There were seven medals, including three golds, on a stunning Friday for Team GB, with victory on the water, on the horse and on the trampoline.
There were also medals to be had in the pool, as Team GB’s diving squad secured a record medal haul.
Rowing
After narrowly missing out on a medal in the lightweight women’s double sculls in Tokyo, Emily Craig and Imogen Grant clinched gold in Paris.
They triumphed in 6:47.06, finishing two-thirds of a length clear of Romania in silver with Greece finishing with bronze.
“There was a certain inevitability about it this morning, I think we woke up this morning and looked at each other,” Grant said.
“I think we both knew that we had it in us today. I think those tears were just an outpouring of every early night, every hard training session, every wedding and party that we’ve missed, every time stressing over a bad session, every selection pressure, every early morning, every horrendous crosswind. Just all of it, all coming out at once.”
There was another rowing medal on Friday, as Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith earned a silver medal in the men’s pair, finishing less than half a second behind the defending champions Croatia.
Trampolining
Elsewhere, Bryony Page completed her set of Olympic medals with a gold in the gymnastics women’s trampoline.
Page, silver medallist from Rio and bronze medallist in Tokyo, performed a stunning routine to score 56.480 and win gold.
“Yeah I completed it mate,” she said. “I’m very shocked at the moment, surprised, overwhelmed, every emotion that you can think of. I’m kind of sad it’s over now.”
Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, competing as an individual neutral athlete, took silver, while Canada’s Sophiane Methot received bronze.
Zak Perzamanos finished fourth in the men’s final to become Team GB’s most successful male trampolinist at an Olympics.
Equestrian: Jumping
Another gold medal came in the equestrian team jumping final through Scott Brash on Jefferson, Harry Charles on Romeo 88 and Ben Maher on Dallas Vegas Batilly, who finished ahead of the United States and France.
The team collectively finished on two penalty points, both time penalties as all three riders cleared every jump successfully.
Charles, 25, had watched Brash and Maher win gold in the same event at London 2012, alongside his father Peter.
“I was at Greenwich Park watching these two win in London,” he said. “Pretty cool to ride with both my heroes, two guys I’ve looked up to my entire life. My inner younger self is freaking out a bit. It was that moment that I realised. I was playing a lot of golf, my dad wanted me to be a golfer but I realised I was better at riding a horse and that was a pivotal moment.”
Swimming
There were two more silver medals in the pool on Friday night as Team GB’s medal haul continued to grow.
Ben Proud delivered the first of the two, with men’s 50m freestyle silver.
It was a hard-fought final with Proud’s time of 21.30 just five hundreds off a second off Australia’s Cameron McEvoy but enough to fend off home favourite Florent Manaudou who got bronze.
Minutes later, Duncan Scott took home men’s 200m individual medley silver in a time of 1:55.31, finishing behind Frenchman Leon Marchand, who set his fourth Olympic record of the Games. Team GB’s Tom Dean finished fifth.
Katie Shanahan and Honey Osrin finished fifth and seventh respectively in the women’s 200m backstroke, while Abbie Wood qualified fourth for the women’s 200m medley final tomorrow night.
Diving
Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher earned Team GB’s fourth diving medal in as many finals in Paris, finishing third in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard.
Their superb final dive clocked 94.62 to cement the bronze medal position, as they finished behind China and Mexico.
It’s Laugher’s fourth medal at his fourth Olympics, including 3m synchro gold at Rio.
It also meant Paris has seen Team GB’s biggest Olympics medal haul for diving, with individual events still to come.
Around the Games
Windsurfer Emma Wilson’s medal race was suspended on Friday due to wind conditions, and is now expected to take place on Saturday. Wilson is guaranteed a medal going into the final race.
The men’s skiff medal race did take place, with Team GB’s James Peters and Fynn Sterritt finishing seventh.
Golfer Tommy Fleetwood surged up the leaderboard, shooting a seven under par second round to go 11 under overall and into a share of the lead with two rounds to go.
In athletics, Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley both qualified for the men’s 1500m semi-finals while teammate George Mills must go through a repechage round.
Dina Asher-Smith, Daryll Neita and Imani-Lara Lansiquot all qualified for the women’s 100m semi-finals tomorrow, while Keely Hodgkinson, Jemma Reekie, Phoebe Gill all qualified for the women’s 800m semi-finals.
Team GB also won their 4x400m mixed relay heat to qualify for tomorrow’s final, as high jumper Morgan Lake and shot putter Scott Lincoln ended their Olympic campaigns in qualification.
The men’s hockey team lost their final group game against Germany 2-1 so finished third in their pool and will now face India in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
Bethany Shriever finished eighth in the women’s BMX freestyle final.
Following his crash in tonight’s BMX racing semi-final, Kye Whyte was assessed immediately by the on-site medical team. This was followed up by further immediate review by Great Britain Cycling Team Dr Nigel Jones who delivered a positive report, with no significant injuries.
We wish Kye a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him on his bike very soon.
With thanks to Team GB
