Tokyo Olympics: Medal-laden day for Team GB as tally rises by six

Team GB signed off another successful day at the Tokyo Olympics with a medal-laden performance on the BMX track and in the water.

Six medals were added to the side’s tally, which now stands at 24, with six golds, nine silvers and nine bronze.

Here’s how it unfolded.

Swimming

At the pool, Duncan Scott claimed Team GB’s sixth swimming medal of the meet as he fell tantalisingly short of gold, coming second in the men’s 200m individual medley final.

Scott, who claimed gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay and silver in the individual version earlier this week, powered home after turning in fifth place heading into the final freestyle leg but finished just 0.28 seconds behind China’s Wang Shun.

Agonisingly, it was Scott’s fourth Olympic silver medal, following two claimed in relays in Rio in 2016, and the frustration appeared to show on the 24-year-old Scot as he turned away from the scoreboard after learning his fate.

Earlier, Luke Greenbank took bronze in the 200m backstroke behind the Russian Olympic Committee’s Evgeny Rylov and Ryan Murphy of the US, adding to Britain’s Friday medal haul alongside Kye White, who took silver in men’s BMX racing.

Scott and Greenbank’s efforts moved Team GB to just one medal off their all-time Olympic record haul in swimming of seven, set in London in 1908.

Scott said the squad’s success was a continuation of improvements which started before Rio, as he paid tribute to team talisman Adam Peaty, who claimed Britain’s first men’s swimming gold in 24 years in the 100m breaststroke in 2016, and this week became the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title.

Despite his initial frustration at another silver, Scott said he had performed at his best.

“It was always going to be tight, it was always going to be exciting,” he said. “I’m really happy with the swim. It just wasn’t quite there.”

Rowing

The news from the Sea Forest Waterway for Britain was not as encouraging.

While the men’s eight took bronze, it completed a disappointing regatta in which the team won only two medals, following the silver taken by the men’s quadruple sculls team, and a fourth place final finish on Friday for Welsh single sculler Vicky Thornley.

Reaction was swift, with double Olympic champion James Cracknell saying on the BBC: “We got three gold, two silver in Rio. We come away from Tokyo, £27million of investment in British Rowing, with one silver and one bronze.

“At a time when the national budget is under pressure from so many different areas, is that a good return on investment?”

Dame Katherine Grainger, who won rowing medals at the last five Olympic Games, did not rank the regatta as a disaster for Britain, saying on the BBC: “If you look at the medal haul, it’s very small compared to especially the last two, three, four Olympic Games, and it is disappointing on some level.

“But, at the same time, we knew after Rio there was the biggest change we have ever seen from not just athletes – I think we only had eight athletes coming to this Games who’d ever been to a Games before. We’ve never had anything like that.

“But we’ve also changed through performance directors, head coaches, so I think these Games were going to be seen as a change and building to Paris more than anything else.

BMX

The highlight of the day was Beth Shriever gold in the women's BMX racing final, moments after team-mate Kye Whyte claimed the nation's first Olympic medal in the event with silver in the men's.

Former junior world champion Shriever from Leytonstone held off a late charge from defending champion Mariana Pajon of Colombia down the final straight.

Shriever collapsed in tears after the finish line before being lifted off her feet by a jubilant Whyte.

The win keeps Team GB in sixth place on the medals table.

Trampolining

Bryony Page claimed her second Olympic medal on the bounce with bronze in the women’s trampoline event at the Ariake Arena.

The 30-year-old, who won a surprise silver in Rio in 2016, scored 55.735 to finish behind Chinese pair Zhu Xueying and Liu Lingling.

Page had qualified for the final in third place after her two routines, but British team-mate Laura Gallagher failed to make the final.

She led with the two Chinese athletes still to go but a pair of strong routines ensured the Briton had to be content with bronze.