BBC Two: Day 3: 13.00-13.45 Olympics

Welcome back. We are saddled up and ready to go to Greenwich Park.

Nicola Wilson on opposition Buzz his first up for Great Britain and

they are due to set off in a minute. pace. Certainly a very positive

young man. It looked to me that horse ran into the water ditch on

the approach and it is not deep so we got away with it. A couple of

extra strides, but the horse is thinking and paying attention.

jumping penalties and 43 the time. goes. Opposition Buzz. This is the

4th championship, two Europeans and one worlds. They won the world's,

but what can they do? This horse loves going cross-country. Normally

they are good against the clock. This is an interesting round to

watch now. Great line through the third. And listen to the crowd!

They have gone wild. Opposition Buzz, I hope he appreciates the

noise! This is the Japanese horse, refusing at the 14th fence. He goes

a second time. You can only have three refusals on the course, so

that is one of three used up. was disappointing because he was

trying to be so careful. He just ran out of steam because he

underpowered. It has been a steep learning curve for those rider. He

went to Portugal in the spring. The Japanese have not got huge strength

and depth. He needs to nurse the horse home. He is about halfway.

Opposition Buzz now, it safely over spectacular backdrop of the City.

Then this very steep downhill to the water combination.

combination inside the time at the ever. 15 years old, grabbing hold

of the bit. Looking controllable, and that is so important. You have

got to have a horse that she can control the direction and speed. --

you can control for direction and speed. He has been known to take

control and gallop off. I think because at Greenwich Park there are

not long, galloping stretches, so we are not seeing long, galloping

stretches and she can keep him there than Nicola had planned but

Linda. Sisters in the team, that horse that her younger sister is

riding, which has never been seen before in the Olympic Games. Sweden

were in 4th place on 128.2, 1.2 behind Britain, after the dressage,

quickly over these fences. And this is Nicola Wilson in the Arena!

Massive cheering. The horse loving it, look at the ears. She is just

so pressing him. Just four seconds slower than Christopher Burton.

This horse fits. If he can make ground on the top he just could

make the time. That would be some start for Britain. This is the

second quarter, fences 17 and 18. Quite the drop in. I think they

will go to the left-hand side of this. Yes, a very big drop. It

angles a bit left to go over the house. That is such a tricky step

up, and narrow Chevron and we were concerned the horses would not read

it properly and quickly enough. Opposition Buzz makes nothing of it.

Nicola Wilson called in at late notice, first reserve after Piggy

French. She had to withdraw two horses, so unlucky. Piggy French

watching at home on television, our thoughts are with you. I am sure

Japanese. He will not get home inside the time, but that will be a

huge thrill for the Japanese and give them confidence for the rest

because this would be there least Yes, but the most difficult part

behind him. That brush corner is probably the most difficult.

Opposition Buzz again. The Dow I say it, still looking full of

running. -- dare I say it? Nicola Wilson patting him on the neck,

keep it up! Many of the owners watching, often from the

international teams. A huge party watching, nerves, biting of

fingernails, doing a great job for They had an opportunity to improve

earlier in the season and it seems to have worked. It is the sort of

thing that means you have got to plan your route back. With all the

weather it has not been easy to find the right combinations for

this. My word, they have done a very good job. That is the last.

Safely over. 20 jumping penalties and finishing with 40 time

Richards, the first rider for New Zealand. Probably the least

experienced part of the team. But very fast across the country in

normal circumstances. Certainly set the fastest combination in the

world, but Linda is very experienced and she has ridden in

awe of the major championships. One year off because of injury last

year. Keeping the pace off. Very fast through the arena, but the

horse does not have the gallops right of Christopher Burton's

thoroughbred. -- gallop stride. let's look at the time for Nicola!

How close is she to 10 minutes? 9.33! One fence left. The crowd

ducking under the branches all around the finish. She is inside at

the last. She is going to be number two inside the time! Britain off to

the start that they wanted! Well done Nicola Wilson. She has done it

in four championships. That very definitely has given Britain the

start that they wanted. An incredible start for Great

Britain. Nicola Wilson 12 seconds under the time allowed a sono time

penalties. The second rider for Great Britain will be Mary King in

her 6th Olympics at 2 o'clock. You have to switch over to BBC Three

for that. But earlier you missed seeing the men in action in the

sailing, cruising into Saturday's final. Such a relaxed performance.

John Inverdale caught up with the boys just after the race.

Everybody seems very happy with that. What is your assessment of

the race? It was a great starter for 10. We have been doing some

excellent stuff in training. We think we have been going well but

we have not really know. To get onto the water today and execute

our race was fantastic. We are really pleased with how it unfolded.

We felt in good controlled the whole way down. We are looking

forward to the semi-final now. the Olympic debutant, how was it as

her first Olympic experience? my first Olympic race it was just

great. A great feeling out there. I feel calm and relaxed. I feel at

home. As we walked in the morning, everybody was saying hello, good

luck, cheers as we rode down the cause. Just incredible. Every

interview I have seen from the British athletes so far have said

the same thing. It makes such a difference to rear the shouting and

cheering, so please keep it up. Compared to Beijing, how was that?

Epic. I echo what Alex has just said. The crowd has been here when

we are racing, when we are getting off the boat in the morning, doing

our warm-up. It is an electric feeling. We practise so hard and so

often. You have seen the journey and nothing can prepare you for how

it feels of the start. We practise starting all the time and this up

like a different boat, a different place, and we felt at home. -- this

felt like. I know that it sounds corny, but we felt comfortable and

the boat was moving underneath us and that lifted us through the

first 1000 and made it a comfortable race. I am happy, I am

enjoying it, and I think every man feels relaxed in the boat.

about your health, all fine, Tom? will find out tomorrow! I am

feeling great. My back is fine, my heart is fine. There will be

another story just off the back of that. You are fine. Injured as

Steve Redgrave smashers microphone in to face! The sorry. -- sorry.

was a big change compared to what we saw in Munich. It was better

than lucerne, when I thought the boat was moving quite well. There

is a huge expectation on all the British athletes, but everyone that

we have been interviewing has been relaxed. They have an easy

relationship with it that is really good to see. Nobody is really

panicking. Everybody is laid back. Everybody has got a deep in their

eyes the seriousness of what will Did you watch the Australian

performance? It looked like a pretty solid race. We know it's

going to be a big fight. Like the guys have said, we've got the crowd

on our side and you've got to put that in the back pocket, haven't

you? The next few days, what? Training as usual this afternoon

and tomorrow morning, preparing for the next race. It's on the second.

Preparing for the semi-finals. We've got to stay calm and cool.

Not worry about what is going on, what other crews have done today

and focus on what we've been focusing on the past couple of

weeks. I have the second what Steve Redgrave was saying about how

relaxed orlop Team GB feels. At the gymnastics, I sense exactly the

same thing. Such tense anticipation to get into the finals, the women

yesterday, Beth Tweddle, the crowd carried her fruit. It got so

excited that we put the men's four straight into the final. They do

have to compete in the semi-final on Thursday. Now we are going back

We've got two gone inside the time. Christopher Burton for Australia

and great news for Britain, it is also to Nicola Wilson. Both inside

the time. The time in general not proving easy to get. We are getting

a sprinkling of stops, particularly from the less experienced countries.

Now we are watching Gushchina riding her horse. One of the

individual riders from Belarus. She has already had a refusal. That was

at fence three. It has caused a few problems. It was a silly refusal

because the horse is jumping so championship before. Belarus is one

of the younger champion -- countries in the sport but they've

front legs of the horse. It's a good idea to have it on the front

legs but this horse has got it right up his chest. If he hits

fences there, we are in trouble. The other problem of putting it on

the horse's chest is it stops the skin breathing, so they are unable

fence turn. He is a great jumping horse. He looks full of running. He

is a little bit burly compared to some of the other horses. He's

carrying quite a lot of condition. I hope she keeps enough energy in

reserve for the latter part of the course. The penultimate fence for

Richards. She had an injury. Mark Todd was working her horse and due

to get married to temporise later in the year, but this will be a

huge thrill at her first Olympics. She is going to be over the time.

She certainly set out extremely positively. That is what makes

Christopher Burton's ride so impressive because he never looked

carried. He got inside the time. Richards has got along with just

of the sharp angle that she was approaching that step. The worry is

they don't read it and jump off to she's giving it plenty of time to

get up these hills and conserve some energy. Korshunov, he was 74th

after dressage. He is an individual for Russia. Russia, who in the past

have had some good results in Championships, winners of European

titles but never won an Olympic who has had a lot of experience in

based in Britain for a number of years. She will have a lot of fans

here. 12 years macro, a horse that Tina Cook had, she sold it on to

was on another horse which didn't the first riders. This is the

position so far. Two clear rounds from Australia and Great Britain.

United States just added a few time competition really begins to unfold.

That was good in the main arena. He had a really good line through

there. One of the better ones. in on the left to give himself time

does take time but the horses unfortunate. Out they go of their

first Olympics. Belarus falls at the cricket ball basket. We could

hear the basket crunch as she hid it. She just got too close and the

horse hit it on the way up. It couldn't recover on landing. One of

the biggest problems for riders falling off these days is their air

vest explodes. Actually, he didn't get too close to it but he did

leave his legs hanging and hit it rather hard. There was no way she

could recover from that. The air vest is connected to the saddle of

the horse. If you fall off, it releases from the saddle, there's

an explosion as it fills with air very quickly. It is so tied around

the Ryder, they feel winded. Sometimes the Ryder looks injured

but in fact they can hardly breathe. But they do protect them. That was

lost his back legs going into those logs. There is quite a turn to bat

second element, and I think that's the teams will want to watch.

did an amazing job to sit there, she didn't come off. If a horse

loses his shoe on this beautiful ground, they've got no studs left

in their feet, so slips like that can happen. I don't think that

could have been called a fall. I don't think the shoulder and

corners hit the ground together, so a lot. Horses could be sliding

around on these terms. -- turns. They've done a fantastic job in the

going here, it's all been managed for the last years since the test

good lawn. But it does make it possible if you turned to quickly

practising, in their shoes they have put in big studs to help them

avoid slipping and sliding around the course. Some of them have been

trying out different size and thickness of studs in the

collecting ring. Working out the looks to be making good progress.

This is where experience counts and judgment of pace. We haven't seen

that in Olympics recently since the shorter format with no roads and

tracks in the steeplechase. Back in 2004, the Athens Olympics, one of

the first times that format took place. He is over a fence 21, seven

fences from home. The horse is looking for love running. --

room for error up in the last two the flower garden. But the horses

are so opened up in their stride now that none of them are finding

heading for the cricket ball basket, where the Belarus Ryder... He's

been stopped, he's been held on the course. I wonder whether that is

something to do with the fence. When the Belorussian hit the fence,

they may have damaged the fence. I'm not certain of that. At the

moment, Korshunov held on course. so they are holding up the course.

It is 32 minutes until Mary King goes on Imperial Cavalier, which

should be grit. Nicola Wilson found a great pass. She set out as the

path finder and we have caught up with her to see what she made of

her run. There was so much talk of the time

being difficult to achieve, it does help when you are on a good horse.

He is amazing, outstanding. He did not fail to give me the wow factor

again today. He was unreal from start to finish. I am just so

delighted, so relieved, and a little bit emotional. Who can blame

you? You are the best pass find in -- path find in the world. What

information have you brought back to the team? The information is

that the team is phenomenal from start to finish. My watch beeps at

every minute, and I could not hear it. I have to look over all the

time, which was my first bit of information, how noisy everybody is,

which is fabulous. Please carry on. But just where I was on the minute

markers around the course, whether we had sticky moments, whether we

slipped. But he did not slip once and I was over the moon with him.

When you turned back, the amount of people that came rushing over to

you, I was getting goose pimples over here. I know! It is lovely. It

was like that all the way round the course. People screaming, shouting,

hollering. I could hear it all the way round. Fantastic. You have done

just what if we wanted. We are in perfect position now. Well done.

Just look at the scenes behind us in front of the Olympic Stadium.

There are so many people here. Such an atmosphere in the Olympic Park.

Everybody grabbing their lunch. If you think that is the definition of

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 64 seconds

an Olympic packed lunch, think Armitstead takes silver! There you

have it, the last 24 hours in 60 seconds. We are going to be doing

that every day, so you can always look forward to the Olympic packed

lunch. At Greenwich Park, the three-day eventing is going

incredibly well for Great Britain and we are keeping our fingers

crossed for Mary King. Nicola Wilson has just done exceptionally

well. We have seen a passion down there. In my eyes, there really is

nothing like the connection between horse and rider and we are going to

have a word with one of our commentators as he explains why he

loves the export so much. -- the I started riding when I was about

10. There was a kid the same age as me and he let my pony up and down

the drive, shouting up, down, for rising trot. Then they let you

loose going over the hills for an hour on the horse. It was a bit

intimidating and scary but I was hooked from then on because I quite

After that, I spend every possible minute that I could at the Ridings

School. We did not really have the money to pay for lots and lots of

lessons. If I hung around long enough and I did a lot of work at

the stables, then at the end of the day we got to ride bareback and put

the horses in the field, a mile away from the stables. When the

owner of the stables was a way for the day, then a group of us used to

make collars out of string and go and catch the ponies in the field

and have raised his bare back. That was my introduction to riding. --

races bareback. It may be hungrier that it was not handed to me on a

plate and I had to work jolly hard for it. I loved making horses go

better. I seemed to have a knack for it. Valley was one of the first

people that ever sent me a horse to compete and ride. That was quite a

long time ago. Certainly over 40 years. Then maybe we should not

talk about that! You can see it in somebody, they have it or they have

not, and you had it from the word go. Balance, hands, and very bold,

that was the other thing. It is just really hard to explain. You go

from being biscuit that his riding everybody and anybody's horses then

you are part of the Olympics, in the British team. -- from being

this Kate riding everybody and anybody's horses. That is

remarkably good! That was the first one, Los Angeles. Getting the

silver medal and standing on the podium was incredible. I think

probably there were some tears shed, but it was one of the proudest

moments of my life. This is a well deserved moment indeed for the

Flying Scotsman himself. children with the Olympic medals

after 88. The amazing. I do not know where time goes, really.

are my grandchildren. Off you go. Do you want to sit on him? No?

Whatever I am now, 58, I still have to pinch myself and think about

what my life and career has been. Well I started, the humble

beginnings, and how incredibly lucky I have been. I could get

If you would like to get involved in Olympic sports, ago to the BBC

That was a great story. Amongst all this Polish, it is nice to go back

to the stable yard and feel the mark. It makes me feel at home! We

saw the men before they cruised into the semi-final with no trouble

at all earlier. John Inverdale has caught up with three rowers from

the historic four that we are all in awe of. This is a coxless for,

at least a coxless three. -- coccus four passed to talk about the three

coxless three present. That is the best that I have seen that

combination row. I hope they will step on through the regatta because

the Australians also looked good. It is set up for a fantastic clash

in the final, us against Australia for the gold medal for sure. James?

There are two things that I think. Australia in the first heat, they

will get another heat winner, so we could meet before the final, so

they could be a semi-final showdown which could be interesting. The

Brits look very good in the middle and better in the first minute than

the Australians, which is what I was looking for in the heats. We

both knew they would win their heats, but it was he went out most

quickly from the blocks. Something for nothing from the blocks. They

looked good, as did the Australians, I thought. But there was a rambling

engine beneath our boat. -- rumbling. Who is ahead on points?

Pretty even. Most people would put the Australians on top because they

were the winners of the last race. But as James says, our guys have

got the power. If this was turned round the other way, the winds,

then there would just be one winner, but it is up for grabs. There is

the inevitable media speculation, as against them, Britain against

Australia, so there is an added something. How do their guides

switch off over the next few days? -- the guys. Turn off the telephone,

don't read the newspaper, turn off the television. You cannot do that.

It was easier for us in the Foreign Olympics. In Sydney we were stuck

with watching terrible Australian television. They were not talking

about us. But these guys will have the BBC and the build up pieces and

all of that. They will do well to avoid it all. This is a serious

point, who did not have Twitter and everything, people are urging you

every five seconds with good luck this, what about that? Some of us

still do not have Twitter! Switch of the telephone, change the number,

don't go on Twitter. It will all be great afterwards with a gold medal

round your neck and that is all that matters. James? I think the

big difference from them in Beijing and from us when we raced is the

programme has changed. The four used to be in Group A, so you would

be on the first I will stay. Now they are in the last day of four. -

- you would be on the first finals day. They are champing at the bit.

We were always racing for next day, and that is the difference. They

have to wait around for the heat and then they have to wait around

where everybody else is picking up medals and getting a drink.

never had the strength to carry the flag. I may not have been asked. I

turned my telephone off too early! I could have lit the flame if I had

not turned it off! There were no mobile telephones in my day.

Carrier pigeons! Are you more optimistic about their prospects

today having seen both the races? No changes? Coming into the regatta,

I would have put the Australians as marginal favourites. Now I think I

would put us slightly ahead by the same amount, but we are talking

tiny amounts. And as you say, it is all speculation. There is an old

rowing is saying, it stops when the flag drops. We can talk about it as

much as we like but until we see them racing side by side with the

medals waiting for them at this end of the lake, we cannot know for

sure. We will keep talking for the next few days. Thank you.

It will be an anxious wait until Saturday. I am sure they will crews

through the semi-final on Thursday as well. We are sure they can beat

the Australians on Saturday. You are wearing a lovely shirt,

Jake Humphrey! Michelle is same was wearing pink as well. Did you not

get the email? This is the uniform! You are taking over on BBC One

shortly. In did. It will be exciting. It has been so close. --

indeed. Any time penalties this afternoon, and Mary King going

shortly and Zara Phillips as well... 2 o'clock Mary King. Good

knowledge! The time penalties will really affect the medals. We are

looking forward to bringing people that. Also handball. People have

been getting into handball these Games because Great Britain have

not competed before. It is good and I like the action going on with the

start ups. Britain's of -- women play Russia. And of course peat.

is nice for them to sense the home crowd. There is so much pressure on

Tom Daley and Pete. To get a medal would be amazing for them, it does

not have to be gold. The home crowd will carry them through, if the

gymnastics have been anything to go by. That will be amazing for you as

well. That starts for us at 4:30pm. I am leaving now, to go to the