Adlington wins historic gold for Britain

Monday, August 11: British spectators and reporters at the Water Cube in Beijing were revelling early today in the unexpected victory of Rebecca Adlington in the 400m freestyle. She took the gold medal by a whisker from the American swimmer Katie Hoff, and became the first British woman swimmer in 48 years to win an Olympic gold. She is also the first British woman swimmer to win any medal in the Olympics since Sarah Hardcastle in Los Angeles in 1984. All this in spite of the fact that the race is not supposed to be her speciality.

Adlington's time of 4min 03.22sec was seven-hundredths of a second faster than Hoff, who had led for the second half of the race and was well ahead when Adlington found extra power in the last few seconds of the gruelling event.

"The 19-year-old's finishing strength saw her sneak past the American
favourite Katie Hoff in a blur of foaming water and rubber suit," said the Guardian. "It was like watching a shark sneaking up on an unsuspecting bather at Amityville." Not surprisingly, "the new golden girl of freestyle...
looked slightly dazed as she stood on the podium".

Britain's Joanne Jackson (pictured right with Adlington) took bronze which meant that two British women swimmers were on the same podium for only the second time since the war.

The last woman to win an Olympic gold in the pool for Britain was Anita Lonsbrough in Rome in 1960. As the Times reported, Lonsbrough was in Beijing to witness Adlington's victory: "Lonsbrough stood tall for the national anthem, her lip trembling, the tears trickling down her cheek just as they had 48 years ago at the Foro Italico pool in Rome."

LAST UPDATED 10:57 AM, AUGUST 11, 2008