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Great Britain picked up four medals on day nine of the Paris Olympics.
There were silvers for shooter Amber Rutter in a controversial women’s skeet final and golfer Tommy Fleetwood in the men’s individual competition.
Bronze medals were also won by Charlotte Fry in the dressage Grand Prix Freestyle and gymnast Harry Hepworth in the men’s vault on his Olympic debut.
We look back on another successful day in France for Team GB that has taken the overall total to 37 medals – 10 gold, 12 silver and 15 bronze.
Shoot-off agony
Amber Rutter’s remarkable story of Olympic redemption was overshadowed by controversy in a sudden-death shoot-off after a gripping women’s skeet final in the scorching heat of Chateauroux.
Three years after missing the Tokyo Games due to a positive Covid test, and just over three months after giving birth to her baby son Tommy, Rutter settled for a silver medal after being edged out by Chile’s Francisca Crovetto.
Rutter was surprised by her son and husband James moments after the final concluded when she missed her sixth extra shot, despite television replays appearing to show that she had clipped the target.
Lyles by a whisker
World sprint champion Noah Lyles won a dramatic men’s 100 metre final by the tiniest of margins as he edged out Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by just five thousandths of a second.Under the lights at the Stade de France both men clocked a time of 9.79 seconds and could only wait for the results to be confirmed in a photo finish.
Lyles’ United States team-mate Fred Kerley rounded out the podium with a time of 9.81 seconds.
Rock on Tommy
Tommy Fleetwood said he never imagined winning an Olympic medal when he began playing golf.
Fleetwood fired a final-day 66 at Le Golf National to take silver for Great Britain, one shot behind world number one Scottie Scheffler who equalled the course record of 62 on the final day at Le Golf National.
“Standing on that podium with a medal is one of the most amazing moments I’ve had as a golfer,” said Fleetwood. “As a young boy taking up the game I never dreamed to be an Olympian and winning an Olympic medal is never on your agenda.”
Fry’s delight
Charlotte Fry won her first individual Olympic medal in the dressage Grand Prix Freestyle.
Fresh from winning bronze in the team event on Saturday, Fry and her stallion Glamourdale achieved a mark of 88.971 per cent to secure another bronze, behind German riders Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Isabell Werth.
The competition went down to the final rider, with Cathrine Laudrup-Dafour scoring 88.093 per cent to ensure Fry’s position on the podium, although she admitted she was unaware of her win until the very last moment.
Happy Harry
British gymnast Harry Hepworth described his Olympic Games debut as a “crazy experience”.
The 20-year-old finished third in the men’s vault competition behind Carlos Edriel Yulo of the Philippines, who claimed gold, and Armenia’s Artur Davtyan, who took silver.
Hepworth’s bronze medal success came just over an hour after he finished seventh in the men’s rings final.
Penalty pain
Team GB’s men’s hockey side were left to rue a major missed opportunity after losing in the Olympic quarter-finals to 10-man India on a penalty shoot-out.
Britain have not won a medal in men’s hockey since taking gold in 1988, and when Amit Rohidas was sent off early in the second quarter for catching Will Calman in the face with his stick the odds on ending that run had shortened.
But the game ended 1-1 after 60 minutes and India, who also defeated Britain at the same stage in Tokyo, were flawless in a 4-2 victory in the shoot-out.
