Andy Murray beat Roger Federer for the gold medal

By Olawale Ajimotokan

More Britons are now watching the Olympics and participating in activities associated with the Games.

The renewed interest by the public which saw many people outdoors yesterday is linked with the sustained delivery of gold medals by Team Great Britain in the past four days.

Britons and several games tourists, streamed to the public parks and as well as the iconic tourist sights, to relax and watch some of the events on giant screens.

The effect also saw an increase in the number of passengers using the London underground rail transport system.

The Tower Hill and the Tower Bridge were one of the top spots for revellers who came out to witness the Female Marathon final in addition to seeing Andy Murray beat Roger Federer in three straight sets to win the tennis gold at Wimbledon.

A large crowd sat on the lawn of the Tower Bridge to see the Murray triumph via a large screen set up by the Mayor of the city borough, Boris Johnson.

In particular, the festive mood was spiced up at the Tower Bridge, by Sir Paul McCartney, who led a performing troupe which mimed some evergreen tunes of the Beatles as well as Seal’s

Kiss by the Roses.

It was the same feel good feeling at Westminster, Jubilee Garden, Trafalga Square at Whitehall, the Monument and Vincent Square.

Suddenly, the effect of the Team Britain’s success is rubbing on vendors of games memorabilia as well as food sellers who are receiving large patronage.

The fired up public enthusiasm is contrary to the dour mood in the first four days of the games when Britain was without gold and was placed 21st on medal table.

As reported by THISDAY, some members of the public had rapped their team for not showing enough enthusiasm as the hosts, even describing their situation as a big embarrassment.

But things have since changed for the better since the host won their first gold medal in rowing through Helen Glover and Heather Stanning the 2000m women's pairs.

The pendulum also swung in favour of the host on Saturday with a harvest of six gold medals in athletics through Mo Farah, Jess Ennis and Greg Rutherford in addition to further gold medals in men’s four rowing, women's double sculls, plus track cycling gold in the women's team pursuit.

The tally was increased Sundday through Murray and Ben Ainslie in sailing to increase Britain’s gold medal haul to 16 and overall third placed team on the table.

The current performance is an improvement on the eight gold medal won at Beijing 2008 while the haul recorded on Saturday has bettered performance for one day at an Olympics in 104 years.