Monday, 13 August 2012

My Top 20 London Olympic Experiences – Part 1, Numbers 20-11


Ok, here goes.  A list of the Top 20 sporting moments which I, myself, have witnessed in person at these Olympics.  Of course, events which I did not personally attend are excluded from the list – as is anything from the epic Opening Ceremony, as the list is purely for the sporting moments.

A few events which I saw didn’t even make my list – the Women’s 100m Final, 2 of the 3 World Records I saw in the pool, and, remarkably, the South Korea vs Gabon 0-0 draw, all failed to make the cut.  But here goes:

#20 – Women’s Handball Bronze Medal Game – a mesmerising game which was level at full time, and level after extra time, was finally won by Spain, against South Korea, after a double period of extra time.

#19 – Ruta Meilutyte winning 100m Breaststroke Gold – the 15 year-old stunned her more esteemed rivals to take one of the shock Gold Medals of the Games.

#18 – Cao Yuan & Zhang Yanquan winning the Men’s synchronised Highboard Diving – 6 flawless dives, from the Chinese teenagers.

#17 – Women’s Team Pursuit World Record for Team GB – I only saw the first qualifying round, but Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell & Dani King set the tone for the rest of the competition with this fine display, and World Record.

#16 – Men’s Table Tennis Bronze Medal game – a massively leftfield selection here.  It had been 12 years since there was a European medallist in this event, but Dimitrij Ovtcharov changed this with a thrilling win over Chuang Chih-yuan.  Every point saw a long rally.  Every set went to the wire.

#15 – Sally Pearson winning the Women’s 100m Hurdles – a classic sprint race, won by a very narrow margin, in an impressively quick time.

#14 – Rebecca Soni’s Gold Medal & World Record in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke – her second World Record of the Games, but the first World Record that I witnessed at any venue.  It certainly wasn’t my last...

#13 – Men’s Team Pursuit Final – a contest between the age-old rivals, Great Britain and Australia.  Brilliantly won by Team GB, in World Record time.

#12 – Women’s Handball Final – the entire Norwegian nation came to Stratford, where, after some nervous moments, they were rewarded with a Gold Medal on the final evening of action.

#11 – Laura Trott’s dramatic Omnium victory – it isn’t possible to dislike anything at all about Laura Trott.  She came back from 2 points behind in the last race of the Omnium to take a thrilling Gold.  Logic dictates that this should be very high on my list, but somehow, somehow, I found 10 more dramatic moments than this one...

To be continued......

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