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.