Team GB were just short of a world record after comfortably taking the gold ahead of both the Russian Olympic Committee and Australia
There has been even more success for Team GB within the Tokyo Olympics Aquatics Centre, with gold medals in the men’s 200m freestyle swimming relay.
Fresh off of their one-two podium positions on Tuesday, Tom Dean led the way winning the final, with Duncan Scott swimming the anchor leg.
Both James Guy and Matthew Richards completed the line-up, and the quartet finished just 0.03 seconds off of the world record.
Commenting on the historic win, Duncan Scott said: “It’s really special with these boys. Matt in third was so composed and the boys up front executed the race plans really well.
“So close to a world record in the end – if anything I’m a bit gutted.”
This comes after Tom Daley has ended his long wait for an Olympic gold medal, 13 years after his Olympic debut in Beijing, with a sublime display alongside newcomer Matty Lee in a nerve-filled men’s synchronised 10m platform event at Tokyo 2020.
Dean got Team GB off to a solid, if unspectacular, start, swimming just behind the United States Olympian before Guy closed the gap.
He said: “I can’t even put it into words. I couldn’t yesterday and I can’t today. I can’t thank these boys enough, from the bottom of my heart. Unreal.”
It was 18-year-old Matthew Richards‘ leg that was the standout, with the British teenager storming into the lead and leaving Scott with what turned into the simple task of confirming the gold medal for Team GB.
He said: “When you’re racing with guys like this, having a great leg comes easy.
“When they set you up as well as they did and you’ve got literally one of the best freestylers in the world and one of the best freestylers ever going behind you, (it’s a) privilege. And the confidence that gives someone, and the experience, money can’t buy it.”
In the end, Team GB had claimed an emphatic victory, 3.32 seconds clear of the Russian Olympic Committee in second.
The United States had dropped down to fourth following a good start, with Australia finishing third.
The victory means that Dean Scott is the first British male swimmer to ever win two gold medals at the same Olympic Games since the 1908 Games in London.
Team GB has also made history by winning its first rowing medal at the Tokyo Olympics, taking a silver medal in the men’s quadruple sculls event.
Going into the rowing race, Team GB had an outside chance of making it to the podium and had been ranked as the fifth-best team at the event.
But they held off both the Australian and Polish teams to take the silver medal, behind the Netherlands national team, who had won four rowing medals on just day five of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Jack Beaumont, aged 27, from Maidenhead, said in an interview with Sky News: “We knew it would be a fast race and also choppy water.
“But luckily we train in the UK where we get lots of wind so we were ready for that. We were in an outside, less favoured lane, so we decided to be really brave and that paid off.”
Harry Leask, 25, from Edinburgh, added: “I knew basically the whole way where we were, I had a pretty good view from where I was sitting of the whole race.”
The team haven’t seen their friends and family since the 10th of June, he added, revealing that they have only had time for a 10-minute phone call since the race.
This comes after Lewis Hamilton has received a tirade of racist abuse online after he won the British Grand Prix, following a dramatic first lap collision between Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
There could be more medals on the way in the rowing event, after Emily Craig and Imogen Grant had qualified for the final in the lightweight women’s double sculls.
Earlier in the day, Abbie Wood had just missed out on a podium place in the 200m individual medley despite having swan a lifetime best, with Kate Douglas of the USA just beating her to the bronze medal place.
James Wilby‘s excellent showing at the Games has continued as he qualified for the men’s 200m breaststroke, being the second-best swimmer, but Ross Murdoch has missed out on his own place in the final.
Despite the historic moment that took place in the men’s quadruple sculls, it was both a disappointing and frustrating morning on the Sea Forest Waterway for the rowers from the UK, who had finished fourth in three races.
The team from Great Britain and Northern Ireland had an outside medal chance in the men’s double sculls and women’s four, but they had just missed out on a podium place within both events, coming in fourth place.
The biggest disappointment came in the third race of the day, the men’s four cox, where Team GB were bidding for a sixth straight gold but missed out on a medal altogether.
