A great couple of days at the Rio Olympics for Team GB who doubled their medal tally to 14 in total including 3 golds. The highlights were on Wednesday when Chris Mears and Jack Laugher made history winning Britain’s first ever Olympic Diving Gold medal in the synchronised 3m springboard final and Olympic debutant Joe Clarke produced a brilliant individual performance to land Britain’s first Gold medal in the men’s K1 canoe slalom since Athens 2004.
Elsewhere on Wednesday there were two Silver medals in the pool for Siobhan-Marie O’Connor in the 200m individual medley, who also smashed the British record, and the men’s 200m freestyle relay team. There were also more medals for Team GB in shooting, Judo and road cycling when Steven Scott won bronze in the men’s double trap, as did Sally Conway who produced a heroic performance in the 70kg and was so unlucky not to make the final. Tour de France winner Chris Froome also won bronze in the road cycling time trial and Simon Whitlock made history by becoming the first British athlete to win an Olympic gymnastics medal in 108 years in the all-round event.
On Thursday Team GB got their track cycling campaign off to a great start last night winning their first Gold in the Velodrome in the team sprint event. The womens and men’s track cycling persuit teams are hot favourites to win gold after the women broke the world record and the men finished marginally outside their own world record in qualifying last night. Both teams will be confident of making today’s finals and Sir Bradley Wiggins will get the chance to become the most decorated British Olympic athlete of all time when he goes for an historic eight Olympic medal.
Katherine Grainger became the most decorated British female Olympic athlete ever when she won an unprecedented fifth Olympic medal taking silver in the double skulls with Vicky Thornley. Also, David Florence made up for the disappointment of finishing last in the C1 final on Tuesday by winning silver in the C2 final with team mate David Hounslow.
Team GB added silver in the Rugby Seven’s last night after they lost to a rampant Fiji in the final. In addition to the track cycling Team GB look set to add more medals to their haul today as Giles Scott is in a strong position in the men’s Finn Class sailing, while the dressage team are in silver medal position thanks to a stunning display from Charlotte Dujardin and her horse Valegro. More medals are likely in rowing today and the men’s coxless four will attempt to defend their Olympic title, as will the pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning in the womens pair.
The eagerly anticipated Olympics athletics action gets underway today and tomorrow Team GB will be hoping for a repeat of Super Saturday at London 2012 when Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford defend their Olympic titles in the 10,000 metres, Heptathlon and Long Jump.
