Max Whitlock sensationally retained his Olympic title with victory in the men’s pommel horse, claiming Team GB’s tenth gold medal of the Tokyo Games, after Charlotte Worthington had earlier landed a breath-taking gold in the women’s BMX freestyle. Here’s what happened on day nine:
Max Whitlock successfully defends Olympic pommel horse title with near-perfect routine
Charlotte Worthington recovers from fall to take BMX freestyle gold, while Declan Brooks follows up with bronze in men’s event
Duncan Scott claims GB record fourth medal at same Olympics, as medley relay team win silver
Ben Whittaker and Pat McCormack guaranteed at least a silver apiece after advancing to boxing finals
Two guaranteed medals in sailing, for Giles Scott in the men’s Finn, and John Gimson and Anna Burnet in the mixed Nacra 17 class
Eventers well-placed for team and individual success after strong cross-country showings
Near-misses in golf, athletics and hockey
More to come on day ten
Magic Max marches to top of pommel horse podium
Max Whitlock took on all-comers again to defend his Olympic pommel title with a nerveless display in Tokyo.
Whitlock was the first of eight to compete in the final and posted a score of 15.583 to set the standard.
Chinese Taipei's Lee Chih Kai took silver with 15.400 while Japan's Kazuma Kaya claimed bronze.
“I feel absolutely lost for words, I can't even describe the feeling," said the 28-year-old. “I feel completely overwhelmed and it feels very surreal.
“This is probably the most pressured environment I've ever been in. This morning I felt that, and I've always said that chasing is ten times easier than retaining.
“Team GB have been doing absolutely incredibly, the gold medals have been flowing in and I just wanted to do the same thing. Coming out here and getting my own, I feel very proud.”
Magical Whitlock defends Olympic pommel horse title
Worthington cooks up a treat while Brooks clinches GB’s fourth BMX gong
Former chef Charlotte Worthington cooked up another golden recipe for Team GB's BMX stars.
The 25-year-old won the first BMX Freestyle competition to ever take place at the Olympic Games, rewriting the history books in more ways than one.
An error on her first run left her needing to produce something spectacular - and how she did, landing a gravity defying 360 backflip that has never been landed by a woman in competition.
It meant she scored 97.50 out of a possible 100 to edge hot American favourite Hannah Roberts, who had scored 96.10 on her first run, into silver. Switzerland’s Nikia Ducarroz completed the podium.
Less than an hour later Declan Brooks added a fourth medal to Britain's BMX haul - following Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte's gold and silver in BMX Racing on Friday.
He had a long wait after his 90.80 second run to learn his medal fate - watching six rivals take on his score. Australia's Logan Martin took gold while Venezuela's Daniel Dhers edged out Brooks for silver.
Worthington said: “It’s kinda unreal, I’m waiting to wake up. I’ve been dreaming about this for four years, and it still feels like I’m dreaming four years ago, I’m still waiting to wake up.
“I tried not to have any pressure and I tried to focus on enjoying myself and taking it one trick at a time. I’ve not been doing that trick [the 360 backflip] for that long, we’ve been trying to find that big banger trick and when we found it we thought, ‘this is the one’.”
Brooks added: “I’ve just cried for the past couple of minutes. It’s an unbelievable journey I’ve had on the way here, I’m just so stoked to win a medal.”
Jaw-dropping Worthington wins BMX Freestyle gold
Brilliant Brooks wins BMX Freestyle Park bronze
Scott makes history as GB taste further success in the pool
Team GB’s swimmers closed out their best-ever Olympics with 4x100m medley relay silver as Duncan Scott won a record-breaking fourth medal at Tokyo 2020.
The team of Luke Greenbank, Adam Peaty, James Guy and Scott broke the European record on their way to silver, with only the USA, in a world record, in front of them.
It caps a spectacular Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre for the GB swimmers, who will leave with four gold medals and eight medals in all.
That tops the previous best return from 1908, matching the four golds won in London, but topping the seven medals from those Games.
Scott, who brought the team home, becomes the first athlete in any sport to ever win four medals at a single Games for Team GB.
He won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay, as well as three further silver medals, to take his total medal haul to six having also won two silvers at Rio 2016.
“I’m very fortunate to be part of some excellent relay teams, this being one of them," said Scott.
“Initially, we were very disappointed but since 2015, when we first started coming together, we’ve got back-to-back Olympic silvers in this event and we’d have taken that all day.
“Looking at the splits, we all swam well. I’m slightly disappointed with mine but it’s been a tough week and we have to be happy with that.”
Relay swimmers round off with silver as Duncan Scott breaks Games record
Whittaker and McCormack lead latest boxing charge
Boxer Ben Whittaker has won at least an Olympic silver and will fight for gold after recovering from an early setback to beat Imam Khataev and advance to the men’s 81kg final.
The 24-year-old was fighting for his Olympic life when he lost the first round of his light heavyweight semi-final against his opponent, representing the Russian Olympic Committee.
Whittaker used his fleet of foot and kept Khataev at a distance throughout, a tactic that paid off and saw him win the split decision 4-1.
🥊🥊🥊
— Team GB (@TeamGB) August 1, 2021
Brilliant display from @BenGWhittaker to beat ROC's Imam Khatev 4-1 and he'll fight for gold.#TeamGB pic.twitter.com/0Id6MkyLaz
“When I came back from the first round and it went the other way I thought 'here we go', but I stayed composed,” he said.
Wednesday’s showpiece now lies in store for Whittaker, where he faces Cuba’s Arlen Lopez for the Olympic title.
Pat McCormack is also guaranteed at least a silver medal in the men's welterweight competition, after Ireland’s Aidan Walsh pulled out of their semi-final bout with injury.
Elsewhere Frazer Clarke will leave Tokyo with a medal after advancing to the semi-finals of the men’s super heavyweight competition, after Frenchman Mourad Aliev was disqualified for excessive use of his head.
GB sailing towards further medal glory
Defending champion Giles Scott leads the way in the men’s Finn class and has guaranteed a medal before he lines up in Tuesday’s double points medal race in Enoshima.
Scott has only just returned to dinghy sailing following a spell calling the tactics for Ben Ainslie's British America's Cup campaign, and he's taking nothing for granted as he carries a nine-point advantage into his final race.
It means he can finish down the fleet and still claim gold - but the famously ruthless four-time world champion is thinking big.
“I’m going to try and win it - that definitely means gold,” he said.
“I've probably sailed the best week of my life I think and hopefully I can finish it off in a couple of days.”
John Gimson and Anna Burnet secured a podium place in the mixed multihull Nacra-17 class after completing their 12-race series with three top-five results, ahead of Tuesday’s medal race.
Alison Young finished tenth overall in the women’s Laser Radial event, after claiming eighth in the medal race.
Medal in the bag but sailor Scott wants more
GB in contention for equestrian medals after impressive cross-country displays
A superb day on a challenging cross-country course fuels hope for a slew of British medals in eventing, with Team GB sitting pretty in both team and individual competitions.
Oliver Townend climbed into top spot on Ballaghmor Class after emerging from the dressage stage in second and Laura Collett moved from sixth to third with London 52.
Townend and Collett – together with Tom McEwen – lead the team event ahead of Australia and France.
“Exceptional horses can cope with these different elements and all three British horses have coped fantastically,” said world number one Townend, with jumping to decide medals.
Casey narrowly misses out on golf medal, and Hughes disqualified in 100m final
Paul Casey agonisingly missed out on an Olympic medal in a seven-man golf play-off, after holing a gutsy putt for par on the 18th to join the likes of Rory McIlroy, Open winner Collin Morikawa and Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama in the battle for bronze.
The 44-year-old was eliminated at the first play-off hole and watched on as CT Pan from Chinese Taipei completed the podium, with gold and silver going to the USA’s Xander Schauffele and Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia, respectively.
Zharnel Hughes helped make British athletics history by reaching the men’s 100m final. A blistering 9.98s earned him a spot in the showpiece, but he left the starting blocks a fraction early due to his calf cramping up and was DQ’d for a false start.
GB’s men’s hockey team missed out on a spot in the semi-finals after a 3-1 defeat to India, with Sam Ward scoring for Danny Kerry's side.
Monday promises another feast of entertainment
Monday marks the first venture into the Izu Velodrome, with both the men and women in team pursuit qualifying action from 7:54am BST.
Eventing reaches its conclusion with GB in the running for individual and team success, with a round of show jumping deciding team medals at 9am BST before the leading individuals jump again at 12:45pm.
Elsewhere, the withdrawal of Simone Biles from a fifth artistic gymnastics event means both Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova will have the chance to light up the floor final, due to start at 9:57am BST.
In sailing, Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey go into Monday’s 49erFX medal race in fifth, 11 points off the top spot and only eight off the podium. Racing starts at 6:33am BST.
In the men’s event (7:33am BST), Dylan Fletcher and Stu Bithell will go for gold, starting just four points behind first-placed Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand.
European weightlifting champion Emily Campbell competes in the women’s +87kg division, from 11:50am BST.