Going For Gold

The top Team GB athletes to look out for in London


It has been 64 years since the Olympics last turned up in London and after bidding for the games for the last 20 years, it is back for its third showing. In 1948, Great Britain managed a total of 23 medals, finishing in a miserable 12th place in the overall standings. Team GB’s hopefuls will aim to prevent history from repeating itself in front of the home crowd.

Great Britain’s biggest hope for a gold medal lye with Jessica Ennis, the former World and European champion. Ennis didn’t have to wait long for her first medal as a senior athlete, when she picked up a bronze medal in her first major championships at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. The bright new talent of Ennis continued to shine through at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, when she became the World Champion and she added to her glory by winning gold in the World Indoor Pentathlon and European Championship in 2010. Ennis has been at the centre of attention throughout the build up to the London games and with her impressive CV, we hope that she also turns up with her world beating form.


The African dominance in Olympic long distance running is under threat, as Mo Farrah has been causing a stir in Europe. The man who was born in Somalia, but now a Londoner, will be hoping to impress his home fans when the Olympic games arrives on his doorstep. Farrah impressed in the European Championships when he took it by storm, winning the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres event. We’ll all be hoping he can take his current form into the Olympics and bag Great Britain some golds.


Just like Team GB’s football team, the dynamic duo of Pete Waterfield and Tom Daley combines experience and youth. With his old partner, Leon Taylor, Waterfield won silver in the 10-metre event at the Athens Olympics and his decision to pair up with the extremely talented Daley has already proven to be a success. The second event they competed in together saw them defeat the lethal partnership of Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquang. Finishing in front of the Chinese pair doesn’t happen often and when competing against them, most divers think of silver as gold. Waterfield and Daley have a natural synchronization and when it usually takes years to perfect timings, the British hopefuls look a real contender for a podium finish already.