Stuttering Poms all quiet in Rio after Aussie bashing at London 2012 rings hollow four years on

RUBBING the nose of a famous old rival in the dirt is normally considered extremely poor sportsmanship. But when it comes to the struggling Poms, normal doesn’t apply ...

Adam Peaty is Britain's only gold medallist so far, in the 100m breaststroke.

RUBBING the nose of a famous old rival in the dirt is normally considered extremely poor sportsmanship.

But when that rival is the same Great Britain that spent the entire London Olympics boasting about spanking the Aussies the line gets a little blurred.

No one from Team Great Britain is in full panic mode just yet, but after some “catastrophic” bad luck the English press is certainly getting cranky.

As the fourth day of competition draws to a close Britain has just four medals — Adam Peaty’s swimming gold and a silver and two bronze medals.

It is a far cry from those joyous days of the London Olympics, where Britain kept gaining momentum to finish with 29 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze.

The British will surely cash in at the track cycling, tennis, triathlon and athletics, but for now as it slumps to 12th on the medal tally there are a growing list of near-misses.

British canoeist David Florence blew his medal hopes after a horror run in the final, dropping to last after entering that final fourth.

He described his run as “catastrophic”, which the English press is using as a metaphor for the early bad luck.

Louis Smith shows his dejection after falling from the pommel horse in Rio.

Thankfully London’s The Sun has had plenty to write about, with an Ethiopian swimmer’s podgy “dad bod” and a cheeky boob slip at the water polo.

But that run of poor luck includes:

Britain’s men’s gymnastics team bungling their medal hopes when Louis Smith fell from the pommel on their final apparatus. They had finished second in the world championships to Japan last year but ended up fourth in Rio.

James Guy’s agonising fourth in the 200m freestyle, beaten by drug cheat Sun Yang.

“It’s devastating really, fourth is the worst place you can get,’’ Guy said.

Britain’s women’s sevens team losing the bronze medal play-off to a Canadian team they had beaten 22-0 in the pool rounds.

Dual team pursuit gold medallist Geraint Thomas falling as he was about to enter the last 10km in the men’s road race in perfect position to win.

“I went into the corner a little bit fast and my back wheel skipped out on the small bumps — that’s what threw me off my bike,’’ he said.

Road champion Lizzie Armitstead finishing fifth in the women’s road race after a week of controversy where CAS cleared her to ride after three missed drug tests.

Fencer Richard Kruse losing what reports said was an “incredibly close” bronze medal match in the foil.

10m synchronised platform divers Tonia Crouch and Lois Toulson fluffing their last dive when in medal contention and dropping from a podium finish.

The agony and ectasy of the Olympics

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Sobered by the country’s recession and Brexit fiasco, Team GB is keeping calm and carrying on.

And with those still competing including boxer Nicola Adams, tennis star Andy Murray, athletics gold medallists Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill and triathlon’s dominant force Alastair Brownlee, they will probably have the last laugh.

But for now, as Australia sits perched in third place on the medal tally with four golds and four bronze medals, we still haven’t forgot London.

Originally published as Stuttering Poms all quiet in Rio after Aussie bashing at London 2012 rings hollow four years on