‘I thought I finished first’: Matt Richards wins silver in nail-biting freestyle race
29 July 2024, 22:44 | Updated: 29 July 2024, 22:45
This marked Team GB's sixth medal of day three and took their overall total to 10.
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Matt Richards missed out on Olympic gold by two-hundredths of a second on Monday as he took home silver in the 200m freestyle in Paris.
Richards, 21, came painfully close to beating Romania’s rising star David Popovici, 19, who pipped him to gold.
This comes just one day after Brit Adam Peaty missed out on gold by a similar margin in 100m breaststroke.
Richards was so close in fact, that he thought he passed the finish line first but failed to put enough pressure on the finishing touchpad.
"That's something I've got to work on and make sure it doesn't happen again," the Welshman said.
“I thought I had got it. The time says differently. It’s not a sport where it’s up for debate – it’s black and white.
“I can’t be too disappointed. Obviously two one hundredths off gold is excruciatingly frustrating. If anything it has added more fire to my belly.”
This marked Team GB's sixth medal of day three and takes their overall total to 10.
It came after mountain biker Tom Pidcock clinched gold in dramatic fashion hours after Great Britain's eventing team successfully defended their title.
Pidcock took his second consecutive Olympic mountain bike gold at the Paris Olympic Games despite suffering a puncture during the race.
Pidcock's race was in danger of unravelling when he suffered a flat front tyre on the fourth of eight laps, shortly after he had taken control of the 35km race with an attack which split the pack.
Having fallen 40 seconds behind French hope Victor Koretzky, Pidcock fought his way back to reclaim the lead with a lap and a half to go.
The pair traded blows in the last couple of kilometres - dramatically touching wheels - before Pidcock burst forward to take the win.
Pidcock finished the race with a time of 1:26.22, just 0.09 seconds clear of Koretzky.
South Africa's Alan Hatherly took bronze, Pidcock's Team GB team-mate Charlie Aldridge finishing a very respectable eighth.
