altAUGUST 17 - THE Prime Minister today hailed Britain's Olympic team after it enjoyed arguably the most successful weekend in the 112-year history of the Games.

 

Over the course of two extraordinary days Britain won 17 medals, eight of them gold, including from the Yngling trio of Sarah Webb, Sarah Ayton and Pippa Wilson (pictured), to lift them to third in the medals table behind super powers China and the United States.

The team has already won more gold medals than it did at the 2004 Athens Olympics and equalled the 11 gold medals achieved at the 2000 Sydney games, its best gold medal haul of recent years.
 
It is a dramatic turnaround from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta when Britain won only one gold medal thanks to Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.
 
Gordon Brown said: "I want to send my congratulations to Team GB on this golden weekend for British sport.
 
"Eight gold medals and 17medals in total in one weekend is a superb and unprecedented achievement.
 
"The whole country has been watching and has been thrilled by Team GB.
 
"We are immensely proud of what they have achieved so far, and inspired by their performance.
 
"Our Olympians' talent and dedication represent the very best of Britain and we look forward to another great week of British sporting success."
 
Officials from UK Sport, the Government agency that distribute National Lottery funding, are now set to use Britain's outstanding performance in the Chinese capital to pressurise Brown over funding to help the team prepare for London 2012.
 
Two years ago, when he was Chancellor, Brown served notice that notice that £100 million of the £600 million earmarked for elite athletes for 2012 would need to be sought from commercial sponsors.
 
But that has proved hard to find and UK Sport will be hoping that that Brown will be so enthused by what has happened in Beijing that he will provide extra funding from the public purse to make up the shortfall.
 
They were given encouragement by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham.
 
He said: "The appetite for sport in this country we always know has been unprecedented.
 
"We've got to match that level of interest with investment, with facilities, with new opportunities for people."