London Olympics Day 6: Gold rush for Great Britain

Author: Stephanie Kovalchik

Sir Chris Hoy in action. Yesterday

Hoy won his fifth career gold medal.

Image by johnthescone/Wikimedia.

Great Britain followed its golden day 5 with three more golds, ending day 6 with five total golds and 15 medals overall. The athletes responsible for this gold rush were Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott, who were the champions in the slalom canoeing C2 event - the nation's first gold performance in canoe slalom - the superstar trio of Sir Chris Hoy, Philip Hindes, and Jason Kenny for men's team track cycling and breaking the world record twice, and the solo performance of sharpshooter Peter Wilson at the double trap.

The USA also had plenty of reasons to celebrate at the end of Day 6 competition. For the first time in the Games the Americans ended the day ahead of China in the overall medal count, holding 37 total medals to China's 34. This surge forward was thanks in large part to outstanding performances in judo, gymnastics, rowing, and swimming. Details on today's progress in swimming follow.

Women's 200m breaststroke. For the second Olympic year, American Rebecca Soni took gold in the longest of the breaststroke races. Soni improved on her Beijing time by 0.4%, setting a new Olympic record of 2:19.59. An impressive follow-up to her silver-medal swim in the 100m breaststroke. Still, the greatest leap forward for the women's 200m event was its second Olympic year in 1924, when Germany's Hilde Schrader outpaced the inaugural gold-medal time by 9.7%.

Men's 200m backstroke. Tyler Clary and Ryan Lochte gave this event a one-two American punch. Bringing their home country a gold and bronze, respectively. Clary has long played second fiddle to Lochte, but at London on Day 6 he had the edge with a time of 1:53.41, a new Olympic record.

Men's 200m individual medley. The 200m IM has had a briefer history at the Games than many of the events, including a two-games absence in 1976 and 1980. This summer, the event finished with another double-medal for the Americans. Michael Phelps added one more gold to his London Games trophy case. Phelps was 0.04 seconds shy of his 2008 gold-medal time of 1:54.23. The swimmer might not have the speed he once did but his career total of 20 Olympic medals is an achievement no other athlete is likely to catch.

For Phelps, this race must have been especially sweet as it put a triumphant coda to his rivalry with teammate Ryan Lochte who took the silver medal. This is the last race the two will compete in at the Olympics.

Women's 100m freestyle. Ranomi Kromowidjojo brought the Netherlands their first swimming medal of the London Games with her Olympic-record-breaking swim of 53.00 seconds.