London 2012 Day 8:Team GBR in pursuit of Super Trio
If it isn’t an Olympic record then it must be very close. When the curtain closed on Day 8 of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Team GBR counted 6 gold medals to their credit in just one day and hoisted themselves in 5th position in GSN’s Olympic ranking.
Is it the dawn of a Royal come-back?
The golden moments were in Track Cycling Team Pursuit Men and Women, Rowing Lightweight Double Sculls Women, Rowing Men Four, Women Heptathlon and Mo Farah’s imperious cavalcade in the 10000m Men in Track Athletics.
The range in sports is impressive but the task ahead for the hosts is mountainous. Their chief rivals for Olympic supremacy have not been resting on their laurels. The USA (with Michael Phelps’ 21st and possibly last Olympic medal), China and Russia are holding fast their positions as the top three nations in the Olympic Games, and surprising Japan is still ahead of GBR, though by a very slim margin.
Behind the British, South Korea seems to be fading (but they have just earned themselves a place in the Men’s Football tournament last four at the expense of GBR) and so is Italy. A mention for the Netherlands in 11th place thanks to their Judo and Swimming athletes, and Hungary in 12th thanks to the same sports. They may fade too once Athletics gets properly on the way, just as Canada may. The North Americans, Global Cup overall leaders this year until May, are disappointingly in 13th place, and they too will suffer in the Athletics days to come.
