Superhuman Saturday

Historic Super Saturday

The crowd in the Athletics Stadium went wild when he was introduced to them. With the reception he received you would be forgiven if you thought he was British. But Oscar Pistorius is in fact South African. Yet he was treated as one of their own by the crowd.

Lining up for the start of his 400m first round heat it must have felt unreal. As Oscar Pistorius was about to make history. As if a double amputee lining up for a Olympic 400m was not enough then his Progression into the Next round should help to inspire a generation.

More History in the Making

If Oscar Pistorius making history wasn’t enough Team GB had plenty to make Great Britain Happy. There were 7 medals won by Team GB 6 of which were gold and one silver.

Two of the Golds and the Silver were won on the water at Eaton on the last day of the rowing making it GB’s best Olympic Regatta.

One Gold was won in the Velodrome by the woman’s team pursuit. They also broke the World Record 6 times in a row.

The final 3 Golds were won in the Stadium on what was to become a historic night for Team GB. First off was Jess Ennis in the Heptathlon. She was leading by over 100 points going into the last event. Even though she had a 13 second cushion she took no chances and won her 800m heat in style. While Jess was running the Men’s Long Jump final was coming to a close with Greg Rutherford in Gold medal Position. By the time Jess was Olympic Champion Greg was on the verge of making his own piece of history. Within less than half an hour of Jess’ win Greg was confirmed as GB’s first Long Jump Champion since Tokyo. Next up was Mo Farrah looking to make history by becoming the first ever GB 10,000m Gold Medalist. He did not disappoint and in the space of 45 minutes team GB’s Track and Field Team made history.

That was Olympic Super Saturday But what about Paralympic Superhuman Saturday? 

Well records are still being broken in the Olympic Stadium as I write. But lets start at the beginning of the day.

Saturday 1st September 2012 day three of Paralympic Competition is proving to be better than its Olympic equivalent.

The day started at 9:00 with Natasha Baker going in the Equestrian Grade II Individual Championship Test with her horse Cabral. They but in a great performance and came away with Paralympic GB’s First Gold of the day.

Next the Medal action moved over to the Velodrome or the Pringle as it has come to be known.  It was in the tandem 1k time trial that controversy and medals came GB’s way. Neil Fachie and Pilot Barney Story Posted a world record time to win the Gold but team mates Anthony Kappes and Pilot Craig MacLean failed to post a time after suffering two mechanical failures  of the bike’s chain.

At 10am it was time to move over to the Stadium and the Field events. First up was Gemma Prescot in the Womans F31/32/51 Club Throw. She managed to win the Bronze being one of only three athletes to throw over 20m. Next it was the turn of the male throwers in the F54/55/56 Shot Put. Robin Womack threw a PB to secure the Bronze Medal for GB.

At 11:23 it was time for the Track Athletes to show the crowd what they are made of whan the finalists of the mens T42 200m came out on to the track. The moment Richard Whitehead was introduced the crowd went wild. He is Paralympics GB’s very own Blade Runner. Double amputee above the knee he was the defending champion and world record holder going into the race. He had what seemed to be a poor start and it looked like he was not going to defend his title. That was until he flew passed everyone with 60m to go winning the Gold and breaking his world record.

At 11:45 it was back to the field events to see another Bronze for GB this time for Claire Williams in the F11/12 Discus.

By Lunch Time GB had won 3 Gold and 3 bronze Medals and there were more to come.