London 2012 Olympics: Farah and Bolt finish off with a flourish

London 2012 Olympics on The Intrepid Reporter
Unofficial sport-by-sport guide - Medal calendar - Full results - The Big 4 - Team sports

MO FARAH completed an amazing double by winning the 5,000m on another golden night for British athletics at the Olympic Stadium.

Farah, who won the 10,000m last on 'Super Saturday' last weekend, again ran a brilliant tactical race, taking to the front on the bell for the last lap.

On the back straight, it looked as if he may have gone to early with Kenyan Thomas Longosiwa sitting right on his shoulder, seemingly ready to pounce.

However, Farah's renowned late burst of pace in the home straight left Longosiwa trailing in his wake, and the Londoner won in 13:41.66. Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel took silver with Longosiwa ultimately just hanging on in third.

As he crossed the line, Farah had a look of sheer disbelief at his achievement written all over his face. Well, Mo - you better believe it for you are now a double Olympic champion!

It was indeed another truly special night for the 80,000 spectators in east London as the stars of track delivered yet more immense performances.

The greatest of them all, Usain Bolt, won his sixth Olympic gold medal and broke a fourth world record after anchoring the brilliant Jamaica team in the 4x100m relay.

In truth, there was little more for Bolt to do as, by the time Yohan Blake had handed him the baton, Jamaica had pulled well clear.

Credit must go to Bolt, then, for opting to make more history rather than just strolling home ahead of United States and Trinidad & Tobago.

The Great British quartet had not qualified for the final after botching a baton changeover for the fifth time out of the last six major championships - a seriously unimpressive record.

But, thankfully, that was one of very few disappointments over the last two weeks and yesterday Team GB took its total number of medals up to 62 with 28 gold, 15 silver and 19 bronze.

Remarkably, that is the same number of golds as Germany (11), France (10) and Australia (seven) combined.

And it has been confirmed that Britain will finish third in the medal table for certain, ahead of Russia and only behind the two current superpowers, United States and China.

Before the Olympics, it perhaps felt dangerously presumptuous of governing body UK Sport calling Team GB "its greatest ever team".

However, it is now clear that it was just well-placed confidence in a supreme group of athletes, the finest group this country has ever produced.

Another golden day for GB began early on the water at Eton Dorney where trainee accountant Ed McKeever powered away from the field to win the 200m single kayak event in 36.246 seconds.

Within the hour, McKeever had been joined on the podium by Liam Heath and Jon Schofield who took bronze in the doubles event to make it four canoeing medals overall for GB at these Olympics.

Later - as the light declined on Day 15 of London 2012 - boxer Luke Campbell won Britain's 28th gold medal by beating Irishman John Joe Nevin 14-11 in his bantamweight bout.

That was Britain's first bantamweight gold since 1908, and their second gold in the ring at London 2012 after Nicola Adams made history on Thursday (Day 13) by becoming the first ever woman to win an Olympic boxing medal.

The ever-smiling Adams floored three-time Chinese world amateur champion Cancan Ren for an easy win by 16-7 on a day of girl power for Great Britain.

Having broken their duck last week in terms of rowing gold, Britain's female athletes also broke new ground in the equestrian as Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Bechtolsheimer won gold and bronze in the individual dressage.

With three golds, a silver and a bronze, Britain won medals across all three disciplines - jumping, dressage and eventing - in the same Olympics for the first time ever.

Gold also came on the taekwondo mat as 19-year-old Jade Jones, from Flint in Wales, capped her meteoric rise by beating Yuzhuo Hou in the lightweight category.
Two years ago, then devoid of lottery funding, the Jones family raised the £1600 she needed to attend the Youth Olympics in Singapore.

She won gold there - and now, she is a fully-fledged Olympic champion, Britain's youngest at these Games.

On Friday (Day 14), Team GB was frustrated by a lack of gold medals but it was nonetheless still a successful day.

There was double silver in the sailing as both the male and female crews - Luke Patience/Stuart Bithell and Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark - won in the 470 class.

With silver actually already secured for both of them going into the medal race, there had been hopes that they would push for an overall victory - but, amid light winds in Weymouth, their challenges unfortunately faltered.

Later, those two silver medals were added to by three bronzes - in boxing courtesy of Anthony Ogogo in the middleweight division, taekwondo thanks to Lutalo Muhammad, and women's field hockey.

The hockey squad thus overcame the disappointment of losing their semi final 2-1 to Argentina in the finest possible way - by beating New Zealand 3-1 for bronze.

Unfortunately, the men could not follow suit. They lost their bronze match against Australia by the same score - although that was at least an improvement on their devastating 9-2 semi final defeat to Netherlands.

Finally, teenager Tom Daley has had his fair share of low points at London 2012, finishing in the worst possible placing - fourth - in the synchronised event before struggling in the individual preliminaries.

Daley had edged through his first round down in 15th but then improved in the semi finals to be placed in fourth again.

Thankfully, in the final, Daley delivered his best, and his consistency over six dives was rewarded with a brilliant bronze.

His dad, Rob, who died after battling cancer last year, would have been so proud of him - and it was touching to see the youngster pay tribute.

"I know that if he was here he would be very proud," said the 18-year-old, who is Britain's first individual diving medallist for 52 years.

"It's really tough not having him here, but I'm so glad to come out with something to show for it after all of the hard work we put in together."

Yet another magic moment in these Olympics - there have been so many, as this excellent BBC video amply demonstrates. Does it really all have to end today?

MEDAL TABLE (Day 16, 15:54)

Rank	Country	G	S	B	Total
1	UNITED STATES (USA)	45	29	29	103
2	China (CHN)	38	27	22	87
3	Great Britain & NI (GBR)	28	16	19	63
4	Russian Federation (RUS)	21	25	33	79
5	South Korea (KOR)	13	8	7	28
6	Germany (GER)	11	19	14	44
7	France (FRA)	10	11	12	33
8	Italy (ITA)	8	7	9	24
9	Hungary (HUN)	8	4	5	17
10	Australia (AUS)	7	16	12	35
11	Japan (JPN)	7	14	17	38
12	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	7	0	5	12
13	Netherlands (NED)	6	6	8	20
14	Ukraine (UKR)	6	5	9	20
15	Cuba (CUB)	5	3	6	14
16	New Zealand (NZL)	5	3	5	13
17	Iran (IRN)	4	5	3	12
18	Jamaica (JAM)	4	4	4	12
19	North Korea (PRK)	4	0	2	6
20	Spain (ESP)	3	9	4	16
21	Brazil (BRZ)	3	4	8	15
22	Belarus (BLR)	3	4	5	12
23	Czech Republic (CZE)	3	3	3	9
24	South Africa (RSA)	3	2	1	6
25	Ethiopia (ETH)	3	1	3	7
26	Romania (ROU)	2	5	2	9
27	Kenya (KEN)	2	4	5	11
28	Denmark (DEN)	2	4	3	9
29	Poland (POL)	2	2	6	10
29	Azerbaijan (AZE)	2	2	6	10
31	Turkey (TUR)	2	2	1	5
32	Croatia (CRO)	2	1	2	5
33	Norway (NOR)	2	1	1	4
34	Switzerland (SUI)	2	1	0	3
35	Canada (CAN)	1	5	12	18
36	Colombia (COL)	1	3	4	8
37	Mexico (MEX)	1	3	3	7
37	Sweden (SWE)	1	3	3	7
37	Georgia (GEO)	1	3	3	7
40	Ireland (IRL)	1	1	3	5
41	Argentina (ARG)	1	1	2	4
41	Slovenia (SLO)	1	1	2	4
41	Lithuania (LIT)	1	1	2	4
44	Serbia (SBR)	1	1	1	3
44	Tunisia (TUN)	1	1	1	3
46	Dominican Republic (DOM)	1	1	0	2
47	Trinidad & Tobago (TRI)	1	1	3	5
47	Uzbekistan (UZB)	1	1	3	5
49	Latvia (LAT)	1	0	1	2
50	Algeria (ALG)	1	0	0	1
50	Bahamas (BAH)	1	0	0	1
50	Grenada (GRN)	1	0	0	1
50	Uganda (UGA)	1	0	0	1
50	Venezuela (VEN)	1	0	0	1
55	India (IND)	0	2	4	6
56	Mongolia (MGL)	0	2	3	5
57	Thailand (THA)	0	2	1	3
58	Egypt (EGY)	0	2	0	2
59	Slovakia (SVK)	0	1	3	4
60	Belgium (BEL)	0	1	2	3
60	Armenia (ARM)	0	1	2	3
60	Finland (FIN)	0	1	2	3
63	Indonesia (INA)	0	1	1	2
63	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	1	1	2
63	Estonia (EST)	0	1	1	2
63	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	0	1	1	2
63	Malaysia (MAS)	0	1	1	2
63	Puerto Rico (PUR)	0	1	1	2
69	Botswana (BOT)	0	1	0	1
69	Cyprus (CYP)	0	1	0	1
69	Gabon (GAB)	0	1	0	1
69	Guatemala (GUA)	0	1	0	1
69	Montenegro (MNE)	0	1	0	1
69	Portugal (POR)	0	1	0	1
75	Greece (GRE)	0	0	2	2
75	Moldova (MDA)	0	0	2	2
75	Singapore (SIN)	0	0	2	2
75	Qatar (QAT)	0	0	2	2
79	Afghanistan (AFG)	0	0	1	1
79	Bahrain (BRN)	0	0	1	1
79	Hong Kong (HKG)	0	0	1	1
79	Kuwait (KUW)	0	0	1	1
79	Morocco (MAR)	0	0	1	1
79	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	0	0	1	1
79	Tajikistan (TJK)	0	0	1	1

McCoy earns his stripes in my SPOTY picks

SPOTY winners
SPOTY: Tony McCoy
Second: Phil Taylor Third: Jessica Ennis
Overseas: Rafael Nadal
Coach: Colin Montgomerie
Team: Europe Ryder Cup players
Young: Tom Daley
Lifetime Achievement: David Beckham
Helen Rollason Award: Sir Frank Williams
Unsung Hero: Lance Haggith

My Sports Personality of the Year picks
SPOTY: Tony McCoy
Overseas SPOTY: Rafael Nadal
Coach SPOTY: Andy Flower
Team SPOTY: Europe Ryder Cup players
Young SPOTY: Conor Coady (footballer)
Lifetime Achievement: David Beckham (pre-selected by BBC)
*Other awards include the Helen Rollason award, given for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity, and the Unsung Hero award.

SPOTY main award
TONY MCCOY still heads the betting for tonight's prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award - and rightly so after his Grand National win on Don't Push It in April.

McCoy memorably won the world's greatest steeplechase at the 15th attempt proving persistence pays off.

"If you get enough goes at something and you keep going, once you're in there you've always got a chance," McCoy said once he had calmed down.

For his victory led to a wonderful but unusual outpouring of joy from a jockey who has been head and shoulders above his contemporaries for years.

The Northern Irishman has been Champion Jockey in every season since 1995-6 but the famous Aintree race had somehow eluded him and it was starting to look as if he might never win it.

This year, another chance looked set to pass by McCoy with Black Apalachi ahead and Don't Push it back in the field.

But a strong finish overhauled Black Apalachi's advantage and gave the 36-year-old the finest of his 3,000+ wins.

Of course, McCoy faces tough competition for the award which will be presented at the Birmingham NEC in front of 13,000 people.

In an excellent year for Northern Irish sport, perhaps McCoy's biggest competition comes from his compatriot Graeme McDowell.

McDowell hit the winning putt at Celtic Manor as Europe regained the Ryder Cup by the slimmest of margins in a fascinating finale in Newport.

But applying the coup de grace to Europe's victory was far from McDowell's only achievement in 2010.

The Portrush man also won his first major, the 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach by one shot from Frenchman Gregory Havret.

Big names such as Ernie Els, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were all just a couple of shots behind throughout the final round.

But McDowell held them all off to add to complete a great year in which he also won the Welsh Open, again at Celtic Manor, and the Andalucia Masters.

The main problem for McDowell is that the golf vote will be split between himself and Lee Westwood whose brilliant consistency landed him the coveted world number one spot.

Westwood also played a major part in Europe's Ryder Cup win, usually going out first and setting the tone by taking 2.5 points from his four matches.

Even in his singles' match which he lost, Westwood seemed to give the Europe middle-order some momentum by leading until a late collapse.

Unfortunately, nearly but not quite enough seems to be the way for the Worksop man who has agonisingly finished third and second in his last two Open Championships, meaning he is still without a major.

But the feeling is that Westwood's time will come soon. After all, you do not become world number one for nothing.

World number one is where Phil Taylor has been for years in darts. The Power's 7-3 victory over Simon Whitlock with an average of 104.38, no less, was his 15th world championship.

Such a record has often provoked a clamour for Taylor to be bestowed with the SPOTY honour but it seems unlikely that the Stoke man has the fanbase to pull this one off.

Taylor may attract votes as some sort of working-class hero but, given that Zara Phillips won this award in 2006, the programme's demographic seems more far-reaching than that.

That won't bother Taylor too much. After all, he is currently playing at the Alexandra Palace, looking for a 16th world championship at the age of 50.

If Taylor is coming towards the end of his career, the next candidate - Tom Daley - has only just begun.

Diver Daley, at 16, had already become a world champion in 2009 and he added double Commonwealth gold this year against a tough field.

Plymouth-born Daley has a good record in this competition too, having won Young SPOTY in 2007 and 2009.

He was also named in the top ten of the main award last year for his world championship win.

Daley has again been nominated in both awards this year and yet, given his competition, he may be unlucky enough not to win either.

However, what seems certain is that he will be the poster boy for British hopes in the London 2012 Olympics.

Meanwhile, the pin-up girl is likely to be Jessica Ennis who continued her golden streak in the heptathlon this year, setting a personal best of 6,823 points at the European Championships.

Sheffield-born Ennis, who finished third in last year's SPOTY, also won the World Indoor Championships with a competition-record points total to add to her World Championship win in Berlin in 2009.

Of course, the big prize for 24-year-old Ennis remains the Olympics and Denise Lewis' British points record of 6,831 which she just fell short of this year.

Among the other candidates, Amy Williams is already an Olympic champion having brought home Great Britain's only medal from the Winter Games in Vancouver.

Skeleton athlete Williams became the first individual British gold medalist in 30 years since Robin Cousins won gold in figure skating in 1980 when she got down the Whistler track in the best aggregate time over four runs.

She also set the track record of 53.68 in her third run to set up her victory which came by 56 seconds over German pair Kerstin Szymkowiak and Anja Huber.

Manxman Mark Cavendish is another speed merchant to make the final cut after he won another five stages in the 2010 Tour de France to take his career total to an amazing 15 in three years.

The 25-year-old also backed up his stage wins with a green jersey in another of the classic tours, La Vuelta a Espana for the most overall points.

Cavendish looks as if he could dominate sprinting in cycling for years - he certainly seems to have the desire to win over and over again.

Another man with great self-belief is Notts and England spinner Graeme Swann, a late bloomer if ever there was one.

Since his Test debut in December 2008 at the age of 29, Swann has become a major pillar of this largely successful England team.

Under the captaincy of Andrew Strauss, England won their first major ICC World Cup in the Twenty20 version of the sport this year.

The team also enjoyed Test series wins over Bangladesh and Pakistan, and they made a fine start to their Ashes defence with victory in Adelaide before being pegged back in Perth.

Swann has added a new dimension to England's bowling attack, providing the team with a genuine world class spinner.

His 124 Test wickets at an average of 27.62 speaks volumes, as does his ability to pick up five-wicket hauls - no fewer than 10 in just 27 matches.

The final candidate is WBA world heavyweight champion David Haye who defended his belt successfully against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison this year.

Unfortunately, the spectacle of the Haye-Harrison fight left much to be desired and Haye was barely tested, winning in three rounds.

Haye's big year is 2011 in which he plans to fight both of the Klitchko brothers - only by beating them will he cement his place on the pantheon of great British boxing heavyweights.

Overseas SPOTY
IN American Pie, Don McLean wrote: "And while the King was looking down, the Jester stole his thorny crown..." and this year saw the long-awaited changing of the guard in tennis.

Rafael Nadal won three of the four majors in 2010 to complete his own career Grand Slam.

While Roger Federer crashed out of Wimbledon at the quarter final stage, Nadal powered to a 6-3 7-5 6-4 - having won his fifth French Open in six years a month earlier.

And at the US open, Federer again went out before the final, losing Novak Djokovic in the semis, opening the door for Nadal.

The Spaniard won 6-4 5-7 6-4 6-2 against the Serb to become the first player ever to win majors on clay, grass and hardcourt in a single season.

Federer is now 29 while Mallorca-born Nadal is just 24 - and, with him having overcome his knee trouble, it is frightening to think how much more he might win.

Nevertheless, Nadal is likely to face tough competition tonight from New Zealand fly-half Daniel Carter and Sri Lankan spin king Mutiah Muralitharan.

All Black Carter won the Tri Nations for the sixth time and he also helped NZ complete a clean sweep in the Autumn internationals.

While in Britain, Carter hit a penalty against Wales to overhaul Jonny Wilkinson and become the leading Test point scorer with 1,188 points.

That record includes 29 tries, 208 conversion, 207 penalties and two drop goals at an average of 15 point a game, highest average for players with more than 500 Test points.

Meanwhile, Murali was also a record breaker before his retirement this year, becoming the first bowler to take 800 Test wickets, all at an average of 22.72.

Better still, he achieved his feat in typical fairytale style with his final delivery in Test cricket, dismissing Pragjan Ojha of India to complete a 10-wicket win.

Murali's career record was indeed second to none - only Shane Warne, on 708 wickets, came anywhere near to matching this spinning genius.

Coach SPOTY
UNLIKE the 2005 Ashes victory which came at the end of a long unbeaten run, the 2009 win has seemed to breed further success for the England cricketers and their coach Andy Flower.

England are unbeaten in all of their Test series since the fifth Test win at the Oval regained the Ashes, drawing in South Africa, beating Bangladesh twice and Pakistan.

In limited overs cricket, England have overseen a big upturn in form, with five successive series wins over South Africa, Bangladesh twice, Pakistan and Australia. The team also tasted success in the Twenty20 World Cup.

Much credit for this must go to the coach who seems to have instilled a great spirit in the camp and a professionalism which has seen the team's fielding improve massively.

Team SPOTY
THE two golfers, McDowell and Westwood, may cancel each other out in the main award but Europe's Ryder Cup players should be a shoo-in for the Team of the Year.

Trailing 6-4 after the first two sessions of fourballs and foursomes, Europe produced a scintillating run of form to win the third session by 5.5 to 0.5.

The trail of victories began on Saturday evening and finished on Sunday afternoon as the competition was forced into a Monday finish for the first time ever in rainy Wales.

Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and Miguel Angel Jiminez all won their Singles matches while Rory McIlroy and Eduaordo Molinari earned halves.

But, at 13.5-13.5, it was all down to McDowell to keep his cool. That he did, winning on the 17th green after his opponent Hunter Mahan conceded a five-foot putt.

The victory sparked celebrations reminiscent of a football pitch invasion as fans flooded onto the green in a scene which will go down in Ryder Cup history.

Europe had won its sixth Ryder Cup out of the last eight - with four wins in the last five - but only by the slimmest of margins. This was a classic.

Young SPOTY
IN a year in which the England senior team failed badly at the World Cup in South Africa, English football actually won its first major international trophy for 17 years.

England beat Spain 2-1 in the final of the Under-17 European Championships in Liechtenstein and Liverpool's Conor Coady was vital to the success.

Described as a Steven Gerrard-type box-to-box midfielder - with the crew-cut hairstyle to match - Coady was instrumental as skipper in bringing back the trophy in May.

Let us hope in years to come, he will do better than Gerrard on the senior international stage as well.

Lifetime Achievement award
THE BBC has made a shocking decision which smacks of pandering to the masses by giving the Lifetime Achievement award to David Beckham.

To his credit, Beckham won everything there was to win in the club game, and he also hauled the national team out of sticky situations on several occasions.

Off the pitch, Beckham deserves credit for his charitable work, raising awareness for UNICEF and the Unite against Aids campaign.

He has also featured in memorable sketches for Comic Relief and played a big part in helping Great Britain win the bid for the London 2012 Olympics.

But, aged 35, his name sits uncomfortably at the moment alongside other Manchester United greats who have picked up this award - Sir Alex Ferguson, George Best and Sir Bobby Charlton.

The reason being that I would imagine Beckham has much more yet to give in his post-playing career.

When Alexander the Great was 33, he broke down and cried as there were no more lands to conquer. David Beckham is not Alexander the Great.

Pain now, gain later

TEAM GB returned from Vancouver today but only Amy Williams brought back a medal having won gold in the skeleton.

Williams produced four brilliant runs down the Whistler track to become Britain's first individual gold medallist at the Winter Olympics for 30 years.

The successful slide meant that Team GB did better in Vancouver than in Turin four years ago when the only medal there was silver.

That was also in the skeleton, courtesy of Shelley Rudman who could only finish fifth this time.

Before the Games began, expectations were whipped up by public declarations from UK Sport that the aim was to return with three medals.

The press jumped on what looked like a bandwagon ready to roll, as did the BBC. But I cannot criticise them because I also got carried away with hopes of Whistler winners too.

It must be pointed out that the hype was not completely unfounded and UK Sport's target was hardly unrealistic.

While the majority of the 52 British competitors were what could be termed as also-rans, Team GB flew out a crack skeleton squad and - for the first time in Winter Olympics history - two world champions.

But, in the women's two-man bobsleigh, Gillian Cooke and Nicola Minichiello were one of three British teams to crash out on a notoriously difficult - some said, dangerous - track.

And, in the men's curling, David Murdoch and his team could not even make it to the last four.

Of the other prospects, Zoe Gillings in the snowboard cross threatened the podium but she bowed out in the semi finals.

Ice dancing pair Sinead and John Kerr, and the speed skaters Jon Eley and Elise Christie, were never really in with a shout.

All in all, it has been a hugely disappointing two weeks.

And, while British Olympics chiefs are technically right to hail an improvement since Turin, it was more telling how quickly they were on the defensive.

But this article is not simply intending to bash the British athletes’ efforts.

Though all but one of them failed to mount the podium, many of them were still competitive on a fraction of the funding dedicated to Summer Olympics.

The issue of funding is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation.

Skeleton received the biggest wedge of money in the latest four-year cycle because, after Rudman’s win, it was widely recognised as the sport in which Britain had the best chance.

But, without the funding, a breakthrough similar to that made by the skeleton team is obviously much more difficult.

Sir Steve Redgrave has proposed building a long-track speed skating venue which would double as a national centre for all ice sports.

But the cost of such a project would dwarf the funding available.

Instead, surely more use should be made of the perfectly-adequate, already-constructed National Ice Centre in Nottingham.

That might generate better results as soon as 2014 at the next Winter Olympics at Sochi on the Black Sea in Russia.

After all, it is highly likely that Team GB will take a more experienced set of athletes to Russia if they all remain competing.

This time, Team GB was a young, inexperienced squad. 64% were competing in their first Olympics while 17% of them were younger than 21 years old.

What must also be remembered is the unpredictable nature of many winter sports which produce shock results where world champions have fallen short.

If nothing else, Team GB athletes can perhaps console themselves with the fact that they were not the greatest disappointment of the Games.

That fate lies firmly at the door of the Russian Olympic squad who won just three gold medals to finish 11th in the table.

It may be two more golds than Team GB but then Great Britain’s Winter Olympic prestige hardly compares to Russians’ history, especially when they competed as part of the Soviet Union.

In the nine Winter Olympics between 1956 and 1988, the Soviets only failed to finish top of the medal count twice – in 1968 and 1984.

The Russians’ dismal display in Vancouver was heightened by humiliation in the men's hockey – a 7-3 quarter final defeat to Canada.

The other notable failure was in the pairs figure skating where Russia failed to win gold for the first time since 1964.

Unsurprisingly, the performance by Team Russia has not gone down well back in Moscow and heads are expected to roll.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is a fanatical sportsman and has repeatedly vowed to rebuild Russia’s sporting prowess.

And with the next Winter Olympics being hosted by Russia, this was hardly the ideal way to prepare for home glory.

But Russia should take heart from Canada. Before these Winter Olympics, Canada had hosted the Summer Games in 1976 and the Winter Games in 1988.

Incredibly, the Canadians failed to win a single gold medal on either of those occasions.

As a result, an ‘Own the Podium’ programme was launched and funding was increased across all the winter sports to prevent a repeat of 1976 and 1988.

After a couple of nervy days without a gold medal, Alexandre Bilodeau won in the men’s moguls on day three and the floodgates opened.

Canada finished with 14 golds, the most ever by any nation at a Winter Olympics, beating the previous record of 13 set by the former Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002.

Canada was also the first host nation to top the medal table since Norway in 1952 and they finished the job in dream style.

A tight, tense men’s hockey final with United States had just been forced into overtime at 2-2 by an American goal which came 24 seconds from the end of the game.

Up stepped Sidney ‘Sid the Kid’ Crosby to hit a hard, low shot and score the sudden death winner after seven minutes of overtime.

For Canada, it was the perfect denouement to an unforgettable two weeks.

Britons hoping to be Whistler winners

A STRANGE chill from Britain is blowing through winter sports ahead of the 2010 Games at Whistler in Vancouver.

Team GB, of course, has never been a heavyweight in the Winter Olympics with the Games dominated by USA, Russia, Germany and the Scandinavian nations.

Indeed, Britain has won just 20 medals in the 20 competitions dating back to 1924. Ten of the medals had been won by 1952.

But the British are sending a team to Canada capable of drastically improving that record and shrugging off a reputation for gallant failure.

That notion was summed up by Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards' infamous last-placed finish in the ski jump at Calgary in 1988 but it is more than a little unfair on a relatively flat country with a temperate climate.

In fact, Britain regularly excelled at figure skating in the 1970s and 1980s.

There were gold medals for John Curry (1976), Robin Cousins (1980) and the nation's most well-known winter sports competitors Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean (1984).

After two consecutive Games without medal success in 1988 and 1992, Torvill and Dean returned in 1994 and won one of two bronzes, the other being achieved by speed skater Nicky Gooch.

Britain's only gold since 1984 came in the curling arena in 2002 as Ayr housewife Rhona Martin led her team to a famous 4-3 win over Switzerland in a tense final.

But there has been success on the track with bronze for the four-man bobsleigh team in 1998 and consecutive women's skeleton medals for Alex Coomber (bronze, 2002) and Shelley Rudman (silver, 2006).

Rudman returns, looking to go one better, and she will carry the Union Jack flag at the opening ceremony. Several of her team mates also have strong medal chances.

Can Team GB warm British hearts this winter with success in Whistler?


MEDAL CHANCES
Watch out for...

Shelley Rudman (Skeleton)
The aforementioned Rudman is Britain's strongest chance for a medal after she showed excellent form throughout the season by finishing second place overall in the World Cup over eight rounds. Highlights were undoubtedly the wins in Cesana, Italy and St Moritz, Switzerland. Further chances of medal success in the Skeleton come from Amy Williams and Adam Pengilly who both won silver at the World Championships at Lake Placid in 2009. Rudman's partner Kristan Bromley took gold at the 2008 World Championships in Altenberg and has had two podium finishes this season.
Event dates:

Fri 19 February - Qualifying runs

Women's runs (midnight & 1.10am), Men's runs (2.30am & 4am)

Fri 19 February-Saturday 20 February - Finals runs

Women's runs (23.45pm & 00.55am), Men's runs (2.20am & 3.50am)

Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke (Bobsleigh)
The pair won gold at the World Championships at Lake Placid in 2009 to cap an excellent season in which they also finished third during the World Cup series. This year's form has been less spectacular with a seventh and two eighth-placed finishes in the first three World Cup races but they remain a threat to the rest of the field.
Event dates:

Wed 24 February - Qualifying runs
Women's runs (1am & 2.10am)
Thu 25 February - Finals runs
Women's runs (1am & 2.10am)

David Murdoch and team (Curling)
Skipper David Murdoch will hope to repeat the 2002 success of Rhona Martin by winning curling gold. Strongly fancied in previous Olympics, the men have often let the pressure get to them and failed to live up to expectations, losing in a bronze medal play-off to the USA in 2006. Murdoch's men won the World Championships in April, beating Canada 7-6. They clearly represent a real chance of success for Britain.
Event dates:

Tue 16 February v Sweden (5pm)

Wed 17 February v France (10pm)

Thu 18 February v Switzerland (5pm)

Fri 19 February v Denmark (3am)

Sat 20 February v China (5pm)

Sun 21 February v Canada (3am), v United States (10pm)

Tue 23 February v Germany (3am), v Norway (10pm)

Thu 25 February - Semi finals (10pm)

Sat 27 February - Bronze medal match (5pm), Final (11pm)

John and Sinead Kerr (Figure Skating)
More than 25 years after Torvill and Dean won gold, Britain has finally produced another figure skating duo with a real medal chance. Siblings John and Sinead Kerr won bronze in the 2008-09 European Championships and are currently ranked fifth in the world.
Event dates:

Sat 20 February - Compulsory (00.45am)

Mon 22 February - Original (00.15am)

Tue 23 February - Free dance (00.45am)

Jon Eley, Elise Christie (Speed skating)
Eley and Christie have outside chances of a medal in their respective events on the speed skating track. Eley will race in the 500m and as part of a five-man relay team while 19-year-old Christie will compete in three individual events - the 500m, 1000m and 1500m. Christie was part of the women's relay team which won gold at the World Championships in South Korea in 2008 and she won silver in the 1500m individual race at the European Championships in 2009.

Event dates:

Men's 5000m relay

Thu 18 February (2.32am) & Sat 27 February (Final 3.51am)

Men's 500m

Wed 24 February (1.47am) & Sat 27 February (Final 3.14am)

Women's 500m

Sun 14 February (1.42am) & Thu 18 February (1am, 2.10am, Final 3.07am)

Women's 1000m
Thu 25 February (1am) & Sat 27 February (2.14am, 2.52am, Final 3.24am)
Women's 1500m

Sun 21 February (1.45am, 2.58am, Final 3.51am)