London Olympics Day 15: Go team

Author: Stephanie Kovalchik

The 15th Day of competition fittingly ended with 15 events left for Sunday and the United States with 15 medals ahead of the next most medal-earning nation, China. With 102 overall medals, the US became the first and only country to pass 100 medals during the 2012 Summer Games.

Britain holds the fourth place in the medals race with 62 medals, the most the nation has earned since London first hosted the Games in 1908. Three of Team GB's Day 15 medals were gold. Twenty-four year-old boxer Luke Campbell became the champion in the bantamweight category defeating John Nevin of Ireland in the final. After winning fold in the 10,000m, Mohamed Farah impressed the home crowd once again with a gold-winning time in the 5000m. Canoeist Ed McKeever ended the 200m singles kayak sprint with a golden finish, the first gold for the host country in a canoeing sprint event. And, although it was a bronze, Tom Daley's third place finish in the 10m platform must have felt as good as gold for being able to surpass one of China's favorites for a medal, Lin Yue. The gold went to David Boudia of the US.

But the real hero of Day 15 was the Team. Nine team event finals took place. There was an unsurprising gold for the US women's basketball team, which has been one of the most dominant teams at the Games, winning their seventh overall and fifth consecutive gold since the event was introduced at the Olympics in 1976. The US women's relay team struck twice, following their gold in the 4 x 100m relay on Day 14 with blazing first finish in the 4 x 400m relay. The Jamaican sprinters lit-up the evening at the Olympic Stadium once again with a world record in their 4 x 100 m relay.

In losing to Norway, the women's handball team of Montenegro one the first medal for its nation - it only gained independence from Serbia in 2006. An even newer nation, South Sudan, has not been allowed to compete because it doesn't have an Olympic Committee and so its athletes are competing in as 'independents'. Russia won gold in the men's kayak double 200m sprint, while Germany's men were the champions in field hockey. The women's sailing team earned Spain a much needed gold in the match racing event. It was a day of ups and downs for Brazil. The elation for the Brazilian women's volleyball team who samba'd in the glory of an upset over the USA, was followed with the disappointment of the loss of the men's soccer team to Mexico. Brazil were the favorites.

But let's look more closely at Day 15's individual track & field performances.

Women's 800m. The Women's 800m has had a controversial history at the Games. When it was first introduced at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympiad, officials felt that some of the runners were so fatigued they decided to ban the event from the Programme. It was 32 more years before it returned.

No one was questioning whether the 2012 women would be able to complete the 800m with impressive speed but some have questioned whether one of the runner's would have an unfair advantage. The controversy concerned South African Mokgadi Caster Semenya, who was withdrawn from international competition in 2012 after failing a gender test. The IAAF later reversed this decision and Semenya returned to her training. After qualifying for the London Olympics and carrying the flag for her nation, Semenya valiantly stayed competitive enough in the face of all of the media attention surrounding her to earn silver with a time of 1:57.23, second to Russia's Mariya Savinova 1:56.19.

Men's 5000m. Briton Mo Farah awed the home crowd when he held the lead in an excruciatingly close final lap of the 5000 meter. Farah's time was almost 45 seconds slower than Kenenisa Bekele's gold-medal finish at Beijing. But that fact didn't seem to diminish Farah's accomplishment nor the joy of fans in watching him celebrate with the `Mobot'.

Men's javelin. With a throw of 84.58 meters Keshorn Walcott won the first athletics gold for Trinidad and Tobago of the Summer of 2012 and the first medal in the javelin event for his home country in the history of the Olympics.

Women's high jump. After a bronze finish at Beijing, Russian Anna Chicherova bettered her best jump of 2.03 meters at the 2008 Games by 0.02 meters to leap to the top of the Olympic podium.

Men's 50km walk. After defending champion Alex Schwazer was prohibited from competing n the longest of the men's race-walking event owing to a positive doping test, it was anyone's gold. After more than 3 hours of fierce competition, Russia's Sergey Kirdyapkin surged past the competition in an Olympic-record time of 3:35:59.