Day Fourteen: Toby Roberts win Team GB’s 14th gold
19-year-old Toby Roberts wins team GB’s 14th gold in sports climbing, the British 4x100m relay teams both win medals and Nafi Thiam wins her third Olympic heptathlon title.
TOP STORY - 19-year-old Toby Roberts wins Team GB’s 14th gold medal
Team GB’s Toby Roberts has sensationally won gold in the boulder and lead event in sports climbing.
The 19-year-old from Surrey scored 155.2 across both disciplines to beat Japan’s Sorato Anraku, 17, and Austria’s Jakob Schubert, 33, to win the Olympic title.
Roberts was third after the boulder event and needed 73 points from his lead climb to claim a medal.
At one point, he hung one handed before climbing further up the wall to surpass the bronze and silver medal marks.
Roberts then passed Schubert’s total to take first place before falling to score 92.1 points with only Anraku left to climb.
The Japanese climber easily reached Schubert’s mark before approaching Roberts’ score. However, the 17-year-old dramatically slipped which meant that the British climber had unexpectedly become Olympic champion.
It has been a remarkable first two years of senior competition for Roberts who had won several world cup medals before winning last years’ Olympic European qualifying event in Laval, France.
ATHLETICS
Belgian heptathlon star Nafi Thiam has won the Olympic title for the third time in a row after holding off Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson in a thrilling conclusion to the event.
Thiam ended the first day of competition 48 points behind Johnson-Thompson with the long jump, javelin and 800m to go.
In the long jump, Thiam surprisingly jumped 6.41m. A centimeter more than Johnson-Thompson despite it being one of her favourite events.
It was a blow for the British athlete who failed to give herself a comfortable lead going into the javelin.
Now, it was Thiam that had the chance to gain the advantage in her strongest event. The Belgian didn’t disappoint, throwing a 54.04m compared to the Britons 45.49m.
Thiam now held a 121-point lead heading into the final event. It also meant that Johnson-Thompson had to run 8.5 seconds faster than Thiam in the 800m to claim gold.
The Briton ran a superb personal best of 2:04.90 to finish in second place. However, Thiam also ran well and finished in a time of 2:10.62. It was enough to win gold by 2.78 seconds.
In the standings, Thiam finished 36 points ahead of Thompson-Johnson who won a well-deserved silver medal.
This heptathlon cemented Thiam as one of the greatest multi eventers in history having won the Olympic, world and European titles numerous times.
Even then, Thiam was pushed all the way by Johnson-Thompson. This silver was her first medal won in the Olympics after four attempts.
Johnson-Thompson has made it clear that she will continue in the sport for as long as she remains competitive.
It is good news for track and field as we will get to see these two do it again at next year’s world championships.
Noor Vidts of Belgium won the bronze medal.
The men’s and women’s 4x100m relays took centre stage in the Stade de France and once again lived up to its billing.
Great Britain grabbed silver in the women’s race. Dina Asher-Smith and Imani Lansiquot ran a brilliant first and second leg before handing over to Amy Hunt.
Hunt recovered from a difficult changeover to keep Team GB in contention but then miscommunicated with Daryll Neita. They also recovered before Neita produced a storming run for the line.
However, she couldn’t quite catch Sha’Carri Richardson who won gold for the USA. It’s a fitting end to the games for Richardson who added gold to her 100m silver medal in Paris.
Then, team GB men’s team won bronze. The race was marred by yet another changeover failure by the USA. Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek ran into each other and were later disqualified.
On the final leg, GB’s Zharnell Hughes produced a storming run to take third but were pushed out by South Africa in second. Andre De Grasse’s Canadian team won gold.
It is a poignant medal for the men’s relay team. Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake were stripped of their Tokyo silver medals after CJ Ujah tested positive for doping.
Hughes and Mitchell-Blake ran in the final, but Kilty also qualifies for a medal as he ran earlier in the heats.
Youngsters, Jeremiah Azu and Louie Hinchcliffe also won their first global medals as part of the relay team.
Elsewhere, the USA’s Rai Benjamin beat Norway’s Karsten Warholm to win the men’s 400m hurdles.
British athlete Amber Anning finished 5th in the women’s 400m with a personal best and a British record of 49.29. Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won gold with an Olympic record.
TRACK CYCLING
Team GB’s Jack Carlin won bronze after beating Dutch rider Jeffrey Hoogland 2-1 in the men’s sprint.
However, it was not without controversy when Carlin rode into Hoogland early in the deciding sprint.
It was ruled as accidental but that didn’t stop Carlin from being booed on the podium after he won the final race.
Emma Finucane broke the British record in the women’s sprint qualifying round before advancing to Saturday’s quarter finals. British team-mate Sophie Caldwell also qualified.
DIVING
Yasmin Harper came 5th in the women’s 3m individual springboard. Chen Yiwen of China won gold for China. They can complete a clean sweep of diving gold medals with a win in the men’s 10m platform on Saturday.
BASKETBALL
The USA women’s team are through to the Olympic final after comfortably beating Australia 85-64. In the other semi-final, France drew 66-66 with Belgium in normal time. However, France prevailed in the epic 81-75 in overtime.
Both the men’s and women’s finals will be contested between the hosts France and the favourites USA. They were the dream finals coming into Paris.
FOOTBALL
The Spanish men’s team have completed a golden summer in football after beating France 5-3 after extra time.
The hosts went 1-0 up in the 11th minute. Then, Spain scored three goals in 10 minutes to lead 3-1 at half time.
France fought back and made it 3-2 in the 79th minute and then pressured for an equaliser. It came in third minute of stoppage time when VAR awarded France a last gasp penalty.
Jean-Philippe Mateta converted, and the game went into extra time.
However, French joy in the Parc des princes was short lived as Spain scored two goals in extra time to win the Olympic title.
Morocco claimed the bronze medal after beating Egypt 6-0.
HOCKEY
The Netherlands won the women’s Olympic title again after winning 3-1 on penalties. They drew 1-1 with China in normal time. Argentina won the bronze medal after beating Belgium 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
HANDBALL
Germany will face Denmark in the men’s Olympic handball final after coming through two very close semi-finals.
Germany beat Spain 25-24 and Denmark beat Slovenia 31-30. The final is on Sunday.
WATER POLO
In the men’s water polo tournament, Croatia beat Hungary 9-8 and Serbia beat the USA in the semi-finals. The medal finals are on Sunday.
Australia beat the USA 6-5 on penalties in an epic women’s semi-final. The match was drawn 8-8 in normal time in a rivalry that dates back to the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In the other semi-final Spain beat the Netherlands 5-4 on penalties after a 14-14 draw.
BREAKING
Ami Yuasa of Japan won breaking’s first ever Olympic gold medal in the b-girl category. Ami beat Dominika Banevič – known as Nicka – of Lithuania 3-0 in the final. China’s Liu Qingyi – known as 671 - won the bronze medal.
