Open Writing

What an incredible weekend it has been for Great Britain who picked up a remarkable 17 medals, eight of which have been gold.

With almost one week of competition still ahead, Britain has already surpassed the haul of gold medals captured in Athens four years ago.

We are already up to third place in the medals table with 11 golds – the total in the last Olympics was nine.

And that appears well ahead of schedule as the target remains to finish fourth in the table in London in four years time.

The only danger is that the successes in Beijing - many of which have been unexpected – will raise expectations to an unrealistic level for when we host the Olympics.

We are definitely punching above our weight eclipsing a number of countries which have traditionally amassed more medals.

Still, it was an amazing weekend and one to savour, especially to be here in Beijing and to sample it at first hand.

And it has been a case of our cyclists leading the way with a total of five golds, three silvers and two bronzes, a total of 10 medals from an overall British total of 25.

Saturday was also a record-breaking day on the track as Britain won five medals in one session, and I was fortunate to be present to witness the event.

There were golds for Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy, silver for Ross Edgar and bronzes for my local man Chris Newton and Steven Burke.

While the likes of Wiggins, Hoy and Newton are experienced campaigners, it was great for the future of British cycling to see young rising stars Edgar and Burke win medals. They are products of a performance programme which is the envy of most other nations.

And it is amazing when you speak to journalists and broadcasters from other countries, just how revered and respected British cycling is world wide.

It also has made in Manchester stamped over it as the national squad is based at the Velodrome at SportCity.

It has been an Olympics where Britain has excelled in water sports – swimming, rowing and sailing.

Of course Rebecca Adlington has created a piece of Olympic history by becoming the first Britain ever to win two gold medals at one Games.

There has also been successes in the rowing, an event in which we are traditionally powerful, at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

And with two golds, two silvers and two bronzes, as well as a silver for David Florence in the C1 kayak, there can be no cause for complaint.

The only disappointment was the silver won by the women in the quadruple skulls after leading for 1,500m only to be overhauled close to the finish by China.

The four girls were distraught and were barely able to muster a smile at the medal ceremony such was their hurt and anguish at missing out on gold.

Britannia has traditionally ruled the waves and our sailors have already captured two golds to maintain their reputation for being world beaters. And there is a promise of more medals to come.

It is just a pity the yachting takes place at Qingdoa Olympic Sailing Centre which in one hour away by air and six by rail.

To those of us here in Beijing the yachting, sadly, is detached from the rest of the activities which are centred in or around the Chinese capital.

The same applies to the equestrian events which have had to be held 2,000 miles away in Hong Kong because of a potential problem with equine flu in Beijing.

As for my own personal Olympics, it is a privilege to be here to be part of not only one of the most successful British teams in the modern Olympics era but also to witness probably the biggest and best run Games there has ever been.

It is always a special moment to be at an event when a Brit captures a medal, and I have been lucky enough to see 11 such moments.

The cycling on Saturday afternoon, when we won five medals in one session, was magical.

And to have a vested interest in Newton, an Oldham-based cyclist, was even more special.

When you have interviewed an athlete at his home and got to know him and his family – wife Lindsey and baby daughter Grace – it also gives a personal insight into the athlete.

And it provided a personal buzz when after the medal ceremony Newton came to speak to me first and ignored the protocol which was to speak to television first and then the written media.

Newton would have none of that and wanted to speak to yours truly first, and you cannot get a bigger compliment than that.

And to be at the rowing when we again won one gold two silvers in one session was again an intensely proud moment.

Away from the Brits, I also felt like I had won the lottery when I managed to obtain a ticket to the final day’s swimming and was present to see Michael Phelps win his record-breaking eighth gold.

When Mark Spitz captured seven Olympic golds at Munich in 1972, it was said that would never be repeated. That was not counting on Phelps who has received a £1million bonus from sponsors Speedo.

Phelps, who appears to be a delightful young man, speaks of his goal to raise the profile of swimming and he has certainly done that as he has been on the front and back pages of newspapers globally as well as making headline news on television and radio.

I have to thank two of my local swimmers James Goddard and Keri-Anne Payne for the fact I spent so much time at the National Aquatics Centre of ‘The Cube’ as it is known.

I was lucky to see Phelps win five of his eight golds and swim in various other heats and semi finals.

And he is a truly amazing athlete, one who is able to find an extra gear as Steve Ovett, Seb Coe and Steve Cram used to do coming down the home straight in a middle distance athletics race.

Phelps also has amazing powers of recovery as barely half an hour after winning the gold in the 200m individual medley he was back in the water claiming a place in the final of the 100m butterfly.

That was an amazing race as he was sixth at the turn and you thought Phelps may be human after all. But in the last 50m he went from sixth to first.

No wonder Goddard, who swam against Phelps in the final of the 200m individual medley, later described him as the greatest athlete to have ever walked the planet because of his sporting feats. You run out of superlatives to describe him.

The athletics has been amazing and I have been fortunate to witness some compelling finals, notably the sprints which have seen the Jamaicans eclipse the Americans who traditionally have dominated the events.

There was a doubt whether Usain Bolt would double up and it was only a last-minute decision to do the 100m which he won in a world record time of 9.68sec. And it would have been even quicker had he not showboated the final five metres when he was so far clear he knew victory was assured.

It was a phenomenal piece of sprinting and I only hope Bolt remains clean after the failed drugs tests of so many world-class sprinters in recent years.

I am assured by a leading athletics writer that Bolt is not taking any illegal substances. He says he has based his theory on experience after seeing the bodies of sprinters suddenly becoming bulked up.

That has not been the case with Bolt, a 6ft 7in, gangling young man. But when you are that size it is hardly surprising he eats up the ground. And given his youth – he celebrates his 22nd birthday this coming weekend – there is no telling what times he will clock if he can remain injury free.

There was also a 1-2-3 for Jamaica in the women’s 100m final when six of the eight finalists were either from or had origins on that island.

And there is no stopping the Africans who continue to take the long-distance track events to new heights.

I was lucky enough to see the finals of both the men and women’s 10,000 metres and they ran the final lap as though a 400m race. It is hard to see any of our athletes being able to compete against them.

While cycling, swimming and rowing have prospered, the only downside is athletics where there is a worrying shortage of medal hopes.

And that is an area Sir Clive Woodward, the British Olympics Association performance supremo, clearly needs to look at and direct much of his energy in the build up to London.

While it is wonderful to do well in these other sports, it must be remembered that athletics – or track and field as the Americans refer to it – remains the blue-ribbon sport and Britain cannot afford to remain also rans in such a high-profile event.