The race for Gold at London 2012

As a passionate sports fan I can't wait for the London 2012 Olympics to start. Team GB won their best ever medal haul for 100 years at the Beijing games with 47 in total - 19 Gold, 13 Silver and 15 Bronze. This won us 5th place in the overall medals table - one place ahead of Australia who won one less medal in total and one less gold over the course of the games. After being embarrassed by the Aussies at the last 5 or 6 Olympics this was a rather sweet moment. It even riled them into claiming us Brits could only win medals when we were sitting down! You know you have got under the skins of the Aussies when they have to resort to such stinging banter... it is their way of giving a backhanded compliment!

So it is with regret I read that the Australian government, following a report on sports funding, are redirecting monies away from the Olympic sports such as taekwondo, archery and water polo to more mainstream non Olympic sports like Aussie rules, cricket and surfing.

This has caused more than a few ripples of discontent amongst the Australians who have a passion for sport like no other nation. Personally I am sad that the Aussies are getting in their excuses early about them having to compete on an uneven playing field. When we out medal them at London 2012 I don't want it to because of funding!