Britain's Caden Cunningham settles for taekwondo silver as Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe seal sensational medal in artistic swimming; Georgia Bell grabs bronze in the 1500m; Noah Williams also claimed a medal with his last two dives in 10m platform contest; plus double relay bronze
Sunday 11 August 2024 07:22, UK
Caden Cunningham had to settle for silver after being beaten by Iran's Arian Salimi in the final of the men's +80kg category in taekwondo on the penultimate day of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 21-year-old from Huddersfield won the first round 6-3 but a snaking head kick from the Iranian in round two paved the way for a comprehensive response that set up a final-round decider.
The pair remained neck and neck for much of a cagey contest but Salimi pulled away in the final 20 seconds to ensure victory for Iran.
Cunningham had battled past Cuba's former double world champion Rafael Alba and former Olympic champion Cheick Sallah Cisse of the Ivory Coast to reach an Olympic final at his first attempt.
It was the latest stage of a steep trajectory for Cunningham, who rebounded from an injury to win the World Grand Prix title in Italy in 2023, followed by European Games and European titles respectively.
Team-mate Rebecca McGowan missed out on a place on the podium when she was beaten by reigning heavyweight world champion Nafia Kus in their bronze medal match.
Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe claimed a first artistic swimming medal for Britain with silver in the women's duet.
The pair were fractionally outside the podium positions after Friday's technical routine although a score of 264.0282 was less than a point off Netherlands, who held third place overnight.
A barnstorming free routine was adjudged the best of the 17-strong field on Saturday and a score of 558.5367 points overall lifted Shortman and Thorpe above both Austria and the Dutch.
However, their hopes of gold were dashed by China, who claimed an artistic swimming double with victory by 7.9416 points.
Shortman and Thorpe edged out Dutch twin sisters Noortje and Bregje de Brouwer by the wafer-thin margin of 0.1404 points, with Austria in fourth.
The British duo, childhood friends whose mothers competed alongside one another, had high hopes of a historic medal after winning silver and bronze at the World Aquatics Championships earlier this year.
They were the only pairing that finished in the top five who are not related.
China's Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi and Ukraine's Maryna Aleksiiva and Vladyslava Aleksiiva are twins, while Austria's Anna-Maria Alexandri and Eirini-Marina Alexandri are part of a set of triplets.
Britain's Georgia Bell grabbed a bronze medal in the women's 1500m with Laura Muir coming from the back of the field to finish in fifth position.
Bell stuck to the leaders and found a kick in the final straight to take third place, shaving four seconds off her personal best.
Kenyan star Faith Kipyegon streaked away for gold in Olympic record time 3:51.29 with Jessica Hull taking silver for Australia.
Bell patiently executed her race and started to pounce on the back stretch in the final lap.
In a fairytale twist, Bell was also born in Paris.
The morning of her maiden Olympic final, Bell wrote on Instagram: "I truly feel like it's all meant to be and that my whole life has led to this moment."
Muir, the Scottish Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, started to close in as the leaders approached the final bend as the two British women sat fourth and fifth.
Bell, crowned British champion at the distance earlier this summer, found another gear in the final 100 metres to claim her first Olympic medal in a personal best 3:52.61.
Muir told the BBC: "You know what, I'm just really happy with it. I ran the fastest I ever have, I can't ask any more. I ran perfectly what I wanted to. I just knew I had to run my own race, they went off so fast at the start.
"I picked off so many people unfortunately just 10m too short but I ran absolutely what I wanted to and fastest time I ever have.
"I can't complain but congrats to Georgia - absolutely amazing."
Alex Haydock-Wilson, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Lewis Davey and Charlie Dobson sealed bronze in the men's 4x400m relay.
The United States took gold, narrowly beating Botswana's silver medallists to the line.
Haydock-Wilson led off, and though individual men's 400m silver medallist Hudson-Smith found himself locked into a battle for second, GB remained third after his second lap.
The leaders extended their advantage, and by the time Davey handed off to Dobson and he rounded the final bend, there was considerable distance both in front of and behind the British anchor.
Victoria Ohuruogu, Laviai Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin and Amber Anning made it a perfect five relay medals from five finals for Team GB with bronze in the final track event of the Paris Olympics.
It quickly became clear that no one was going to catch a dominant US team featuring Paris 200 metres individual gold medallist Gabby Thomas and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who lowered her own world record earlier this week.
It instead became a dogged battle for silver and bronze after Anning pulled Britain into second on the back straight but, as she approached the finish, found herself in a neck-and-neck battle with Netherlands and Ireland.
The United States took gold in 3:15.27, the Dutch claimed silver, and Anning held firm to claim bronze in 3:19.72.
Noah Williams snatched a bronze medal in the men's 10m platform diving final.
The 24-year-old produced a brilliant comeback to challenge for a podium place towards the end of the competition.
Williams was fourth going into the fourth round, but some over-rotation caused him to drop down to fifth.
However, he delivered a brilliant response with scores of 93.60 and 94.35 on his final two dives to claim the bronze.
He said: "I'm pretty shocked, I did bad earlier. I don't feel like I didn't deserve to get into the final.
"With the semi it was what I deserved, but I feel I am among those boys, like last year's World Championships I came fourth, this year I came seventh.
"It's not a crazy shock, but to medal is a different thing.
"I actually think it played in my advantage going first so I could only focus on myself.
"Even though I was following someone, there's a minute break between each round so it was just like training almost, go up there by myself, stand on the 10m for a while. It worked today so I can't complain."
Cao Yuan claimed gold, meaning China take a clean sweep of all diving gold medals at this Games, while Japan's Rikuto Tamai finished with silver.
Williams' team-mate Kyle Kothari had to settle for an 11th-placed finish.
This is Williams' second medal of Paris 2024 after taking silver with Tom Daley in the men's synchronised event.
Nikola Jokic grabbed the fifth triple-double in Olympic history as Serbia beat Germany 93-83 to win the men's basketball bronze medal.
Jokic finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists to help Serbia claim their first medal since winning silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Serbia bounced back after nearly upsetting four-time defending gold medallists USA in the semi-finals.
Jokic joined Sasha Belov of the former Soviet Union, the United States' LeBron James (twice) and Slovenia's Luka Doncic as the only players with Olympic triple-doubles.
The Norwegian swimmer who has gone viral for his obsession with the chocolate muffins in the Olympic village is still mulling over how he might capitalise on his new-found fame.
Henrik Christiansen, better known as 'muffin man', is still flabbergasted by the degree to which his social media following has exploded over the course of these Games, ever since he started documenting his love for the "11 out of 10" sweet treats in Paris.
Four of his TikToks have attracted more than 10 million views - the most popular video nearing nearly twice that at 17.8 million.
Christiansen, 27, said: "I think three weeks ago I had 3,000 followers on TikTok, now I'm at almost half a million. So it's been unreal. You never really think it's going to happen. You see other people blowing up like that and then you think it's never going to happen to you, but here I am.
"I think as professional athletes we are definitely in the entertainment industry, so we kind of need to produce content by doing the sport and also being on social media. We need to produce content that other people want to watch.
"That's how we can make money, so if I'm now able to earn more money from doing my sport and being able to continue doing that for longer, I would love that. I still have to see yet. Currently I haven't dived too much into it, but hopefully I can make a little bit by doing it."
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