Charlotte Dujardin became just the second British woman to win three Olympic Games gold medals as she successfully defended her London 2012 individual dressage title on day ten in Rio.
Dujardin and her horse Valegro have proved to be an all-conquering force in recent years, with the British rider the first to hold the complete set of individual elite dressage titles at one time – the individual Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, World Cup individual dressage and European freestyle and Grand Prix Special titles.
And the accolades kept coming as on Monday she scored 93.857% in the Rio 2016 individual dressage competition – enough for victory ahead of Germany’s Isabell Werth and Kristina Broring-Sprehe.
The result not only put her level with Trott but also Richard Meade at the summit of British equestrian, matching the eventer’s feat across the 1968 and 1972 Games in Mexico and Munich.
Also finishing in the top ten was Carl Hester, who came home seventh on Nip Tuck, while Fiona Bigwood and Orthilia was 17th.
While Dujardin was collecting a third gold medal, Mark Cavendish finally climbed an Olympic podium at the third time of asking as he won omnium silver.
Sitting third overnight Cavendish maintained that position following the morning’s time trial, before moving up one place to second after the flying lap.
And despite a thrilling points race the ‘Manx Missile’ managed to hold on to the runners-up spot to pick up silver behind Italian Elia Viviani for that long-awaited Olympic medal after missing out at Beijing 2008 and in London four years later.
It was another successful night in the Rio Olympic Velodrome for Great Britain as Laura Trott leads the women’s omnium at the halfway stage, while Becky James and Katy Marchant both advanced to the individual sprint quarter-finals.
But the medals didn’t stop there as Sophie Hitchon broke her own national record to win hammer bronze.
The 25-year-old threw 74.54m with her last effort to propel herself on to the podium and win Great Britain’s first hammer medal since 1924.
Elsewhere in the athletics competition, both Andrew Pozzi and Lawrence Clarke made it through their 110m hurdles heats, as did Eilidh Doyle in the 400m hurdles.
Jack Green produced a season’s best 48.96 seconds to follow suit in the men’s 400m hurdles, however Seb Rodger failed to join him, while Rob Mullett also exited the men’s 3000m steeplechase.
But Dina Asher-Smith was second in her 200m heat to advance, while Jodie Williams also lived to fight another day as one of the fastest losers after crossing the finish line third in her race.
It was an historic day in the badminton as Rajiv Ouseph and men’s doubles pairing Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge all won.
World number 22 men’s doubles pairing Ellis and Langridge kicked off the memorable day with a 21-19, 21-17 quarter-final victory over Japan’s eighth-ranked duo Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa.
And there was more for British fans to celebrate as Ouseph made the last eight of the men’s singles competition, edging Indonesia’s Asian champion Tommy Sugiarto 21-13 14-21 21-16.
Boxer Muhammad Ali fell at the first hurdle of the men’s flyweight competition after suffering a unanimous decision defeat to Yoel Segundo Finol of Venezuela.
It was a similar story for Jess Walker in the K1 200m, while Freddie Woodward was unable to follow Jack Laugher into the 3m springboard semi-final.
Keri-anne Payne was seventh in the women’s 10km marathon open water swim, while Great Britain’s women’s hockey team are in the semi-finals thanks to a 3-1 victory over Spain.
Georgie Twigg, Helen Richardson-Walsh and Lily Owsley bagged the goals to set up a final four clash with New Zealand.
Image courtesy of BBC via YouTube, with thanks.
