A few updates:

Taekwando: Mens 80Kg

This was very dramatic for the UK. 17 years old Aaron Cook (the youngest competitor) looked great as he made it through his quarter final. He was very aggressive - and made the 'bout' much more interesting than previous ones I had seen (which were a bit 'cagey'). He is from Dorchester and lives in Manchester doing training full time. As he got his opponent in the face, the commentator said: "there - have a taste of a Manchester foot sandwich". (He then said something about "pickle" which I didn;t really understand).

Then.....in the semi-final, he was up against a much taller guy - an Italian. It was tight all the way through each round. It got to the last 10 seconds and it was 4-4 and looked like it would go to sudden death. Suddenly the Italian guy somewho got a kick in and it was over.......Aaron was absolutely distraught. Huge emotion from the Italian bloke.

It got worse - as our boy then lost his chance for the Bronze against in the play-off - and he was in big tears............still - I'm sure his time will come.

Womens 4x100m relay

More upset as we missed passing the baton - (as did the Jamaicans) - just when we were looking good for a medal. I think this must be one of the worst situations for an athlete because it is a team event - and the two girls involved were clearly upset. Particularly Emily - when she was being interviewed - oooouch - not a nice situation - very upsetting.

Counselling for Phillips

Well, after doing a personal best - but only getting silver, the red haired Phillips Odowu came into the studio for a chat. And I take back what I previously said about Colin Jackson: this time he was truly empathetic and gave Phillips some genuine and positive words of wisdom. Phillips himself seems so incredibly driven - it is his total goal in life (to win gold). I hope he gets what he wants - he was very 'down' after just getting silver.

Kayaking

What a great gold for us! Our guy just blitzed it from start to finish - and just when I though the Norwegian guy was going to get back, he held it. As Adrian Chiles mentioned, with arms like that, he could be in the boxing ring. What was really nice at the end of this race was the camaraderie between the competitors: they clearly know each other and respect each other a lot. The got their kayaks together and exhanged words, pats on the back in a very heartwarming and 'Olympic' way.