Tuesday, 10 August 2021

Tokyo 2020+1 - Kennys keep their Golden Touch



JASON KENNY became the outright most successful British Olympian of all time after he won a seventh career Olympic gold medal with victory in the men's Keirin on the last day of action in Tokyo.

Earlier last week, his wife - Closing Ceremony flagbearer Laura Kenny - had become the top female British Olympian by winning her fifth career Olympic gold medal alongside Katie Archibald in the women's Madison. 

And, certainly, on the back of this performance, it can now be said that the supposed demise of British track cycling had been much exaggerated. 

Beyond the Kennys, Matthew Walls became an Olympic champion in the men's Omnium and later added a silver in the Madison alongside Ethan Hayter. Additionally, Jack Carlin continued to show promise by taking bronze in the men's sprint. 

There was not such good news from the Olympic Stadium where Britain failed to win a gold medal in athletics for the first time since the complete flop at the Atlanta Games in 1996.

In fairness, the outcome was not too much of a surprise, especially when big medal chances - heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson (calf) and sprinter Dina Asher-Smith (hamstring) - both pulled up during their events with injuries. 

To her credit, Asher-Smith recovered sufficiently to secure a bronze the 4 x 100m relay alongside Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot and Daryll Neita. 

Undoubtedly, though, the men's equivalent event was the closest that Team GB came to athletics gold all week - and it really was painfully close.

CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake ran 37.51 seconds to be beaten by the Italian quartet by one-hundredth of a second. 

It completed a remarkable summer for Italy following triumphs in the Euro 2020+1 Final and, through Marcell Jacobs, a men's 100m Final from which Hughes was disqualified for a false start.

Elsewhere, in the women's 1500m, Laura Muir enjoyed a Tom Daley-esque moment of redemption as she took silver after so many near-misses in the major championships over the years. 

Then, in the men's 1500m, fellow Scot Josh Kerr won bronze in the second-fastest British time ever behind only Mo Farah and ahead of the likes of Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram. 

Kerr, aged 23, should have plenty of majors left in him, hopefully - and so should 19-year-old Keely Hodgkinson who stormed to a shock silver in the women's 800m. 

In her first senior outdoor championship, the Leigh Harrier performed outstandingly in her Final to break the British record set by Kelly Holmes back in 1995. 

Add in Holly Bradshaw's bronze in the pole vault - and, while there was no gold rush (or even a trickle, for that matter), this was a pretty acceptable showing for an athletics cohort in transition and beset by misfortune.

Collectively, of course, Team GB has performed spectacularly well in the last couple of weeks and equalled the tally from London 2012 with 65 medals overall.

That was good enough for fourth place in the medal table behind United States, China and hosts Japan with the Americans only just jumping above the Chinese on the final day. 

A late run of British gold medals held off strong challenges from the team representing Russia, who finished fifth, and sixth-placed Australia.

And, altogether, Team GB won medals in 18 of the 26 sports in which it entered competitors - a greater breadth of sports than any other country in the world.  

Chelsie Giles got the first of the 65 medals with bronze, appropriately enough in the Japanese sport of judo, on the second day - and Lauren Price completed the haul with gold in the middleweight boxing in the last few hours of the final day. 

In between, there were British Olympic champions in no fewer than nine different sports: cycling, swimming, sailing, boxing, equestrian, modern pentathlon, triathlon, diving and gymnastics.

“For this team to deliver 65 medals is absolutely extraordinary,” the Team GB Chef de Mission Mark England said.

"The team has made history on the back of the most complex, challenging and most difficult environments that we will ever face, certainly in my lifetime. And I can say that because I’ve been involved in five or six summer Games.”

Gold medal success for Team GB in modern pentathlon for both Kate French and Joe Choong was particularly impressive, given they were only two gold medals available - while in another multi-sport event, the triathlon, Team GB took medals in all three events, including a gold in the new mixed relay event. 

Indeed, in an encouraging demonstration of adaptability, Team GB performed strongly in several of the new sports and events. 

Charlotte Worthington won the inaugural gold medal in the women's BMX freestyle - and, on the final day of a historic performance in the swimming pool, Britain won the first ever mixed 4 x 100m medley relay through Kathleen Dawson, James Guy, Anna Hopkin - and that man Adam Peaty. 

As well as the women's Madison and the mixed relay in triathlon, mentioned above, there were also medals in the men's BMX freestyle through Kye Whyte, women's skateboarding through 13-year-old Sky Brown, and women's featherweight boxing through Karriss Artingstall.

The women's +87kg weightlifting was also technically a new event - although, in reality, it was simply an adjusted version of the existing heavyweight category. 

Nonetheless, Emily Campbell's silver medal was the first ever won in weightlifting by a British woman, and the first British weightlifting medal of any sort since 1984.

Remarkably - except for the opening day - there were medals for Team GB on each and every day of Tokyo 2020+1. 

Day 11 on Tuesday 3 August was particularly special, producing eight medals which coincidentally matched the total from day 11 of both London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. 

To begin, Britain woke up to sailing gold medals in the 49er and Finn categories for Stuart Bithell and Dylan Fletcher, and Giles Scott respectively following a series of ridiculously tight races. 

Meanwhile, there was a silver medal in the Enoshima Yacht Harbour for John Gimson and Anna Burnet in the mixed nacra 17 class. 

In the velodrome, there were also silver medals for Archibald, Laura Kenny, Elinor Barker, Neah Evans and Josie Knight in the women's team pursuit, and for Carlin, Jason Kenny and Ryan Owens in the men's team sprint. 

But the medal rush did not stop there. At breakfast time in the UK, Birtley boxer Pat McCormack took a fourth Team GB silver of the day in the men's welterweight and Jack Laugher secured a bronze in the 3m springboard diving.

Finally, there was that athletics medal for the teenager Hodgkinson, a fifth Team GB silver of the day.

The following day - Wednesday 4 August - could not quite live up to those incredible standards but still produced five medals including another sailing gold, this time for Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre in the women's 470 class. 

Benjamin Whittaker and Frazer Clarke won silver and bronze boxing medals at light heavyweight and super heavyweight respectively, a few hours after skateboarder Brown had become Britain's youngest ever Olympic medal winner. 

Strangely, despite a generally impressive Games, it looked like boxing gold might somehow elude the male Team GB competitors. 

However, on the penultimate day of competition, Birmingham flyweight Galal Yafai completed the domination of his weight division.

Of course, there are some Olympians who, it felt, seemed simply destined to make it onto the podium. 

Max Whitlock defended his pommel horse title to become the most successful British gymnast in Games history - and top all-time British diver Tom Daley added a bronze in the 10m platform to the gold which he won with Matty Lee in the synchronised event

In equestrian, following the dressage success for Charlotte Dujardin, Team GB continued to produce the goods. 

Tom McEwen won gold in team eventing alongside Laura Collett and Oliver Townend - and won silver in the individual category on Toledo De Kerser. Ben Maher won gold in the jumping event on Explosion W. 

Other reliable medal shouts came on the water in canoeing where Liam Heath picked up his fourth career Olympic medal in the K1 200m sprint - and from women's field hockey team which has now won medals at the last three Olympics.

True, in the hockey, there was disappointment initially as eventual winners Netherlands got revenge for the defeat in the 2016 Final in Rio de Janeiro with a comprehensive 5-1 semi final win. 

However, the Team GB squad held its nerve to secure third place in a dramatic 4-3 win against India.

For sure, though, this Olympics - from a British perspective - belongs to the Kennys and their phenomenal achievements, and Britain will certainly miss them when they are gone.

Their fierce determination and prestigious talent is further augmented by their delightfully modest attitude and low-key approach to publicity. 

After all, when asked how they are going to celebrate their Record Games, Jason Kenny suggested that a quiet night with their three-year-old son, Albie, is probably going to be as wild as it is going to get.

“Just being home is the plan,” he said. “Being fair with Albie, we haven’t seen him for two weeks now. It’s the longest we’ve ever been away from him."

Little Albie - who has been staying with grandparents - will not realise yet but his parents are both British sporting legends.

The Kennys truly are Britain's Golden Couple

🔴MEDAL TABLE Final standings BBC closing montage
Pos
GSBTOTAL
1UNITED STATES (USA)
394133113
2CHINA (CHN)
38321888
3JAPAN (JPN)
27141758
4GREAT BRITAIN (GBR)
22212265
5RUSSIAN OLYMPIC TEAM (ROC)
20282371
6AUSTRALIA (AUS)
1772246
7NETHERLANDS (NED)
10121436
8FRANCE (FRA)
10121133
9GERMANY (GER)
10111637
10ITALY (ITA)
10102040
11CANADA (CAN)
761124
12BRAZIL (BRA)
76821
13NEW ZEALAND (NZL)
76720
14CUBA (CUB)
73515
15HUNGARY (HUN)
67720
16SOUTH KOREA (KOR)
641020
17POLAND (POL)
45514
18CZECH REPUBLIC (CZE)
44311
19KENYA (KEN)
44210
20NORWAY (NOR)
4228
21JAMAICA (JAM)
4149
22SPAIN (ESP)
38617
23SWEDEN (SWE)
3609
24SWITZERLAND (SUI)
34
613
25DENMARK (DEN)
34411
26CROATIA (CRO)
3328
27IRAN (IRI)
3227
28SERBIA (SRB)
3159
29BELGIUM (BEL)
3137
30BULGARIA (BUL)
3126
31SLOVENIA (SLO)
3115
32UZBEKISTAN (UZB)
2024
33GEORGIA (GEO)
2518
34CHINESE TAIPEI (TPE)
24612
35TURKEY (TUR)
22913
36GREECE (GER)
2114
36UGANDA (UGA)
2114
38ECUADOR (ECU)
2103
39IRELAND (IRL)
2023
39ISRAEL (ISR)
2024
41QATAR (QAT)
2013
42BAHAMAS (BAH)
2002
42KOSOVO (KOS)
2002
44UKRAINE (UKR)
161219
45BELARUS (BLR)
1337
46ROMANIA (ROU)
1304
46VENEZUELA (VEN)
1304
48INDIA (IND)
1247
49HONG KONG (HKG)
1236
50PHILIPPINES (PHI)
1214
50SLOVAKIA (SVK)
1214
52SOUTH AFRICA (RSA)
1203
53AUSTRIA (AUT)
1157
54EGYPT (EGY)
1146
55INDONESIA (INA)
1135
56ETHIOPIA (ETH)
1124
56PORTUGAL (POR)
1124
58TUNISIA (TUN)
1102
59ESTONIA (EST)
1012
59FIJI (FIJ)
1012
59LATVIA (LAT)
1012
59THAILAND (THA)
10
12
63BERMUDA (BER)
1001
63MOROCCO (MAR)
1001
63PUERTO RICO (PUR)
1001
66COLOMBIA (COL)
0415
67AZERBAIJAN (AZE)
0347
68DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (DOM)
0325
69ARMENIA (ARM)
0224
70KYRGYZSTAN (KGZ)
0213
71MONGOLIA (MGL)
0134
72ARGENTINA (ARG)
0123
72SAN MARINO (SMR)
0123
74JORDAN (JOR)
0112
74MALAYSIA (MAS)
0112
74NIGERIA (NGR)
0112
77BAHRAIN (BAH)
0101
77SAUDI ARABIA (KSA)
0101
77LITHUANIA (LTU)
0101
77NORTH MACEDONIA (MKD)
0101
77NAMIBIA (NAM)
0101
77TURKMENISTAN (TKM)
0101
83KAZAKHSTAN (KAZ)
0088
84MEXICO (MEX)
0044
85FINLAND (FIN)
0022
86BOTSWANA (BOT)
0011
86BURKINA FASO (BUR)
0011
86IVORY COAST (CIV)
0011
86GHANA (GHA)
0011
86GRENADA (GRN)
0011
86KUWAIT (KUW)
0011
86MOLDOVA (MDA)
0011
86SYRIA (SYR)
0011

🔴TEAM GB MEDALS 22 GOLD 21 SILVER 22 BRONZE TOTAL 65

GOLD
BBC montage
26-JulyTom Pidcock
CyclingMen's cross-country
Report
26-July

Tom Daley
Matty Lee
Diving

Men's synchornised 10m platform

Report


26-JulyAdam Peaty
SwimmingMen's 100m breaststroke
Report
27-JulyTom Dean
SwimmingMen's 200m freestyle
Report
28-July




Tom Dean
James Guy
Matt Richards
Duncan Scott
[Callum Jarvis]
Swimming




Men's 4 x 200m freestyle relay




Report





30-JulyBethany Shriever
CyclingWomen's BMX racing
Report
31-July



Jess Learmonth
Jonathan Brownlee
Georgia Taylor-Brown
Alex Yee
Triathlon



Mixed relay



Report




31-July




Kathleen Dawson
James Guy
Adam Peaty
Anna Hopkin
[Freya Anderson]
Swimming




Mixed 4 x 100m medley relay




Report





01-AugustCharlotte Worthington
CyclingWomen's BMX freestyle
Report
01-August
Max Whitlock
Gymnastics
Men's pommel horse
Report

02-August


Laura Collett
Tom McEwen
Oliver Townend
Equestrian


Team eventing


Report



03-August

Stuart Bithell
Dylan Fletcher
Sailing

49er

Report


03-August
Giles Scott
Sailing
Finn
Report

04-August

Hannah Mills
Eilidh McIntyre
Sailing

Women's 470

Report


04-August
Ben Maher
Equestrian
Individual jumping
Report

05-August
Matthew Walls
Cycling
Men's Omnium
Report

06-August

Katie Archibald
Laura Kenny
Cycling

Women's Madison

Report


06-August

Kate French

Modern
pentathlon
Women's individual

Report


07-August
Galal Yafai
Boxing
Men's flyweight
Report

07-August

Joe Choong

Modern
pentathlon
Men's individual

Report


08-August
Jason Kenny
Cycling
Men's Keirin
Report

08-August
Lauren Price
Boxing
Women's middleweight
Report


SILVER
25-JulyBradly Sinden
TaekwondoMen's -68kg
Report
26-JulyLauren Williams
TaekwondoWomen's -67kg
Report
26-JulyAlex Yee
TriathlonMen's individual
Report
27-JulyDuncan Scott
SwimmingMen's 200m freestyle
Report
27-JulyGeorgia Taylor-Brown
TriathlonWomen's individual
Report
28-July



Tom Barras
Jack Beaumont
Angus Groom
Harry Leask
Rowing



Men's quadruple sculls



Report




29-JulyMallory Franklin
CanoeingWomen's C-1
Report
30-JulyDuncan Scott
SwimmingMen's 200m individual medley
Report
30-JulyKye Whyte
CyclingMen's BMX racing
Report
01-August




Luke Greenbank
James Guy
Duncan Scott
Adam Peaty
[James Wilby]
Swimming




Men's 4 x 100m medley relay




Report





02-AugustTom McEwen
EquestrianIndividual eventing
Report
02-AugustEmily Campbell
WeightliftingWomen's +87kg
Report
03-August

John Gimson
Anna Burnet
Sailing

Mixed Nacra 17

Report


03-August




Katie Archibald
Elinor Barker
Neah Evans
Laura Kenny
Josie Knight
Cycling




Women's team pursuit




Report





03-August


Jack Carlin
Jason Kenny
Ryan Owens
Cycling


Men's team sprint


Report



03-AugustPat McCormack
BoxingMen's welterweight
Report
03-AugustKeely Hodgkinson
AthleticsWomen's 800m
Report
04-AugustBenjamin Whittaker
BoxingMen's light heavyweight
Report
06-AugustLaura Muir
AthleticsWomen's 1500m
Report
06-August



Chijndu Ujah
Zharnel Hughes
Richard Kilty
Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake
Athletics



Men's 4 x 100m relay



Report




07-August

Ethan Hayter
Matthew Walls
Cycling

Men's Madison

Report



BRONZE
25-JulyChelsie Giles
JudoWomen's 52kg
Report
27-JulyBianca Walkden
TaekwondoWomen's +67kg
Report
27-July



Jennifer Gadirova
Jessica Gadirova
Alice Kinsella
Amelie Morgan
Gymnastics



Women's team all-round



Report




27-July


Charlotte Dujardin
Charlotte Fry
Carl Hester
Equestrian


Team dressage


Report



28-JulyCharlotte Dujardin
EquestrianIndividual dressage
Report
29-JulyMatthew Coward-Holley
ShootingMen's trap
Report
30-Julysee below [1]
RowingMen's eight
Report
30-JulyLuke Greenbank
SwimmingMen's 200m backstroke
Report
30-JulyBryony Page
GymnasticsWomen's trampoline
Report
31-JulyEmma Wilson
SailingWomen's RS:X
Report
31-JulyKarriss Artingstall
BoxingWomen's featherweight
Report
01-August
Declan Brooks
Cycling
Men's BMX freestyle
Report

03-AugustJack Laugher
DivingMen's 3m springboard
Report
04-AugustSky Brown
SkateboardingWomen's park
Report
04-AugustFrazer Clarke
BoxingMen's super heavyweight
Report
05-AugustLiam Heath
CanoeingMen's K1 200m
Report
05-AugustHolly Bradshaw
AthleticsWomen's pole vault
Report
06-Augustsee below [2]
Field hockey
Women's tournament
Report
06-AugustJack Carlin
CyclingMen's sprint
Report
06-August



Asha Philip
Imani Lansiquot
Dina Asher-Smith
Daryll Neita
Athletics



Women's 4 x 100m relay



Report




07-AugustTom Daley
DivingMen's 10m platform
Report
07-AugustJosh Kerr
AthleticsMen's 1500m
Report

[1]
Men's eight Josh Bugajski, Jacob Dawson, Charles Elwes, Thomas Ford, Thomas George, James Rudkin, Moe Sbihi, Oliver Wynne-Griffith, Henry Fieldman (cox)
[2] Women's field hockey team
Giselle Ansley, Grace Balsdon, Fiona Crackles, Maddie Hinch, Sarah Jones, Hannah Martin, Shona McCallin, Lily Owsley, Hollie Pearne-Webb, Izzy Petter, Ellie Rayer, Sarah Robertson, Anna Toman, Susannah Townsend, Laura Unsworth, Leah Wilkinson

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