OK, let’s face it – we were all disappointed Team GB’s athletics captain Dai Greene could only manage fourth in the 400m hurdles.
But having seen the tears on the podium shed by gold medallist Felix Sanchez, we might have realised that if anyone was going to win it, we didn’t really mind it being the 34-year-old, who picked up his second gold medal in the event – he won the Olympic title back at Athens 2004.
Sanchez’s grandmother had died during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and he still grieves her. He carried her photo with him as he won the race, and said he had made a promise to her to win a medal – but had failed to get one in a major competition since 2007.
Even the most fervent Greene fans would struggle to begrudge Sanchez gold.
The Dominican athlete could barely contain his emotions as he was called to the podium to receive his medal and bouquet of flowers.
But as the last bars of the national anthem rang out, the camera zoomed in on Sanchez, who was by now crying openly. The crowd, as ever silently observing another nation’s anthem, suddenly broke into spontaneous applause and then cheered the man who had beaten one of Great Britain’s top medal hopes in the Olympic Stadium.
An Early Bath 