GREAT Britain's Germaine Mason claimed a surprise silver in the high jump at the Beijing Olympics yesterday.
The 25-year-old equalled his personal best with a clearance of 2.34 metres to finish second behind Russia's Andrey Silnov, who secured gold with a first-time clearance of 2.36m.
Russia's Yaroslav Rybakov took bronze after matching Mason's clearanc
e of 2.34m but losing out on countback after two failures at 2.32m.
"I am a bit speechless but I am very happy and overwhelmed. I feel like Superman," said Mason, who was born in Jamaica but switched nationalities in 2006.
"I most definitely exceeded expectations. My coach believed in me more than I believed in myself, which is good, you need a coach that is positive.
Team-mates Tom Parsons and Martyn Bernard finished eighth and ninth after failing to clear better than 2.25m.
Britain had two more chances of medals in the Bird's Nest Stadium, but Sarah Claxton and Andy Baddeley were unable to produce in the 100m hurdles and 1500m finals respectively.
Claxton, 28, finished eighth in a time of 12.94 seconds behind winner Dawn Harper, who took advantage of fellow American Lolo Jones hitting the penultimate hurdle and dropping to seventh.
Baddeley, the Dream Mile winner, was outpaced in his final, finishing ninth in 3:35.37, with Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi taking gold ahead of Asbel Kipruto Kiprop of Kenya. New Zealand's Nicholas Willis took bronze.
Elsewhere in the stadium, Martyn Rooney and Christian Malcolm progressed to the 400m and 200m finals respectively, but Scotland's Allan Scott and Andrew Turner failed to make it through to the semis of the 110m hurdles.
The full article contains 285 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
