Day Thirteen: A stunning night at the Stade de France.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the women’s 400m hurdles in world record time, Letsile Tebogo shocks the world in the men’s 200m and Ellie Aldridge wins Team GB’s 13th gold medal in the women’s kite surfing.

TOP STORIES – A stunning night in the Stade de France

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone destroyed the world record for the sixth time to retain the Olympic 400m hurdles title in the Stade de France.

The American’s storming run in a time of 50.37 was the second time she has broken the record this year, finishing well ahead of Dutch rival Femke Bol.

Between them they have run 17 out of the 20 fastest times in history, making this race one of the most eagerly awaited events of the athletics schedule in Paris.

However, Bol faded on the final straight and could only finish third. Anna Cockrell of the USA claimed the silver.

Letsile Tebogo of Botswana shocked the world by beating Noah Lyles and Kenneth Bednarek to win the men’s 200m title. His time of 19.46 broke an African record and won his country’s first Olympic gold medal.

Lyles and Bednarek were favourites going into the race. Lyles won the 100m title last Saturday and was chasing three golds in Paris. Bednarek was consistently the fastest in the heats and semi-finals.

Little of that mattered to Tebogo who shot out of the blocks before running superbly on the bend and catapulting down the home straight to comfortably beat the two Americans.

After the race, news broke that Lyles had been suffering from covid. Despite being physically exhausted after the race, his performance was enough to take bronze. Bednarek won silver.

The USA’s Grant Holloway won the men’s Olympic 110m hurdles title.

He has consistently been the best 110m runner in the last four years but could only win silver in Tokyo.

Nonetheless, Holloway destroyed the field in this race to add Olympic gold to his 2019, 2021 and 2023 world gold medals.

Daniel Roberts of the USA won a distant silver and Jamaican Rasheed Broadbell took bronze.

Team GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads the heptathlon after four events. She finished day one 24 points ahead of Belgian rival Nafi Thiam with three events to complete.

On day one, Johnson-Thompson ran a season best in the 100m hurdles before posting her best clearance in the high jump for five years.

Next up was the shot put, historically an event that the Liverpudlian has struggled in. But on her third attempt she went further than 14m for the first time of her career.

The final event of the day was the 200m in which Johnson-Thompson finished second. The time and points could have been better but with only the javelin left of her weaker events there is a quiet optimism that it could be her time.

However, Thiam has won multiple world and Olympic titles and remains the favourite.

In other news, Great Britain’s men and women’s 4x100m relay teams have both qualified for the final and Laura Muir is through to the 1500m final.

SAILING

Ellie Aldridge won Team GB’s 13th gold medal after winning the women’s kite in Marseille. Aldridge won two races in the final series and stormed to an easy victory in the last contest to win the first Olympic title in this event.

Lauriane Nolot of France won silver and Annelous Lammerts of the Netherlands won bronze.

TRACK CYCLING

Great Britain’s Emma Finucane won a bronze medal in the women’s keirin to add to the gold she won in the team sprint.

Finucane needed a photo finish to qualify from her semi-final heat and began the final at the back of the six strong pack.

However, once the derny – a motorbike that sets the pace for the first three laps – had left the track, she overtook several riders and managed to hold onto third after an extremely close final lap.

New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews won gold and Dutch rider Hetty van de Wouw took silver. Finucane’s teammate Katy Marchant finished fourth.

Finucane, 21, will be back in the velodrome for the individual sprint. She is the current world champion.

Elsewhere in the velodrome, Ethan Hayter failed to win a medal in the men’s omnium. The gold was won by French rider Benjamin Thomas in his home games.

Jack Carlin is through to the men’s sprint semi-finals.

BOXING

Refugee fighter Cindy Ngamba lost to Atheyna Bylon by a 4-1 split decision in her women’s middleweight semi-final. She was already guaranteed a bronze medal.

Ngamba has lived in Bolton for over a decade but has not yet managed to gain British citizenship despite training with the British team.

DIVING

Jack Laugher and Jordan Houlden – the bronze medalists in the 3m synchro - couldn’t reach the podium in the men’s individual 3m springboard final. Houlden finished 5th and Laugher finished 7th.

Grace Reid and Yasmin Harper have qualified for Friday’s women’s event.

TAEKWONDO

Bradley Sinden heartbreakingly missed out on a bronze medal after being unable to compete in his last match due to injury. He narrowly missed out on the final after losing to Macedonia’s Miljana Reljikj in the semi-finals.

British Taekwondo legend Jade Jones was knocked out in the first round of the 57kg division.

Jones was again attempting to become the first athlete in Taekwondo to win three gold medals after winning the Olympic title at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

CLIMBING

Erin McNeice is into the women’s lead/boulder finals after qualifying 7th out of eight.

McNeice is the third British climber to reach an Olympic final after Toby Roberts and Hamish McArthur qualified yesterday for the men’s final.

HOCKEY

The Netherlands are the men’s Olympic champions after beating Germany on 3-1 on penalties. The match ended 1-1 in normal time.

In the bronze medal match, India beat Spain 2-1.

BASKETBALL

The USA are once again through to the men’s Olympic final after surviving a scare against Serbia.

The American’s trailed by 13 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter, however LeBron James and Steph Curry dragged them to victory.

The USA eventually won 95-91 with Curry scoring 36 points and James scoring a triple double.

In the other semi-final, France beat Germany 73-69 to set up a showdown in Paris between the hosts and the best team in the world. The final is on Saturday night.

HANDBALL

Host nation France are also through to the men’s Olympic handball final after beating Sweden 31-28. Norway beat Denmark 25-21 in the other semi-final.