Britain moves up to third in Olympic medal table, with trampolining, rowing and showjumping golds

2 August 2024, 15:16

Britain has moved up to third in the Olympics medal table after first-place finishes in the women's trampolining, showjumping, and rowing - taking Team GB's gold medal count to seven.

Bryony Page's first-place finish in the trampolining followed up her silver and bronze medals at the previous two games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

Team GB also won gold in the equestrian team jumping on Friday, as a team made up of riders Scott Brash, Ben Maher and Harry Charles beat the US and France in the final.

Earlier in the day, Emily Craig and Imogen Grant won gold in the women's lightweight double sculls, defeating Romania and Greece.

Elsewhere, Ollie Wynn-Griffiths and Tom George took silver in the men's coxless pair rowing, after being pipped at the line by the Croatian team, and Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher took bronze in the men's synchronised 3m springboard diving.

As of Friday afternoon, Britain is third in the medal table with nine golds, behind China on 12 and the US, which also has nine gold but has more silvers and golds.

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Page went into this year's trampolining Olympic competition as the gold medal favourite and reigning world champion.

With 56.480 points, the 33-year-old beat Belarus' Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya into second and the Canadian Sophiane Methot into third.

Bardzilouskaya's silver was the first medal won by a member of the Individual Neutral Athletes team, set up for approved Russian and Belarusian athletes in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

Page held her head in her hands, cried and leapt for joy after her score was confirmed at the Bercy Arena.

Her silver medal in Rio eight years ago had been a surprise, which she followed up with bronze in Tokyo in 2021.

In the equestrian team jumping final, the USA pushed Team GB right to the end in a dramatic contest.

The US' McLain Ward completed a clear run with no time penalties, pushing his country to the top of the standings with just France and Great Britain to go.

Julien Epaillard took down a fence which put France out of gold contention.

But a clear run for Team GB's Brash with just one time penalty secured the win for the British team.

Maher won individual gold in Tokyo three years ago, while both he and Brash were members of the team that secured gold in 2012. It was a first Olympic medal for Charles, whose father Peter was also in the London squad.

In the women's lightweight double sculls final, Grant and Craig beat Romania and Greece into the silver and bronze positions respectively.

Craig and Grant, who finished just 0.01 seconds off the podium in Tokyo three years ago, started the race as favourites, unbeaten during this Olympiad, and delivered on that promise as they won by 1.72 seconds from Romania.

The British pair were slightly slow from the off but nosed in front after 400 metres and continued to pull away, moving a second ahead by the mid-point of the race and then finding clear water to give themselves a cushion to hold off the late Romanian sprint.

In the men's coxless rowing pair final, George and Wynne-Griffith ended up in second place despite leading for much of the race after a powerful finish by Croatia, whose rowers took gold.

In the men's synchronised diving, Harding and Laugher scored a massive 94.62 on their final dive to secure a place on the podium.

They had jumped between second and third throughout the competition. It was Laugher's fourth Olympic medal and Harding's first. China took gold while Mexico won silver.