View
comments
For Team GB, this was ‘the miracle of Tokyo’. Amid a painful, pinging pandemic, Britain’s athletes delivered what delighted and exhausted officials described on Sunday night as the nation’s ‘greatest achievement in Olympic history’ as the curtain fell on a Games like no other.
Team GB finished fourth in the table and were bettered only by superpowers USA and China, and hosts Japan.
Their stunning haul of 65 medals matched their total at London 2012 and at the end of a stunning two weeks, they finished two behind the incredible 2016 Rio performance which many believed will never be bettered. They may have to alter that view.
Team GB chef de mission Mark England has hailed 'the miracle of Tokyo' with Joseph Choong (above) among those to win a gold medal
But there is more. In London, the team was 541-strong; here it was 375. No fewer than 16 finished in fourth place. No wonder the top brass were smiling at the farewell press conference.
Mark England has had a task like no other. Getting athletes to the start line without being tripped up by Covid was his main aim. England’s job title could well have been amended to chef de mission impossible.
With the heartbreaking exception of silenced shooter Amber Hill, who tested positive before flying out, he and his team did just that. They were repaid in spades. ‘For this team to deliver 65 medals is absolutely extraordinary,’ the 62-year-old declared. ‘History on the back of the most complex, challenging and difficult environment that we will ever face, certainly in my lifetime.’
