Team GB doubled their Olympic gold medal tally on Day Four of the Games, with golds in swimming and shooting.
Nathan Hales won the team’s first shooting gold since 2012, before the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team defended their Olympic title in style in the pool.
Swimming
Team GB’s first swimming gold, and fourth overall gold, came on Day Four as they won the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay.
The team of James Guy, Tom Dean, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott defended their gold from Tokyo in emphatic style, with a time of 6:59.43, less than a second off the world record.
That followed from the morning’s heat, where Jack McMillan, Kieran Bird, Guy, and Dean ensured Team GB qualified fastest for the final.
Richards did not qualify for the 100m freestyle final, finishing sixth in his semi-final and 12th overall.
Anna Hopkin also finished sixth in her 100m freestyle semi-final and 11th overall to miss out on the final.
Shooting
Trap shooter Nathan Hales won Team GB’s third gold of the Games with the first men’s trap gold since 1968 thanks to a comprehensive Olympic record performance.
Hales hit 123 out of a possible 125 targets in qualifying, the joint-highest score, before hitting 48 out of 50 targets in the final to finish four shots clear of China’s Qi Ying and smash the previous Olympic record of 43.
He was just one shot off his own world record of 49 out of 50, secured at last season’s World Cup in Italy.
The 28-year-old said: “The final was great and I’m so happy to get an Olympic record as well as winning the Olympics.”
Sailing
Tokyo bronze medallist Emma Wilson continued her strong performance in the women’s windsurfing, winning three of the fives races on Tuesday and finishing second in another.
Wilson, is now 17 points clear at the top of the standings after seven races in the iQFOiL, ahead of Friday’s medal race.
She said: “It’s pretty cool to be doing so well at the Olympics. I just try to take it race by race and see what happens at the end of the week.”
Elsewhere, men’s skiff pair James Peters and Fynn Sterritt climbed to fourth in the standings with a win in the last race of the day.
They are now six points off a bronze medal, with nine races down.
Peters said: “Winning the last race always making you feel quite good. I feel like we’re gaining a bit of momentum going into the regatta and the points are all really tight so just looking forward to tomorrow.”
Sam Sills is ninth in the men’s windsurfing after six races, while Freya Black and Saskia Tidey sit 17th in the women’s skiff.
Canoe Slalom
Following medals for Adam Burgess and Kimberley Woods, Britain’s canoeists continued their strong Olympic form on Day Four.
In the men’s K1, gold medallist from Rio Joe Clarke put together an excellent second run of 85.62 to qualify for the semi-finals in fourth.
Before that, Tokyo silver medallist Mallory Franklin qualified sixth for the women’s C1 semi-finals, which take place tomorrow.
Franklin said: “It’s cool to see what we, as a nation, are capable of. Joe and I are both really strong contenders in what we’ve got left to go.”
Clarke added: “We’ve been an absolute powerhouse so far and long may it continue.”
Tennis
Andy Murray and Dan Evans won another epic men’s doubles match, as they saved two match points on their way to a 6-3 6-7 (8-10) [11-9] win over Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.
Heather Watson and Katie Boulter teamed up to beat Germans Laura Siegemund and Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the women’s doubles.
Watson was then straight into mixed doubles action alongside Joe Salisbury, as they lost 7-5, 4-6, 10-3 to Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada.
Jack Draper, the last remaining Brit in the singles, lost his second round match 7-6 (7-3) 3-6 2-6 to American seventh seed Taylor Fritz in temperatures over 30C.
Rowing
In rowing, Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Rebecca Wilde finished second in their heat to qualify for the women’s doubles sculls final. Hodgkins-Byrne was cheered on by her son Freddie, who she gave birth to in 2022.
She said: “I didn’t actually consider Freddie, if I’m completely honest! If I had, we probably would have been winning by too much. I was just trying to stay in time with Becky. I’m looking forward to seeing him later.
“Especially in a small boat, having a bigger support network is really important, otherwise there’s a lot of pressure to keep each other going. I’m not saying we can’t do it but there’s only one person to turn to. Having them relieves a bit of the pressure from each other.”
With thanks to Team GB
