Dreadlock Holiday Redux: Day 6: Thursday 2nd August, Unexpectedly brilliant

As usual in the first week, the early medals of the day came in the Rowing. This time it was Chris Bartley, Richard Chambers, Rob Williams and Peter Chambers in the Lightweight Fours (two brothers winning a medal - would this be repeated later in the triathlon?!), who were just pipped by South Africa, in a very exciting race. I think it was their first rowing medal, or something similarly historic. I'd never really thought about it, and hadn't even been aware of the lightweight division before Beijing, but because they all have to be under a certain weight, this makes for much more equality in size terms, and makes it a real test of skill.

Chris Bartley, Richard Chambers, Rob Williams & Peter Chambers, Lightweight Coxless Fours, Silver

Then we had an unexpectedly brilliant afternoon, where, in the space of one conference call, Great Britain won 2 Silvers & 2 Golds. The first two included two of my favourite moments of the games. First, Gemma Gibbons, who, on winning her semi-final to guarantee silver, mouthed "I love you Mum" to the heavens, in memory of the mother she had lost to Leukemia aged 17. After the outpouring of emotion from the semi, and having beaten several former world champions en route to the final, she couldn't quite get the win, but it didn't stop us all from becoming instant experts and start peppering our conversations with such terms as ippon.

Considering she had been ranked number 100 in this weight category, it was a magnificent effort.

Gemma Gibbons, Judo, Silver

Following this we had the Double Trap shooting, where the six finalists were lined up next to each other, taking it in turns to shoot their clays. Our man, Peter Wilson, another farmboy like Richard Faulds, was shooting last, and it looked like he had a pretty comfortable lead for most of the final. But then he missed a couple and it suddenly became a lot more tense, as he didn't seem to be missing any until then. He somehow held on, and when he hit the final pair, and secured the Gold, he disappeared from view as his knees gave way and he went straight down. One of my favourite moments so far. There followed copious tears and promises to go out, get really drunk & do something very silly, which is always what you want to hear from a bloke with a gun!

Peter Wilson, Double Trap, Gold

While the BBC breadth of coverage has been amazing, it would be quite good if they had re-runs of certain events available via the red button, so that we could watch them as they unfolded instead of via the producer's view of what should be in the highlights. A case in point would be the Canoe Slalom.

I was a huge fan of Paddles Up & Kick Start and other such excellent progammes in the 80s, so always like a bit of Canoe Slalom and had applied unsuccessfully for tickets. One of the moments of the Beijing games was when the Togolese canoeist snapped his oar across his canoe in his delight at winning silver.

It sounds like we had a cracking final, with the two British teams & training partners having a real chance of a medal. All that seemed to stand in the way of our teams were the Hochschorner twins from Slovakia, going for their fourth consecutive Olympic Gold!

Stott & Baillie, as slowest qualifiers, went first, then had to watch all the other competitors try to match their time, with a partisan crowd roaring on every gate hit by a competitor. The first I heard about this was on the radio when they said we were guaranteed a silver. The best thing to do is read this account from someone who was actually there, but some favourite images at the end were Stott & Baillie jumping in to celebrate with their friends, and the Hochschorner twins, one of whom was in floods of tears, consoling each other in the shadow of the stand as their dream of their 4th Gold turned to froth.

Etienne Stott & Tim Baillie,Canoe Slalom Gold,
David Florence & Richard Hounslow, Canoe Slalom Silver

To the Velodrome, and the hottest ticket in town. It was the team sprints today, where teams of 3 men or 2 women get around 3 or 2 laps as fast as they can, with the lead rider peeling off at the end of each lap.

First up were Pendleton & Varnish. They were on fire and seemed guaranteed a medal, possibly even a Gold one, until a silly technical error in the changeover zone (when Varnish moved aside fractionally early and Vic went past her before thelap had finished) caused them to be relegated.

It seems a bit of a strange rule, especially as no advantage seems to be gained from going early, but rules are rules, they all knew them, and they hadn't practiced for it as it hadn't been an issue before. They had broken the WR in qualifying, as had China, so it may have only been silver, but would like to have seen it. Ironically, it's the same commissaire that "ruined" the World's early this year, by applying said rule mercilessly, so it's not like they didn't know what was coming. They even relegated China in the final!

In particular, it was harsh on Jess Varnish as that was her only event, while Victoria Pendleton has another 2. There's a thin line between sporting triumph & disaster.

Luckily, we had the boys to make up for it, and wipe the floor with the moaning, complaining and appealing (but not in a good way) French in the final. However, there was controversy in the opening round, when Philip Hindes, the young lad poached from Germany, crashed shortly after the start. The commisaires let him start again, and he duly got better & better each race. In a post-race interview he was asked about the crash, and he said he had crashed deliberately after a poor start so that he could have another go. Jason Kenny standing next to him started laughing, & Hoy looked slightly annoyed but managed to grin along with it. Cue much furore about a tarnished medal / cheating etc - mainly from those instant experts who spend 4 years watching football and only watch track cycling during the Olympics.

There was much hilarious spin from the BBC & UK Cycling, saying that Hindes doesn't speak English so well, so his comments were "lost in translation", and were certainly changed in subsequent interviews. This was clearly bollocks - his English isn't that bad, but he may have been making a bit of a crap joke which backfired spectacularly.

Jill Douglas, having asked the question, then excitedly tweeting the answer, then deleting the tweet, then telling everyone to move on hardly covered herself with glory, and then the BBC asked some people involved in track riding about it, and they said it was a valid tactic! Luckily for Hoy & co, the UCI decided to take no further action, as the crash hadn't been an attempt to manipulate the result, and so the result stood.

Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny, Sir Sir Chris Hoy, the real McHoy, Men's Team Sprint, Gold