It's a GB medal rush as Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte steal the show in the BMX - Tokyo Warm-Up
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
ByEurosport
Updated 30/07/2021 at 07:50 GMT
Team GB have been putting on another impressive display overnight with plenty of medal success in the usual suspect: swimming. But also, perhaps surprisingly, BMX racing and trampolining. It's Friday's Tokyo Warm-Up! You want it? We have it. Stream every Olympic event live on discovery+.
‘Look what it means!’ - Shriever wins stunning gold for GB in BMX
FRIDAY'S BIG STORIES
BMX GLORY FOR GB
What a day it has been so far. Team GB absolutely dominated the enthralling BMX action on Friday morning with a gold and silver medal added to the team's growing medal haul.
Bethany Shriever snatched a remarkable gold for Great Britain in the women's BMX final. The 22-year-old timed her final throw of the bike perfectly to nudge Mariana Pajon into second by a barely perceptible margin.
Shriever finished just nine-hundredths of a second ahead of Pajon, with a winning time of 44.358. Even Liam Gallagher was impressed.
It completed a brilliant day at the Ariake Urban Sports Park for Team GB, with Kye Whyte securing silver in the men's race.
After the start of the day's racing was delayed due to rain, defending champion Connor Fields of the USA crashed out in his final heat of the semi-finals.
The 21-year-old British rider finished in 39.167 seconds to cap off a truly memorable day for the pair.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2021/07/30/3187395-65303168-2560-1440.jpg)
‘Life changing!’ – Shriever and Whyte celebrate the enormity of their success in BMX
MORE SUCCESS IN THE SWIMMING
Great Britain continued their dominance in the pool with two more medals on Friday morning. Luke Greenbank, 23, won bronze in the men's 200m backstroke on his Olympic Games debut.
"It's just unbelievable," Greenbank told Eurosport's Greg Rutherford after the race. "It hasn't sunk it and I don't think it will for a while, but it's a dream come true and I'm so happy.
I'm over the moon. This has given me a massive amount of confidence. This whole year has been absolutely amazing and I can't wait to get back in and try and improve on it."
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2021/07/30/3187266-65300588-2560-1440.jpg)
‘He is coming back strongly’ – Greenbank powers to bronze in backstroke
Later on, Duncan Scott surged from fifth to silver in the final 50m of the men's 200m individual medley final in a British record time to secure his third medal at Tokyo 2020.
"I was really hurting towards the end," Scott said.
"Wang took advantage of it and swam a great race. I got to hold my head high, it's a massive PB. It's still and event I am learning about."
SPRING GLORY
Bryony Page concluded an excellent medal-spree for Team GB with bronze on the trampoline, adding to her silver from Rio five years ago.
Three-time World Championship gold medallist Zhu Xueying added an Olympic title to her collection with an overall score of 56.635, including an outstanding 16.800 score for her execution. Her Chinese teammate Liu Lingling took silver with 56.360 points overall.
Page was the only other competitor to attempt a routine of the highest difficulty tariff (15.000 points), and survived competition from Rosannagh MacLennan of Canada to win bronze.
HEARTACHE FOR THORNLEY
Victoria Thornley has said she gave her best performance in the final of the women's single sculls despite missing out on bronze.
Thornley's near miss contributed to Team GB's worst rowing performance at an Olympics since Sydney 2000.
The Welsh woman, who took silver alongside Katherine Grainger in the double sculls at Rio 2016, was edged out narrowly by Austria's Magdalena Lobnig.
"You try to stay internal in your own boat but you have an awareness and I was pretty certain going into it that I was racing for bronze today," Thornley told Eurosport's Radzi Chinyanganya after her race.
"I committed to racing for the bronze and I knew the Austrian [Lobnig] would be the one to beat for that."
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2021/07/30/3187190-65299068-2560-1440.jpg)
'That was the best I had today' - Despondent Thornley reflects on fourth-placed finish
STILL TO COME
It's the men's semi-finals in the tennis. Novak Djokovic is in pursuit of his first Olympic gold medal and he takes on Germany's Alexander Zverev at around 8:30am UK time.
There is also the women's football quarter-finals to look forward to with Great Britain taking on Australia at 10am. At midday, it's another huge clash as Netherlands take on London 2012 champions USA.
There is also hockey as the GB's men face Belgium at 1:15pm.
You are spoilt today.
HEROES AND MORE HEROES
Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa smashed one of swimming's longest-standing world records as she took victory in the 200m breaststroke.
The 24-year-old surged away from American duo Lilly King and Annie Lazor.
Schoenmaker became the first female swimmer to dip under 2:19 for the event.
Her reaction after finding out she won? Priceless.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2021/07/30/3187180-65298868-2560-1440.jpg)
‘She has only just realised’ - Schoenmaker smashes world record to win gold
There was positive news for Team GB in the women’s 800 metres on the opening day of athletics competition as Jemma Reekie, Keely Hodgkinson and Alexandra Bell all advanced to the semi-finals.
Great Britain failed to defend their Olympic men's eight title, but they still took bronze in the final rowing event at Tokyo 2020.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2021/07/30/3187138-65298028-2560-1440.jpg)
Great Britain dig deep to seal men's eight bronze as New Zealand take gold
New Zealand's octet powered their way to a brilliant victory, with Germany just holding on ahead of a surging Great Britain to take a narrow silver medal.
Led by coxswain Henry Fieldman, the British octet finished third at the Sea Forest Waterway. A fine achievement considering Britain only qualified for the final via the repechage having finished last in their heat.
OLYMPIC SPIRIT
It is one of the best images of the Olympics. Whyte and Shriever celebrated together draped in the British flag, before Whyte held Shriever aloft in his arms in triumph having secured Great Britain's first ever BMX racing Olympic medals.
RETRO CORNER
With Djokovic in semi-final action today, here he is turning on the style in Olympic competitions for five minutes straight.
EUROSPORT IN TOKYO
Bradley Wiggins says the story of Afghan refugee and Olympian Masomah Ali Zada “puts everything into perspective”.
Ali Zada was forced to flee Afghanistan and seek asylum in France, where she has continued to develop as a cyclist – a sport that is widely discouraged for women in her home country.
But the 25-year-old, who travelled to the Tokyo Olympics to represent the Refugee Olympic Team, competed in the women’s time trial this week. And, speaking on the latest Bradley Wiggins Show podcast, the former Tour de France winner says her story made a big impression.
“Watching the interview of the young refugee girl had us all quite emotional,” Wiggins said.
“You talk about perspective, I mean her story really does put everything into perspective. How eloquently she spoke, how powerfully she spoke, but how frail and how vulnerable she was at the same time, but so together and with it.
"As a teenager training in Kabul she'd often get hit and pelted with stones by men shocked to see her unaccompanied on the streets on a bicycle, which you can't imagine can you.
“It wasn’t about the result, I couldn’t even tell you what she got. It was just about her presence and what she was there for.”
- - -
Watch every unmissable moment live from Tokyo 2020 across Eurosport, the Eurosport app and discovery+. Download the Eurosport app for iOS and Android now.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement