A busy day for Team GB saw competition across the four main Youth Olympic venues – Green Park, Technopolis Park, Urban Park and the Youth Olympic Park – as well as the Hurlingham Club and Club Nautico San Isidro.
Team GB’s fine start in the gymnastics events at the Youth Olympic Games continued on day four with two medals in the mixed international team competition.
The event, a first of its kind in Olympic competition, put gymnasts from all disciplines together in 12 teams of 13 with their individual qualification scores converting to points for the combined team scores.
Trampolinist Jess Clarke won silver as part of Team Max Whitlock while Adam Tobin, who will compete in five individual finals, collected bronze as part of Team Oksana Chusovitina.
Elsewhere in the gymnastics, Amelie Morgan is through to another individual final after taking the eighth and final spot in the balance beam qualification.
Morgan, who will also challenge on the floor, vault, uneven bars and all-around later this week, fell during her routine but recovered to post a score of 12.233 which was just enough to progress.
Tobin ended his qualifying in the evening session by finishing 10th in the high bar with a score of 12.700, just 0.03 off a spot in the final.
Clarke said: “It was exciting to watch from the stands tonight and seeing all the points change – I was cheering on my lads in the high bar final. A few days ago my team was right down the bottom and it was fun to see them all swapping over.
“Although it’s a team effort and everyone contributes it’s nice to know that me qualifying for my individual final has helped the team get a silver medal.
Tobin said: “The event has been really good I think and it’s nice to group athletes together in this way and means some athletes get more of a chance to take a medal home.
“I wouldn’t say the high bar was my best performance today but it was great to compete in front of this crowd – it’s not something I’m used to but I love it. I’m still targeting a medal in the all-around and hoping to be competitive on floor and rings as well.”
Earlier in the day, James Miller fell agonisingly short of a place in the final of the men’s 10m air pistol, missing out on the top eight on count back.
Miller, who only began competing for Great Britain earlier this year, produced his third best ever score of 566 from his 60 shots in the qualification round, two short of his personal best.
However, the 18-year-old was matched by Eldar Imankulov and with the Kazakhstan shooter recording 16 inner ring scores to Miller’s 14, the Surrey based athlete missed out on the final by the narrowest of margins, eventually finishing in ninth.
Miller was one of the first to finish and had to watch as Imankulov scored a perfect 10 with his final qualification shot to edge the British shooter out of the chance to compete for the medals.
“It was nerve-wracking at the end there. I knew I’d done my best but then having to wait and watch the others finish and try to beat me and take away the chance of a final was a hard few moments,” said Miller.
“But knowing now that I did the best I could and to walk away happy with my performance is a nice feeling.
“I’m really happy with the score. I came off the back off the World Cup event earlier this year not entirely happy with my shooting and with a couple of areas so to score that today and shoot the way I did felt really nice.”
The Bello boys made it two wins from two in the beach volleyball group stage after a comfortable 21-17, 21-13 win against Paraguay today.
A number of serving errors from the British pair kept them honest in the opening set but a more measured performance in the second saw the brothers ease to a second win of the Games.
The victory all but confirms that the twins will top their group, with only winless Togo left to play, and means the pair will have the advantage of skipping the first knockout match and will advance straight to the last 16 on Sunday.
Joaquin said: “We had a slow start, similar to how we played against Cuba, but we served better in the second set and played better overall. We should be topping the group now and we can look forward to the round of 16.”
“It’s a big advantage missing the first knockout round,” added Javier. “You get more rest and you can scout some of the other teams you might be playing.
“Serving is an area we want to work on as well as trying to stay calm in long rallies, so we don’t give away so many errors like we did today.”
Joe Pagdin is three shots off the medals in the men’s golf competition after another solid round of 71 at the Hurlingham Club.
Pagdin is two over par for the Games with just one round in the singles event left and the 16-year-old will be looking to haul in Karl Vilips of Australia (-3), the USA’s Ashkay Bhatia (-2) and Vanchai Luangnitikul (-1) of Thailand who currently occupy the medal positions.
Lily May Humphreys is eight shots off the lead in the women’s strokeplay event after a much improved level par round of 70 today following yesterday’s 78. Humphreys will start her final round tomorrow tied for 13th place.
A busy day of racing at the windsurfing saw Team GB’s Finn Hawkins and Islay Watson out on the water on three separate occasions.
Hawkins remains in third after two fifth place finishes, with a 13th in the middle race his current dropped score.
Islay Watson climbed one place to 13th after a fifth and 12th today but an 18th in the second race of the day means the Scot has a new dropped score.
Down at Urban Park, Georgie Robinson Ranger claimed victory in the women’s single sculls C final, defeating Belgian rower Caitlin Govaert by over two seconds. This followed a comfortable semi-final victory and ultimately placed the Henley born athlete in ninth place.
And finally Chris Grimley won the battle of the Brits in the badminton team relay quarter-final as his team of mixed nationalities toppled Grace King’s outfit 110-106. Grimley will feature in the semi-finals tomorrow evening.
Courtesy of Team GB
