THE OLYMPICS (5)

As a Brit, I was an avid GB fan as they ran up their best Olympic result since the London Olympics of 1908. But how did Denmark do?

Their target was 8 medals, and they got 9; two gold, four silver, and three bronze. So that was a success, in fact the country's best result since 1948. The wrinkle is that they didn't win medals where they were expected to. Denmark is traditionally good at badminton and sailing, but there were no golds; these came in the men's omnium in the velodrome, and in the lightweight double sculls, where they overhauled GB in the last 50 metres. Rowing was in fact their best sport, with three medals.

The big disappointments were in swimming and handball. A number of female Danish swimmers are, or have been, world champions during the past couple of years, but both Lotte Friis in the 800m freestyle and Jeanette Ottesen in the 100m freestyle and butterfly came up short. The handball was worse. Although the women were not seriously expected to get a medal, finishing fifth out of a six-team group and so failing to make the quarter finals was a disaster. On the men's side, Denmark are the reigning European champions, probably the hardest competition of all to win. But player of the year Mikkel Hansen was a marked man, their offense sputtered without him, and they crashed out in the quarter finals to arch-rivals Sweden. The heavyweight teams - France, Croatia, Spain - were all in the other half of the knockout draw, so this was definitely a competition for the Danes to lose. They did.

The handball had a knock-on effect, since a large part of the Danish TV coverage centered on the sport. I went from watching all 26 sports categories on the BBC while I was in England to maybe 3 back here. I have already made a mental note to go on holiday abroad when the games are in Rio.

Walter Blotscher