Great Britain celebrated two gold medals on ‘Wonderful Wednesday’ as Alex Yee and the women’s quadruple sculls team enjoyed Olympic success in Paris.
Yee came home first in the men’s triathlon after the event was finally completed after yesterday’s postponement due to concerns over the cleanliness of the water in the River Seine.
The Londoner turned on the afterburners to sprint past New Zealander Hayden Wilde over the final kilometre to take gold in a time of one hour, 43:33. Wilde took silver and Leo Bergere bronze for France.
Don’t count him out!
The moment @LIXSANYEE completed his epic comeback to win the men’s triathlon. 😮💨#PARIS2024 #OLYMPICS PIC.TWITTER.COM/PFGDEJK5CU
— Team GB (@TeamGB) JULY 31, 2024
“Almost two laps in I thought silver was on the cards,” he said as he faced up to finishing second as he did in Tokyo three years ago.
“I owed it to myself to give myself one last chance and with about 2k to go I thought I’d give it everything I had. I’m just so proud I was able to do that for my family, for everyone who has worked hard, for my girlfriend Liv.
“There’s so many more people than just me that have worked towards this. I am the lucky one who gets to do it.”
Fifteen minutes later and Team GB had another gold – their sixth of the Games – when rowers Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw edged out the Netherlands via a photo finish.
The Dutch were half a boat clear with 200metres to go before the Brits stormed back to win by 0.15 seconds.
“I still can’t quite believe it,” Scott told BBC One. “We kept it so cool to the end. We had the confidence, we know we’ve done so many hard miles in training. The immensity of it hasn’t caught up with me yet.”
A photo finish! 😉📸 PIC.TWITTER.COM/DR8JAOGKVE
— Team GB (@TeamGB) JULY 31, 2024
Kieran Reilly won the silver for Britain in the men’s BMX behind Argentina’s Jose Torres Gil.
The reigning world champion finished ahead of home favourite Anthony Jeanjean who took bronze.
Reilly said: “It definitely didn’t let me down at all with the expectations for the Games. It was just as good as expected, just the spectacle that I thought it would be.
“Being here, I’ve really tried to take everything in and I’ve been super proud of making it to this stage. To get silver is the icing on the cake and I’m so proud of my ride that I got to put down today. The level in the finals was just insane and I had the best support to pull off a medal. I will be leaving here with a big smile on my face.”
Team GB also emerged with two bronze medals today.
Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix – daughter of TV star Fred Sirieix – and Lois Toulson took third position in the women’s synchronised 10m platform while Beth Potter set the stage for Yee’s later heroics by taking bronze in the women’s triathlon.
