Team GB come agonisingly near bagging two extra gold medals

Team GB has added to its huge haul of silverware at the Paris Olympics after taking over France to secure fourth on the medal table. 

Day 14 of the summer games got off to a great start for Great Britain as Toby Roberts, 19, secured the country’s first-ever climbing medal at the Olympics and a 14th British gold this summer.

There were hopes more gold medals would follow, namely on the athletics track where Katarina Johnson-Thompson looked poised to clinch the top spot in the woman’s heptathlon. 

But 31-year-old had to settle for silver after failing to overturn a sizeable deficit in tonight’s 800m finale.

Elsewhere, in the velodrome Elinor Barker and Neah Evans were unable to defend Team GB’s women’s madison title, instead coming away with another silver in the grueling team event. 

Team GB’s medal haul began just after midday when Toby Roberts secured a sensational gold medal in a gripping men’s boulder and lead final – and made history in the process.

Roberts, aged just 19, took the top step on the podium after scoring an impressive 92.1 points on the lead wall, moving his overall score to 155.2.

Japan’s Sorato Anraku, widely viewed as the overwhelming favourite to clinch the title in Paris, fell on his final climb shortly after passing the 60-point mark.

That meant that Anraku settled for the silver while Austria’s Jakob Schubert secured the bronze. Britain’s other competitor, Hamish McArthur, finished fifth.

In topping the standings, Roberts, nicknamed ‘The Terminator’, secured Team GB’s first-ever climbing medal at the Olympics and a 14th British gold this summer.

Unable to believe his win, Roberts placed his head in his hands in disbelief after Anraku slipped on the ascent up the wall at the Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue.

Roberts, who honed his climbing skills on a DIY wall in his dad’s garden, had finished second in the first part of the final, contested over four boulders.

The Surrey-born talent then moved into provisional gold with only Anraku to come.

However, needing only to match Roberts’ score to push the Brit down into silver, the Japanese world silver medallist lost his grip and fell in a major shock.

Eslewhere, Johnson-Thompson had been top of the heptathlon standings heading into day two of the event after winning the 200m race in front of a raucous crowd at the Stade de France on Thursday.

She then further solidified her lead during the javelin with a season-best throw of 45.49m on her third attempt that established a strong gap at the top of the standings.

However, a nervous wait for Thiam to throw quickly turned into a disaster for Johnson-Thompson when her Belgian rival produced a monster 54.04m opening effort.

Liverpool-born Johnson-Thompson then faced the prospect of needing to make up a huge eight-second time deficit in the evening’s 800m race.

Friday had initially got off to the perfect start with Johnson-Thompson winning the long jump and starting with a strong opening javelin throw of 44.64m which was the highest amongst competitors following first attempts.

Her second effort produced a rare error from the 31-year-old as officials showed a red flag for stepping over the throwing line before she corrected with a huge third attempt.

But, the javelin is one of the strongest disciplines for double-Olympic champion Thiam who immediately produced a season-best throw of her own with a first throw of 54.04m that was over eight metres clear of Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s best effort.

The massive throw moved the Belgian star onto 939 points, overtaking her Team GB rival who remained on 818 points following her three respectable attempts.

Thiam’s second effort was similarly shown a red flag, but it made little difference to her overall control in the heptathlon as Johnson-Thompson watched on.

She then threw a 52.56m effort on her final attempt that gives her an overall lead of 121 points in the heptathlon heading into the evening’s 800m race.

While a win was possible, the task required Johnson-Thompson to run the race of a lifetime on a wet surface under the lights of the Stade de France and had to win the contest by eight-and-a-half seconds or more.

And she did exactly that, running a personal best time of 2mins 4.90secs as Team USA’s Anna Hall led the pace at the front.

But the Brit was only able to gain a six second lead over her fierce rival, leaving her painfully short of a gold once again.

Earlier in the night Team GB’s men took a dramatic bronze in the 4x100m, matching Great Britain’s women with a podium position in rain-drenched Stade de France.

Zharnel Hughes rocketed the quartet to a medal in the anchor leg, following runs from teammates Jeremiah Azu, Louie Hinchliffe and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake to finish in 37.61.

Canada’s veterans were the surprise package, however, with their quartet of ‘old war horses’ storming to gold, followed by South Africa for silver.

Yet again it was another race to forget for the USA’s relay team, who ended up being disqualified after their first baton exchange.

The Canadian quartet of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, and Andre De Grasse won from lane nine with a season’s best of 37.50 seconds.

South Africa’s relay runners clocked in at 37.57 for a silver-medal podium place. Italy finished just outside the medals in fourth at 37.68, with hosts France tumbling to sixth in 37.81.

It will be a race to forget for the US’s men, however, after a disastrous first changeover by Christian Coleman and Kenny Benarek, led to their eventual disqualification.

The result condemns the US – who were without the Covid-stricken men’s 100m champion, Noah Lyles – to yet another medal-less Games in the men’s relay, having not podiumed in the race since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Bronze will be particularly sweet for Great Britain’s Hughes, who missed out on participating in the men’s 200m earlier in the week through injury.

He was also a part of the men’s 4x100m silver medal-winning team in Tokyo, who were subsequently stripped of their medals after CJ Ujah returned a positive test for a prohibited substance.

A bronze represents well-deserved Olympic recognition for Hughes after Tokyo heartbreak.

For three of the women’s quartet, meanwhile, silver represents an upgrade on the bronze medal they won at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Dina Asher-Smith, Imani Lansiquot and Daryll Neita podiumed third together three years ago, and will now enjoy silver with Amy Hunt, who completed the quartet this year in Paris.

The women had two tricky changeovers as the heavens opened over the Stade de France, but Neita was superb on the anchor leg, almost pipping women’s 100m silver medallist, Sha’Carri Richardson, to gold.

In the velodrome, Jack Carlin has clinched a bronze medal in the men’s sprint at the velodrome after beating Dutch rival Jeffrey Hoogland across three dramatic races.

The Scot backed up his silver in the team sprint earlier in the week with yet another medal in Paris this afternoon but the contest was riddled with controversy.

After winning the first race, Hoogland tied it up in the second before Carlin collided with the Dutchman in the decider, leaving a nervous wait for the judges’ decision.

The Brit was actually lucky to make it to the latter stages of the event having gone into the bronze-medal match on a yellow card after a crash in an earlier round.

But the officials let him off and the Scot took full advantage in the decider to hold off Hoogland and go home with a bronze.

Elinor Barker and Neah Evans bagged Great Britain’s sixth medal in the sport in Paris this afternoon – just one fewer than the total achieved in Tokyo three years ago.

The pair replaced the reigning Olympic champions Katie Archibald, who is injured, and Laura Kenny, who is retired and now watched from the BBC studio, who clinched gold in the often chaotic team event in 2021.

They went into the race as hot contenders having won the format at the World Championships in Glasgow last year.

And despite taking an early lead in the velodrome today, the duo faded fast and were soon eclipsed by the Italian and Dutch teams, who left them in the bronze medal spot with what seemed to be a mountain to climb to turn it around.

But turn it around they did and a pulsating final sprint saw Barker speed past the Netherlands pair and drag Team GB to a silver medal finish.