Beijing 2008 - Three more medals for Team GB

Eurosport - Fri, 22 Aug 04:02:00 2008

A look at how the Brits in action did on day 13 of the Beijing Games as one gold and two silvers were added to the medal total.

SWIMMING Britain's David Davies open water swimming Beijing 2008 - 0

Sailing

Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson rounded off the sailing regatta with gold in the Star class. It was Percy's second Olympic gold after he also won the Finn class at the Sydney Games.

"They were really difficult British conditions today," said Percy.

"Everything was changing. Boat places switched rapidly and we went from left to right. This morning when we heard the weather forecast that there would be heavy wind and rain, we thought to ourselves, 'here we go, bring it on, this is our business'.

"We just had to keep our eyes on the main guys and just fight, fight, fight," he added.

Leigh McMillan and Will Howden won the medal race in the Tornado class to finish in sixth place overall.

Athletics

Gold medal hope Phillips Idowu was disappointed in the men's triple jump as his leap of 17.62 was only good enough for silver despite it being a season best.

"It's not what I wanted, but I'll take it," said Idowu. "It was a really tough competition, I had to work. I was really close but in the end it wasn't quite enough.

"It hurts. I'm upset. I came here to achieve a lot more and I just fell short. I've come a long way, though. Last year I wasn't even in the mix for medals. It's been a long road.

"I'm a winner, I don't want to be content with silver. I will go on. I've been in such great form this year I believed I could do it.

"I went down fighting, I couldn't do more than that.

Team-mate Larry Achike finished seventh with a jump of 17.17m

Goldie Sayers finished a surprise fourth in the javelin final as she produced a British record throw of 65.75 with her very first effort.

Martyn Rooney finished sixth in the men's 400m final in a time of 45.12 seconds, half a second off of his personal best which would have been good enough for silver.

Daniel Awde produced the best 400m performance in the decathlon field (47.16) in the last of the day's opening five events but he still only lies in 26th position - 664 points off the lead.

Craig Pickering left too early in the final leg of the men's 4x100m relay and Britain were disqualified.

However, the women's team came through their heat safely in second.

Johanna Jackson was 22nd in the women's 20km walk in a national record of 1:31:33. She said: "I've got a lot more training to do and a lot of work on my technique. Hopefully I can challenge in another four years time."

A number of big names dropped out in the semi-final stage of the men's 800m including Britain's Michael Rimmer who could only finish sixth in his heat.

Commonwealth champion Lisa Dobriskey qualified for Saturday's final of the women's 1500m by finishing third in her heat.

However, Stephanie Twell and Susan Scott both missed out after finish sixth and fourth in their heats respecitively.

Swimming

Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands timed his final burst perfectly to deny David Davies gold in the 10km open water marathon swim.

"I gave it everything and now I've got something to show for it, I've got an Olympic medal - it's a once in a life time experience," said Davies, who led for much of the race but had to settle for silver to add to his bronze in the 1500m in Athens.

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater

Tim Brabants and Lucy Wainwright both reached the final of the men's and women's K1 kayak 500m.

"I put pressure on myself because I made the finals in Athens but if I can nail my start then who knows where I could finish," said Wainwright.

Equestrian

Ben Maher (on Rolette) and Tim Stockdale (on Corlato) both qualified for the final round of the individual show jumping final with perfect rounds.

However, they both struggled with their final runs; Stockdale had 16 penalties and finished 16th while Ben Maher had 20 penalties and finished 20th.

Nick Skelton (on Russel) failed to make the final round.

Diving

There were good performance from the two Britons - Tonia Couch and Stacie Powell - in the women's 10m platform as they finished eight and 10th and respectively.

Modern Pentathlon

Sam Weale did well to finish tenth overall in a 36-strong filed and Nick Woodbridge finished a disappointing 25th.

The two were the first men to represent Britain in the sport at the Olympics since Richard Phelps at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

"I'll look back on this as a day with so many ups and downs, but obviously I loved it out there and I have to be happy with a top-10 finish at my first Olympic Games," Weale said.

"But when you're on the start line, you just want to get a medal."

Woodbridge added: "This was one of the best days of my life, but also one of the hardest. It was my worst result of the season, which is really frustrating.

"I've got a lot of things to work on going away from here. I've struggled with my shooting all season. I managed to pick up 10 places on the ride today, although the course was really difficult."

Cycling

The semi-finals and finals of the women's BMX was postponed until Friday after officials decided the dirt course was too dangerous due to relentless rain.

Shanaze Reade is aiming to continue her recent domination of women's BMX, having won the 2007 and 2008 World Championships.

Eurosport

Comment 1 - 4 of 4

Sort comments by: Most recent
  1. yes very good

    From satelliteschool2002, on Fri 22 Aug 1:05AM
  2. very good

    From seankelly852, on Thu 21 Aug 11:01PM
  3. Well done to the two women divers! All the news is about other people - and out there they go and improve every round. You girls ROCK! Looking forward to seeing you challenging for medals in 2012.

    From Catherine, on Thu 21 Aug 10:34PM
  4. Go eee babbers!

    From adrianday101, on Thu 21 Aug 9:53AM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account