By Jingo – more Gold!

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on August 10, 2012
Posted in: London 2012 a view from the Couch. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Day thirteen brought a number of unprecedented victories, including three magnificent Gold Medal performances by female members of Team GB – Nicola Adams won the first ever women’s boxing final in the Olympics, Charlotte Dujardin won her second, and Britain’s first-ever individual, Gold medal in Equestrian Dressage with team-mate Laura Bechtolsheimer taking Bronze, and 19-year-old  Jade Jones earned Britain’s first-ever Tae Kwondo Gold Medallist late last night in the Excel centre.

Usain Bolt silences the critics as Jamaica make a clean sweep of the 200 metre sprint medals

But the highlights of the day came in the Athletics, where Usain Bolt once more lit-up the Olympic Stadium by retaining his 200-metre title, the first time that any runner has retained both sprinting titles.  Continue Reading

We’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on August 9, 2012
Posted in: London 2012 a view from the Couch, Media. Tagged: , , , , , .

Day Twelve, and the first medal-less day for Team GB since that very first day of the Games.  But as we all waited in anticipation of the expected deluge of negativity on the BBC’s Ten o’clock News last night, details began to emerge of an even greater mystery surrounding the whereabouts of their Doommonger-in-Chief, David Bond.

No, he’s not in there – the BBC’s latest miniaturised death star is minutely examined for traces of their missing sports editor

His obvious absence at such a time of negative opportunity was clearly unexpected, and the BBC even took the unprecedented step of drafting-in the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, to create the atmosphere of doom so badly needed at the end of such a disappointing day. Continue Reading

Cool Runnings

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on August 8, 2012
Posted in: London 2012 a view from the Couch. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

It was somewhat fitting that the final day in the velodrome brought the medals that took Team GB past its overall target for the Games, five days early.  In that final cycling goldrush we witnessed not only the last hurrahs of the two riders who have come to represent all that sport has achieved over recent years, but perhaps the first indications of who might be taking-up their mantle in the years to come.

Downhill all the way – Team GB dominate the Cycling for the second Games running

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It says ‘ere …

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on August 7, 2012
Posted in: London 2012 a view from the Couch, Where's that Handcart?. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Despite early fears about the numbers of security guards at London 2012, there was confirmation yesterday that the organisers have managed to fully-meet their quota of Jobsworths for this year’s Games.

A London 2012 Jobsworth joins in the celebrations with Usain Bolt after his victory in the 100-Metres

In an interview with the media, 100-metre Gold Medal winner Usain Bolt explained how he encountered these shadowy figures within the staff at the Olympic Stadium: “It has been different from Beijing.  There are lots of rules, weird, silly rules that don’t make any sense to me.  I tried to wear my tie into here, they said ‘no’. I said why? ‘Because of the rules’, they said.  Then I wanted to bring my skipping rope in and they said ‘no’ because it’s ‘the rules’. These rules just don’t make sense to me.”

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Stick to the crisps Gary

Posted by Malcolm Toogood on August 6, 2012
Posted in: London 2012 a view from the Couch. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

It may have seemed like a bit of an anti-climax after Saturday’s amazing performances but, numerically, Day Nine was the most successful so far for Team GB, with a total of eight medals being won across six different sports.

Go! – The start of the Men’s 100m Final which cost top-rate ticket-holders a mere £75 per second to witness

Andy Murray finally found a way to beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon, and how emphatically he did so, losing just seven games on the way to a straight-sets win to take the Men’s Singles Gold. Continue Reading