There’s something in the air at Royal Birkdale, a sense that the waiting could be over and a stirring of latent local expectation. Whisper it quietly but the English are coming.

You wait more than a century for your first Olympic gymnastics gold medal and then two come along in just over an hour courtesy of the same man – step forward Max Whitlock.

Andy Murray goes in search of yet more history on day nine of Rio 2016 as he bids to become the first men’s tennis player to win back-to-back Olympic titles.