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Top Six Most Memorable Moments of London 2012

Although the London 2012 Olympic Games have now finished, there are certain moments that people will never forget. Here we pick our six most memorable moments of the Games (with a slight British bias of course!). Click on the titles of each moment to watch them:
 

Closing Ceremony Draws Curtain on London 2012

After two weeks of glorious, unforgettable sporting action, London 2012 came to an end last night with a Closing Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium. Some of the biggest musicians in the world joined together to present a collection of some of the best-known British music, as the athletes danced in the stadium and the responsibility was passed on to Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Last Weekend of Sport

However, before all the closing party, there was one last weekend of Olympic sport to enjoy. Team GB made sure they went out with a bang, claiming another four gold medals over the weekend. Luke Campbell and Anthony Joshua both took boxing golds, whilst Ed McKeever won the kayak 200m sprint. However, it was Mo Farah who grabbed most of the headlines, adding the 5,000m gold to the one he won for the 10,000m. It was the first time a Brit had ever completed this unique Olympic double, and firmly placed Farah as one of the stand out performers for Britain at the Games.

All this was amongst Usain Bolt taking another gold medal and setting another world record, as his Jamaican team strolled to the men's 4x100m relay. Bolt celebrated with Mo Farah afterwards, both copying the other's famous celebratory pose:

The Runner Who Finished his Race With a Broken Leg

Whilst Usain Bolt was getting all the plaudits last night after his second gold medal of the Olympics, perhaps there was a runner more deserving of credit who ran earlier in the day.

Manteo Mitchell from the United Sates was half way though his leg of the men's 4x400m relay heats when he felt a snap in his leg. As Mitchell himself explains:

"As soon as I took the first step past the 200m mark, I felt it break. I heard it. I even put out a little war cry but the crowd was so loud you couldn't hear it. I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half."

However, instead of pulling up injured and not finishing the race (something I don't think anyone could have blamed him for), he decided to carry on:

"I didn't want to let the three guys or the team down, so I just ran on it. It hurt so bad. I'm pretty amazed that I still split close to 45 seconds on a broken leg."

So, not only did Mitchell finish his lap, he finished it in a quick time, and amazingly the US went on to qualify for the final as the second fastest team at London 2012. An x-ray after the race revealed that he had indeed broken the fibula bone in his left leg.

Five Funniest Photos of the Olympics

Whilst the Olympics is obviously all about hard work, individual skill and moments of glory, bits of it can still be pretty funny. Here we have a round-up of the five funniest photos of London 2012 so far.  

German diver Sascha Klein is clearly trying really hard in the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park (above).

One Tonne Robot Lands on Mars

One giant leap was made in the exploration of Mars today, as Nasa landed a one-tonne vehicle on the Red Planet. The robot is named Curiosity and will spend at least the next two years exploring the planet and sending back photos.

The landing this morning marked the completion of the first stage after 10 years of hard work, and the facts and figures are pretty remarkable. The project and 10-foot long robot will cost an estimated $2.5billion in total. Mars is 570 million km from Earth and Curiosity had to slow from 20,000km/h to just 0.6m/s in the space of seven minutes when entering Mars' atmosphere.

Barack Obama's chief science advisor, John Hodren made it clear quite how important the mission is when he explained:

"Landing the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity on the Red Planet was by any measure the most challenging mission ever attempted in the history of planetary exploration."

Within minutes of landing, Nasa were receiving the first low-resolution images from the robot (below), with much more detailed, colour images expected in the next few days. As well as sending back photos, Curiosity will be investigating an area called the Gale Crater. It will be taking samples and exploring rocks as it goes along, hoping to find evidence that very basic life may once have lived on Mars.

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