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Rio 2016: Day eight review – Marvellous Mo Farah leads Team GB charge

Mo Farah, the women’s team pursuit squad and the men’s rowing eight all secured gold medals on a dramatic day eight for Team GB at Rio 2016. 

The Brits wons eight medals in total – and many eyes were turned towards the Olympic Stadium for the second night of the athletics. 

Farah, Jess Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford picked up Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals respectively on a fantastic night for Team GB at the Estádio Olímpico.

Teed up as a repeat of London 2012’s Super Saturday where the trio all won gold, the three track and field stars all claimed medals, although it was only Farah who topped the podium.

However, early drama in the men’s 10,000m final saw Farah fall to the track, recover and go on to pass Paul Tanui of Kenya in the final straight to retain his Olympic title.

Ennis-Hill narrowly missed out on defending her Olympic heptathlon title as she won silver behind Belgium’s Nafi Thiam.

Ennis-Hill emphatically won the 800m – the final discipline of the competition – but it was not enough to finish the 9.47 seconds clear of Thiam that was needed for gold as the Belgian triumphed by 35 points.

Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton won the bronze medal while Team GB’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson finished in sixth. 

Meanwhile Rutherford’s reign as Olympic long jump champion came to an end as the Team GB athlete won bronze as the USA’s Jeff Henderson took gold with South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga in silver.

Elsewhere, Matthew Hudson-Smith finished second in his semi-final to qualify for the 400m final but both Asha Philip and Desiree Henry fell at the semi-final stage in the women’s 100m as did Michael Rimmer in the men’s 800m.

Laura Trott became the first British female to win three Olympic gold medals as Team GB’s women’s team pursuit outfit broke the world record yet again to retain their Olympic title at Rio 2016.

Trott along with Joanna Rowsell Shand, Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker knocked almost two seconds off the new best time they set in the morning session to beat the USA in the final.

The gold medal was Team GB’s third in successive nights in the velodrome while Rebecca James made it a doubly special afternoon with silver in the women’s keirin.

Team GB continued their impressive finish to the rowing events at Rio 2016, with another two medals on the final day at the Lagoa Stadium.

The women’s eight kicked things off with their first medal in the history of the Olympics, winning silver behind world and defending Olympic champions USA.

The men’s eight then went one better in the final race of the Games, winning their first gold since 2000 and their fourth medal from the past five Olympics.

Andrew Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed were part of the winning crew, landing their third straight Olympic titles after victories with the four at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

Team GB rounded off their most successful Olympic Games in the swimming pool for well over a century at Rio 2016 with a stunning silver in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.

The British quartet of Adam Peaty, James Guy, Chris Walker-Hebborn and Duncan Scott pushed the USA every inch in the final but were beaten to gold by 1.29 seconds.

Still silver in 3:29.24 minutes – a massive new British record – took Team GB’s total in the pool in Rio to six for their best Olympic Games since London 1908.

Earlier, Fran Halsall finished an agonising fourth in the women’s 50m freestyle final, just two hundredths of a second denying her a maiden Olympic medal.

Justin Rose took the overall lead after golf’s third round after carding a 65 with his third round for -12 to move one shot ahead of Henrik Stenson and three ahead of previous leader Marcus Fraser.

Andy Murray sealed his place in the singles final, beating Japan’s Kei Nishikori, to edge closer to being the first man to win more than one singles title in Olympic history.

Murray downed a below-par Nishikori 6-1 6-4 in just over an hour, including winning an epic rally to set up match point, and will now face Juan-Martin Del Potro in the final after the Argentine saw off Rafael Nadal.

Giles Scott closed in on his first Olympic medal at his maiden Games with a first and third place in his latest races at the Marina da Gloria.

The Laser and Laser Radial classes finished their opening series with British world champions Nick Thompson and Ali Young both qualifying for the medal races.

Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves remain in the top three of the Nacra 17 standings, despite missing out on the top ten in all three races while 49er FX racers Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth are in sixth at the half-way stage of their opening series.

The only other Brits competing on the day were Alain Sign and Dylan Fletcher in the 49er class. They sealed a fourth place in their fourth race of the day to sit 12th overall with six races to go in the opening series.

Team GB’s women’s hockey side go into Monday’s quarter-final fresh from completing the perfect pool stage campaign after a 2-1 win over the USA made it five from five for Danny Kerry’s side.

 Grace Reid made the final of the women’s 3m springboard in the diving while in badminton hris Langridge and Marcus Ellis became the first British players to secure a place in the Olympic quarter-finals – after the Adcocks crashed out.

Nathan Bailey was ninth overall in the men’s trampoline event in Rio and weightlifter Sonny Webster finished sixth in Group B of the -94kg weightlifting after recording a total of 333kg from his 148kg snatch and 185kg clean and jerk. 

Image courtesy of BBC via YouTube, with thanks.

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