a medal.

Over at Lords they saw a shock as GB's Amy Oliver beat the World Champion Deepika Kumar (Ind) 6-2 but sadly lost in the last 32 by a socre of 7-1 to Ika Yuliana Rochmawati of Indonesia.

Gold for Great Britain in the Rowing as Helen Glover and Helen Stanning cruise home in 7.27.13 to win the Women's Pair and win GB's first gold of 2012 and the first Women's Rowing gold in Olympic history for GB which was very well deserved ahead of Australia and New Zealand.

The Women's Quad went next but in a field with massive Olympic experience they faltered and came in sixth with Ukraine taking the gold followed by Germany in second and USA in third.

Back in the medals for the Men's Eight after an amazing race in which they led for a period they secured a bronze with Germany and Canada taking gold and silver near the end.

London 2012 Part 2

Britain's Badminton campaign ended with Susan Egelstaff  losing her final match to Japan's Sayaka Sato 18-21 21-16 21-12. British number one Rajiv Ouseph also ended with a loss of 2-1 to Kevin Cordon of Guatemala.
 
Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier completed the trio of losses by losing 2-0 to Chinese pair Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei.



Another medal favourite bowed out for GB, this time it was David Florence in the Canoe Slalom semi final after a collison with gate 18 which hampered his finishing time and placed him sixth.

After yesterdays fourth place in the Men's Diving, Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow came close to a medal but had to settle for fifth place.

The success of the day came in the Equestrian Team event as GB notched a Silver after Tina Cook's clear in the showjumping sealed the medal for her and fellow eventers, Willam Fox-Pitt, Zara Phillips, Nicola Wilson and six time Olympian Mary King. However, in the Individual eventing none of the five received a medal with King 5th, Cook 6th and Zara Phillips 8th.

More success in the Women's football as GB beat Brazil 1-0 meaning they ended the group with a 100% record of three wins and without conceding a goal, they go on to face Canada in the quarter-finals.

Over in the Gymnastics, The women's team finished sixth with the gold going to USA with hopes moving on to the singles events later in the week.

Another night in the pool saw the GB men finish sixth in the 4x200m freestyle relay with Caitlin McClatchley finishing seventh in her 200m freestyle final and Hannah Miley also finishing seventh in the 200m IM final.


Wimbledon saw Andy Murray progress to meet Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) after defeating Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) 6-2 6-4. GB's women suffered losses but to higher seeded players with Heather Watson losing to Maria Kirilenko 6-3 6-2 and Laura Robson taking Maria Sharapova all the way in the first set but narrowly losing 7-6 (7-5) and close in the final set but lost 6-3.

London 2012 Day 4

GB hopes began with Naomi Folkard reaching the second round of the Women's Individual Archery with a victory over Russia's Kristina Timofeeva. In Judo, Gemma Howell received a disqualification for an illegal leg wrap and bows out.Naomi Folkard's Olympics campaign ended with defeat to Mariana Avitia (Mex) 7-1 and moves Avitia into the last 16.

Over in the pool, GB's Ellen Gandy failed to reach the 200m Fly Semis despite being a medal contender for todayand was 17th fastest but her compatriot Jemma Lowe sailed through as 3rd quickest in 2.07.64. American Kathleen Hersey is quickest in 2:06.41.

Andrew Willis and Michael Jamieson both make the 200m Breaststroke semi finals as second and third quickest with the semis later tonight. GB's 4x200m men qualify for the final in second behind
the US and are fifth fastest going into the final.

Britian's Archery campaign is over for 2012 as 2004 Bronze medalist Alison Williamson loses to Mongolia's Bishindee Urantungalag 7-3.

Good luck to the Women's Gymnastic team and Equestrian Team this afternoon also the swimmers in their semis tonight.

London Day 3 Part 2

After a good morning for Team GB, the day got slightly better with the the Daley/Waterfield 10m Platform Diving as they were leading after three dives but in round four a slip in synchronisation cost them points and meant that they missed out on a medal and finished fourth behind China, Mexico and the USA.

GB did get a medal however in the Men's Gymnastic tema final originally Silver but dropped to Bronze after a controversial appeal by the Japanese who felt they were marked harsly and awarded the Silver after the appeala shame but delighted for the quintet of Louis Smith, Sam Oldham, Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock and Dan Purvis sealed the first Men's team medal since Bronze in 1912.

Over at Wimbledon, British number one Heather Watson, 20, beat Spaniard Silvia Soler Espinosa 6-2 6-2 to reach the second round of the women's singles,and joined by fellow Brit Laura Robson after after she defeated Lucie Safarova (Cze) 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to set up a match with medal favourite Maria Sharapova.Ana Ivanovic (Srb) crushed the hopes of  Elena Baltacha 6-4 7-6 (7-5) to leave Watson and Robson as the only female GB hopes at SW19.

Just like on Day 2 the pool lit up the evenings acton but sadly there was little to celebrate for the British, the night started with success for Caitlin McClatchley as she made the final of the 200m Free. Robbie Renwick went in the Men's 200m Freestyle final only to finish 6th with France's Yannick Angle taking the win ahead of joint second placed Yang Sun and Taehwan Park both finishing in 1:43.93 with Ryan Lochte 4th.

Women's 100m Backstroke next and Gold for Missy Franklin (USA) just 20 minutes after reaching the 200m Free final ahead of Emily Seebohm (Aus) and Aye Terakawa (Jpn) with GB's Gemma Spofforth in 6th. The Men's 100m Backstoke next and Liam Tancock hoping for a medal but sadly only a 5th place finish with America's Matt Grevers setting an OR of 52.16 ahead of fellow American Nick Thoman with Japan's Ryosuke Irie in bronze position.

Lithuania secured their first Gold medal thanks to the stunning display by 15 year old Ruta Meilutyte securing the win ahead of Rebecca Soni (USA) and Japan's Satomi Suzuki in the 100m Breaststroke final.

 GB's night got better with Hannah Miley securing second in her semi to cruise into the final of the 200m IM final and joins Ye Shiwen who set a new OR in her semi, Alicia Coutts Steph Rice and Caitlin Leverenz,Ariana Kukors.

Today's Medal table is massive with so many different winners so far....

London 2012 Day 3 Part 1

Over the next four days my coverage will be mixed with being back in work so I will do a post at 12.30pm of live coverage from the morning and then one at around 11pm with a round up of the action from the day. After two medals yesterday, Team GB are raring to go and it began with Caitlin McClatchey reaching the semi final by winning her heat in the Women's 200m Freestyle. The day got better immediately as Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins set a new OR of 6.44.33 as they sailed through to the final of the Women's Double Sculls rowing.

 Another OR tumbled as Australia's Men's four set a time of 5.47.07 to reach the semi finals with GB also through in their heat three second slower then the Aussie's. Hannah Miley's chances of an medla increased as she qualified 10th fastest for th 200m Medley semi finals with Ye Shiwen (Chn) crusing home in 2.08.90 ahead of Kirsty Coventry and Stephanie Rice with Hannah coming in in 2.12.27.

However ther will be no medal for GB's Paul Drinkhall as he bowed out of the Table Tennis after losing 11-8 11-5 11-9 11-4 in the third round. Depending on my workload I may post during the day but if not it will be at 11pm.

London 2012 Day 2 Swimming Evening

A shock in the Men's Football saw Uruguay beaten 2-0 by Senegal with the Senegalese finishing with only 10 men but Konate's brace secured the win. A big night in the pool started with an amazing Women's 100m Fly final as American Dana Vollmer smashed the WR of 56.06 to win in 55.98s ahead of Lu Ying (Chn) and Alicia Coutts (Aus) with GB's Ellen Gandy finishing in 8th.

Men's 200m Freestyle Semis, GB's Robbie Renwick finished joint third in Semi 1 with Danila Izotov (Rus) behind German Paul Biedermann and 400m IM winner Ryan Lochte (USA). Semi 2 saw Sun Yang (Chn) win ahead of Agnel (Fra) with Park (Kor) in third meaning Robbie Renwick qualifies for the final as 6th fastest.

Women's 100m Breastroke Semi 1 won by Rebecca Soni(USA) who at 50m was in 8th place and cruised through the field in the 2nd 50 with fellow American Breeja Larson in second and Japan's Suzuki in third. Semi 2 saw a new European record of 1.05.21 by Ruta Meilutyte (Ltu) ahead of Efimova (Rus) and Leisel Jones (Aus). Meilutyte's record is even more stunning as she is only 15 years old so a lot more to come from here starting with a Gold in the final I'd think.

GB took an early lead vs UAE courtesy of Welshman Ryan Giggs connecting to a looping cross from fellow 'dragon' Craig Bellamy, the two combining similar to the opening game when Bellamy connected to Giggs' free kick.

Men's 100m Breaststroke final next with history in the making as Cameron Van Der Bergh set a new WR of  58.46 breaking his OR from the Semi's and securing a great Olympic titile ahead of Sprenger (Aus) and Hansen (USA).

As a Brit the next race (Women's 400m Freestyle final) is an important one for me as Rebecca Adlington tries to defend her title from Beijing (a night I remember well as I accidentally smashed a glass as she crossed the line while euphoric) however this time she is in lane 8 with WR holder Federica Pellegrini in the middle. Amazing race won by Camiile Muffat (Fra) with an OR of 4.01.45 ahead of Alison Schmitt (USA) and despite being her weaker event Rebecca Adlington got a medal in 3rd amazing for her despite losing her title she powered through from 5th at 200m to secure the medal she wanted at her home games hopefully not her last with her strongest event the 800m still to come.

Men's 100m Semi's next and GB's Liam Tancock finished 2nd behind Camille Lacourt (Fra) but ahead of 3rd placed Feiyi Cheng (Chn). Semi 2 was won by Matthew Grevers (USA) in 52.66s ahead of Ryosuke Irie (Jpn) JPN and Nick Thoman (USA) meaning Tancock qualifies for the final as third fastest, the final will take place tomorrow (Monday) night.

Women's 100m Backstroke Semi's next , Semi 1 saw American Missy Franklin win ahead of Japan's Ayi Terakawa and GB'S Gemma Spofforth in third and looking good for a place in the final with fellow Brit Georgia Davies in 8th. Semi 2 had a few big hitters including Emily Seebohm (Aus) who set a new OR in the heats and but no records as she came home in first place ahead of Jing Zha0 (Chn) and Anatasia Zueva (Rus) with Gemma Spofforth qualifying as 6th fastest for the final.

Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay had been long awaited with the Americans attempting to write the wrongs of Sydney 2000 when Ian Thorpe's Australia took their title after the Americans boasted the race was theirs only to fall to an amazing Thorpe swim. USA are confident this time as new Olympic 400 IM champion Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps spearhead their team.  GB have been pulled back in the football as Eisa equalises. USA fail to get their title back but get Silver after great legs by Lochte and Phelps fell short to an blitzing swim by France with Russia in third, Australia disappointing in 4th.

A great night in the pool has been added to by GB's win over UAE in the football after goals from Swansea's Scott Sinclair and Chelsea's Daniel Sturridge took them from 1-1 to 3-1 and need only a draw vs Uruguay to progress. There was a shock in the football as Spain lost to Honduras, their 2nd loss in 2 games and meant they bow out of the tournament.

Overall a good day for Team GB and on the medal table which is as follows....

London 2012 Day 2 Part 2

Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay heats saw GB finish 6th and fail to qualify for the final by being 12th fastest. Ben Ainslie started his pursuit of a 4th Olympic title in his Finn class and finished 2nd in his opening race.

Fencer James Honeybone bows out of the sabre round of 64 with a defeat to Belarus' Valery Pryiemka 9-15 but some success as Colin Oates qualified for the quarter finals of thre 66kg Judo event but sadly lost in sudden-death to Lasha Shavdatuashvili (Geo) and goes into the repecharge with the chance of a bronze medal. Later on Colin lost to South Korea's Jun-Ho Cho to miss out on a place in the bronze medal match.

 The Women's Road Race just like in Beijing has given Team GB its first medal with Lizzie Armitstead claiming Silver behind Dutch rider Marianne Vos with Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya in third.

From around 4pm, The Women's 3m Springboard Final took place and GB's  Alicia Bragg and Rebecca Gallantree finished 7th with Andy Murray securing victory over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the Tennis in straight sets (6-3 6-3).

Gymnastics saw a wave of success for Team GB as Beth Tweddle hit  a score of 16.133 in the Uneven Bars and in the All-Round qualifying, GB sit second to the USA with an 11 point gap.

London 2012 Day 2 Part 1

Early starts for many events saw GB's Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier bow out of the Badminton doubles after losing both pool games meaning their final game will be for pride.

Over in the Pool, Georgia Davies and Gemma Stopforth both successfully made the Semi Finals of the Women's 100m Backstroke with Robbie Renwick finishing 2nd in his heat and fellow Brit Ieuan Lloyd in 6th in the Men's 200m Freestyle.

In the Womens's Lightweight double sculls, GB's Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland won their heat by nearly 3 seconds over Denmark and New Zealand. 

Back over to the pool for more heats of the Women's 100m Backstroke and Kate Haywood placed 8th in Heat 5 with Siobhan O'Connor in 6th in Heat 6 but neither sadly make the Semi Finals.

Liam Tancock finished 2nd in Heat 5 of Men's 100m Backstroke and secured a Semi Final place and in the Ligthweight Men's double sculls at Eton Dorney, Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter won their heat.

Women's 400m Freestyle and Rebecca Adlington speeds through to the Final in 1st with Joanne Jackson in 7th in their heat, WR holder Federica Pellegrini (Ita) came in the next heat and finished 3rd with Pellegrini and Adlington qualifying 7th and 8th fastest.

London 2012 Day 1 Part 2

Having watched the 24 arrow eliminators this morning, I took in the Final between USA and Italy, the Americans having knocked out defending champions and WR holders South Korea in the Semis and a shock as Italy won the Gold medal by a score of 219-218 to deny the US their first Gold medal of the games.

On to the Swimming and a shock in the Men's 400m Individual Medley as Michael Phelps finished 4th out of the medals with fellow American Ryan Lochte taking the Gold ahead of Thiago Pereira (Brz) and Kosuke Hagino (Jpn).

400m Freestyle next and the OR broken in 3.40.10 by Sun YangChn) who swam only three hundreths off a new WR but still took the gold ahead of Park Tae-hwan (Kor) and American Peter Vanderkaay in third.

GB hopes were mixed in the Semi Finals of 100m Fly as Fran Halsall missed out by finishing 7th Semi 1 but happily Ellen Gandy qualified finishing 5th behind new OR holder Dana Vollmer (USA) in Semi 2.

Britain's hope of a first medal fell to Hannah Miley but sadly she finished 5th in a cracking final in which 16 year old Ye Shiwen broke the WR taking a second of defending champion Steph Rice's record from Beijing (Aus) who finished down in 6th with American Elisabeth Beisel 2nd and China's Li Xuanxu in third.

Semis of the 100m Breaststroke saw Brits Michael Jamieson and Craig Benson finish in Semi Final 2 in 3rd and 6th respectively but neither made the final as Semi 1 took 6 swimmers to the final including a new OR for Van Der Burgh (RSA)with the top 2 of Semi 2 joining them.

The final event in the pool was the Women's 4x100m relay which was won by Australia with an OR of 3.33.15 with Netherlands taking the Silver and USA sealing Bronze, Britain finished 5th meaning no medal on Day 1 for Team GB but a massive day for China.

London 2012 Day 1 Eventing

Last night's opening ceremony was amazing, so many surprises from Bond and the Queen 'parachuting' into the stadium to Mr Bean and Chariots of Fire and the saved surprise of the cauldron lighting by seven promising young athletes for the future all nominated by past Olympians.

The ceremony was the brainchild of Danny Boyle and he did not disappoint and made me personally proud to be British and a part of an amazing opening to an historic games.

The ceremony closed with Paul McCartney performing the classic 'Hey Jude' and left everyone who stayed up with a short slumber if they wanted to watch the opening events of Day 1.

From 9-9.20am, Archery from Lords saw GB eliminated from the Men's 24 Arrow by Ukraine losing 223-212 after a close 48 arrows including many perfect 10's.

11am saw the first finals of the games with the Women's 10m Air Pistol won by Yi Siling (Chn) with Slywia Bogacka (Pol) winning the Silver and Yu Dan ( Chn) receiving the Bronze.

GB hopes moved on to the pool with Hannah Miley successfully winning her heat to qualify sixth fastest for the 400m Individual Medley final later tonight and with a big hope of a medal.

Other successes today have included Louis Smith qualifying for the Pommel Horse final next week with fellow Brits, Kristian Thomas and Dan Purvis well placed to qualify in their respective events of Floor and Vault.

Anthony Agogo secured a win in the Boxing beating Junior Castillo Martinez of the Dominican Republic 13-6 to advance to the last 16. Susan Eglestaff won her opening match in the Badminton after beating Slovakia's Maja Tvrdy 21-15 21-10 but her teammates Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier lost 14-21 21-9 21-18 to Russia's Alexandr Nikolaenko and Valeria Sorokina to give them an uphill task in order to qualify for the next round.

Britain's first hope of a medal was in the Men's Road Race which saw a devastating crash in the final stages but the lead group survived sadly with Team GB missing out on a medal with Kazakhstan's  Alexandre Vinokourov sprinting to the Gold followed by Roberto Uran (Col) and Alexander Kristoff (Nor) with the Bronze.

The third Gold came in the Men's 10m Air Pistol with South Korea's Jongoh Jin taking the title, Luca Tesconi (Ita) shooting for the Silver and the Bronze awarded to Serbian shooter Andrija Zlatic.

As I write Roger Federer (Sui) has been taken to a third set in the Men's Singles Tennis by Colombian Ajelandro Falla (6-3, 5-7) despite having two match points and currently leads 2-1 in the third set.