TODAY? TODAY WAS the first we’ve heard of God Save Queen since Danny Boyle played a snippet of the Sex Pistols during Friday night’s opening ceremony.
Britain finally got their sweaty mitts on gold with a win in the rowing — thanks to Heather Stanning and Helen Glover — and then Tour de France champion, Bradley Wiggins added another bauble to his collection with first
What we learned today
- Sideburns make you good at cycling
To paraphrase Tom Parlon: Britain is now cycling country. Team Sky controlled the Tour de France from start to finish last month with Mark Cavendish taking four stage wins, Chris Froome finishing second and golden boy Bradley Wiggins clinching top spot. Then they rolled off the ferry with London in their sights. The road race didn’t — ultimately — go their way on Saturday but today, Wiggins made true his words that the Time Trial would be ‘a piece of piss’. Froome took bronze. Not bad.
- These boxers are going to give us a run
John Joe Nevin made it another win in the ring for Billy Walsh’s team. The Mullingar man delivered a confident performance to see off Kazakhstan’s Kanat Abutalipov this afternoon in the 56kg bantamweight event. Next up for the two-time world amateur championships gold medallist is Mexico’s Oscar Valdez Fierro, who overcame Anvar Yunusov of Tajikistan in his round of 16 bout on Sunday.
- Sonia O’Sullivan was as inspiring as we imagined
Irish athlete Ailis McSweeney isn’t in London due to injury. But — lucky for us — she’ll write for TheScore throughout the track events. She told us this morning that the Cobh woman’s silver in Sydney moment is her favourite memory from the Olympics.
- Cheating gets you nowhere, kids
Last night we were all appalled/amused by the antics in the badminton. Today, the game’s top brass moved quickly to limit the damage to its reputation. Eight players in a match-fixing scandal — four from South Korea, two from Indonesia and two from China — were disqualified after they all tried to lose games in order to seal more favourable draws. Angry spectators jeered and booed the players after they appeared to deliberately serve into the net or hit the shuttlecock long or wide. They can try not to win at home now.
- Sport is cruel
Kildare kayaker Eoin Rheinisch came fourth in Beijing. He spent the intervening time focused on the London podium. But today the dream died when with only the 10 fastest times progressing to the medal final, Rheinisch missed a gate and ended up with a costly 50-point time penalty. He finished in 14th place with a time of 153.98, well outside the qualifying pace. “I’m devastated. I’m absolutely devastated,” he told TheScore.ie afterwards.
- We’re a gimme for the Pulitzer this year
“Some breakthrough work there lads,” wrote reader under Andrew Peacock this piece entitled ‘The simple reason why Olympic divers hang out in a hot tub after they compete’. It’s hard science, lads.
You said what?
“I’m just hoping to see the two Williams sisters and get my picture with them. It would be very nice to meet them, though we won’t say why in the newspapers.” — Irish boxer John Joe Nevin makes meeting Venus and Serena his alternative Olympic dream.
“To go out there today and put a performance like that together nine days after the Tour and win another Olympic title in another event, it is never, ever going to get any better than that. There is almost slight melancholy. I realised on the podium that that’s probably it for me. I don’t think anything is going to top that”- Bradley Wiggins realises the enormity of his 2012 achievements after adding time-trial gold to his Tour de France title.
“Depressing. Who wants to sit through something like that” – Seb Coe — or Lord Coe, if you’re into that — on last night’s scenes in the badminton at Wembley Arena.
“Eilish got hit by car this morning in her run but thankfully she is ok. Just stiff back prob be bit worse Tomo. Lucky lady” – Olympic silver medallist Liz McColgan – remember her? — confirms her daughter’s lucky escape via Twitter. Eilish is competing in the 3,000 metres steeplechase.
Highlights from team Ireland
- Not much of a highlight, given the context of her earlier races, but Annalise Murphy was in action.
- There’s no show like a John Joe show though.
- This picture of Eoin Rheinisch sums it all up, sadly.
- David McCann bowed out of international racing with a creditable display on the streets of London.
Video of the day
It’s from last night’s action at the pool, but honestly, we must have watched it 60-odd times today. Poor ol, Mrs Phelps.
YouTube: ibzal49
A new friend we made today
The gold medal match in women’s singles table tennis was supposed to be celebration of Chinese dominance. Didn’t turn out that way. A strange penalty decision caused” Ding” Ning to fall apart, lose the game and burst into tears.
Medal table
What have we forgotten?
