Friday Five: Goooooold!

It has not escaped my notice that as it is time to do the Friday Five, Team GB has five gold medals at the Olympic Games. Mere coincidence? Of course it is, but I'm not going to let that put me off.

5 Gold Medals:

1. Heather Stanning and Helen Glover collect British women's rowing first ever gold medal in superb style. They led from start to finish in front of a highly vocal and thrilled local crowd to become our newest golden girls.

2. Bradley Wiggins (probably soon to be sir) proves he really is King of the Road with his blistering win in the time trial. Apparently he decided to do this event when his wife couldn't get tickets for the velodrome and he wanted to do something that all the fans could watch. And watch it we did, with only a little bit of drool.

3. As the slowest qualifiers for the Canoe C2 Slalom, Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott came out first and set the time to beat. No one could. They took Britain's first ever medal in this event. The pairing of David Florence and Richard Houdslow came second, so we won silver too! That's making a pretty big splash.

4. I have to admit I know nothing about this event and have never tried it, but it looks as though it requires nerves of steel and reactions of quicksilver. Peter Wilson won gold in the double trap shooting (which I think is equivalent to clay pigeon shooting) after being trained by Sheik Ahmed Al Maktoum (a member of Dubai's royal family), who won gold in 2004. Apparently Wilson just asked him if he would train him and he said yes. When asked what he was going to next, Wilson replied, "I'm going to get very, very drunk, probably do something stupid, and have a lot of fun." I hope he did - he deserves it.



5. After the disappointment of the women's disqualification in the team sprint, home fans' spirits were lifted at the velodrome as the men's sprint team powered to a new world record and a gold medal. It's Sir Chris Hoy's fifth Olympic gold medal and he won it alongside Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny. Fabulous stuff. I got up at 3am to watch it - a small sacrifice. I would gladly do it again. Arise to victory!

All of these athletes are incredible. Congratulaions to all the athletes at the Olympic Games (of every nation) for providing such a world class spectacle of sport. And there are another two weeks to go!

My Newest Favourite Thing: Team Sky

Wow! What a team. What a performance. What a commitment! I've heard people say that they are boring - clearly these people know nothing about cycling and are probably the same people that say that Spain are boring at football. It's a team sport. And what a sport. These guys are supreme athletes. I'm speechless. All aboard the Sky Train!

And I know I've banged on about Cavendish before, but he is truely remarkable, so I will again. The acceleration is incredible, and to win on the Champs Elysees for the fourth time in a row, is a stunning achievement. He'll always have Paris.

And Bradley Wiggins... what can I say? A fabulous and worthy winner. A great winning speech - 'It's time to draw the raffle numbers' - and a passion and to commitment to the sport. Yes, I'm patriotic and yes, it's wonderful to see a British rider win Le Tour. But it's even more amazing to see the yellow jersey lead out the World Champion in the final sprint. The Sky Train has been brilliant. Every rider has pedalled his socks off and I love it all.

 

And the Olympic road race is in less than a week's time. At the last Olympics I was suffering slightly from dual nationality syndrome. No such dilemmas this time. You go boys; bring it home!

Olympics: It's a very very Madison world

Another day; another medal haul, and this time New Zealand have been invited to the party. Bevan Docherty and Nick Willis claiming bronze in the triathlon and 1,500m respectively were fantastic . It was great to see Docherty bounding onto the podium to celebrate - it's not all about gold, although that would be nice, obviously.

Team GB's dominance at the velodrome continues to such an extent that I read a blog questioning whether we are too good at cycling. What? Do the Aussies ever worry that they are too good at cricket? Do the Scandinavians fret about their dominance of Nordic skiing? Do the Americans get perturbed about their invasion of countries who have democratically elected Communist leaders? There's only one thing to be said - 'On yer bike'!

The problem with success is that you come to expect it. So, it was slightly disappointing that neither the mighty Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish, nor the sensational Hayden Roulston and Greg Henderson managed to sparkle in the Madison. But what an incredible event this is! The BBC live updates on-line covered it in their usual inimitable style. Their descriptions of it included the following:

• The duck billed platypus of the sporting world
• Looks like something out of Ben Hur
• An athletic contest in which participants 'go queer' in their heads, and strain their powers until their faces become hideous with the tortures that rack them, is not sport. It is brutality.
• Who invented this sport? Jackson Pollock?
• The only thing that would make the Madison madder would be to give the participants swords
• The Madison will probably become a West End stage show - as long as Lloyd Webber doesn't have the final choice of riders, or music...

Olympics: Dual Nationality Dilemma

Earlier this month, I became a New Zealand citizen. As I do not have to renounce my British citizenship (I wouldn't), I now have dual nationality. The ceremony was very welcoming and focused on the spirit of inclusion. The Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon Rick Barker) writes, 'Your new citizenship does not mean that you will forget your country of birth, which will always be important to you. I hope that you will continue to share your traditions and your culture with all of us - they are an important part of the shared wealth of our country.'

This is great, and it gives me two countries to support in the Olympics (which is just as well, because if I'd been relying solely on New Zealand, I wouldn't have any medals to be proud of as yet). The problem arises when the countries compete against each other. Most of the time, my loyalties will still lie with Britain. I was born there and spent more than two-thirds of my life there, including the most formative years. So I am thrilled for our cyclists, canoeists, swimmers, and horse-riders who are competing and collecting their medals.

We (and 'we' will always mean Britain, Liverpool, or me and him outdoors) are competing in ten rowing events this weekend along with other cycling, sailing, and athletics events. In nearly all of these events I want Britain to win, and New Zealand to come second in any of the events they are also contesting, but I must admit to a couple of dilemmas in the cycling and rowing.

Is it to be Bradley Wiggins or Hayden Roulston (who are both hard-working riders in the Tour de France)?

Alan Cambell or Mahe Drysdale (who train together and are great mates)?

To keep things fair, I want the Evers-Swindell twins (NZ) to win the women's double scull from Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington (GB), and Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham (could there be a more appropriate name?) (GB) to win the men's double scull from Rob Waddell and Nathan Cohen (NZ). Whichever way you look at it, this is a weekend to be glued to the television.

It seems that Britian and New Zealand share many things, and the latest is the barrage of sledging from Australia. John Coates, head of the Australian Olympic Committee, greeted the news that Rebecca Adlington had won gold and Joanne Jackson bronze in the 400m freestyle, as 'not bad for a country that has no swimming pools and very little soap.'

Apparently Britain's sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe has rashly wagered that Britain will finish higher on the Olympic medal table than Australia. His Aussie counterpart, Kate Ellis has countered that green really isn't his colour and that the Brits are serial chokers. There has been a further comment that Britain are only good at sports at which they can sit down. Everyone appears to be getting into a lather, but I suppose all is fair in love and sport.

Meanwhile, huge congratulations to Rebecca Adlington for her latest gold medal and wolrd record. And to Michael Phelps for more of the same - just one more to go now!