Momentum is building as TeamGB starts to collect some serious medals, with those medals of course being Silver and TeamGB having four of them so far. First, to the two Silver medals won in the last few days…
Team Eventing, Horses Equestrian (Great Britain)
Zara Philips became the first direct Royal to win an Olympic medal this week, and given the amount of gold those lot have in that tower, Silver was a just reward and a well contested medal in the end. Zara’s Mum, the Princess Royal, herself competed in the 1978 Olympics but could only finish 24th, which is a feat in itself considering there were only 22 competitors.
Mary King and Tina Cook enjoyed clean rounds, but Philips knew the true value of second place, and in a sterling effort to claim the Silver medal, valiantly knocked off a pole and claimed three penalties to help claim the number two spot.
All members of the five-person GB team said the crowd had been immense and helped carry them along the course which, when you think about it is a rather stupid thing to say, as it was clearly the horses that carried all of them the entire way.
Michael Jamieson, Men’s 200m Breaststroke (Swimming)
23 year-old Jamieson enjoyed a perfect Olympic debut by claiming Silver in the 200m Breaststroke on Wednesday evening, smashing his own British record in the process. Hungarian Daniel Gyurta beat the world record to claim gold, and in doing so further confounding those who don’t understand why the Hungarians are so good in the water (studies indicate it may have something to do with their affinity to soup).
Jamieson, who trains at Bath University (one of the few Olympic-sized swimming pools in the country) with his compatriot Andrew ‘what-you-talking-about’ Willis was not expected to win a medal, having only finished fifth in the World Championship last year. However, earlier this year Jamieson finished second in the British Championship and in doing so knew he was capable of clinching second place, clearly giving him the confidence to claim Silver in London.
A few notable mentions:
Michael Phelps (USA), Men’s 200m Freestyle, Swimming
Phelps entered this race aiming to be the first Olympian to win the same event three times in a row and in doing so, equal the record for most Olympic medals won by any individual. Phelps still went on to equal this record, but did so by claiming the Silver medal in an epic swim, eventually won by South African Chad le Clos. The USA supporters were actually cheering for the eventual winner initially, as they had seen his name at the beginning and assumed anyone named Chad would have originated from the West coast of America.
Literally winning by a finger nail, we are glad the South African could claim gold if only for the moment the BBC dragged his clearly mental Father, Bert (good name), into the commentary box thus enabling him to spurt utter nonsense in front of millions of viewers.
GB Team Artistic Gymnastics, Bronze
We at PlayUp really feel for the British gymnasts here as they actually finished the event with a Silver medal. Clearly surprised, their joy was to be short lived as the Japanese were even more desperate for second place and so resorted to that very British past-time - complaining.
The judges decided to take another look at the marks awarded for a dismount, allegedly to avoid the crying in protest that the Japanese were sternly threatening. After a quick game of paper-rock-scissors, the judges awarded Japan the Silver, thus demoting TeamGB to the bronze medal position. PlayUp refuses to recognise this however, and will be sending our own homemade Silver medal (frisbee covered in tinfoil) to the lads.
Plenty of Silver medals left to be won, we will keep you updated of key moments and GB Silver medals.
Throughout the Games we will be covering all TeamGB silver medals, plus notable mentions from the other nations. You can get involved via the Twitter hashtag #celebratesilver.
Don’t forget you can follow all the action live in the PlayUp app available for iOS and Android.
Related posts
Silver medal roundup – Weekend 28/29th July
Celebrating Silver with PlayUp
SPAIN vs. ITALY, Sunday July 1st – 7.45pm
Cycling still sits atop in the wheel of fortune of British sports