Tokyo 2020 continues to thrill, with Great Britain collecting more medals on Wednesday and some high-profile casualties being eliminated from competition.
Day five has had almost as many thrills and spills as the previous four days, with history made in the individual dressage, and that’s where we start today’s round-up…
Dujardin becomes Great Britain’s most successful female athlete
Charlotte Dujardin became Britain’s most successful female Olympian in history as she earned bronze in the individual dressage to claim a sixth career medal, taking her past 1920s tennis star Kitty McKane and modern-day rowing great Katherine Grainger at the top of the all-time list.
Dujardin held off Dorothee Schneider to finish third, claiming a second career equestrian bronze to go with three golds and one silver over the course of three Olympic campaigns.
Another swimming gold for GB
Britain’s magnificent run of success in the pool continued with a stunning gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay as Tom Dean, James Guy, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott fell just 0.03 seconds short of the world record.
The quartet kept pace with the fast-starting Americans to begin with, then Richards’ wonderful third leg saw them pull clear. And when Scott took over for the final 200 metres it became clear that the Brits weren’t going to be caught as the USA faded and the Russian foursome finished second with Australia in third.
Men’s four almost crash after steering woe
Great Britain’s bid for a sixth successive men’s four gold ended in spectacular style as the GB boat veered wildly off course, almost colliding with the Italian boat as a result.
An emotional OIlie Cook wiped away tears as he explained afterwards that he had forgot to steer for a while during the crucial final 500 metres as the team attempted to row to another medal with an excellent Australia quartet pulling clear.
The error resulted in the Brits finishing fourth.
Andy Murray’s bid for third gold ends with doubles defeat
Having pulled out of the men’s singles event he won in both London and Rio, Andy Murray’s hopes of claiming a third Olympic gold in the men’s doubles with Joe Salisbury came to an end at the quarter-final stage.
The British pair were beaten 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 10-7 by Croatia’s Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig, and Liam Broady’s three-set defeat to France’s Jeremy Chardy in the singles ended British involvement entirely in the tennis.
Fiji win men’s rugby sevens
Fiji followed up their country’s first-ever Olympic gold in Rio in 2016 by defending their rugby sevens title with a 27-12 victory over New Zealand.
For a nation dealing with a severe spike in Covid-19 related deaths, the news will have come as welcome relief, with videos quickly being shared of fans back home celebrating the incredible feats of their team.
Great Britain missed out on bronze with a narrow 17-12 loss to Argentina.
Germany crash out of men’s football event
2016 finalists Germany were dumped out of the men’s football as a 1-1 draw with Cote d’Ivoire left them short of the victory they needed to progress to the quarter-finals.
Eduard Loewen’s second-half free-kick cancelled out a Benjamin Henrichs own goal but the Germans couldn’t find the crucial second goal which would have sent them through.
Elsewhere, defending champions Brazil made it through to the last eight with a 3-1 win over Saudi Arabia, with Richarlison’s brace helping them to set up a quarter-final against Egypt in Saitama in Saturday.
