Just above Germany – the Bucks school riding high in medal table

➤ Marlow Grammar continues Thames Valley’s fine heritage when it comes to producing successful British Olympians

The Olympic medal table is being adapted in increasingly creative ways. After London 2012, one such variant popped up on social media showing that Yorkshire would have finished in 13th position on its own. This year, the idea has extended to an interschool rivalry in the small Buckinghamshire town of Marlow.

Having spent decades in the sporting shadow of Great Marlow School – the comprehensive where

Britain’s greatest Olympian, Sir Steve Redgrave, spent his formative years – the local grammar school has now hit back. On Wednesday, a table published on the My Marlow website placed Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School in 12th, equal with Hungary and just above Germany.

“It’s already been an extraordinary week,” said Craig Robertson, the school’s head of sport, in response to Tom Dean’s two freestyle swimming golds and Jack Beaumont’s silver in the quadruple sculls. “And we will be watching Morgan Lake tomorrow in the high jump, because she was with us for a couple of years as well.

“Tom and Jack have achieved incredible things, but it’s asking a lot to catch up with GMS. Redgrave has stood at the heart of British sport for years.”

And at the heart of Marlow, too, thanks to the eight-foot statue, oar clutched in its right hand, which looms over the town park.

But this story extends beyond Marlow, the picturesque Georgian town of 14,000 souls. Mallory Franklin, who took silver in the C1 slalom canoe yesterday, hails from nearby Windsor. The 16-year-old gymnastics sensations Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova are both based in Aylesbury, while their team-mate and fellow bronze medallist Amelie

Morgan trains in Slough. The whole of the Thames Valley is having a moment.

The river stands at the heart of the local sporting scene. The prestigious Leander Club stage the Henley Royal Regatta every summer, while crews can switch to manmade facilities such as Dorney Lake or the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake for lane-racing. Separated by the Thames, the twin counties of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire might have delivered even more medals but for Jurgen Grobler’s controversial exit as Great Britain’s head rowing coach last summer.

Hockey also enjoys a strong following. Both British squads train at Bisham Abbey, the English Institute of Sport site which stands only a mile from Marlow Bridge. Meanwhile the Marlow Sports Club – where former England cricket captain Sir Andrew Strauss can often be found on a Saturday afternoon – turns out numerous tigerish teams in the local leagues.

This is a leafy and charming part of the world. Windsor, Marlow and Henley are all associated with Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows stories, as well as Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat.

Paradoxically, though, the larger Thames Valley centres are notoriously soulless. Maidenhead – where Dean and his four siblings used to power through 100 laps every morning before school – is known for little else than being Theresa May’s constituency and where Kate Winslet first studied acting.

The less said about Slough – once the imaginary target for John Betjeman’s “friendly bombs” – the better.

“The nicest thing about Maidenhead is the new pool at Braywick Leisure Centre, which Tom opened last year,” said Dean’s mother Jacquie Hughes.

“Otherwise, it’s a place you go through on the way to other places. This is a good news story for the town and they should be trying to build on it.”