Rio Olympics 2016: Mo Farah, Laura Trott & rowers win gold, Ennis-Hill silver for GB on day eight
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Mo Farah and Laura Trott made history by claiming their third Olympic titles as Great Britain won eight medals on day eight of the Rio Games.
Jessica-Ennis Hill took silver in the heptathlon, while there was a bronze for long jumper Greg Rutherford.
Farah overcame a tumble to win the 10,000m, while Trott's women's pursuit team beat the USA with a world record.
The men's eight rowers won gold just after the women were second, before cycling and swimming silver medals.
American swimming legend Michael Phelps bowed out of the Olympics with a 23rd gold medal, as Britain took silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay.
Jamaican Elaine Thompson won the women's 100m in 10.71 seconds, ahead of Tori Bowie and two-time champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
Eight medals on day eight for GB
The eight medals - three golds, four silvers and one bronze - represented Britain's most successful day of the Games so far and kept GB third in the medal table on 30 - one more than at the same stage of London 2012.
Farah, 33, became the first British track and field athlete to secure three Olympic titles - following a long-distance double at London 2012.
Trott, 24, is the first female GB competitor to win a third gold, having triumphed alongside Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald.
Another medal in the velodrome came via Becky James, who claimed a silver in the keirin.
The evening athletics action had been billed as a chance for Britain to replicate Super Saturday in London when Farah, Rutherford and Ennis-Hill all won golds.
But Ennis-Hill had to settle for silver after a thrilling finish to the heptathlon won by Belgian Nafi Thiam, with GB's Katarina Johnson-Thompson sixth after poor throws in the javelin.
Tearful Ennis-Hill, 30, said afterwards this was her last Olympics and hinted she could retire from the sport altogether.
London 2012 v Rio 2016 - team GB medals after day eight | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
London 2012 | 14 | 7 | 8 | 29 |
Rio 2016 | 10 | 13 | 7 | 30 |
The medals charge began on the rowing lake where the men's eight led from start to finish after the women's crew claimed a first medal for GB in their event.
Britain secured a medal in the last swimming event of the Games as Adam Peaty added to his 100m breaststroke gold earlier in the week in a team completed by Chris Walker-Hebborn, James Guy and Duncan Scott.
Peaty's blistering time of 56.59 seconds was well inside his own world record of 57.13 and helped deliver a sixth medal in the pool - double the tally of four years ago and the highest number since 1908.
Medal table | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. US | 24 | 18 | 18 | 60 |
2. China | 13 | 11 | 17 | 41 |
3. Great Britain | 10 | 13 | 7 | 30 |
4. Germany | 8 | 5 | 3 | 16 |
Murray and Rose eye golds
Andy Murray remains on course to win back-to-back Olympic tennis titles after seeing off Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori in the semi-finals of the singles.
Murray will face Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, who defeated Rafael Nadal in a final-set tie-break, in Sunday's gold-medal match (19:00 BST).
Justin Rose, who hit a hole-in-one earlier this week, is in the gold-medal position in the men's golf going into Sunday's final round (starts 14:39), one ahead of Open champion Henrik Stenson.
Britain are guaranteed another gold medal in the velodrome on Sunday after Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner advanced to the final (21:04) of the men's sprint.
British Olympic Association chief Bill Sweeney has said Team GB are on track to realise their goal of at least 48 medals.
Bolt back on track
Jamaica's Usain Bolt began his quest for a third successive Olympic 100m title by cruising through the opening heats.
The reigning Olympic champion at 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay clocked 10.07 seconds despite easing up 50 metres from the finish line.
American Justin Gatlin, likely to be one of Bolt's rivals in Monday's final (02:25 BST), comfortably qualified in 10.01, while Briton CJ Ujah's 10.13 saw him safely through.
Asked about American swimmer Lilly King's comments that people who have been caught doping "shouldn't be on the team", Gatlin, twice been caught using banned substances, responded: "I don't even know who Lilly King is."
Who else has gone through?
Athletics
James Dasaolu squeezed into the men's 100m semi-finals as one of the fastest losers having run in the same heat as Jamaica's Bolt.
"He's Usain Bolt to everyone, but to me he's another competitor and I focus on my lane," said the 28-year-old Briton. "I can't control what Usain does."
Team-mate James Ellington, 30, finished fifth in his heat with a time of 10.29, which was only good enough for 40th overall.
Matthew Hudson-Smith, 21, finished second in his 400m semi-final in 44.48 seconds to qualify seventh fastest for the final.
Christine Ohuruogu, the 2008 Olympic champion and runner-up in London, was second in her 400m heat with a strong performance to finish in 51.40 seconds.
Emily Diamond, who had food poisoning two nights earlier, finished fourth in heat five to join her team-mate in Sunday's semi-finals.
Seren Bundy-Davies missed out on a semi-final place in the same event, finishing seventh in heat two and 49th overall.
Other sports
British super-heavyweight Joe Joyce is through to the quarter-finals of the boxing, after a first-round stoppage win over Cape Verde's Davilson Dos Santos Morais.
In the women's hockey, unbeaten GB defeated USA 2-1 to top their group and will play their quarter-final match on Monday.
At the Aquatics Centre, Grace Reid made the final of the women's three-metre springboard diving after finishing 11th in the semi-final.
Green pool to be drained
Officials at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Park say the water polo and synchronised swimming pool will be emptied overnight and re-filled with "crystal clear" water from the warm-up pool.
The water in the diving pool will remain where it is, though, as treatment continues to reverse its green tinge.
"Hopefully this will work," said a Rio 2016 spokesman, who said it was important the synchronised swimmers had crystal clear water to compete in so they can see each another and the judges can see them perform.
Meanwhile, organisers claim ticket sales are "very promising", with 93% of tickets sold for Saturday's morning athletics session and 79% for the evening.
In other news, the only Russian due to compete in athletics - long jumper Darya Klishina - has been banned from the Games following new, but unspecified, information.
Around the Games
Only a photo could separate the top two in the men's single sculls on Saturday, but it was defending champion Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand who retained his title, despite being awarded the same time as Croat Damir Martin.
Germany's Christoph Harting followed in the footsteps of his brother Robert by winning the Olympic discus title.
Harting, whose brother failed to qualify for the final after straining his back, saved his best until last and managed a personal best of 68.37m on his sixth attempt.
Etenesh Diro received the biggest roar the Olympic Stadium has heard so far.
The Ethiopian fought on despite losing a shoe - and then whipping off her sock - with two and half laps to go in the 3,000m steeplechase semi-finals. Although she didn't qualify automatically, she was later advanced to the final on appeal.
And on day nine...
14:39: Golf - Great Britain's Justin Rose will tee off as leader in the final round with a one-shot lead over Henrik Stenson.
17:05: Windsurfing - Nick Dempsey guaranteed to win a silver when the men's RS:X medal race gets under way. 18:05: Women's race features Bryony Shaw.
19:00: Tennis - Andy Murray seeks to retain his London 2012 title in the gold-medal match against Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.
19:30: Gymnastics - Max Whitlock favourite in the pommel horse as Britain seek to claim a first-ever gymnastics Olympic gold medal, but faces competition from team-mate Louis Smith, a silver medallist at London 2012.
21:04: Cycling - Britain guaranteed a gold as defending champion Jason Kenny faces team-mate Callum Skinner for the men's sprint title.
Athletics after midnight UK time (early hours Monday)
01:00: 100m - Semi-finals. Usain Bolt - after 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay golds in 2008 and 2012 - continues his bid for an unprecedented sprint 'treble treble'.
02:00: 400m - Men's final. Two-time Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt among the contenders.
02:25: 100m final - Jamaican Bolt likely to take on American Justin Gatlin, who has twice served doping bans.
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