Birmingham's Tom Parsons sticks to wearing his lucky Aston Villa socks

Aug 21 2008

Birmingham's Tom Parsons broke the Team GB dress code to wear his lucky Aston Villa socks in the men's high jump final in Beijing.

British Olympic team officials had prevented the Birchfield Harrier from wearing them for the qualifying round because they are not regulation issue kit.

But, having qualified for the final, Parsons, of Hall Green, defied the ban for the final and proudly sported the claret and blue socks as he finished eighth in the competition.

However, Germaine Mason secured Britain's first athletics medal of the olympics with silver.

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 2.36m before putting the bar up to 2.42m to attempt a new Olympic record.

Parsons and Martyn Bernard finished eighth and ninth respectively after failing to clear better than 2.25m.