Team GB’s women’s hockey side secured their place in their first ever Olympic final while the sailing 470 girls are made to wait another day to claim gold.
Team GB Rio 2016 medal tally: Gold: 19. Silver: 19. Bronze: 12. Total: 50.
Goals from Helen Richardson-Walsh and an Alex Danson brace ensure Team GB’s women’s hockey team reached their first Olympic final with a 3-0 defeat of New Zealand.
The side are now assured at least a silver, their third medal in the history of the Games, and an upgrade on the bronze they won four years ago at London 2012.
Danson opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, pouncing on Crista Cullen’s rebounded penalty corner to hand the Brits a 1-0 lead at half time.
After absorbing plenty of New Zealand pressure, the Team GB pushed forward again in the final period, and two penalty strokes in the space of five minutes from Richardson-Walsh and Danson put the result beyond doubt.
“That makes us the most successful GB women’s team ever at an Olympics,” said head coach Danny Kerry. “But there’s still one more game to go and they’re going to keep their feet on the ground.
"They executed brilliantly today. They absolutely played how they’d been set out to do it and it really paid dividends.
"I was really proud of them playing under pressure in the second half. They kept playing forward trying to take opportunities and I’m really proud of that.”
Team GB will face the Netherlands in Friday’s final, with the Dutch bidding to complete a hat-trick of consecutive Olympic titles.
Charley Hull and Catriona Matthew are happy to be in the hunt after day one of the first women’s Olympic golf tournament in 116 years.
Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn leads with six under but the Team GB aren’t far behind with Hull carding a three under 68 while Matthew was level par with a score of 71.
The format is the same as the men’s event with a four day strokeplay competition deciding the medals on Friday and Matthew knows the early stages of this historic event are all about getting into contention.
“I was slightly nervous off the tee,” said Matthew. “It feels like any golf tournament but I’m sure it’ll be feel quite different on the final day if I’m in with a chance of a medal but at the moment it’s about trying to get into position.
“Team GB have had a fantastic record here so far and hopefully it will spur us on. It’s been great here in Rio so far – I’ve loved it.”
Hull, who won the 2014 Ladies European Tour Order of Merit, began in fine form with a birdie on the first before ending the day just three shots back.
“I left a few shots out there on the back nine but I’m pleased with how I was hitting it and gave myself plenty of birdie opportunities,” said the 20-year-old.
“I’m pretty happy with my score and pleased to birdie the first. It’s a very birdie-able hole but it’s pretty cool to say I birdied the first hole in the Olympics.”
Team GB’s canoe sprint duo of Liam Heath and Jon Schofield qualified superbly for final of the Men’s K2 200m as they comfortably won their semi-final on the Lagoa.
Heath and Schofield, who won bronze in the event at London 2012, finished their heat in third to secure a semi-final spot as they stepped off towards line in an effort to conserve energy.
It was in the semi-final that the Heath and Schofield really opened the throttles and their winning time of 31.899 seconds made them the fastest pair of both races.
“We had a really good, solid run-out and we are very happy with what we did,” said Heath. “We got out very quickly and the race unfolded well from there.”
Elsewhere in the women’s K1 500 event, Team GB’s Rachel Cawthorn put in two strong performances but her sixth place in the semi-finals means she will miss out on the A final and race the B final instead.
“I did exactly that so I am really glad with how I did,” said Cawthorn. “I just felt like in the last 20 metres there were people coming through on me.”
Rajiv Ouseph was proud of his Rio 2016 campaign after if came to an end at the quarter-final stage with a straight sets to defeat to European champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
Ouseph couldn’t keep pace with the attacking prowess of the Dane and, despite saving five set points, was comfortably beaten in the opener.
The 29-year-old, who had become the first British badminton player to reach the last eight at the Olympic Games, was far more competitive in the second but ultimately unable to prevent his exit from the men’s singles draw.
Hopes of a medal now rest on the shoulders of men's doubles pairing Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis, who go for bronze on Day 13, and Ouseph was quick to recognise the importance of what the team have achieved in Rio.
“For us the Olympics is everything,” said Ouseph. “It’s the pinnacle and to play well here raises the profile of badminton back home and if I can help with that in any way is great.
“Chris and Marcus have had a brilliant run and hopefully that can continue. I’ve been friends with them for as long as I can remember so I’ll be staying to support them.
“A medal would be very important. The run they’ve had is brilliant and it’s generated some great press. To cap it off with a medal would be great but hopefully the way they’ve played and I’ve played has inspired people back home to take up the sport.”
Ben Maher and Nick Skelton kept their showjumping medal hopes alive in Deodoro by securing qualification for the individual final. Maher jumped clear on his stallion Tic Tac for the first time in Rio, picking up a single fault for a time penalty but progressing comfortably on nine faults overall from his three rounds. Skelton also started the day on eight faults, and while he picked up another jump penalty and one time penalty on Big Star, they progressed on 13 faults. And with the scores set to start from zero again for Friday’s final rounds, Skelton – who was fifth in the individual event at London 2012 – insists he is due an upturn in fortunes. “I'm happy with Big Star, the way he jumped he was amazing,” said Skelton. “It was a bit unlucky again but we’re back again on Friday, and it's a different ball game then. “He's [Big Star] been good, he feels good, he's in good shape. He just need a bit of a change of luck that's all.” Maher added: “Tic Tac is jumping better with every day that goes on so if he keeps progressing with a day off, then I’ll be quietly confident. “I just suffered the time fault there for the first three or four jumps but in the end I got the job done and we start on zero again on Friday.”
Tonia Couch’s second attempt to win Team GB’s first female diving medal at an Olympic Games started nicely as she finished fifth in the 10m platform preliminary.
Couch has seen teammate Jack Laugher win two medals – gold with synchro partner Chris Mears and silver individually – since opening her Games campaign in Rio.
The 27-year-old and Lois Toulson placed fifth in the women’s 10m synchro final the day after Tom Daley and Dan Goodfellow started the medal rush with bronze in the men’s equivalent.
However Couch is well placed to join in after advancing to the individual 10m platform semi-finals in fifth with a score of 332.80 – Britain looking to end 56 years of female hurt.
“Three of my dives were really good so hopefully I can do those again,” said Couch, who saw teammate Sarah Barrow fail to qualify.
“The two that I dropped a little bit hopefully I can step them up. I had a shaky start but I had a talking to myself when I got to the handstand and shook things up a little as I was a little bit flat to start off with.
“I will make sure I have a good sleep and that I am really pumped [for the final]]. To qualify fifth with two dives dropped, it is a good start.
“It’s been the best ever [Games] really and Team GB are doing so well and hopefully we can carry it on for the next few days.”
Cindy Ofili missed out on a fifth track and field medal for Team GB by just 0.02 seconds as she was edged into fourth in the women’s 100m hurdles final.
It was a USA clean sweep for the podium spots while Ofili’s sister Tiffany Porter finished in seventh.
“I think once I get home I’ll be able to figure out what I just did and I’ll be very proud,” said Ofili. “Being here with my sister Tiffany has been great.
“I thought I had a shot of bronze when I crossed but I kind of knew I was forth. It was hard but I am still happy with my performance. I gave it the best I had so I am happy.”
In the women’s 200m final, Dina Asher-Smith set a season’s best of 22.31 to finish in fifth as Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson took her second gold of the Games.
For the men, Adam Gemili booked his place in Thursday's 200m final, finishing third in his heat behind 100m gold and bronze medallists Usain Bolt and Canada’s Andre de Grasse.
Gemili's time of 20.08 seconds was one hundredth off his season's best and was enough to see him progress as one of the two fastest losers, with 100m silver medallist Justin Gatlin and Yohan Blake missing out.
“I’m through and hopefully I can get myself in the mix because there were some big names that went out in that last semi-final," he said.
Daniel Talbot set a new personal best in heat one, stopping the clock at 20.25s to finish third and occupy the fastest loser spot, but Gemili's faster heat saw both he and Turkey's Ramil Guliyev go through.
In the third heat, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake also recorded 20.25s to finish fifth, ahead of Blake
Savannah Marshall fell agonising short of guaranteeing herself an Olympic medal at Rio 2016 after a quarter-final defeat to Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands.
The middleweight landed solid punches in the middle rounds but couldn’t move the judges enough to give her the points as she lost two of the four rounds, with two called even.
The Hartlepool middleweight still plans to continue her boxing career after Rio 2016 and the 25-year-old will look to cheer on teammates Joe Joyce and Nicola Adams in their bid for Olympic glory this weekend.
“I thought it was close,” said Marshall. “I thought I’d won the second round and the last round but when I looked at the scores in the end it wasn’t even close.
“She’s a brilliant fighter so she deserves the medal. What can I say, I haven’t got one but I’ll probably carry on after this though.”
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark should have got their hands on women’s 470 gold on Day 12 but it wasn’t through their own wrongdoing that they didn’t – blame the weather.
Mills and Clark just need to avoid disqualification in the medal race to claim gold at the Marina da Gloria but didn’t take to the water in anger with no racing possible.
A lack of breeze and an unfavourable wind direction denied them their moment of glory while the men’s 470 medal race, featuring Luke Patience and Chris Grube, was also affected.
Both medal races will now be attempted on Day 13 and should no action be possible, gold, silver and bronze will be awarded on current standings and Mills and Clark champions.
And Patience, who cannot join Mills and Clark in finishing on the podium in the men’s 470, commented that the postponement was not necessarily a frustration.
“As a team in a challenging venue we're so kitted out and ready for long delays and comfortable in our athlete containers so it's a very easy day watching the Olympic Games on the TV, having a snooze and eating well,” he said. “It's the nature of our sport. It was definitely the right decision to cancel the racing.”
Liam Phillips and Kyle Evans kicked off their Rio 2016 campaigns with the seeding race at the Olympic BMX Centre.
Triple Olympian and 2013 world champion Phillips finished 10th overall while Evans, who is making his Olympic debut in Rio, was 21st.
Phillips has been handed the tougher draw in tomorrow’s eight-man quarter finals, with the defending champion Maris Strombergs as well as three other World Championship medallists in his heats.
But the 27-year old, who has recovered from breaking his collarbone just eight weeks ago, insisted he was looking forward to the challenge.
“We haven’t put too much emphasis on going out and getting a really good qualifier in,” said Phillips.
“It was more about getting out, soaking up the atmosphere, having some fun and trying to get ready for tomorrow. That’s when it counts.
“When you’re travelling at the speeds we are, you’re trying to process something so quickly and a mistake like that is so easy to come by. So I’m actually quite pleased to have only made one mistake.
“We all know getting to the first corner first is crucial for success in a BMX race and I know that part of my race is pretty good.”