SPORTING SUPERIORITY

There are some sports that some countries naturally dominate. Italy in fencing, for instance, Hungary in water polo, China in table tennis, South Korea in archery, the U.S. in swimming. Britain has some sports where it always seems to pick up a couple of Olympic medals; boxing, athletics, anything to do with horses. But there are two sports at this year's Olympics where Team GB has been absolutely dominant.

The first is rowing. There are 14 events in the Olympic rowing programme, 8 for men and 6 for women. Great Britain qualified in 13 of them (the exception being the women's single sculls), reached the final in all of those 13, and won 9 medals, 4 of them gold. The next best countries were New Zealand with 5 medals, then Germany and Denmark with 3. In the men's events, the heavyweight four won for the fourth games in a row and the eight put up a titanic fight - before finishing third - against a German crew that had been unbeaten in four years. The women did even better, winning the pair, double sculls and lightweight double sculls classes. In the double, 36-year old Katherine Grainger finally won a gold medal after three successive silvers; with those medals and six world championship titles in three different boat classes, she has a fair claim to be Britain's most successful female athlete ever.

However, that impressive performance looks rather modest beside that of the track cyclists. There are 10 events, five for men and five for women, and Great Britain won seven of them, beating the fabulous performance in Beijing. Both the men's and women's team pursuit thrashed the opposition, breaking the world record in the process. Sir Chris Hoy, the flagbearer at the opening ceremony, won the team sprint and keirin to give him six Olympic gold medals; together with a silver from Sydney, he is now Britain's most successful Olympian ever. Even in the three other events, Team GB went close. Ed Clancy, a member of the team pursuit, got a bronze in the omnium; while multiple world champion Victoria Pendleton, winner of the women's keirin, had to settle for silver in the women's sprint against her great rival Anna Meares of Australia. In the tenth event, the women's team sprint, Great Britain broke the world record in the heats and were favourites to win, but were disqualified for missing their handover by a couple of centimetres.

Track cycling is a very good example of a well-funded, well-targeted sports improvement programme, headed by a talented coach. British Cycling's performance director is Dave Brailsford, who is also head of the professional road racing team Sky. Having managed Bradley Wiggins' transition from Olympic track gold medallist to Tour de France champion, it would not be at all surprising if some of the younger crop of track cyclists such as Jason Kenny and Laura Trott now move on to great things on the road.

Walter Blotscher