LONDON 2012 HERE WE COME!

On Sunday Bedfordshire welcomed home Victoria Pendleton from Stotfold, our World Cycling Champion who won an Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing in the Women's Cycling Sprint.

Victori'as success helped Bedfordshire County Council to be chosen to receive one of only 500 Olympic Handover Flags, delivered to selected councils, embassies and HM Forces worldwide. This flag symbolises the formal handover to London which will host the 2012 Olympic Games and will be flown at County Hall for the next 5 weeks.

Other Olympic Gold Medal Winners have been welcomed home, incoluding Rebecca Atherton, 19, from Mansfield who won 2 Gold Medals for swimming. Mansfield people were ecstatic at her success and are renaming both the local swimming pool and a pub in her honour. Stotfold has renamed a road Pendleton Way but wants to commemorate Victoria's Olympic success - does anyone have any bright ideas?

During the wet and gloomy days of August with the credit crunch and the war between Georgia and Russia, these young British Olympians cheered us all up by winning 47 medals, including 19 gold and restored British confidence in our sporting prowess.

BEDFORDSHIRE'S SEXIEST POLITICIAN

The closing date for the Blogging for the Bedford Poll to find Bedfordshire's Sexiest Politician is tomorrow 21 August. So far I have 131 votes and I am in 3rd place. Please vote for me now - the website is www.bloggingforbedford.blogspot.com.

Here are 2 comments received from my Blog readers -

"Nice pictures and informative Blog"

"Councillor Faulkner your modesty does you proud. Best of luck in the Poll. It's good to see a strong woman in politics who combines good looks with sound judgment. More power to your elbow and keep on blogging. I'm a Faulkner Journal addict"

Thank you Birdy and Chris Lake - please keep the comments coming. I hope you like my Olympic blog on our British Women who keep winning Olympic Medals in Beijing!

BRITISH WOMEN WIN 4 MORE OLYMPIC MEDALS IN BEIJING

Today Bryony Shaw became the 1st British woman to win a Windsurfing Olympic medal when she won the Bronze Medal in the RS:X Women's Race. In the Women's Swimming Marathon 10 km, Keri-Anne Payne won the Silver Medal and her team mate Cassie Patten the Bronze Medal. The latest news is that Tasha Danvers has just won an unexpected Bronze Medal in the Women's 400 m Hurdles and achieved a Personal Best time in spite of suffering 2 serious leg injuries earlier in the year. Britain now has 37 medals, including 16 gold medals and remains in 3rd place ahead of Russia and Australia.

Just to remind you of Britain's success in winning 4 Gold Medals yesterday, here is another photograph of the lovely Victoria Pendleton from Bedfordshire who won the Cycling Women's Sprint in 11.1 seconds and is now an Olympic Champion.

Britain still has more gold medal chances. Watch out for Shanaze Reade in the BMX bike event, Philips Idowu in the Men's Triple Jump and Tim Brabants in Kayaking. Also 3 boxers have reached the semi finals, guaranteeing them at least a bronze medal each - David Price super-heavyweight, James Degale middleweight, and Tony Jeffries, aged 23, the light heavyweight boxer who once sold hamburgers from a van. Britain has not won more than one Olympic Boxing medal since Munich 1972.

BRITAIN WINS 4 MORE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS ON SUPER SUNDAY

Another sensational day for Team GB who won 8 more medals including 4 gold, in Sailing, Cycling, Rowing and Gymnastics. Britain have moved up to 3rd place after China and the USA with 25 medals, including 11 gold.

Defending Olympic Sailing Champion Ben Ainslie won his 3rd consecutive Olympic Gold Medal in the Finn (Heavyweight Dinghy) Ben is now the most successful British sailor in Olympic History and and has been called Britain's greatest sailor since Sir Francis Drake. Our 2nd Sailing Gold Medal was won in the Yngling race by the attractive "Three blondes in a boat" - Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson.

Our superb British cyclists continue to collect medals. In the Women's Individual Pursuit Rebecca Romero and Wendy Hoovenaghel won both Gold and Silver Medals. Rebecca is the 1st British female athlete to win medals in 2 Olympic Games, having won a silver medal at Athens for rowing. The cyclists have now amassed 10 medals including 5 gold medals, and won 7 medals in the past two days alone.

The Rowers won 1 gold and 2 silver medals. Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter won the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls and silver medals were won by the Men's Eight and Women's Quadruple Sculls,who were narrowly beaten to the gold by the Chinese. Louis Smith a 19 year old gymnast won a bronze medal in the Men's Pommel Horse and is the 1st British gymnast ever to win an individual Olympic medal - he only took up Pommel Horse gymnastics as a punishment for being a naughty boy at school!

Mara Yamauchi came a well earned 6th in the Marathon, but sadly Paula Radcliffe, who has been plagued by injury, finished 23rd but did compleete the course. Our other Bedford runner, Liz Yelling had a bad fall but managed to finish and came 26th.
Victoria Pendleton, our Bedfordshire triple World Cycling Champion broke the Olympic record in her heats and should win a medal in the Women's Sprint Finals on Tuesday.

These Olympic results are amazing. Britain has a population of only 60 million compared to China's 1.6 billion and we should all be very proud of the unprecedented successes achieved by the British Team, especially the brilliant cycling team

How different these modest young Olympic stars are from our pampered, overpaid and self centred professional footballers!

BRITAIN TRIUMPHS IN BEIJING OLYMPICS

Congratulations to Britain's cyclists, rowers and swimmers who won an amazing 9 Olympic Medals today, the most medals ever won by a British Olympic Team in one day. Britain has moved from 10th to 7th place with 17 medals, including 7 Gold.

Rebecca Adlington, aged 19, won her 2nd Gold Medal in the Women's 800 metres freestyle and is now the most successful British woman swimmer in Olympic history!

Fresh from Friday's success in Men's Team Sprint cycling, Chris Hoy won a 2nd Gold Medal in the Men's Keirin and Edgar Ross his team mate won the Silver Medal. Bradley Wiggins made Olympic history by becoming the 1st cyclist to be Olympic Champion twice in the Men's Individual Pursuit and his team mate Steve Burke won the Bronze Medal. Also Chris Newton won a Bronze Medal in the Men's Points. Our cyclists have won an amazing 8 Olympic medals so far, including 4 Gold Medals.

In Rowing the Men's Four - Tom James, Steve Williams, Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge - won the Gold Medal. Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington won the Bronze Medal in the Women's Double Sculls and the Men's Double Sculls team - Matthew Wells and Steve Rowbotham - also won Bronze Medals.

Team GB would have won even more medals but 2 Sailing events were postponed - Ben Ainslie and the Women's Yngling Team will get at least a Silver Medal each tomorrow.

Watch out tomorrow for Bedford's own Paula Radcliffe and her team mate Mara Yamauchi in Sunday's Marathon, and Victoria Pendleton, World Champion Women's Sprint cyclist from Stotfold who will be cycling in the Women's Sprint.

ANOTHER GOLD FOR BRITISH CYCLISTS

STOP PRESS Great Britain wins another Olympic Gold Medal!

Today Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff won Britain's 3rd Olympic Gold Medal in the Cycling Team Sprint Finals in just 43 seconds, beating the French 2004 Olympic Champions who were the favourites - shades of Waterloo?

Our British cyclists have performed amazingly well so far collecting a total of 5 medals, including the individual Gold and Silver Medals won by Nicole Cooke and Emma Pooley this week. Saturday brings more opportunities for Team GB to win medals in cycling, swimming and sailing - watch this space!

2008 OLYMPICS LAUNCHED IN CHINA

China launched the 2008 Olympic Games with a spectacular Opening Ceremony in front of 80 world leaders and a worldwide audience of 8 billion. Number 8 has religious significance for the Chinese, so the Opening Ceremony began at 8.08pm on Friday 8 August 2008 with a £25 million extravaganza.

The British Olympic Team includes Paula Radcliffe, Bedford trained 2007 New York Marathon winner and 2005 World Champion. Other Bedfordshire sportswomen including Gail Emms, who won a silver medal in badminton at Athens in 2004 and Victoria Pendleton, 2007 World Champion cyclist. So far the British women swimmers and sailors are performing well and in their first heat the 200 metre men's relay swimmers broke the British record. Let's hope that the British team can beat the 30 medals they achieved at Athens in 2004.