Tokyo 2020 – Day 6: mixed fortunes for Team GB, canoe silver and trap bronze

Day Six proved a teamed day for Team GB, adding two more medals to the tally but falling painfully short in a number of others.

The day began disappointingly in the water. Two-time gold medallist Helen Glover and Polly Swann finished fourth in the women’s pair rowing, while the lightweight women’s double sculls produced a truly agonising result – Emily Craig and Imogen Grant came fourth, missing out on a medal by a stroke and 0.01 seconds. These two results take Team GB up to four fourth-place finishes in five events, with the silver in the men’s quadruple sculls race on Wednesday the only success.

The day’s first medal came in the men’s trap shooting final, where world champion Matthew Coward-Holley won the bronze. He got off to a slow start, missing three of his first ten targets, but he put in a stellar display to push himself back into the medals. At one point, he had been level-pegging with the Czech Jiri Liptak, but a miss in the 38^th shot ended his hopes of progressing further. Liptak moved onto a sudden-death shoot-off with fellow Czech David Kostelecky, and won the gold.

It was the first time that the women’s C1 canoe slalom has been staged in an Olympic setting, and Mallory Franklin claimed the silver medal with a time of 1:08.68 seconds. Her run was near flawless, with a two-second time penalty for touching gate 15 the only mistake. She had led the event up until the final athlete, world number one Jessica Fox of Australia, took to the water – her exceptional time of 1:05.04 won the gold. The bronze went to Andrea Herzog of Germany.

In the water, three new Olympic records were set in swimming events, by Australia’s Izaac Stubblety-Cook in the 200m breaststroke, American Caeleb Dressel in the 100m freestyle and China’s Zhang Yufei in the women’s 200m butterfly. In the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay, China held off a late surge by the USA, taking the gold and setting a new world record of 7:40.33 in the process.

After defending champion Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics all-around event, that left room for a new gold medallist – after a tough battle, that turned out to be compatriot Sunisa Lee, who finished on 57.433. The battle was close between Lee, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade (silver, 57.298) and Russia’s Angelina Melnikova (bronze, 57.199), but errors by Andrade on the floor – the final apparatus – saw Lee edge her out to the gold. Team GB’s Jessica Gadirova placed 10^th, the best ever result by a British woman in the event.

Covid reared its head again with the news that the US pole vault champion Sam Kendricks has contracted the virus, and has withdrawn from the Games as a result. Kendricks would have been a favourite going into the event, and it is now expected that world record holder Mondo Duplantis of Sweden will have the edge. After the announcement, three Australian athletes who reported close contact are also now isolating, but they have returned negative PCR tests.

Medal table:

1. China

Gold (15), Silver (7), Bronze (9), Total (31)

2. Japan

Gold (15), Silver (4), Bronze (6), Total (25)

3. USA

Gold (14), Silver (14), Bronze (10), Total (38)

4. Russian Olympic Committee

Gold (8), Silver (11), Bronze (9), Total (28)

5. Australia

Gold (8), Silver (2), Bronze (10), Total (20)