Here are some of the highlights from Team GB at today’s (August 7) Olympics.
Cycling
In an emotional last night of action at the velodrome, GB came away with two golds and one silver.
20 year old Laura Trott lit up the velodrome tonight as she won gold in the omnium, her second gold medal of the London 2012 Olympics. Going into this evening’s session she was one point behind her main opponent Sarah Hammer of the USA, with two events to go.
After five events, Hammer led on 15 points, while Trott had 17. Australian Annete Edmundson was in third position, following her win in the scratch race, but with five points between her and Trott, all eyes were on the top two.
The final event, the 500m time trial, is one of Trott’s strongest but even so it was going to take something special for Trott to make up the two point deficit as she would need to beat Hammer by three clear places. And that’s exactly what she did setting a new Olympic record in the process.
It wasn’t the dream ending everybody had hoped for, as Victoria Pendleton had to settle for silver in her last ever track cycling race before retirement. After looking unbeatable all through the earlier rounds, Pendleton faced her long-time rival Anna Meares in the individual sprint final tonight. Meares came out on top winning 2-0.
Meanwhile Chris Hoy, competing at what will surely be his last Olympic Games, won a gold in the keirin event.
Dressage
Charlotte Dujardin, Carl Hester and Laura Bechtolsheimer won Britain’s first Olympic dressage medal of any colour since the discipline first appearance in the 1912 Games.
Solid rides by Hester and Bechtolsheimer looked to have secured gold unless Dujardin had a bad ride. But the 27 year old is not world record holder for nothing and was able to set a new Olympic record with 83.286.
Canoe sprint
Team GB sprint canoeist Rachel Cawthorn qualified for Thursday’s A final after finishing second in the semi-final of the K1 kayak 500-metre race at Dorney Lake this morning.
The 23-year-old safely secured a place in the medal race after recording a time of 1:52.542 seconds and was beaten only by 47-year-old Josefa Idem of Italy.
Athletics
5000m runners Julia Bleasdale and Joanne Pavey have both qualified for the final on Friday evening, after finishing 4th and 7th respectively in their round heat.
Bleasdale achieved a time of 15:02.00, a new lifetime best for the 30-year-old, while four-time Olympian Pavey completed the race in 15:02.84, a season’s best for her.
Whilst in the long jump Shara Procter eased her way through qualification by jumping 6.83 on her first attempt.
Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Image credit: London 2012
