Day three of the Tokyo Olympics was ‘Magic Monday’ for Team GB with three golds – for divers Tom Daley and Matty Lee, swimmer Adam Peaty and Tom Pidcock in mountain biking.
| Dates: 23 July-8 August Time in Tokyo: BST +8 |
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Daley and Lee edged out China for victory in the synchronised 10m platform event, 13 years after the 27-year-old – a two-time bronze medallist – made his Games debut in Beijing.
In the early hours of day three, swimmer Peaty had become the first British swimmer to defend an Olympic title with his dominant victory in the 100m breaststroke.
Less than half an hour after Daley and Lee’s gold, cyclist Pidcock added a third to Team GB’s tally, dominating the men’s cross-country mountain biking.
In taekwondo, Lauren Williams took silver after a closely fought loss to Croatia’s Matea Jelic in the final of the women’s -67kg.
Earlier, Britain’s Alex Yee cemented his position as the new star of British triathlon with a silver medal, as Jonny Brownlee placed fifth.
The haul left Great Britain fifth in the medal table, with hosts Japan leading the way ahead of the USA.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Momiji Nishiya won women’s street skateboarding gold at just 13 years old.
Olympic organisers say a tropical storm will hit Tokyo on Tuesday but it is not expected to cause much disruption to the Games.
Rowing and archery events have already been moved because of the anticipated strong winds, but there are no plans to make any other changes to the schedule unless the forecast alters.
Here’s some of Monday’s other news:
- Britain’s men are in the rugby sevens quarter-finals after pool wins against Canada and Japan.
- GB’s hockey teams won their latest matches, with the women, defending champions after victory at Rio 2016, defeating South Africa 4-1, while the men beat Canada 3-1.
- Duncan Scott won his 200m freestyle semi-final while Kathleen Dawson qualified for the women’s 100m backstroke final.
- In badminton, Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith won their mixed doubles tie against Thailand to top their group, but Ben Lane and Sean Vendy lost to Chinese Taipei in the men’s doubles.
- Britain’s sole fencer Marcus Mepstead lost to Egypt’s Mohamed Hamza in the first round of the men’s foil.
- Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus beat American great Katie Ledecky to gold in the women’s 400m freestyle final.
- Japan’s Naomi Osaka cruised into the third round of the tennis women’s singles and Novak Djokovic is into the men’s second round.
Daley wins first Olympic gold with Lee
Daley was just 11 when he told the BBC: “I want to get to the Olympics and win a gold medal.” Sixteen years on, that dream is now a reality.
Daley and 23-year-old Lee, who was making his Olympic debut, performed impeccably throughout the synchronised 10m platform event, moving top of the leaderboard after four dives.
They finished with a total score of 471.81, leaving China’s Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen with too much to do and they took silver with a tally of 470.58.
“That moment, being about to be announced as Olympic champions, I was gone. I was blubbering,” said Daley.
Peaty defends Olympic title
Victory was expected for Peaty, given he has not lost over 100m for more than seven years, including his first gold in Rio five years ago.
Though he was unable to break his own world record of 56.88 seconds in Tokyo, he still finished more than 0.6secs quicker than the Netherlands’ silver medallist Arno Kamminga, with Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi taking bronze.
Peaty touched the wall in 57.37, the fifth fastest time in history, but compatriot James Wilby could not join him on the podium, finishing in fifth place.
Peaty has won the 100m breaststroke at the past three World Championships, broken the world record five times and is the only man to have swum it in under 57 seconds.
“I haven’t felt this good since 2016. It just means the world to me,” said the 26-year-old.
Pidcock wins mountain bike cross-country gold
Cyclist Pidcock had prepared for Tokyo’s brutal temperatures by training in a heated tent at home and it paid off.
He finished 20 seconds clear of the rest of the field in Izu, with Swiss world number one Mathias Flueckiger taking silver and David Valero of Spain winning bronze, to take Britain’s first gold in mountain biking.
The 21-year-old, who has world titles in cyclo-cross, road and mountain bike events at under-23 level, had surgery on a broken collarbone at the start of June but returned to training just six days later.
When asked how it felt to win gold, Pidcock told Eurosport: “Not real, really. It’s pretty crazy that I became an Olympian and I was trying to tell myself at the start of the race it’s special just to be here.”
Silver lining for Williams and Yee
For the second day running, Team GB boasted a taekwondo finalist and the result was silver again – with Welsh fighter Williams going down 25-22 to Croatia’s Jelic.
Williams led with just 14 seconds left before Jelic came back right at the end to snatch the gold medal.
“I went out there to win, but I am very happy with how I performed all day. An Olympic silver medal is not bad, is it?” said Williams.
In the triathlon, Yee led for much of the 10km run before Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt produced a stunning breakaway in 27C heat and high humidity to win gold by 11 seconds.
“I am just a normal guy from south-east London – dreams really do come true,” Yee told BBC Sport.
The event – which was moved to the early hours in Tokyo to avoid the worst of the heat – had to be restarted after a boat blocked around half of the athletes as they entered the water.
What’s coming up on Tuesday?
- Triathlon: Team GB head into the women’s triathlon (22:30 Monday to 01:00 Tuesday) with a strong line-up: Rio bronze medallist Vicky Holland, 2020 world champion Georgia Taylor-Brown and 2019 world silver medallist Jess Learmonth.
- Taekwondo: Bianca Walkden competes for Britain in the +67kg category (02:00-14:30), having added two more world titles since taking bronze at Rio 2016. Mahama Cho, who beat Lutalo Muhammad to selection, competes in the men’s +80kg class.
- Swimming: Duncan Scott will be one of GB’s busiest swimmers, with six different events to his name in Tokyo. On Tuesday, the 2019 world bronze medallist will hope to line up in the men’s 200m freestyle final (02:45).
- Equestrian: British rider Charlotte Dujardin will be looking to add to her three Olympic titles as she joins veteran Carl Hester and debutant Charlotte Fry in the team dressage (09:30).
- Gymnastics: One of the Olympics’ biggest TV audiences will be expected for the women’s team final (11:45-14:10). There’s no question that the United States, led by Simone Biles, are the favourites. Can Britain, sixth at the last World Championships, make it into the final and find a way to challenge for a medal?