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Today at the Olympics: Great Britain rakes in the gold

by editor

Day three of the Tokyo Olympics is underway and Great Britain came prepared, securing its first three gold medals in quick succession.

There is plenty of metal up for grabs for some of the 11,000 athletes battling it out today with finals in skateboarding, swimming, diving, archery, canoe, shooting, and cycling.

Other events also underway today include men”s handball and volleyball, tennis, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, judo and taekwondo among others.

Here’s a recap of the medal events:

Teen spirit

The podium at the women’s street skateboarding event had an average age of 14 on Monday.

Thirteen-year-old Momiji Nishiya of Japan clinched the gold at the event’s debut at the Olympics. The silver medal went to Brazil’s Rayssa Leal, also 13, while Funa Nakayama, 16, secured the bronze for Japan.

“It’s going to change the whole game,” U.S. skater Mariah Duran said. “This is like opening at least one door to, you know, many skaters who are having the conversations with their parents, who want to start skating.

“I’m not surprised if there’s probably already like 500 girls getting a board today,” she added.

Golden boy

Adam Peaty, 26, won Great Britain its first gold medal of the competition after successfully defending his title in the men’s 100m breaststroke.

Peaty has been undefeated in the 100m discipline for seven years and his latest bit of bling adds to his eight world titles and 16 European titles.

“It just means the world to me, I thought I had the best preparation but morning finals changed everything and threw that out of the window,” he said in a statement.

“You can do whatever you want in your own pool but when it comes to being out here it’s not about time. I was racing myself. It wasn’t about the time but the race,” he added.

Swimming in medals

Plenty more swimming to catch up on:

  • The USA sucessfully swam for gold at the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay
  • Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, nicknamed the “Terminator,” won the women’s 400m freestyle
  • Canada’s Margaret MacNeil bagged herself a gold medal in the women’s 100m butterfly

Diving for gold

Hard on the heels of its first gold medal of these games, Great Britain secured a second with Tom Daley and Matty Lee coming on top in the men’s synchronised 10m platform event.

They beat second-placed China by just 1.23 points.

It’s the first gold medal for Daley, 27, who made his Olympic debut aged 14 in Beijing and then won bronze in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Men’s triathlon

Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt won the men’s triathlon Olympic gold medal following a three-way battle for the title.

“That finished tape has been something I’ve been dreaming about for so many years. And to actually be able to put it together on the day is something I’m really proud of,” he said after his win.

Alex Yee of Great Britain won the silver in the Tokyo 2020 swim-bike-run event for Great Britain’s sixth Olympic medal in triathlon.

And Hayden Wilde claimed the bronze for New Zealand’s first medal of the Tokyo 2020.

Cross-country mountain biking

Team GB podiumed again with Tom Pidcock’s gold in the cross-country mountain bike event.

Pidcock, 21, won the World Cup race at Nove Mesto earlier this year to become the Olympic favourite. But he was then hit by a car and broke his collarbone on a training ride, keeping him off a bike for about a week in June, putting his Olympic hopes in jeopardy.

Yet on Monday, he dominated the toughest course in Olympic history leaving reigning champion Nino Schurter and his Swiss teammate Mathias Flueckiger behind on the fourth of seven laps.

Slaloming to victory

Europeans dominated the men’s canoe slalom event with gold going to Slovenia’s Benjamin Savsek.

He was joined on the podium by Czech Republic’s Lukas Rohan and Germany’s Sideris Tasiadis.

Savsek’s and Rohan’s first and second place gave their respective countries their first medal of these summer Olympics.

Skeet shooting

Skeet shooting was a Team USA event with Vincent Hancock and Amber English winning gold in the men’s and women’s events respectively.

For Hancock, it’s the third gold medal, having won in Beijing and London, while English secured her very first gold. But both set new Olympic records on Monday.

Men’s archery

South Korea defended its Olympic men’s archery team title with a 6-0 win over Chinese Taipei during the gold-medal match. (An IOC arrangement from 1979 known as the Nagoya Resolution allows Taiwanese athletes to compete internationally but not under their own name, flag or anthem – hence the team is called Chinese Taipei).

In the bronze medal match, Hiroki Muto helped Japan beat the Netherlands in a shoot-off with a walk-off arrow that nearly landed in the heart of the target.

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