London 2012 - Day 3 Summary - Medals and Suprises

Today twelve gold medals have been awarded in London aswell as many of the team sports have had their initial matches. There have been plenty of good duels and many suprises and the medal table after day one looks like this:

China has really gotten out in front winning four golds in Shooting, Swimming and Weightlifting. In second place a bit suprising we find Italy who managed to take two golds today. I say suprising because one of their gold medals came from Men's Team Archery, that's right, the event every expert had pegged South Korea winning after thier stellar performances in the first two rounds. However the Koreans lost to USA in the semi-finals and ended up with a dissapointing bronze. Another suprise came in the Road Cycling event where everyone had GB athletes ranked for medals. However they failed to reach a break out group and ended off the podium. A good thing for Norway who took an unexpected bronze medal :D

Italy did a spectacular job in the Women's Individual Foil Fencing event where they took out all three medals crushing the opposition. The Australian 4x100m Freestyle Swimming Relay team also dominated in their event suprisingly beating the Netherlands golden girls in the process.

In the Women's Handball event Great Britain had their first ever Olympic handball match against Montenegro, one of the favourite teams in the competition. In my opinion the end result doesn't really tell the story of how far this team has come in only six years where many players only started playing the game four years ago. They stayed behind Montenegro around 5 points for almost half the match not allowing them to run ahead which is incredible for this team, in the end they ended up loosing 31-19, but they have a real chance of making the semi-finals as their other opponents are far less dangerous than Montenegro. Another shock came in the other group where defending champions Norway lost against France 22-21 after being behind the entire game. They will have to sharpen up if they want to win this tournament, and France just might end up as their opponents in an eventual final.

In Women's Football there were no upsets and clear favourites are turning out for the eight spots in the quarter-finals.China dominated the field in badminton showing why they always win many golds in this event. Many other events also started today, but it's still hard to make predictions after just qualifications and/or first matches.

It has been a great first day of the games and if you are interested in more detailed results go to www.london2012.com where you can find all the results from the first day of competition.

London 2012 - First Olympic Gold goes to...

The first gold medal has for several Olympic Games been awarded in the Women's 10m Air Rifle competition. The gold medal went to Yi Siling (CHN) winning by only 0.7 points over Sylwia Bogacka (POL) and the bronze medal going to Yu Dan (CHN). The final was very exciting with there really being a real duel between the chinese and polish with Siling only being assured of victory after her last shot. A good way to start of the Olympics and speaks of good things to come.

London 2012 - Opening Ceremony

So I know I have been really hard on people to keep their expectations low for the Opening Ceremony. Last night I had the pleasure to watch the ceremony with some of my friends at my local pub (properly british) and I was actually a bit positively suprised. The opening was a bit wierd, but the trip through british history was actually really good with the highlight of course being when the Olympic rings where "constructed" and flown up in the air. Another favourite was the short film that depicted James Bond escorting the Queen in a helicopter to the arena where two people parachuted from the helicopter. Right before the teams entered the arena there was a beautiful commemerence dance for the victims of the London bus bombings. Their faces was also on the dresses of the girls leading each team into the arena. Everyone in the UK have been talking about who's going to light the torch and to everyones suprise it turned out to be 7 up and coming athletes that had been nominated by 7 of the UK's greatest olympians. They lit what is in my mind the most spectacular Olympic Cauldrons I have ever seen, made up of flowers, one for each country competing in the games.

All in all it was a great opening ceremony, but there were times where things got a bit strange and at sometimes extremely brithish to the point where it wouldn't very well translate to other countries. The games are finally officially open and I can't wait to watch all the excitement alongside the rest of you :D

London 2012 - Archery ranking event causes angry crowds and new world records

So today the Archers went through their ranking rounds which determines who will face who in the knock-out competition. A good result here gives a team or a singles athlete a much easier way to the finals. Before the event even got started trouble began as people started crowding outside to spectate the event. The only problem was that this wasn't meant to be an event where spectators would watch and the organizers had said that this was an event one couldn't get tickets for. However a big crowd had interpreted this as the event being a free event where one didn't need tickets. People where not happy when they where told they couldn't get in to see the event, but in my mind people should have understood that this was a closed event and that there's nothing like a free arena event in the Olympics.

So over to the results that were nothing short of amazing with two new world records for the ranking rounds. In my post about the Men's Archery competition I said to look out for South Korea and boy was I right, Im Dong-Hyun or "Koreas blind archer" as he is known by his fans improved on his own world records by three points giving a total of 699 out of 720 points. I think his teammate Bubmin Kim probably was a little annoyed of Im's amazing performance as he finished only a point behind Im at 698 that on any other day would have been a new world record. Third place also went to their fellow teammate Jin Hyek Oh who shot a very respectable 680 taking third place a whole ten points ahead of the closest competitors. The South Korean Men's team of course won the team ranking which came as no shock, the shock came when they smashed the world record by 18 points ending up with a total of 2,087 out of 2,160 points.

In the Women's competition ended in a three-way tie between Ki Bo Bae (KOR), Lee Sung Jin (KOR) and Tan Ya-Ting (CHT) scoring 671 out of 720 points. Again Bo Bae (KOR) showed that the Women's competition is the South Koreas to loose with her getting the top spot with more tens inside the x-ring. It came as no suprise that the South Korean Women's team came out on topafter the ranking round and they had a healthy distance to the other teams.

After seeing the ranking results there isn't any doubt in my mind that South Korea will be going home with a minimum of two gold medals and it would be no suprise if they went home with all four. I even think the men have a shot at winning all the medals as their rankings put them in a position to do so, but it'll be a hard fight.

London 2012 - Day 2 Summary

So today has seen the start of the Men's Football competition got underway with the first group matches. Unlike yesterday there was no drama with the flags, trust me I was so waiting to see if they got the South Korean flags wrong just because that would have been hilarious. Today the people responsible for yesterdays flag mistake have made numerous appologies in international media and has assured that this will not happen again.

So onto the matches, in Group A there were some suprising events. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) looked for a long time like they might actually pull off a draw against Urugay, but in the end Urugay ended up winning 2-1. Great Britain started off wonderfully against Senegal leading 1-0 for most of the match. That was until Senegal put in a goal in the last 10 minutes of the game and cleverly played to ensure the draw with the game ending 1-1 which means that the GB team didn't get off to the start I personally think they needed in order to win this year. The press in GB is relentless when it comes to Mens Football and they will be slaughtered tomorrow.

In Group B suprisingly the group is still completely open after both games ended in draws. The match between South Korea and Mexico ended 0-0 even though both teams had several possibilities to score throughout the match. In the match between Gabon and Switzerland the swiss team got off to a flying start getting a penalty goal after only 5 minutes. The African Champions bounced back in the end of the first half and the match ended 1-1. In my eyes this group is anyones for the taking at the moment, but the next match will be crucial for all the teams. There isn't room for loosing a game at this point for any team.

Group C started off with a game between Belarus and New Zealand whete the Belarus team had full control of the match winning 1-0. The match between Brazil and Egypt was a very confusing one with Brazil absolutely dominating the first half leading 3-0 at half-time, but after the break the gas ran out for Brazil and the Egyptian team took over scoring 2 goals with the game ending 3-2. In my opinion the second half of this game showed that Brazil was very lucky to get away with a win as it could have gone really bad really fast and it also proved that even though they lost the match Egypt is a team to watch out for in this tournament.

Group D held the biggest shock yet in this tournament with Japans unexpected victory over the mmuch discussed favourites Spain, with the match ending 1-0 despite Spain clearly being the team in control for the most part of the game. I told you that the Olympics always gives suprising results. Luckily for Spain the match between Honduras and Morocco ended in a draw 1-1.

All the teams still have alot to play for in this tournament and I'm sure that we haven't seen the last of suprises of the tournament yet. So tomorrow will be the day many people have waited four years to see, the opening cermony of the 2012 London Olympic Games. I have said several times now that I'm expecting it to be a bit of a let-down and I haven't changed my mind yet, but time will tell I guess, they have a lot to live up to from the opening ceremony from Beijing. Also on tomorrow is the ranking rounds for the Archers which decides who they face in the knock-out part of the competition.

London 2012 - Day 1 - Competition starts and a technical error shocks the games

Finally the time has come after four long years, the 2012 London Olympics have started and the first day of competition didn't let anyone down. Today has seen the first matches of the Women's Football competition and one incident especially has the entire world buzzing at the moment. When the match between DPR Korea (North Korea) and Colombia was about to start the technical errors to end all technical errors happens; The flag is wrong for DPR Korea, but not just wrong, no it's South Koreas flag that comes up on the screen with the athletes. If you live under a rock and don't know how bad the relationship is between the two countries here's a recap: there is constant military action on the border, they threaten with war every couple of months and in the Olympic games any team competition they're in is set up so they won't face each other before an eventual final as a match between the two countries can be enough to spark war. The DPR Korean team was off course wildly offended by this and refused to play the match to start with, the match was postponed for over an hour before the team agreed to play after what I presume had to be after a mountain of apologies and groveling. This is the one technical error that really is going to go down in Olympic history as the worst of them all. You could tell in the match that the DPR Korea team was fired up and they gave it their all to beat Colombia 2-0, but in the last minutes of the game things got a bit to heated between the teams and three players ended up being carried of the field after injuries within a ten minute period.

The Great Britain team took to the field for their first match against New Zealand and you could almost feel the nerves thay had. The Women's team has never scored in an Olympic tournament and they desparetly wanted to win. At first it looked like New Zealand was the only team attacking, but after 15 minutes of akward play the brits turned it up and shifted the match in their favor. The GB team had the most amount of chances during the game, but New Zealand did give them a hard fight. In the end it was Stephanie Houghton who made history scoring GBR first Olympic goal and they won the match 1-0. Without a doubt the closest match of the day and I have a feeling New Zealand will bounce back. In the same group Brazil demolished Cameroon winning 5-0.

Sweden had an easy time against South Africa winning 4-1, but the fans from South Africa on the stands got to see their team score their first ever Olympic goal and what a goal it was. Portia Modise lobbed the ball from around the half-way line of the pitch over the Swedish goalkeeper making the crowd go wild. In the same group Japan and Canada had a more even result, but it was Japan who controlled the match winning 2-1.

In the last group it looked like their might be a major upset when after 14 minutes France where up by two goals against USA the major favourite to win the tournament. However the USA team showed why they are favourites pulling themselves together and winning the match 4-0. In the same group as staded earlier the DPR Korea team beat Colombia 2-0 after having complete control of the game.

It was a thrilling game and it's clear that there are some strong teams this year in the Women's competition and I think it'll be interesting to see which teams make it to the quarter-finals. Tomorrow it's the start of the Men's competition and there's bound to be some good matches.

Shooting - With one millimeter between gold and failure

So before I start writing this post I know that some people will think me writing about Shooting Sports as insensitive after what happened in Denver last week and at Utøya last year. My thoughts are with those left behind after the shootings in Denver as I know how hard it is to loose a loved one in that way, but I also feel it's important to seperate what happened in these incidents from the sport of Shooting. The Olympic disciplines of Shooting has nothing to do with harming others or aggression or any one of the many stigmas put on the sport over the last years. People who do this sport are take safety as a number one factor and they compete in this sport to win not so much over their opponents, but rather over themselves. The sport teaches discipline, concentration and confidence as its main components and the people of the sport have in many nations spoken out for more gun control. I am myself both an athlete of this sport and someone who lost someone in gun related crime, but I feel there's a huge divide between the two that must not be forgotten. Again I would like to share my sympaties with the people both directly and indirectly involved in the Denver shootings and I honestly hope that this is the last time that guns are ever used in this way.

The sport was one of the original sports of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 and has only been of the programme two times in the 1904 St Louis and the 1928 Amsterdam games, with the women being allowed to compete from the 1984 Los Angeles games. The sports various different disciplines is practised all over the world and this is one of the sports where there truly is a mix of athletes from all corners of the world. There are three different categories of disciplines; Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun. In the Rifle and Pistol events the athletes shoot at 10-ring target either 10m, 25m or 50m away and in the Shotgun events athletes shoot at clay pigeons moving across a field. In the Rifle events depending on the discipline the athletes compete either standing, kneeling or lying down, while in the Pistol and Shotgun events the athletes stand. In London there are a total of 15 gold medals up for grabs, 9 for the Men's and 6 for the Women's competition. All athletes will go through qualifying rounds where the best, 8 - 10 depending on the event,  move on to the finals where their scores are added to their qualifying score. The margins for error are extremely small and scores on the top level are insanely close, if an athlete is even so much as 1mm out of position it could end up costing them their chance at the podium.

For the Rifle shooters there are events in Men's 50m Prone, Men's and Women's 50m 3-Positions and Men's and Women's 10m Standing Air Rifle. To explain the Prone event is where athletes lie on the ground shooting and 3-Positions is where athletes shoot in every stance (standing, kneeling, prone). Ones to look out for in the Rifle competition are: Nicolo Campriani (ITA), World Champion at the Men's 10m Air Rifle and has since also become an amazing 3-Positions shooter and it wouldn't suprise me if he came away from London with two gold medals. In the Men's 50m Prone event you'll have to pry that gold medal from Sergei Martynov (BLR) who is hungry for gold after two Olympic bronze medals in this event. For the Women's competition the big name is Sonja Pfeilschifter (GER) for me is the one to beat, she has got medals in both events from every major competition except the Olympics, but she loves the venue and I think she will strike gold this time.

The Pistol events are Men's 50m, Women's 25m, Men's 25m Rapid Fire, Men's and Women's 10m Air Pistol. The ones to look out for are: Tomoyuki Matsuda (JPN), World Champion in two events and a big favourite to medal in both 50m and 10m Air. In the Women's competition have an eye out for Zorana Arunovic (SRB) who is the World Champion at 25m and silver medallist at the Air event.

The Shotgun events are Men's and Women's Trap, Men's Double Trap, Men's and Women's Skeet. These names tell how many clays and how the clays are sent across the field. Look out for home favourite Richard Faulds and Peter Wilson (GBR) who are looking to make the crowds go wild in the Men's Double Trap event. In the Women's Skeet and Tap events look out for Kimberly Rhode (USA) who has no less than four Olympic medals under her belt and is looking for more.

In Shooting events it's all about who can be at their absolute best on the day of the competition, that's the person who's going to win. Weather plays a huge part in this event so luck is also a key component.