Adam Peaty opened Team GB’s medal account at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in phenomenal style, delivering gold in a new world record and forging himself as one of the greatest British swimmers ever.
- Peaty completes dominance with historic 100m breaststroke gold in world record
- Carlin takes 400m freestyle silver immediately after teammate’s victory in the pool
- Kruse falls agonisingly short of ending Team GB’s 52-year wait for fencing medal
- Team GB one win away from guaranteed women’s rugby sevens podium finish
- Armitstead has to make do with fifth in another dramatic road race
- Flagbearer Murray wins singles opener but loses in doubles with brother Jamie
- Team GB Rio 2016 medal tally: Gold 1. Silver 1. Bronze 0. Total 2.
Swimming
Jazz Carlin (Photo: Matchtight)
Adam Peaty and Jazz Carlin (pictured right) kick started Team GB’s medal campaign in the pool with gold and silver respectively in a matter of minutes on the second evening of action.
Peaty sliced 0.42 seconds off his world record from the heats to land the spoils in the 100m breaststroke. Carlin followed on just eight minutes later, bagging her first Olympic medal in the 400m freestyle.
World champion Peaty ultimately touched in 57.13 seconds, finishing more than 1.5 ahead to become the first British man to win an Olympic swimming gold since Adrian Moorhouse at Seoul 1988.
Now Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth champion, Peaty said: “I can’t even put into words how much that swim meant to me. I put so much effort in to that dive and so much effort in to that back end and that’s what you get.
“Me and Mel [Marshall, coach] thought the best possible race I could do was 57.3 so I have to slap myself to believe I’ve just done a 57.1. It’s absolutely incredible.”
Carlin lowered her lifetime best from the heats to secure her place on the podium, touching in 4:01.23 minutes behind USA’s Katie Ledecky, who set a world record for gold.
“Four years ago I was sat in the stands cheering everyone on as part of the crowd and now I’m actually a part of the team and I’m absolutely over the moon to come away with a silver medal,” said Carlin. “I just wanted to come here and give it absolutely everything with no regrets.”
James Guy will return for the day three finals after progressing in eighth from the 200m freestyle semi-finals.
The 20-year old finished sixth in the 400m freestyle on the opening night and is reigning world champion in the 200m.
Fencing
Richard Kruse fell agonisingly short of winning Team GB’s first medal at 2016 and Britain’s first fencing medal for 52 years as he narrowly lost out in the battle for bronze in the men’s individual foil.
In a hard fought contest against Timur Safin of Russia, the 33-year-old demonstrated phenomenal balance, poise and skill in a match up that saw him claw back a big early deficit.
The crowd roared him on as he looked like pulling off a famous win but a final flourish from his opponent saw Kruse come up just short of victory as he went down valiantly with a 15-13 defeat.
“It was very close and I almost converted a medal for Britain which would have been the first fencing medal for nearly 60 years but I couldn’t quite finish it,” he said.
“The pressure was the fact that fencing hasn’t won a medal for a long time so that was the expectation when I got out there but it wasn’t to be.”
Earlier in the day, James Davis went out in the last 16 as he was also defeated by Safin by an identical score of 15-13 while Team GB’s other fencer Laurence Halstead fell in the last 32 to Chen Haiwei of China by a score of 15-9.
Cycling – Road Race
Lizzie Armitstead may have fallen short in her quest for a second Olympic medal but she admitted only a miracle could have helped her claim gold on the Copacabana.
The women’s road race followed on from the drama of the men’s edition on day one with American Mara Abbott caught within 100m of the line to be pushed into fourth as the Netherlands’ Anna van der Breggen claimed gold in a race marred by Annemiek van Vleuten’s crash on the final descent.
Emma Johannson of Sweden took silver with Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini in bronze while Armitstead’s consolation prize of winning the bunch sprint of the chase group was enough for fifth.
“It wasn’t entirely unexpected to be honest,” said the 27-year-old from Otley. “I knew I would need a near miracle to come away with gold medal on this course so I’m happy.
“I came up short on the climb. It’s something I’ve been working hard on but that’s sport and what it’s about.
“It’s been a hard time but once I get a number on my back I’m an entirely different person and I was totally focused on doing what I do best.”
Rugby Sevens
Team GB women’s rugby sevens side moved to within one win of the first Olympic final of the sport’s return with a comprehensive victory over Fiji in the quarter-final at the Deodoro Stadium.
Abbie Brown touched down twice in the 26-7 victory, with further tries by Alice Richardson and Joanne Watmore. Team GB play New Zealand in the semi-final, who beat the USA 5-0 to progress.
“This [The final four] is where we’ve aimed to be and we’re aiming for that final, but we’ve got to take one game at a time,” said Brown.
“We’ve got to keep working on ourselves like we have been doing all year. We’ll look at New Zealand and see what they’ve got to offer and hopefully bring ourselves to that [level] as well.”
Team GB qualified for that quarter-final thanks to a comprehensive 22-0 win over the much fancied Canadian side, maintaining their record of not conceding a try in the pool stage.
Artistic Gymnastics
Ellie Downie recovered from a bad fall to help Team GB reach the women’s team gymnastics final at Rio 2016.
The 17-year old from Nottingham was completing a somersault on the floor when she landed awkwardly before being assessed by medical staff and returning to compete on the vault.
Team GB finished with a total of 174.064 to qualify for Thursday’s final in fourth place behind the defending champions the United States, China and Russia.
Individually, Downie also made the all-around final after finishing in 24th with 56.466, while teammate Amy Tinkler will compete in the floor final after a score of 14.600.
“I missed my tumble and landed on the top of my back and felt a bit shaky so I decided not to complete my final pass,” Downie said.
“I left the arena and the medical staff gave me a look over, I felt fine and refocused for vault no problem. Overall it was a mixed competition for us. There were some great routines and a few mistakes.”
Tennis
Andy Murray made a winning start in defence of his Olympic singles title as he dispatched of Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-2 before suffering defeat late on in the doubles.
Murray famously won Olympic gold at London 2012 four years ago but rather than dwell on the past, he is out to continue making new history in Rio this month.
“I am not defending a gold medal [from London 2012]; I will always keep my gold medal, that is always going to be there – I don’t have to give it back,” he said.
“It is more trying to win another medal that builds the pressure and wanting to do something here – that is the pressure I am putting on myself.
However, there wasn’t such good news in the doubles as alongside brother Jamie at they went down 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (16-14) to Brazilian duo Thomaz Bellucci and Andre Sa following two epic tiebreaks.
It was the only blip on a good day for Team GB in the tennis tournament as British No.1 Johanna Konta recorded a straight-set win in her first-round tie on her Olympic debut.
Konta, who won in the women’s doubles alongside Heather Watson on day one, beat Liechtenstein’s Stephanie Vogt 6-3, 6-1.
Canoe Slalom
Two-time Olympic medallist David Florence booked his place in the C1 final thanks to a floorless first heat run, with Joe Clarke also progressing in style in the men’s K1.
Florence – a silver medallist at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012 – posted 94.11 seconds in his first heat, foregoing a second run, to place third overall in qualification.
Clarke meanwhile overcame a 50-point first-round penalty to qualify for the K1 semi-finals in second place after a blistering second heat.
The competition was initially delayed due to strong winds, but Florence said the conditions didn’t affect his performance.
“It’s nice to get off to a good start. I feel things have gone pretty much to plan,” he said. “Every run aim is to go out and do what I plan to achieve from the start. That wasn’t too far off – there were no major errors – so it was good.
“Conditions were pretty good once we got on – it wasn’t a big issue. The wind was blowing up a little bit here and there, but not significantly enough to be any problem at all.”
Diving
Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree kicked off Team GB’s diving campaign with a sixth-place finish in the women’s 3m synchro.
The Commonwealth champions scored 292.83 for their five dives with China’s Shi Tingmao and Wu Minxia taking gold on 345.60.
Blagg and Gallantree were never out of the medal hunt, lying just 4.2 points shy of bronze with one round to go.
But while they received their highest score of the competition with their last dive, the Team GB pair ultimately finished 6.36 points behind Australia’s bronze medallists Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith.
“We’re a little bit disappointed to be honest,” said Gallantree. “It didn’t quite come together for us and it’s frustrating to see we weren’t too far off the medals.
“It would have been achievable for us had we just performed a little bit better. But unfortunately, that’s sport and it just wasn’t our day.”
Boxing
Joshua Buatsi put in a dominant performance against Kennedy Katende as the Team GB light heavyweight powered his way to a stoppage win against the Ugandan.
In the only boxing bout of the day featuring a Team GB fighter, Buatsi went on the attack as soon as the opening bell rang and soon rocked his opponent with a number of heavy blows to the head and body.
Katende fought back bravely in the second round but was simply no match for the classy 23-year-old, who bought the action to a premature end at the start of round three as the Ugandian failed to recover from two clubbing blows to the head.
“It’s a good start and I’ve been told that I got the first knockout of the competition so it is great to get that,” said Buatsi.
“He’s a very experienced guy but I’ve been training hard and wouldn’t let him stop me. He’s considerably more experienced than me so to stop an opponent like that is a great confidence boost.”
Shooting
Ed Ling got his third Olympic campaign off to a promising start after placing second following the first three of five rounds of qualification in the men’s trap.
Ling, a veteran of Athens 2004 and London 2012, shot 24, 24 and a perfect 25 from the first three rounds in Deodoro to score 73 and place second overall.
Qualification wraps up today with rounds four and five with the top six progressing to the final and Ling admits he is finding his rhythm on the range in Rio.
“I was a little bit anxious to get going. I was a little tight on the first few targets, I wasn’t really flowing as I normally would,” said Ling.
“I got away with it and got a couple of good second shots off and I feel I went from strength to strength. I was really pleased with the final round; I will take a 25 any way I can get it.
“I am aware of some of the others scores, there is a really big scoreboard up there [in the venue] and over the years I have come to try to look at the scores so it isn’t a surprise if I accidently see them. I will look at them and then put them out of my head.”
Equestrian – Eventing
Pippa Funnell says the late Carol Toliver, the owner of her Rio 2016 horse Billy the Biz, would have been proud of the grey gelding’s performance in the eventing individual dressage.
Funnell’s score of 43.90 penalties was enough to rank her 16th in the overall standings as Team GB’s riders ranked fourth in the team standings after the end of the dressage event.
“I’m thrilled for Carol, I know she’ll be looking down and will be thrilled with her little grey pony,” Funnell said of Toliver, who passed away in June.
Kitty King, Britain’s second rider of the day, scored 46.80 on Ceylor L A N, enough for 26th place. William Fox-Pitt heads into the cross-country round on day three in first place in the individual standings with just under six points separating the top four in the team competition.
Table Tennis
Paul Drinkhall led the way for the Team GB table tennis outfit as he claimed his second straight win with a dramatic 4-3 victory over Singapore’s Gao Ning.
Drinkhall is 22 places below the Singapore player in the world rankings but the 26-year-old looked the superior player as he stormed into a two-game lead.
Gao fought back to level proceedings at 3-3 but Drinkhall held his nerve for an important win and is now Team GB’s sole hope in the men’s singles.
“I’d never beaten him in four or five matches and I was pleased to see him in my half of the draw because I’ve always felt I could beat him in the past,” said Drinkhall, who faces a tough task against Croatia’s Andrej Gacina next.
“That was all about character. He played some great shots and got himself back into the game and it was more him doing the right thing, than me playing badly.”
Compatriot Liam Pitchford had a mixed day with a great 4-1 win over Zokhid Kenjaev of Uzbekistan but came up short against the classy No.9 seed Jung Young-sik of South Korea.
Hockey
Team GB’s men’s team bounced back from a 4-1 defeat to Belgium on day one to draw 2-2 with New Zealand at the Olympic Hockey Centre.
David Condon opened the scoring for Team GB after two minutes, but the Brits found themselves behind by the 20-minute mark.
An equaliser from captain Barry Middleton on 25 minutes secured the draw, but Condon admits there is still much room for improvement.
He said: “We just lacked the little bit of quality that makes the difference in these big games. In the final third we just lacked that little link that meant we could create some flowing moves.”
Judo
Colin Oates was left cursing his luck – and his future – after losing on a golden score in the opening round of the -66kg judo competition.
The 33-year old Commonwealth champion finished scoreless against France’s Kilian Le Blouch, with each receiving two shido penalties in regular time.
But the golden score lasted just 45 seconds before Oates was penalised again for a false-attack, handing victory to his opponent.
Oates had won a similar match against Le Blouch in a golden score at last November’s Jeju Grand Prix in Korea but admitted he should have done more in regular time.
“It wasn’t good enough,” said Oates. “I allowed the referee to dictate the fight and the decision at the end to give me a shido before time for not attacking was ridiculous.
“He’s one of those fighters who doesn’t really want to get involved and is just scrappier. I’m usually good at that type of fight but I just didn’t handle it.
“He’s fighting well though and no discredit to him – he fought the fight he needed to win the match.
“I’m 33 now and this is quite possibly my last Games unfortunately so it’s disappointing.”
Rowing
It was a frustrating day for Team GB’s rowers as the weather put pay to any hopes of action on the Lagoa.
As a result, day three sees a bumper schedule with eight British boats set to race, including defending champions Helen Glover and Heather Stanning.
And rowing Team Leader Sir David Tanner was in positive spirits despite the wind-affected day.
“We’ll be resilient. Our attitude is very simple, we’ll handle it best, and that’s it. We’re ready to race whenever we need to race and we’ll get out there and do it,” said Sir David.
“What you don’t want to be doing is racing on that water today. I absolutely support it. We definitely, definitely shouldn’t be racing in these conditions.
“The team have a base where we can do some other things depending on what the coaches want and that’s in easy-peasy walking distance to the Lagoa. And then for the rest of the day I believe there’s some pretty decent sport on TV.”
Report courtesy of Team GB Press Office
