THE Great Britain team, which took a battering in some quarters for a slow start to the Olympics, is on course to better the performance in Sydney after an extraordinary Saturday of competition that yielded nine medals, including four golds, and was hailed by Simon Clegg, the team chef de mission, as the best ever. “It was a fantastic day and I genuinely believe that it was the greatest performance by Team GB in an Olympic Games, ” Clegg said.
If the 1908 Games — when many events consisted almost entirely of British competitors — are excluded, it is hard to disagree with Clegg’s evaluation. On Saturday, Ben Ainslie and Shirley Robertson returned to win gold medals in different boats, Bradley Wiggins took his first cycling pursuit title and the coxless fours race, won by the crew led by Matthew Pinsent, is already being spoken of as one of the greatest in rowing history. The two silver medals and three bronze medals were were a bonus, but the icing on the cake came with the news that Bettina Hoy, of Germany, had her time penalties confirmed, and Leslie Law was indeed the winner of the three-day-event title, with the team moving up to silver and Pippa Funnell to bronze.
If yesterday was disappointing, with the only medal one of silver from the women’s quadruple sculls, the overall total at 20 medals is three ahead of the tally at the same stage in Sydney.
As Clegg said: “It was certainly frustrating that we were being judged on day two or three. The performance of this team will be judged on the last day. There’s a lot of potential to come.” And the tally is bound to increase today, as the team-pursuit cyclists, who face Australia in the final, are guaranteed at least a silver medal.