Jamaican-born wins silver

Jamaican-born Germaine Mason secured Britain\'s first athletics medal of the Beijing Olympics with silver in the men\'s high jump today



Mason equalled his personal best with a clearance of 2.34 metres to finish second behind Russia\'s Andrey Silnov, who secured gold with a first-time clearance of 2.36 metres before putting the bar up to 2.42 metres to attempt a new Olympic record.



Russia\'s Yaroslav Rybakov took bronze after matching Mason\'s clearance of 2.34, but losing out on countback after two failures at 2.32 metres.



Mason, who was born in Jamaica but switched nationalities in 2006, had one failure at 2.29 metres and then opted to pass on that height, moving up to clear 2.32 and 2.34 with his first attempts.



That had the 25 year old Jamaican in gold medal position until Silnov also cleared 2.34 at the first attempt to maintain his flawless record in the competition, the Russian also clearing 2.36 in style.