Gregg Covers Sport

France took a clean sweep of the medals in the men’s BMX racing final while TeamGB increased their gold medal tally to nine after excellent performances in the Rowing, Trampolining and Equestrian on Day 7 of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

As the sun set on the Place de La Concorde just south of Paris, the fireworks were to be found in the BMX Racing. Of the world’s Top 10 male riders, the host nation France have seven of them, but they could only take three in their squad. The packed crowd expected gold, the whole country expected gold, but even the most optimistic of fans couldn’t have predicted just how dominant they would be. Joris Daudet, Sylvain Andre and Romain Mahieu delivered for Les Blues when it mattered, taking gold, silver and bronze respectively, sparking wild scenes of jubilation and parties that I’m sure will go on long into the night.

In the women’s race it came down to the clashing strategies of Australia’s Saya Sakakibara and Great Britain’s Bethany Shriever, the defending Olympic Champion from Tokyo. Shriever favoured starting in Lane 6, giving herself a slightly longer distance to travel into the first turn but allowing herself more room to manoeuvre and choose her ideal line. Sakakibara on other hand preferred Lane 1, giving the most direct route to the first turn and the shortest distance to cover. Both strategies had worked flawlessly on route to the final, with both riders winning all six of their races, but in a final their can only be one winner, and it was the Aussie who clinched gold, with Shriever’s tactic coming undone as she was boxed out before the first turn and ultimately finished last.     

Emily Craig and Isabel Grant came in to today’s women’s lightweight double sculls Final unbeaten in the last three years since finishing 4^th in Tokyo at the last Olympics, and this time they weren’t to be denied Olympic Gold as they finished 1.7 seconds ahead of the Romanian pairing in second. The Lightweight Rowing is being taking off the calendar for 2028 in Los Angeles 2and so Craig and Grant will go into the history books as the defending Olympic Champions forever.

Elsewhere in the Rowing there was an agonising silver medal in the men’s coxless pair as Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George were overtaken just before the line by the Sinkovic brothers from Croatia.

From on the water to in it, and France’s poster boy for the Games Leon Marchand won his fourth gold medal in the Paris pool, this time in the 200m medley, to finish off what has been an incredible week for the man born in Toulouse. Team GB’s Duncan Scott took silver behind Marchand, the sixth silver medal of his career, whilst compatriot Tom Dean finished in fifth.

Moments before, Ben Proud had won the first Olympic medal of his career as he took silver in the 50m freestyle dash, finishing just 0.05 seconds behind Australia’s Cam McEvoy.

In the Equestrian, a near faultless run from Team GB’s Scott Brash, Ben Maher and Harry Charles meant they claimed gold in the team jumping event. Brash, riding on his horse Jefferson, put in a perfect final run after Maher and Charles had only collected two time faults between them in their respective runs.

It was third time lucky for Team GB’s Bryony Page as she became the first British athlete to win gold in the Trampolining. Page had previously taken home silver from Rio in 2016 and a bronze from Tokyo. Meanwhile in the men’s event there was also history for Team GB, as Zak Perzamanos claimed the highest ever finish for a male in the event, finishing just outside the medal places in fourth.

Finally, there was gold for Joshua Cheptegei in the men’s 10,000m as the athletics programme went into its second day. Channelling an essence of Sir Mo Farah, the Ugandan athlete kicked on from the back with three laps to go to lead the chasing pack home to secure his second Olympic gold medal after his gold in the 5,000m’s in Tokyo, shattering the Olympic record in the process.