" Fourth place was like a gold medal to Lawrence Clarke"

Guy put everything into that race and ran faster than anyone expected....think we should have more English OEs in the team in place of the tattoed , pierced ,ear-ring wearing trash who couldn't care less whether or not they perform.

The kid himself is delighted. Though his reaction afterwards kind of said "What if...".

How can you be delighted in missing out on a medal by only a few inches, when you won't have that opportunity again for four years, if at all ?

parents put him through eton so he can have lottery handouts whilst doubtless waiting to do something to earn him enough to put his kids through eton

4th, you cant do better than that !!!

Hence the what if reaction. There will clearly be mixed emotions for him when he never expected to reach the final in the first place.

if everyone had overperformed like him we'd have about 100 gold medals. he's just a kid.

maybe with the exeception of gemma gibbons in the judo the biggest overperformance of any british athlete in the games

Hard to disagree with that. There are a couple of contenders, like Greg Rutherford, Murray & Robson, Peter Wilson, but they were all realistic hopes.

^agreed - a tough event to overperform in too when you look at how many big names failed to even complete their races.

Three cheers for Eton...the school produces the type of person who put the Great into Britain...

Guy in the 200m Breaststroke for me - but well said Maf

Lawrence Clarke = gold in Rio 2016

The guy wasnt expected to even make the semi's let alone the final. He qualified for the final in seventh (or was it eighth) place, then finished fourth.  Doesn't sound to me like the quote was too far out.