10 August 2012 – Jenny Meadows

Wow the days are just flying by now and soon we will all have Olympic hangovers and need to spend a week in bed. These late nights are getting to me!  The action ends late and then like a true fan I watch all the highlights programmes and we are into the next day before I know it. I always say that my hardest day ever spent in the sport was when I volunteered to officiate at a local club match because my season had ended a few weeks prior. Standing on your feet all day raking sand pits and then running around with results sheets wiped me out. I think being an athlete is definitely the best job in the business. I have tried out both the spectator and competition role and basically ‘us athlete’s don’t know how easy we go it!’ Can’t wait to take up that role again. 

It was a quiet day for Team GB in the Olympic Stadium on day seven of the competition. The solo focus of the morning session was the qualifying rounds of the men’s 4 x 400m. The boys sailed through to the final and didn’t they look good?  Sorry if I sounded like Bryce Forsythe then, although I bet half the athletes on the team are far too young to even know who he is!) Jack Green’s performance particularly caught my eye with a blazing last 200m. I think the squad announced themselves here as possible medal contenders after that performance.

Lynsey Sharp continued her Olympic experience in the 800m semis. I know it was not the performance she would have hoped for and no doubt worked so hard to achieve.  I hate using clichés but I am sure she will benefit from the experience.  The three semis did go according to the formbook with all eight finalists being the ones I picked out when I saw the start lists. Sport doesn’t always work like this but on this occasion it did.  I’m predicting a Savinova, Seymana, Jelimo finish in the final.

The men’s 800m final promised to be epic with such riches of talent in every lane.  Would Rudisha go for the world record with the risk that he had to go it alone and possibly blow up and not claim the title? Go for it alone he did and I must admit I was very skeptical when he hit the bell in 49.28 attempting to do it from gun to tape.  The class of this man is incredible as he came home to not only claim the Olympic title but also the World Record with it.  1.40.91!!! The full results list makes some serious reading, as there were seven pb’s and one season’s best.  New kid on the block Osagie finished in eighth position with a 1.43.77 for fourth fastest ever on the UK All-time lists behind only Coe, Cram and Elliot. Another fascinating fact is that most of these competitors are all so young, with the silver and bronze medallists being aged 18 and 17 respective. The mind boggles what we can expect from this event in the years to come; with our own Andrew and Michael included. 

With no Brit progressing to the final of the men’s 200m it still had the crowd on the edge of their seats as they got to witness the phenomenon that is Bolt. It turned out to be a fantastic performance by all three Jamaican athletes claiming all the medals. I am really proud to think that London played the host role in Bolt’s historic double double (as he calls it), and Rudisha’s magical performance.