The 50m races in the pool always look a bit comic, a lot of wacky races splashing, where the comedy value rather outweighs the appreciation of the skill required. It wasn't the case in the 200m sprint, the paddles whir away impressively and the kayaks are propelled through the water at impressive speed - and we won!
It was as exciting as such a short race can be, he made his trademark fast start and stayed in front. It didn't look like he won it by much, but the commentators told us that in canoe sprint terms, this was a proper thrashing. I quite enjoyed it when they asked him afterwards about being the Bolt of the water - rather than shrug it off with that oh so British reserve, he said that now he had the GOLD to back up the comparison!
Ed McKeever, 200m Canoe Sprint, GOLD
A bit later the pairs race went out where our guys weren't expected to gold, but had a good chance of medalling and podiuming. A fine effort saw them bronze. I was amused to hear Pinsent & Cracknell grumbling that the canoeists got to stand on an actual podium rather than merely the jetty to receive their medals.
Liam Heath & Jon Scofield, 200m Canoe Sprint, BRONZE
We then had a party to go to in the afternoon, someone clearly having missed the memo that all social interactions that do not involve sport or big screens are cancelled for the duration. H did us a favour by sleeping until midway through the first half if the football, the GOLD above all others that Brazil are desperate to win, never having done so. In 96 they were knocked out by a sensational strike from Kanu in golden goal extra time, having led 2-0. Last time they were knocked out in the semi by archrivals Argentina, who went on to win it.
As is frequently the case in the UK media, the assumption is that whenever Brazil play they are favourites. However, Mexico had beaten them in a warm up match, on several occasions in the last few years, and were no longer intimidated or afraid of them.
I saw the first 10 minutes & the last 15 mins (the party had a telly and someone else was already watching it! Result!!), and saw 2 Mexican goals (the first inside 29 seconds), 1 Brazilian one then a clear header deep into injury time which was missed! GOLD for Mexico, another failure for Brazil - judging by the reaction from by Brazilian mates on facebook this was a shocking & disgraceful performance. I prefer to think that the second saturday of August, 4 years from now, at Maracana is already the hottest ticket of the games & the place to be.
Party duties then took over so I missed the boxing medal, but it was another GOLD.
Luke Campbell, Boxing, GOLD
At around 1915 people started to gather in front of the telly in anticipation of Mo at 1939. We were still watching the volleyball, and the Gabster was making a brave if futile effort to convince people to watch it..I was recording it at home to watch as live later, so at half past we turned over.
The race started out very cagily - 70 second laps, very slow. The Kenyans & Ethiopians tried to control it and mess around with the rhythm but Mo essentially ignored them, as he had in the 10000m, and ran his own race. Eventually the pace started to quicken and he moved to the front then hit the front.
My brother Chris was there, jammy git, and said, as did pretty much every commentator & journo, that he'd never experienced anything like it. There was a Mexican Roar which followed the Athletes around the track. As it went into the last few laps the tension was mounting with every stride. My palms were sweating, I was on the edge of my seat, shouting a mixture of instructions, advice & gibberish at the telly. Steve Cram was ramping it up, Mo was ramping it up, Mike Costello on the radio was ramping it up, the Ethiopian was ramping it up. But somehow Mo found another gear, and with, in Mike Costello's excellent commentary (which I listened to later), "his face a mask of pain", he kicked again & stayed out in front & it was his second GOLD.
By this stage I had the shakes - a real physical reaction to an amazing performance, and it took several minutes to calm down.
Mo Farah, 5000m, GOLD
All that was left for us, apart from a Jamaican world record in the 4x100m relay, won following a brilliant 3rd bend leg by Yohan Blake, and Bolt doing the Mobot as he crossed the line, was Tom Daley.
I was largely listening to this on the radio, as the Gabster was watching the volleyball final. My friend Giules had been at the final and had inadvertently let me know the result, so I already knew that the unforuntatley named Destinee Hooker was to emerge GOLDless once more, and that Brazil would win it.
Anyway, radio commentary on diving is quite bizarre, as you hear the take off, the splash, the reaction.
His first dive was a shocker, and he looked out of the medals from the off. Having scraped through qualifying, it didn't look good. But as he came out of the water, he and his coach made some signals to each other which added up to them getting a redive - on account of Tom having been put off by the flash photography. On his second attempt he nailed it, and the competion was off.
Tactically, Daley likes to hit his toughest dives early, to put pressure on the others, and it was the same story here. Approaching the last few rounds, one of the Chinese guys cocked it up, so Daley was in postion to win a medal. Going into the final round, he was in GOLD position, but the degree of difficulty on his final dive wasn't as tough as the 2 ahead of him, so he needed them to go wrong for him to stay in Gold. He also needed to nail his own dive.
By this time, the volleyball had finished, so we watched on the telly, as Tom first nailed his dive, then the other 2 nailed theirs, and it was BRONZE. The reaction was fantastic - all the Diving Squad threw him back into the water and jumped in to join him - they were great scenes, and showed just how delighted they and he were with that medal. After the year he's had, with the death of his dad, the public criticism from the coach, the promo work, the face of the games stuff with all the associated pressure, and still being only 18, this was a highly impressive perfomance. Well done!
Tom Daley, 10m Platform Diving, BRONZE
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