Olympic blog - day 4

The main event at the games today from a Chinese point of view was the Men's Team Gymnastics. No prizes for guessing who won that. In so many of the events where China has won gold, they've won it by miles - weightlifting and diving, particularly. The Men's Gymnastics was another. From the first event until last, the commentators were having an absolute ball, as well as the studio presenters.

What made this victory particularly sweet was two things. One was China came above America and Japan - China's main opponent in the medal table is America, and Japan is the 'auld enemy'. The Chinese National Anthem, in fact, which I can now sing having heard it so many times, is about resisting the Japanese in the 1930s. The other was that, in Athens, this same team was expected to win gold but messed up and got nothing, so this time they have redeemed themselves. A montage of the team slipping off the beam and falling over at the dismount 4 years ago was contrasted with the perfection of today, and was the main item on the evening news.

Yesterday evening also had a gripping Men's 69kg Weightlifting, gripping in the way that uninteresting sports suddenly become unmissable during the Olympics. The South Korean was leading after the first round, but in his first lift of the clean and jerk, twisted his ankle and that was that. And it was a close one for the audience too, as the 190kg weight rolled off the podium and was stopped only just in time. One of the coaches of the Azerbaijinis was arguing with the marshals. Just when you thought everyone had finished, out comes one of the Chinese pair and lifts 197kg, thus helping himself in one fell swoop to the Gold Medal. Again.