7 August 2012
By the time I was wheeled off to bed, last night, our tally of gold medals and reached 22 having racked up two more very exciting races in the velodrome. Sir Chris Hoy, in what possibly will be his last race struck gold, whereas Victoria Pendleton, on whose shoulders so much rested, having been built up by the media to be a super star, failed by 800th. of a second, to beat her arch rival, the Australian, Anna Meares, and had to settle for silver.
Our 19th. Gold medal was won by Alistair Brownlee in the triathlon with brother Jonathan taking bronze.
Our 20th gold medal was won by a new star of women’s cycling, Laura Trott.
Our 21st gold medal was for dressage, the first ever for the GB. I watched this event and as an erstwhile polo player, understood only too well the work that one needs to put in between horse and rider in order to achieve anything like the exquisite control the riders demonstrated over their horses. I can quite believe that it normally takes six or seven years to get these horses to respond to the rider as they do.
With 17 more events in athletics, plus opportunities in Boxing; Canoe; Cycling BMX; Diving; Hockey; and Sailing. There are plenty of opportunities for us to add to our present medal tally of 48 medals -22 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze-making it the most successful Games since the London Olympics of 1908.
I feel as though I have broken my promise to my readers and gone into more detail than I had intended over these Olympics. On the other hand, I did promise only to deal with the gold medallists and, such is success of team GB, that there has been much to write home about.
On the home front, son Miles came to supper, on his way back from Wales. A short, but as always, a comforting visit.