Often when I think about the forthcoming London 2012 Games I am put in mind of that old game you could – and perhaps still can - play in seaside amusement arcades.

No, of course I don't mean the shove halfpenny machine where you invest coin after coin to earn either baubles or nothing.

No, of course I don't mean the mechanical grabbers with the imperfectly co-ordinated joints which transport soft toys towards a point of exit before failing to deliver them.

Honestly, what are you like?

What I am thinking of is the horse racing game where you put your money on a gee-gee which slides mechanically towards the winning post and looks about to win only to allow a rival, or rivals, to pass it shortly before the line.

Putting aside the disappointment of losing 10p, which is not too hard, there is a residual fascination with seeing the late runners arrive to claim their triumph, just as there is a special satisfaction in witnessing Olympic victories which go to competitors or teams who, effectively, time their run to perfection.

Ann Packer (pictured below left), Tokyo, 1964. Arrives with 400 metres gold in mind, and has to settle for silver. Then, after seeing her fiancé Robbie Brightwell miss out on a medal by one place in the men's 400m, she cancels a shopping trip and enters the 800m, a distance she has raced only five times previously. Slowest of the eight finalists, she is sixth after 400m and third after 600m. The other gee-gees have got it! No they haven't...


After 800m, the young Briton is first, having accelerated clear down the home straight and crossed the line with a beatific, dawning smile.

Jack Beresford and Dick Southwood, Berlin, 1936. The British double sculls pairing have arrived in Germany without their newly made boat, which has been held up in transit. Before a final at which Adolf Hitler is due to be present to witness an expected victory for the home favourites, the "missing" boat is discovered in a railway siding. Film footage of the race shows the German pair more than a length clear with 500m remaining before the camera pans away to a stand filled with excited spectators waving Nazi flags. When it pans back, the British pair are ahead and they extend their lead to claim what Beresford – who won three Olympic golds and two silvers – later described as the sweetest race he ever rowed.

Dave Wottlen (pictured below), Munich, 1972. The thin, pale young American had emerged from nowhere to make his mark at the Olympic trials. In a final where the Ukraine's Evgheni Arzhanov was the favourite, Wottle – sporting the golf cap he continued to wear out of superstition despite the fact that his hair was no longer of a length to require its restrictive grip - dropped 10 metres behind the rest of the field in the first lap, and was still last at the bell.

Halfway down the home straight he was in fourth place, but moving faster than the two Kenyans ahead of him, Mike Boit and Robert Ouko, and Arzhanov, who was five metres clear. Two strides from the line the cool cat in the hat had reached silver medal position; and in those two strides he exchanged silver for gold as Arzhanov collapsed at the finish.


In retrospect, there are those who seem destined, fated, to win Olympic titles. Of course, it's a lot easier in retrospect.

But for those making their final preparations for the looming challenge of the third London Olympics, all is to play for, and all is to worry about. Have they done too much? Have they not done enough? That omnipresent event which all Olympians must enter – the test of nerve – is already well underway.

Speaking this week to Richard Mantell (pictured below left), who has been a regular member of the England and – as far as London 2012 is concerned – Great Britain hockey teams since 2005, the topic soon turned to Olympic prospects.

Early last December Mantell and his team-mates had had to settle for sixth place out of eight in the Champions Trophy held at Auckland, New Zealand, losing four of their six matches, and enduring an 8-1 defeat by Spain, who eventually lost the final 1-0 to Australia.


That underwhelming performance contrasted markedly with last month's glorious Champions Trophy effort by the British women, who earned silver in losing 1-0 to the hosts, Argentina, having beaten Germany in their semi-final.

So which is the right approach? Will the women simply charge on? Or are the men proceeding according to a plan which will see them peak, Wottle-style, at the Olympics?

Mantell pointed out that the expectation had not been great for the men ahead of Auckland, given that they were in the middle of the hardest and most gruelling part of their London 2012 preparation.

"We did a lot of heavy training at the back end of 2011 – lots of long runs and heavy lifting to create the fitness base we needed," he said. "We hadn't done any of the shorter, sharper work.

"We knew we had to get out physical preparation right for the Olympics, which meant doing the hard work then. We had discussed it as a group and we were very clear about it."

Certainly no one could have accused the men's head coach, Jason Lee, of heaping pressure on them beforehand. "We're miles off our peak, so I'm guessing it will be the poorest we play all year," Lee announced in one of the more unusual statements issued by a head coach on the eve of a big tournament.

Having said that, Charles van Commenee, head coach of UK Athletics, has adopted a similar approach to the forthcoming IAAF World Indoor Championships, making it clear that he has not set any medal targets for British athletes competing there.

Mantell, one of the more experienced members of the side at 30, readily recalls the occasion in 2009 when England's men – who comprise the main part of the British team - claimed their first major hockey title since the 1920 Olympics.

He scored two penalties as a side which had finished the Bejing Games in fifth place the year before excelled themselves to beat the Olympic champions, Germany, 5-3 in the European championship final.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, veteran hockey correspondent Pat Rowley suggested that Lee deserved a special award for "bringing his team to a peak at exactly the right time", adding that there was little doubt Britain's men would be serious Olympic contenders in 2012.

Mantell, as you might expect and hope, concurs with that sentiment. "The experience we had in 2009 is vital to us," he said.

Having recently returned with his team-mates from a training break in South Africa, he has found himself with a certain amount of time to please himself before entering the final straight in terms of Olympic preparations.


Part of the R and R has been a motorised assault-course of a race in Minis against two prospective Olympians who, like him, are partly supported by BMW – high jumper Martyn Bernard and 400m hurdler Perri Shakes-Drayton. The activity, on a racing circuit, involved slalom courses and barrages of wet sponges – but obviously nothing too risky with London 2012 in the offing.

Mantell, meanwhile, is confident that the British men's hockey team will time their London effort as they did in 2009. "We know we are definitely on track," he said.

The Olympic test event at the Riverbank Arena in the Olympic Park from May 2 until 6 will offer the next big opportunity for that confidence to be put to the test. Before then, however, there are matches in prospect against South Korea and – Spain.

So will the Spanish fixture see a spot of table-turning as far as the hosts are concerned. An 8-1 win, perhaps. "9-1" replies Mantell. "That's the plan..."

Watch Richard Mantell, Perri Shakes-Drayton and Martyn Bernard take a break from training for the London 2012 Olympic Games and compete against each other in a MINI track day challenge. To watch the 400m hurdles, hockey and high jump Olympic hopefuls getting competitive on the MINI assault course, find out who clocks the fastest lap, and win exclusive signed MINI merchandise, click here.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the past five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. Rowbottom's Twitter feed can be accessed here.