It was a night to remember in the pool as Adam Peaty ended Great Britain’s 28-year wait for an Olympic male swimming champion, while Jazz Carlin also chipped in with a silver medal.
Peaty was in blistering form the 100m breaststroke, lowering his own world record to 57.13 seconds to take an emphatic win and seal Team GB’s first medal at Rio 2016.
Carlin then added to the celebrations moments later as she set a new personal best to finish second in the 400m freestyle.
Earlier fencer Richard Kruse came close to securing Team GB’s first medal before agonisingly losing out in the battle for bronze in the men’s individual foil to Timur Safin of Russia 15-13.
The Russian had defeated fellow Brit James Davis by the same scoreline in the last 16 while Team GB’s other fencer Laurence Halsted fell in the last 32 to Chen Haiwei of China by a score of 15-9.
Another British medal hopeful, cyclist Lizzie Armitstead, also fell short of the rostrum after an eventful women’s road race saw her finish fifth – gold went to Holland’s Anna van der Breggen.
As had been the case with the men’s race, the gruelling course took it out of the riders with Annemiek van Vleuten’s crash on the final descent causing alarm for riders and spectators alike.
Over at the diving, Commonwealth champions Rebecca Gallantree and Alicia Blagg were sixth in the women’s 3m synchro while in the boxing ring, heavyweight Joshua Buatsi powered his way to a stoppage win against Uganda’s Kennedy Katende.
Team GB flag bearer Andy Murray took to the court for the first time in Rio, getting his Olympic singles title defence off to a solid start by defeating Viktor Troicki 6-3 6-2, although he and brother Jamie then suffered a straight sets first round defeat to Brazilian pair Thomaz Bellucci and Andre Sa in the men’s doubles.
British women’s number one Johanna Konta was also victorious in the singles, beating Stephanie Vogt 6-3 6-1 in the opening round.
There was not such good news for judoka Colin Oates who lost on golden score in the opening round of the -66kg judo competition although in the shooting, Ed Ling got his third Olympic campaign off to a promising start after placing second following the first three of five rounds of qualification in the men’s trap.
British number two Paul Drinkhall showed all his fighting spirit as he claimed his second straight table tennis win by defeating Singapore’s Ning Gao, a player 22 places above him in the world rankings although Liam Pitchford exited at the third round stage.
Slalom canoeists Joe Clarke and David Florence impressed on the water, qualifying second and third respectively from the K1 and C1 heats.
Kitty King scored 46.80 in the dressage for 26th place with teammate William Fox-Pitt continuing to lead the eventing competition ahead of the cross-country phase.
And in the team events, Team GB women’s sevens squad remain strongly placed for a medal after qualifying for today’s semi-finals with victory over Fiji, and the men’s hockey team were held to a 2-2 draw with New Zealand – David Condon and captain Barry Middleton with the goals.
Image courtesy of BBC Sport via YouTube, with thanks.
