An owl's-eye view of the London 2012 men's marathon

In a desperate attempt to cling onto the last dying embers of the Olympic flame, Owl Towers despatched a correspondent to the men's marathon route on the final morning of the 2012 games. Firstly, a big 'hell yes' to the organisers for creating a course of three laps instead of one huge route, thereby enabling viewers to see the runners pass multiple times. We'd travelled a whopping 1.3 miles and spent a bankrupting £0 to catch a glimpse of this event, so we wanted to get our money's worth.

Motivated by a hatred of West London and a suspicion that that way huge crowds lay, coupled with chronic laziness (it was a Sleepday Sunday morning, after all) we aimed to watch the athletes pass at Bank, the 5/13/21 mile mark. Dear readers, this decision paid off bountifully, as we emerged from the Underground to bag a spot on the second row for the first lap, and progressed to the very front when those in front of us left following the passage of the final athlete on his initial circuit.

It was a hot August day; uncomfortable weather for owls and distance runners alike. Undoubtedly this took a greater toll on some athletes than others, as 20 of the 105 starters dropped out at various points throughout the race.

The day's heroes were two athletes in particular: the winner, a young man from Uganda called Stephen Kiprotich who beat two Kenyans into silver and bronze, claiming his country's only medal (and their first gold since 1972) and enabling them to finish joint 50th in the medal table, and the man who finished last, Tsepo Ramonene of Lesotho. He could have given up, but strove to finish despite finishing 10 minutes behind the bloke in front of him and 47 behind the winner. Let's just remember that he still completed a marathon in under three hours AND his personal best is nearly 40 minutes faster than he ran this particular race. This owl got tired just watching the athletes run.

On that note, here's a video of Tsepo approaching the finish line. He may not have won the marathon, but he definitely takes home The Sporting Owl's award for 'Admirable Completion of a Race When Everyone Else Had Gone Home'. Congrats, Tsepo. You've done Lesotho proud.

The Sporting Owl #5

With Ria away, Tom had to step into the breach and fill thirty-plus minutes with sub-par Olympic waffling.  Did he manage without bursting into floods of tears?  Well, you be the judge (but a very nice fluffy judge who won't tell us if it was borderline unlistenable).

As well as the usual news round-up and a necessarily one-sided game, this episode features reports on our trips to the boxing quarterfinals and a gloriously masochistic eight-hour "morning" session at the Olympic Stadium.

Olympics round-up: a few highlights you might have missed

As you might have spotted, the Owl has been terribly busy flitting back and forth to Olympic events over the past few days. Nevertheless, we've kept our swivelling eyes open and picked out a few highlights from London 2012 that you might have missed. If you're struggling to pay attention to the men's 50km mince this morning, these might just keep you going.

Men's high jump - Ivan Ukhov loses his lycra shirt, has to take his next jump in a loose-fitting training t-shirt to avoid being disqualified, still clears the bar and goes on to take gold by a huge margin. How on earth do you manage to lose your kit while wearing it? We can only conclude that this was a subliminal ad for his travelling magic show. Tip for next time, Ivan: set the bar alight and juggle rabbits around it.

Women's 800m - Merve Aydin pulls up injured in her heat but hobbles home to finish the race. She's the new Derek Redmond. And she didn't even need to get THE PATRIARCHY to help her...

Men's 400m hurdles - Felix Sanchez comfortably takes gold for the Dominican Republic despite poor recent form, feigns macho nonchalance at the finish line and completely loses it on the podium. If high-amplitude lip wobbling ever takes its rightful place at the Olympics, he's a shoo-in for gold. We're sorry that the BBC has chosen to upload a clip which (a) is completely ruined by John Inverdale spraying his industrial-grade bullshit all over it and (b) doesn't show the full range of aesthetic elements incorporated into Sanchez's lachrymose routine, but hey - that's intellectual property law!

Men's BMX - to be perfectly honest, we think BMX should stick to the X Games and You've Been Framed. As if to prove our point, here's a passably smirk-inducing clip where some people fall over. Jeremy Beadle must be excitedly writing a cheque for £250 in his grave.

Men's discus - Robert Harting decided to celebrate by putting in an early bid for decathlon gold in Rio. We'll forgive him for using women's hurdles because we're so impressed that he can even lift his colossal legs off the ground.

Finally, we couldn't resist including one highlight that no-one in the world was allowed to miss. Usain Bolt stole a camera from a Swedish journalist and started taking photos of his medal-winning teammates. And everything else. Proof positive that the best way to get the media's attention is to make them part of the story. With apologies to your pretentiously-filtered self-important boundlessly-irrelevant Instagram outpourings, you can find the world's most popular holiday snaps here.

Cuban vaulting pole suffers career-ending injury

Cuban pole vault record-holder and awesome name-haver Lazaro Borges caught a lucky break in this morning's qualification round at the Olympic Stadium.

Borges' pole, already known on the athletics circuit for its attention-seeking antics and melodramatic demeanour, decided to seize its chance for global fame and exploded into three separate pieces. As you can see here, all three pieces missed its owner as he landed safely on the mat.  

The broken pole will be sadly missed - not least by Borges, who failed to qualify for the final when forced to resort to his more stoical and deeply uninspiring stand-in pole. We salute its opportunistic bid for immortality, and can only convey our best wishes for its next incarnation in the arms of a Venetian gondolier.

The Sporting Owl #4

After taking a long weekend, the Owl is back with musings on the British gold rush, and Tom provides an eyewitness report on the Greco-Roman wrestling.  Ria takes her first turn as question master in another exciting game of 'Olympic True or False' before butchering Grenada's national anthem (sorry, Kirani James).

Mean Girls finish first

We're delighted to report that Regina George won her first round 400m heat at the Olympic Stadium this morning.

Well done, Regina!  That is soooo fetch!

[Editor's note: stop trying to make fetch happen]

Check out edited highlights from Regina's career to date below.  Rest assured that The Sporting Owl will be watching Regina's progress like... well, like an owl.  But an owl that wishes it was a hawk.