Team GB enjoyed their most successful day at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games yet as Mo Farah, Laura Trott and the men’s rowing eight all claimed historic golds with eight medals secured in total.
Laura Trott became the first British female to win three Olympic gold medals as Team GB’s women’s team pursuit outfit broke the world record yet again to retain their Olympic title at Rio 2016.
Trott along with Joanna Rowsell Shand, Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker knocked almost two seconds off the new best time they set in the morning session to beat the USA in the final.
The time of 4.10.236 minutes was enough to finish in front of the Americans by over two seconds and gave Trott her third Olympic title after omnium gold at London 2012 as well as success in the team pursuit.
Trott and Rowsell Shand are two-thirds of the squad that rode to gold at London 2012 four years ago and since then the team pursuit has seen a fourth rider added to the event.
The gold medal was Team GB’s third in successive nights in the velodrome while Rebecca James made it a doubly special afternoon with silver in the women’s keirin.
“[Endurance coach] Paul Manning said to us four years ago that 4.10.00 would win the Olympics and we were doing 4.21.00 at that time – that’s a second a lap,” Trott said.
“I’ve never been in a team that feels so seamless. You can tell that everyone was giving 100 per cent to get to the finish line first and I could not be prouder right now.”
Minutes after Britain’s sixth gold of the games, James came three-hundredths of a second away from adding another, claiming silver in a photo finish in the women’s keirin.
“I love the keirin and I love the racing,” she said. “Through the first round I thought I am just going to enjoy the whole day of racing and after the back straight I kept thinking when do I go.”
Team GB continued their impressive finish to the rowing events at Rio 2016, with another two medals on the final day at the Lagoa Stadium.
The women’s eight kicked things off with their first medal in the history of the Olympics, winning silver behind world and defending Olympic champions USA.
The men’s eight then went one better in the final race of the Games, winning their first gold since 2000 and their fourth medal from the past five Olympics.
Andrew T Hodge and Pete Reed were part of the winning crew, landing their third straight Olympic titles after victories with the four at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
“That’s right up there, both with Beijing and London,” said Hodge. “All three of my medals sit side by side.
“It was an incredible row. The heart and passion, the soul that people put into that race was phenomenal and it was exactly equal to the other gold medals from the Olympics that I have achieved.”
Fran Houghton was the only member of the women’s crew to have reached the Olympic podium before, having won quad sculls silvers in 2004 and 2008.
“I’m so proud of the girls,” said Houghton, competing at her fifth Olympic Games in Rio.
“We just really trusted the way we decided to row and we really trusted the people around us and believed in ourselves and that was it. The rest was inevitable.”
The final day results saw Team GB finish on top of the rowing medal table with five medals; three golds and two silvers.
Team GB rounded off their most successful Olympic Games in the swimming pool for well over a century at Rio 2016 with a stunning silver in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.
The British quartet of Adam Peaty, James Guy, Chris Walker-Hebborn and Duncan Scott pushed the USA every inch in the final but were beaten to gold by 1.29 seconds.
Still silver in 3:29.24 minutes – a massive new British record – took Team GB’s total in the pool in Rio to six for their best Olympic Games since London 1908.
For Peaty, Guy and Scott the silver marked their second medal of Rio 2016 following in the footsteps of teammate Jazmin Carlin who became the first Brit to do so the night before.
“I was a man on a mission. I knew the Americans would go out fast. Chris did and amazing job, so when I dived in I had the composure and control,” said Peaty.
“It was absolutely amazing to get that [56.5-second] split. Hopefully that’s a message to the rest of the world for four years’ time where James and Duncan will be a lot more mature, have a lot more muscle, and hopefully if Chris decides to carry on he’ll be a lot faster.”
Earlier, Fran Halsall finished an agonising fourth in the women’s 50m freestyle final, just two hundredths of a second denying her a maiden Olympic medal in Rio.
She returned to the pool later for the women's 4x100m medley relay final, where Team GB finished seventh in a race in which USA won their 1000th Olympic gold medal.
Justin Rose took the overall lead after golf’s third round at Rio 2016 but doesn’t want people to start putting the first Olympic gold in the sport for 112 years around his neck just yet.
After a solid first two rounds, Rose carded a 65 with his third round for -12 to move into first place, one shot ahead of Henrik Stenson and three ahead of previous leader Marcus Fraser.
Golf hasn’t been seen at the Olympic Games since St Louis 1904 but Rose will erase his first three rounds and start anew ahead of the decisive – and historic – fourth round.
“Obviously Henrik [Stenson] is playing great golf but the one shot lead doesn’t mean that much right now, it is about drawing a line in the sand,” he said.
“Like other sports, once you are in the final all the heats mean nothing. It is about playing a great final round and bringing your best when you need it. That is going to be my mindset overnight and I will come out tomorrow and try to build another fresh round of golf.”
Meanwhile teammate Danny Willett might have left himself with too much to do to claim one of the three historic medals after carding a 69 on his third round to go -3.
Andy Murray sealed his place in the singles final, beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori, to edge further to being the first man to win more than one singles title in Olympic history.
Murray downed a below-par Nishikori 6-1 6-4 in just over an hour, including winning an epic rally to set up match point, and will now face Juan-Martin Del Potro in the final.
“The last four months have been the best period of my career, so my job is to keep that going now and keep the consistency,” he said.
“I’ve not played my best tennis this week but I’ve found a way to win. Often in events you have matches that if you can get through them you find your form as the tournament goes on.
“It would mean a lot to win gold again. Obviously it’s not an easy thing to do, that’s why [back-to-back wins] hasn’t been done before.
“I’ve got to give it my best effort. I’m happy I’m guaranteed a medal but obviously the goal is to win a gold medal and I’ll give it my best effort.”
Giles Scott closed in on his first Olympic medal at his maiden Games with a first and third place in his latest races at the Marina da Gloria.
The 29-year old is a four-time world champion in the Finn class but is making his Olympic debut in Rio, with Sir Ben Ainslie having occupied the only Finn spot on Team GB for the past four Games, winning gold at all four.
And with just two races to go before the double points medal race, Scott is in a strong position to claim Team GB’s fifth successive gold in the event, leading the standings on 22 points with Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar next best on 38.
“It’s nice to put in consistent results at the top of the fleet,” said Scott. “Myself and Vasilij had a good day and behind that there were a few guys who were up and down.
“You can’t get complacent. You have to attack days like the next one like I’ve done here so nothing really changes but clearly having that margin is a good place to be.”
The Laser and Laser Radial classes finished their opening series with British world champions Nick Thompson and Ali Young both qualifying for the medal races.
Thompson had looked well placed to challenge for the medals but 22nd in the tenth and final race saw him slip to sixth overall, ten points shy of New Zealand’s Sam Meech in third.
Young progressed to the medal race in eighth place but finished her opening series with a morale boosting win in the final race.
Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves remain in the top three of the Nacra 17 standings, despite missing out on the top ten in all three races while 49er FX racers Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth are in sixth at the half-way stage of their opening series.
The only other Brits competing on the day were Alain Sign and Dylan Fletcher in the 49er class. They sealed a fourth place in their fourth race of the day to sit 12th overall with six races to go in the opening series.
Team GB’s women’s hockey side go into Monday’s quarter-final fresh from completing the perfect pool stage campaign after a 2-1 win over the USA made it five from five for Danny Kerry’s side.
Goals from Sophie Bray and Alex Danson sealed the comeback and the top spot means Team GB will face fourth-placed Spain from Pool A for a place in the semi-finals.
And for the captain Kate Richardson-Walsh, the manner of the victories will set the side up well for their medal charge at Rio 2016.
“We had a lot of possession and corners tonight we just had to wait until late to convert those into goals,” said Richardson-Walsh.
“I think in all the games we’ve shown a little bit of what we’re about. We’ve been goals behind, and goals up, we’ve played with nine players and ten players. Now hopefully in the quarter-finals we can just play our best.”
With eight of the squad left over from the side that won bronze four years ago at London 2012, there’s plenty of experience to help steer through the knock-out rounds, including defender Crista Cullen who won her 100th cap for Great Britain in the fixture.
“When you see Crista playing she’s dominant in her aura and her personality,” added Richardson-Walsh.
“She’s defensively very strong and is experienced. If you’ve a person like that in your squad you have to use her and Crista is one of the people that can tell me how it is – I love playing with her.”
Grace Reid wants to add some glitz and glamour to her dives after reaching the final of the women’s 3m springboard on her Olympic debut in Rio.
Reid finished 11th out of 18 in the semi-finals with a score of 314.25 as the top 12 progressed for the final round at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre.
“It feels amazing, a bit surreal, but I knew it was a possibility and I knew I had to dive well to do it [get into the final] and I just wanted to enjoy it because I know when I am happy I dive well and I dived well,” she said.
“As soon as I was finished I was chatting about little bits and pieces [to improve]. I want to have a little bit more sparkle and a bit more sharpness, which I can hopefully find so I can improve on my score.
“It is amazing to be on the same level [as the Chinese divers] and make the final with such amazing athletes. I haven’t even though about what I can do in the final. The main goal again is to literally enjoy it.”
Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis became the first British badminton players to secure a place in the Olympic quarter-finals following a win in their final men’s doubles group match.
The pair despatched Adam Cwalina and Przemyslaw Wacha of Poland 21-18, 21-16 to book their spot as one of the final eight pairings at Rio 2016 after a win and a defeat in their opening two fixtures.
“It really is an amazing feeling,” said Ellis. “It makes all those hours training all year worth it and it’s so nice that it can all come together.
“I was a bit nervous in the first set but Marcus pulled us through, then I started to relax and it showed, even though we were 11-8 down. It just flowed better and we’re so pleased to make the quarter-finals.”
However, it was the end of the Olympic journey for Chris and Gabby Adcock after they squandered match points for the second time at Rio 2016 to lose 18-21, 27-25, 21-9 to Poland’s Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba. Women's doubles pairing Heather Olver and Lauren Smith grabbed a consolation victory, their first of the Games, against Lok Yan Poon and Ying Suet Tse of Hong Kong.
Nathan Bailey achieved exactly what he wanted to on his Olympic Games debut after placing ninth overall in the men’s trampoline event in Rio.
Bailey, the only male selected to compete in trampoline at the Games, placed ninth in qualification with a combined score of 106.795.
Ninth was one place away from the final, with the top eight advancing, but Bailey revealed that he actually bettered his expectations in Rio.
“I could have done better with my first routine but I got a personal best with my second routine so I am really, really happy to finish on that positive,” he said.
“I came in looking for a top-ten finish and I finished ninth so I am really happy with myself and I have done a good job out there.
“It is a little bit gutting being one place away from the final but I am still happy that I came away in the top ten, that was my aim coming in.”
Weightlifter Sonny Webster was happy to break at least one record at Rio 2016 after the 22-year-old sported his trademark snapback for the men’s 94kg – an Olympic first.
The Bristol based lifter finished sixth in Group B after recording a total of 333kg from his 148kg snatch and 185kg clean and jerk, but it was Webster’s headwear over his lifting prowess that grabbed the attention of the crowd at Riocentro
“I’ve been wearing the hat for a couple of years now,” said Webster. “I wear it backwards as if the bar touches it it’s a no lift. If I’ve broken one record today it’s being the first weightlifter to compete at an Olympics with a hat on.”
Webster, who’s been living with the men’s artistic gymnasts in the Olympic Village, is certainly enjoying his first time at the Games and is determined to make the most of his time in Rio.
“That was the most amazing experience of my life being up there on that platform,” added Webster.
“You only get six minutes up there so I wanted to make sure I looked around and took it all in. There was a great crowd here today and I was so pleased to record that clean and jerk and get a score on the board. I didn’t quite get the lifts I wanted today but the experience has been incredible.”
Team GB boxer Joe Joyce got his Olympic campaign off to a flying start after a first-round knockout of Davison Dos Santos Morais of Cape Verde.
Joyce dealt the decisive blow to his opponent with ten seconds of the opening round remaining as Floyd Mayweather looked on from the crowd.
“I heard the bum, bum, ten seconds to go. I wanted to take him out and I managed to do that before the final bell,” he said.
“It’s good to get the first one out of the way. Now I’ll be more ready for the next one. It is a good start with a bout like that where I can take him out quickly and get out of the ring rested.”
Andy Murray, Jason Kenny, Callum Skinner and Nick Dempsey are all guaranteed medals on day nine of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – it’s just a question of colour for three of them. View our full preview here.