"Britain's Rebecca Adlington took a historic gold in the women's 400m freestyle, while her team-mate Jo Jackson claimed the bronze medal.
Adlington timed her late surge to perfection as she became Britain's first female Olympic swimming champion in 48 years. The 19-year-old from Mansfield pipped Katie Hoff of the United States by just seven 100ths of a second. Jackson also staged a late rally to edge Coralie Balmy into fourth place."
Much has been said about this in my blog about the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year already, but this has been picked for three reasons.
Firstly, this if memory serves, was either the first Gold picked up by the British team, or one of the first, which set the British team on its way. Certainly this wasn’t one of the expected gold medal chances that the teams coaches talked of. Secondly, there’s the historical context. This was the first Olympic gold picked up by a British female swimmer since Anita Longsborugh picked up gold in 1960.
Oh and thirdly, this particular final was an absolute cracker, with Addlington winning in 3/100th of a second. The silver medallist, America’s Katie Hoff, was heavily trailed as a multi-medalist, she ended up winning no Gold’s.
A mention should also be made to Jo Jackson, who snuck in and nabbed herself a Bronze medal to make this race Britain’s most successful woman’s swim ever.
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