Back home now in the beautiful village of Childrey, part of the Lambourn "valley of the racehorse", Fitzgerald bemoans heavy summer rain which last July led to his home being flooded - the sand bags are out again.

BBC: Fitzgerald feels lucky after fall

While their female counterparts had to fight for their gold medal Thursday in wet sand and smog-stained rain, the U.S. men's beach volleyball team had sunny weather.

NPR: American Bryan Clay Wins The Decathlon

Every grain of sand washed away by rain from mountains and from the land finally reaches these obstacles called dams which we built across rivers and remains there, diminishing further the water storage capacity of dams.

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