Day 8: Saturday 4th August

The backs of my legs are a bit battered today, following the kicking I've been giving myself! I had to take some furniture to my niece in West Hampstead, so enjoyed the triathlon commentary in the car, then watched the conclusion at the flat. As I'd taken our 2 year old, I'd decided this gave me some flexibility about racing back afterwards. But I didn't hang around at her place.

As my route back took me close to the Middle-Eastern Deli Green Valley, and having been really looking forward to watching the Men's Four, thoughts of Baba Ganoush overcame my Olympic radar, and I momentarily COMPLETELY FORGOT it was on! It wasn't until a text came through from my brother that I realised! Luckily, Jurgen Grobler's masterplan of losing the last regatta before the Olympics worked AGAIN and we beat the favoured Aussies. We also beat them in the semi, where they either didn't have it, or sat back a bit, but for whatever reason, their coming second then favoured us in the final, where crosswinds meant that the lane draw was crucial.

Something has gone badly wrong with Australia this Olympics - Jason Kenny has the same number of Golds as of Tuesday morning - their preparation seems to be all over the place. The Swimmers, who normally get them off to such a good start, had a shocker, which hasn't helped.

Anyway, never mind them! Back at the rowing and I'm now in my car to hear the next 2 medals - a gold for the lightweight girls, and a silver for the lightweight boys. I didn't realise hiw dramatic the latter was, or how entertaining the former was, until I got home & watched events unfold on telly.

Alex Gregory, Pete Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs Hodge win GOLD in the men's four.

The girls were delighted they won - you didn't need to be much of a lip reader to see them saying: "we've won the Olympics, we're going to be on a stamp!" - best reaction EVER - and also a brilliant idea from the Royal Mail, as are the Golden postboxes in the hometowns of each winner.

Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking win GOLD in the women's lightweight double sculls.

By contrast, the boys Purchase & Hunter were completely devastated at being pipped to the line by Denmark. The radio commentary was excellent, with James Cracknell explaining how a blighted winter training (illness & injury) led to their not having the strength & endurance to hold on in the last 500m. He left me wanting to find out more about how these athletes train, what they have to go through to get to that start line, and what can affect that. I'd always just assumed that if they were fit to start they'd be ok.

What followed on TV were among the most powerful moments of Sport I've seen. Simon Barnes commented that being at the venue means that you sometimes miss the moments of human drama which the TV brings us, and this was one of those occasions.

Redgrave stepped onto the jetty to lift an exhausted Mark Hunter out of the boat, and with the help of a volunteer, walked him around the landing stage until his legs started to work again. Then came the interview, where both Hunter & Purchase could barely speak, and just managed to croak out apologies for letting everyone down. Redgrave's huge arm came around them, Inverdale's too, and somehow Invers wound up the interview, wiped away his tears, gulped a bit and completed the link to the next race.

It was heart-wrenching stuff, especially as they were so wrong - when you see athletes on the edge of collapse, both physical & emotional, you know they could have done no more. How could that ever be a let down? Do your best - it's a cliche that we teach our kids, but it's also true, and if people have done this, and pushed themselves right to the brink in doing so, then the rest of us can merely look on in humility & shame.

Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter take SILVER in the lightweight men's double sculls.

The mood lightened in the afternoon when our most nailed on cycling medal delivered in superb style. In their last 6 races, at the World Champs & then the Olympics, they have broken the World Record each time! These girls are in their early 20s! It's an incredible time for Track Cycling at the moment.

Laura Trott is 20, she had a collapsed lung as a baby & nearly died, she has asthma, she throws up after each ride because her body produces too much lactic acid. Jo Rowsell has had alopecia since her teens. In the American team is Dotsie Bauch, a rider who took up cycling in 1998 to help her recovery from anorexia & bulimia, and now counsels people with eating disorders. It hasn't come easy to these amazing athletes & women.

Dani King, Laura Trott and Jo Rowsell win GOLD in the women's team pursuit.

I won't say the best was yet to come, but in the evening we had what was arguably the most phenomenal hour in British Athletics history, on a day when we won more Golds in a single day than at any other Olympics.

The pressure of being the face of the games & favourite for our first athletics Gold had, at times during the build up, seemed to sit heavily on the shoulders of Jessica Ennis, particularly when she got silver last year at the World Championships.

She'd had a fabulous first day in the Heptathlon, winning her heat of the 100m hurdles in a faster time than the winner of the actual event in Beijing! She was 200 or so points ahead as the second day started, which equated to about a metre, but with her weakest events of long jump & javelin ahead.

However, she nailed both so comprehensively that the final event, the 800m, had none of the usual gut shredding tension or sense of jeopardy about it. It became a double lap of honour - talk about living up to expectations! That she did it so comprehensively that it almost became a bit of an anti-climax just speaks to her complete dominance of a world class field, in an event which was by no means a nailed on certain medal. What a performance!

Jessica Ennis clinches GOLD in the heptathlon

Meanwhile, my old school mate Steve Bryson was at the stadium predicting 3 Golds. When Steve makes such predictions you should take note, because he had heard of the Pet Shop Boys before West End Girls, and so he was regarded as someone who knew stuff. Sure enough, the forgotten man of Super Saturday, Greg Rutherford, pulled it out of the bag. In fact, he's been so forgotten that I can't think of anything to say about him!

Greg Rutherford wins GOLD in the long jump, the first long jump gold for almost 50 years.

Then came Mo Farah, taking on the might of Ethiopia & Kenya who ganged up on him to try and knock him out of his rhythm. They sped up & slowed down, injecting changes of pace which they hoped would put him off, but he ran his own race, and wasn't shaken. With about 3 laps to go he moved towards the front, and with what seemed to be 600m to go he just stepped on the gas & eased away. It was phenomenal running - he did the last 400m in something like 52 seconds, and it was never in doubt.

What a race, what an evening, what a day.

Mo Farah takes GOLD in the 10,000m final.