Shropshire Star

Olympics day two: Adam Peaty gunning for gold in the 100m breaststroke

Evie Richards will hope to bring more success for Team GB’s cyclists after Anna Henderson’s time trial silver on Saturday.

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Adam Peaty adjusts his goggles in the pool

Adam Peaty’s bid for a third consecutive men’s 100m breaststroke gold will take centre stage on the second full day of action in Paris.

Evie Richards will hope to bring more success for Team GB’s cyclists after Anna Henderson’s time trial silver on Saturday, while Chelsie Giles is in action in the judo.

Here the PA news agency looks ahead to Sunday’s action.

Three-peat for Peaty?

Paris 2024 Olympic Games – Day One
Adam Peaty will go in search of a third consecutive 100m breaststroke title on Sunday (John Walton/PA)

Peaty will be looking for history in the pool in the 100m breaststroke. The 29-year-old seemed to own this event for so many years, setting the world record in 2019 with an astonishing time of 56.88 seconds.

But since then he has taken time out to deal with depression and alcohol issues and said before the Games he is coming in as “the person with the bow and arrow and not the one being fired at”.

China’s Qin Haiyang is the big competition, but Peaty set the fastest time in the semis, with his time of 58.86 seconds 0.07 secs faster than Qin.

Evie’s opportunity

Evie Richards will be in the hunt at the women's mountain bike race on Sunday
Evie Richards will be in the hunt at the women’s mountain bike race on Sunday (Tim Goode/PA)

The cycling action will move out to Elancourt Hill for the first of two days of mountain biking.

Former world champion Richards will fly the flag for Britain. The 27-year-old finished seventh on her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago but a few weeks later she was celebrating a world title, and she also took the Commonwealth title in 2022.

However, Richards suffered a concussion in Brazil two months ago so will face a challenge up against the likes of France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Dutch star Puck Pieterse.

Superb silver for Henderson

Paris 2024 Olympic Games – Day One
Anna Henderson mastered the slippery streets of Paris to win time trial silver (David Davies/PA)

On the rain-soaked streets of the French capital, Olympic debutant Anna Henderson delivered a ride of poise and power as others tumbled on the slippery surfaces, claiming only Britain’s second ever time trial medal at an Olympics.

The former national slalom champion has already recovered from two broken collarbones this season to reclaim her British title, but this is by far the biggest result of a career that has also included a silver at last year’s Euros after fourth at the world championships.

It was close though. While Australia’s Grace Brown stormed to gold, Henderson beat Chloe Dygert by just nine tenths of a second after the American was among those to crash.

However, Josh Tarling’s hopes were dashed after the 20-year-old Welshman suffered a puncture early in his ride, missing out on bronze by just two seconds after he finished 28 seconds off the pace set by gold medallist Remco Evenepoel.

A dramatic first medal of the Games for GB

Paris 2024 Olympic Games – Day One
Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen won GB’s first medal of the Games with bronze in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard final (Mike Egerton/PA)

GB’s first medal of the Games went to Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen, who claimed bronze in dramatic circumstances at the Aquatics Centre.

They had slipped down into sixth place after the third round of the women’s 3m synchronised event before improving to fourth with better efforts in the next two rounds.

Australian pair Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith remained in the driving seat in the battle for bronze but a slip on the diving board from the Australians in the final round saw Harper and Mew Jensen move up, with China’s Yani Chang and Yiwen Chen easing to gold.

Picture of the day

Paris 2024 Olympic Games – Day One
The fencing had a dramatic setting at the Grand Palais (David Davies/PA)

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