Paris Olympics 2024 - Day 6

Afternoon Summary

Hockey

A victorious day for Great Britain's men's and women's hockey teams as they both progress into the quarter-finals of the Olympic games.

In the men's event, Team GB prevailed over the home nation, with James Albery scoring in the final quarter. It was a scoreless first quarter, but in the second France's Timothee Clement slotted one past the British keeper, Ollie Payne. Eleven minutes later in the third quarter, Zach Wallace levelled the playing field with his goal. Great Britain has qualified for the quarter-finals, as they sit in second place in pool A behind Germany and in front of Netherlands and Spain, who have also qualified. This means that South Africa and France, both trailing at the bottom of the standings with one point each, have been eliminated.

The women's team later dismantled the United States of America by burying five goals to their two. Britain's Sophie Hamilton opened the scoring in the fourth minute of the first quarter, but a few minutes later Abigail Tamer equalised for Team USA. It was another close second quarter with Tess Howard grabbing a brace for Great Britain before Abigail Tamer scored again before half-time. The second half was when it got ugly for the United States, with Hannah French and Sarah Jones putting the game to bed with one goal each, as the final score read 5-2 to Great Britain. This secured Team GB's second win of the tournament and their qualification for the quarter-finals. They will be joined by Australia, Argentina and Spain from Pool B, alongside Belgium and the Netherlands from Pool A.

Morning Summary

Swimming

A very successful morning in swimming with most of Team GB's athletes progressing from their heats in their respective events.

Honey Osrin and Katie Shanahan qualified for the Women's 200m Backstroke semi-final, as they finished second and fifth in their respective heats. Olympic debutant, Osrin, finished behind Canadian, Kylie Masse, as the British 200m backstroke champion, and double silver medalist at the 2019 European Junior Championship, is hoping to apply pressure on the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder, Kaylee McKeown. Shanahan, regardless of finishing fifth, produced a fast enough time (2:09.92) to qualify comfortably inside the fastest sixteen, 0.35 seconds behind her British team-mate.

Benjamin Proud won his heat in the Men's 50m Freestyle, producing the fifth-fastest time overall, which trailed Australia's Cameron McEvoy's target of 21.32 by 0.38 seconds. Olympic champion Caleb Dressel survived qualification in 13th place. Unfortunately for Great Britain, Proud's team-mate, Alexander Cohoon, did not conjure a fast enough time to progress into the semi-finals and was eliminated from the event, finishing fifth in his heat with a time of 22.31, 0.99 seconds off the pace.

Duncan Scott and Tom Dean manufactured two very convincing swims in their Men's 200m Individual Medley heats. Scott produced the second fastest time overall, shadowing Japan's Daiya Seto, while beating French superstar Leon Marchand to the win. Marchand won two gold medals yesterday evening in the Men's 200m Butterfly and 200m Breastroke, accomplishing two Olympic records in the process, as he pursues a fourth gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Tom Dean finished fourth in his heat, the same race where Seto set the fastest time, achieving 7th place overall. Both Brits will compete in the same semi-final, which is scheduled for 20:47pm BST tonight.

(image from dailystar.co.uk)

Great Britain has qualified for the final of the Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay as Freya Anderson, Abbie Wood, Lucy Hope and Medi Eira Harris come third in their heat against the United States, Brazil and New Zealand - who have all qualified for the final. Team GB will also face reigning Olympic champions China, Australia, who were the fastest overall, Hungary and Canada, in tonight's title contest, commencing at 21:03pm BST.

Rowing

Three medals for Team GB in the rowing events today. Great Britain came extremely close to acquiring their seventh gold medal of the Paris Olympic Games in the Women's Four final but fell short of a very strong Netherlands quad.

(image from skysports.com)

Helen Glover, double Olympic champion competing in her fourth games, and Rebecca Shorten accompanied Olympic debutants Esme Booth and Sam Redgrave, who is unrelated to the legendary five-time Olympic gold medalist, Sir Steve Redgrave, as they began their campaign in Paris on the 28th of July. They automatically qualified for the final from their heat, beating New Zealand, who won bronze in the final, China, the USA and Denmark. The Netherlands, who won gold in the final, automatically qualified alongside Romania in the other heat. In today's final, the Netherlands exhibited a dominant display, which was almost spoiled by Team GB towards the conclusion of the race, but the Dutch were too strong for the British and only 0.18 seconds could separate the two. Great Britain had to settle for silver.

Great Britain achieved two more bronze medals in the Women's Double Sculls and the Men's Four Finals. Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Rebecca Wilde couldn't match the pace of New Zealand and Romania, which was an identical scenario to that of Oliver Wilkes, David Ambler, Matt Aldridge and Freddie Davidson, who couldn't catch the United States of America and New Zealand.