Britain confident of beating Australia on medals table
By Robin Millard, 1 Aug 2012 Robin Millard is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- australia olympics, London Olympics, Olympics
Great Britain Olympic chiefs insisted Tuesday there was no panic in the camp despite the lack of winners thus far and said they were confident of beating rivals Australia in the medals table.
Great Britain’s squad is the best-funded ever thanks to a huge injection of public money ahead of the London Games in the hope of sparking a surge of medals.
But as Tuesday’s fourth day of medals action began with the hosts still searching for an elusive gold, the British squad have faced questions as to whether they will actually deliver on the investment.
Meanwhile their rivals have been crowing, with the Aussies starting to think they might win the traditional bet between the two camps as to who will finish the Games on top, having lost out at the Beijing 2008 Games.
At the start of Tuesday’s programme, Australia were in 10th place with one gold, two silvers and a bronze, while Great Britain were 10 places behind with a sole silver and two bronzes.
“We don’t intend for that to last too long,” said Colin Moynihan, chairman of the British Olympic Association.
“Australia are a great team. They’ll come through. They’re going to be really tough. It’s a healthy rivalry and we’ll catch them up.”
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- australia olympics, London Olympics, Olympics
August 1st 2012 @ 4:08am
Seriously, Who says Oi? said | August 1st 2012 @ 4:08am | Report comment
The Brits need to stop worrying about Australia. They need to start worrying about themselves and how they plan on winning a Gold medal at their own olympics.
August 4th 2012 @ 9:55am
Tim Beattie said | August 4th 2012 @ 9:55am | Report comment
I think the poms have stopped worrying about Australia now! Looks like the Kiwis are more of a threat!
August 1st 2012 @ 7:48am
Bondy said | August 1st 2012 @ 7:48am | Report comment
I think the medal tally could possibly end in a draw between the two nations. I’m just looking at the medal positions as it stands and just short of a week of competition and South Africa and Kazakhstan have more gold than us, also Germany generally catch us up into the second week in the medal count but there ahead of us already.
I hope Boris Johnson is eating humble pie in a weeks time though.
August 1st 2012 @ 8:47am
allsports said | August 1st 2012 @ 8:47am | Report comment
Of course Great Britain are more confident of beating us on the medal tally. They are 4 countries competing as 1. I could understand poorer nations with small populations wanting to combine efforts (E.g. West Indies) but I can’t understand why the Poms are allowed to compete as GB. They compete as individual countries in other tournaments so why can’t they do it in the Olympics?
August 1st 2012 @ 9:28am
Australian Rules said | August 1st 2012 @ 9:28am | Report comment
Make no mistake, GB will finish above Australia on the medal tally…it’s their home Olympics and they have triple the population!
August 1st 2012 @ 10:30am
Matt F said | August 1st 2012 @ 10:30am | Report comment
and quadruple the number of nations!
August 4th 2012 @ 5:19am
Tom Callaghan said | August 4th 2012 @ 5:19am | Report comment
But shouldn’t India with its population of over a billion clean up then…How many golds has India got now…Perhaps South Africa presents more of a challenge to GB sporting wise just now-they have three golds to only one for Australia.In fact New Zealand has three golds to Australia’s one….
August 4th 2012 @ 10:01am
Tim Beattie said | August 4th 2012 @ 10:01am | Report comment
Gee! Those grapes taste sour!
August 5th 2012 @ 3:58am
John Jellicoe said | August 5th 2012 @ 3:58am | Report comment
So? The home nations aren’t sovereign and are pretty much the same as federal states, to which Australia has six of.
August 6th 2012 @ 9:37pm
Phil C said | August 6th 2012 @ 9:37pm | Report comment
If it was just England we’d still be ahead. In fact, we’d still be ahead if it was just Yorkshire (less than 6m people)!
August 6th 2012 @ 10:08pm
Alistair said | August 6th 2012 @ 10:08pm | Report comment
Ha ha, if it were just Edinburgh (population 500,000) we’d still be ahead. If it were Dunblane (pop 3,500) we’d be equal.
August 1st 2012 @ 10:22am
Brian said | August 1st 2012 @ 10:22am | Report comment
After 4 days we have 1 and they have 0 but Swimming is traditionally our big ticket item and at the moment if the missile fires we are looking at just 2 gold from the pool after the mens 4×100 and Seebohm disappointments.
The Brits thus still favourite to get more medals unless Mears can dominate the track cycling. That’s crucial being 2-3 golds for her and 2-3 that Britain don’t win.
August 3rd 2012 @ 10:04am
Tom Callaghan said | August 3rd 2012 @ 10:04am | Report comment
Meares hasn’t got off to the best of starts has she Brian?
And after six days GB has five golds to Australia’s one.
August 1st 2012 @ 12:24pm
tonysalerno said | August 1st 2012 @ 12:24pm | Report comment
It is the biggest rivalry this Olympics. Forget both sides topping the medal tally; Australia need to beat the Poms in the medal tally or… we will never hear the end of it.
August 1st 2012 @ 12:42pm
Australian Rules said | August 1st 2012 @ 12:42pm | Report comment
The Brits will win more medals Tony, and so they should.
Every host nation (bar Canada in ’76) wins more medals at home…it’s their ‘home track’, there’s no travel or cultural differences, more athletes can represent and, of course, the local crowd factor.
To put it in perspective, Spain had won a total of 5 gold medals at the Olympics pre-1992. At Barcelona, they won 13 gold.
China won its first ever Olympic gold in ’84… then they started spending and won 28 gold in Sydney. After $millions more, they won 51 gold in Beijing.
Home advantage is massive – I think the point is, if Britain DON’T beat Australia in the medal tally, THEY won’t hear the end of it!
August 3rd 2012 @ 2:22pm
Jocelyn McLennan said | August 3rd 2012 @ 2:22pm | Report comment
if the brits do you a hard time over it Tony just ask them how many they won in Sydney or even Atlanta for that matter?
August 4th 2012 @ 9:58am
Tim Beattie said | August 4th 2012 @ 9:58am | Report comment
Looks like you’ll never hear the end of it – time to panic and worry about the Kiwis’ bragging rights as well! Doesn’t get much better than this. Go Team GB!
August 1st 2012 @ 12:51pm
Stephen Smith said | August 1st 2012 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
Have to smile at some of the comments. The Aussies are obsessed with defeating Britain at the Olympics. In fact, obsessed with them full stop. The media here is full of this battle, not nearly so much in the UK. Bottom line is the Olympics is not about Aus v GB. Get over it.
August 1st 2012 @ 2:03pm
AIS said | August 1st 2012 @ 2:03pm | Report comment
It’s this bizarre colonial chip that is likely to never leave the shoulder.
August 4th 2012 @ 1:31am
Jimbo said | August 4th 2012 @ 1:31am | Report comment
On the contrary, the Brits are obsessed with beating the Aussies. Being beaten by “the colonies” or “convicts” is the ultimate disgrace. Even the London Mayor said in an interview a couple of days ago, “I don’t really care how many medals we win, as long as we beat the Or-stralians.”
August 4th 2012 @ 5:14am
Tom Callaghan said | August 4th 2012 @ 5:14am | Report comment
Ah Mate!
I thought it was only the Yanks who didn’t get irony!
GB 8 golds
Australia 1 gold
3/08/12
August 4th 2012 @ 9:53am
Tim Beattie said | August 4th 2012 @ 9:53am | Report comment
If the Aussies try hard to get over that chip on the shoulder, perhaps they’ll catch up with the Kiwis on the medals table!!
August 1st 2012 @ 2:03pm
Matthew Skellett said | August 1st 2012 @ 2:03pm | Report comment
Well I would say that our great sporting nation Australia will be ABOVE TEAM GB on da tally at the end and I might even put a bet on it
August 4th 2012 @ 5:16am
Tom Callaghan said | August 4th 2012 @ 5:16am | Report comment
I’ll take your money mate.
Its eight -one in GB favour just now.
August 6th 2012 @ 9:02pm
Phil C said | August 6th 2012 @ 9:02pm | Report comment
I’ll take that bet too. I’ll even give you 10/1 odds.
August 1st 2012 @ 2:10pm
Matthew Skellett said | August 1st 2012 @ 2:10pm | Report comment
Hey has anyone seen where NZ is on da medal tally ?
August 1st 2012 @ 2:52pm
Michael said | August 1st 2012 @ 2:52pm | Report comment
That’s what I love about the Poms, can’t make up there mind who they are? Is it England, is it Britian? what is it? Make up your mind who you are.
August 1st 2012 @ 6:48pm
Steve said | August 1st 2012 @ 6:48pm | Report comment
I don’t suppose it’s Britian
August 2nd 2012 @ 7:16am
Tom Callaghan said | August 2nd 2012 @ 7:16am | Report comment
No. It’s Britain.
August 3rd 2012 @ 9:28am
AdamWest said | August 3rd 2012 @ 9:28am | Report comment
That’s what I love about the Crims – still can’t spell and still can’t quite fathom it’s Great Britain (GB’s the clue)
August 3rd 2012 @ 10:02am
Tom Callaghan said | August 3rd 2012 @ 10:02am | Report comment
Yes,
And did you read that ludicrous ‘critique’ of the opening ceremony in ‘THE AUSTRALIAN’ by a so called professor of English at the University of Sydney?
Cripes! Strewth! What a a load of naive misguided tosh!
The University of Sydney? Who ever heard of any renowned scholars emerging from that provincial intellectual back water?