Olympics day 12: Medal milestone for Great Britain but golds prove elusive
Britain have passed 1,000 medals won at summer and winter Olympic Games.
Great Britain earned their 1,000th medal across summer and winter Olympics on day 12 of Paris 2024.
The men’s team pursuit team reached the milestone with silver, just before the women’s team took bronze.
Matthew Hudson-Smith had to settle for silver in the men’s 400m, while skateboarder Andy Macdonald made his Olympic debut at the age of 51.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look back at Wednesday’s action.
A grand milestone for Team GB
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Great Britain won their 1,000th medal across summer and winter Olympics, according to the statistician Bill Mallon.
Ethan Hayter, Dan Bigham, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon and Ollie Wood reached the milestone in the velodrome with their silver medal in the men’s team pursuit at the Paris Olympics.
Their hopes of gold slipped away on the final lap when Hayter lost control of his bike and narrowly avoided a crash.
Shortly after, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jess Roberts clinched bronze in the women’s team pursuit.
Hudson-Smith claims silver
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Matthew Hudson-Smith took silver in the men’s 400m final after being pipped to gold by American Quincy Hall.
The Briton was leading into the closing stages but Hall found another gear to snatch gold in a personal-best 43.40.
He beat Hudson-Smith by four hundredths of a second, while Zambia’s Muzala Samukonga took bronze.
Fountain of youth
Team GB skateboarder Andy Macdonald began his professional career 14 years before Team GB colleagues Sky Brown and Lola Tambling were born and made his Olympic debut at the age of 51 on Wednesday.
Macdonald finished 18th of 22 in the men’s park preliminaries on the Place de la Concorde, but believes just being at the Olympics is worthy of the gold medal itself.
“People were like ‘are you going for the gold?’ and I was saying if they’re giving away gold medals for whoever is having the most fun I’ve definitely got it racked up,” said Macdonald.
“I didn’t look at the scores, I wasn’t here for the scores. Qualifying for Paris was the ‘Hail Mary’ long shot from the get-go.
“I was trying to represent that skateboarding is fun. No matter what age you are – this is the coolest, most fun, inclusive thing you can do.”
Mills’ war of words
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George Mills admitted he was “probably not allowed” to repeat what he said to France’s Hugo Hay after he was involved in a four-man fall during his 5,000 metres heat.
After crossing the finish line, Mills and Hay were seen arguing and making physical contact with the British athlete pointing furiously at the Frenchman.
Mills claimed he had been disadvantaged and officials agreed as they advanced the Briton to Saturday’s final following a review.
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