5 Aug 2012

British Olympic stars aim for ‘Super Sunday’

Team GB wins a sailing silver on Sunday following Saturday’s historic medal haul which included six golds in track and field, rowing and cycling.

Jess Ennis wins heptathlon gold (Getty)

There was a golden hat-trick for Britain in the Olympic Stadium when Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford each won their events within 45 minutes of one another.

London Games chairman Lord Coe said it was the “the greatest night of British athletics”.

“Super Saturday” had earlier seen three other gold medals awarded to Team GB athletes – two in rowing and yet another in the velodrome, propelling Britain to third place in the medals chart.

The frenzied crowd in the 80,000-capacity stadium went wild as Ennis, the poster girl of the London Games, won the 800m with a sprint finish, crowning two days of tough competition in the heptathlon.

Ennis wept as she stood on the podium to receive her gold medal.

Her first coach, Mick Thompson, said: “You can’t get better than this. Where does she go next?”

Rutherford was the next athlete to claim victory for Team GB, with a surprise gold medal in the long jump. He described his victory as the “most amazing feeling in the world”.

He was followed by Farah who danced for joy around the track after winning the 10,000m, hailing it as “the best moment of my life”.

It topped off a day which also saw success away from the stadium – a sensational world record-breaking performance by women cyclists in the frenzied atmosphere of the velodrome led to another gold in the team pursuit.

The team of Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell led from the start to beat the US in a world record time of 3:14.051.

And earlier, at Eton Dorney, an ecstatic crowd cheered the men’s coxless four of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed, Tom James and Alex Gregory to a victory, which extended Britain’s dominance in the event to 16 years.

This was followed just minutes later by Kat Copeland and Sophie Hosking claiming gold in the lightweight event.

It was the best day for gold medals since 1908 with Team GB now boasting 14 gold, seven silver and eight bronze and in third place after China and the US.

A record number of people turned out to watch the Olympics yesterday, organisers said.

Jackie Brock-Doyle, Locog’s director of communications, said a record 719,000 people watched the Games yesterday, 92% of London 2012’s capacity.

Overall, some 5.1 million spectators have watched the Games so far, including more than one million visitors to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London.

Some 231,000 visited the park yesterday alone, and a further 32,000 tickets have been sold in the past 24 hours, she added.

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Super Sunday?

The team will be hoping to retain its position in the chart as medal hopefuls compete in their events today.

Sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson won silver in the Star class, while Ben Ainslie will become the greatest Olympic sailor of all time if he manages to topple Denmark’s Jonas Hogh-Christensen in his final race at Weymouth.

Andy Murray is certain to win silver or gold when he takes part in two tennis finals: against old rival Roger Federer in the singles and then with Laura Robson in the mixed doubles.

Louis Smith looks to win Great Britain’s first ever gymnastics Olympic gold when he competes in the pommel horse final and back in the velodrome, Ed Clancy will battle it out in the men’s omnium.

Those with tickets inside the stadium will no doubt be keenly anticipating the chance to see Jamaica’s Usain Bolt’s bid to defend his 100m title tonight.