Paris Olympics: Saturday’s top stories from day eight of Games

Team GB added six more medals, including one gold, on day eight of the Olympics to take their total medal haul up to 33.

The 10th British gold of Paris 2024 was won in the men’s rowing eights on Saturday, and put GB fifth in the medal table.

The women’s eights won a hard-earned bronze, as the rowing team reached historic heights in the French capital.

GB’s equestrian team continued their impressive Games with a bronze in the team dressage, but missed the chance to complete an unprecedented equestrian clean sweep following golds in team eventing and jumping.

In the gymnastics, American superstar Simone Biles won her third gold of the Games in the vault, while Team Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan became the new Olympic pommel horse champion.

GB’s Max Whitlock missed out on a history-making medal in the same final, but there was success for Jake Jarman, who claimed bronze on floor.

Meanwhile, there were mixed fortunes on the track, as Louie Hinchliffe won his men’s 100m heat – but team-mate Jeremiah Azu was disqualified.

St Lucia’s Julien Alfred stormed to the women’s 100m title to make history as her nation’s first ever Olympic medallist, but GB’s Daryll Neita finished four-hundredths of a second off the podium in fourth.

There was success in the 4×400 mixed relay, with Great Britain securing bronze.

There was also bronze for Emma Wilson in the windsurfing, GB’s first sailing medal at Paris 2024. However, she was disappointed to miss out on gold having dominated the earlier rounds and said she was “done with the sport”.

In the pool, Adam Peaty made his return from Covid to help the team qualify for the mixed medley relay final. But he didn’t feature in that final, with GB’s Kathleen Dawson, James Wilby, Duncan Scott and Anna Hopkin finishing seventh.

The final day of rowing competition at the 2024 Games brought medals for Team GB in both blue riband events.

Firstly, the women’s eights took bronze after a close battle with Canada, who won silver, while Romania ran away with gold.

Then came the men, who were neck-and-neck with the Netherlands at the halfway mark before charging away in the final 500m to emulate the gold they won in this event in 2016.

Cox Harry Brightmore was on his feet in the boat, pointing out each of the eight rowers to congratulate them on their achievement.

This was GB’s eighth rowing medal in Paris, making it their best medal tally for an overseas games. They won nine in 2012 and eight in 1908 – both in London.

Gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky both won gold to add to their extensive Olympic medal collections.

American superstar Biles, 27, secured her third gold of the Paris Games when she took the vault title on Saturday in emphatic fashion.

It was another of the titles she first won at Rio 2016, then lost in Tokyo when she pulled out of several events with the ‘twisties’.

Meanwhile, in the La Defense Arena, legendary swimmer Ledecky won the women’s 800m freestyle final for the fourth consecutive time.

The 27-year-old is the first female swimmer, and the only swimmer other than the great Michael Phelps, to win the same Olympic event four times in a row.

The United States’ most decorated female Olympian now has nine golds and 14 Olympic medals overall.

Team Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan won pommel horse gold as Great Britain’s Max Whitlock missed out on a medal in his final Games.

McClenaghan, 25, added to his two World Championship titles, three European golds and one Commonwealth gold by becoming Olympic champion on pommel horse.

Defending champion Whitlock, who was going for an unprecedented fourth consecutive medal on the same gymnastics apparatus, finished fourth and said he was now “done” competing.

There was, however, success for Team GB at the Bercy arena, with Olympic debutant Jake Jarman claiming bronze in the floor final.

The 22-year-old will have another chance for a medal on Sunday in the men’s vault final.

On a rainy and raucous night at the Stade de France, Julien Alfred led from start to finish to secure a surprise gold in the women’s 100m final.

In doing so, the 23-year-old made history by winning St Lucia’s first ever medal at the Olympic Games in a national record time of 10.72 seconds.

Afterwards, she revealed she watched “all Usain Bolt’s races this morning”, taking inspiration from the record-breaking Jamaican running legend.

American world champion Sha’Carri Richardson took silver in 10.87, with compatriot Melissa Jefferson (10.92) third.

Great Britain’s Daryll Neita finished four-hundredths of a second off the podium in fourth, crossing the line in 10.96.

Neita produced the highest-placed finish by a British female athlete in an Olympic sprint final for 64 years, but said afterwards she was “finding it hard to find words” after coming “so close” to a first individual global medal.

Her British team-mates Dina Asher-Smith and Imani Lansiquot earlier failed to make the final, while Jamaican sprint icon Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce withdrew before her semi-final.

Hinchliffe, the British sprinter trained by US Olympic great Carl Lewis, laid down a marker in the men’s 100m heats.

He won his heat in 9.98 seconds, ahead of highly fancied Noah Lyles of the USA, before GB’s Zharnel Hughes also progressed.

But before that, the men’s 100m – arguably the highlight of the Olympics in male competition – could not have got off to a worse start for Team GB.

It was heartbreak for Azu as he was disqualified from his heat for a false start.

The 23-year-old from Cardiff – who ran 9.97 seconds in May, one of the top 10 times ever by a British athlete – fiercely fought his case, but eventually left the track in the most disappointing fashion.

Hinchliffe and Hughes will aim to make the final when they go in the semis from 19:05 BST on Sunday.

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