An unused reserve on the triumphant men’s pursuit track team, on Wednesday he spoke to the Sky cycling reporter Orla Chennaoui and conveyed the impression he was extremely frustrated at being frozen out of a team he considered to be a closed shop.
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Rowers Heather Stanning and Helen Glover retained their Olympic title.
Soon after that the quartet of Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, Constantine Louloudis and George Nash won their fifth consecutive gold in the men’s coxless fours. Phelps was one of three men to finish joint second.
But the British sporting landscape and the cycling world will be a little less fun without him in the saddle.
It was his fifth gold and eighth medal in total, surpassing the seven medals won by Sir Chris Hoy.
“Sticking his tongue out during the medal ceremony showed what a release of pressure it was”, he added.
Wiggins helped push the team of Doull, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke to a time of 3 minutes, 50.265 seconds in the finals, lowering their own world record.
“You’re so focused on what I’ve got to do in the race, you’re not really aware of what’s going on and how close it is”, Wiggins said, “I wasn’t anxious about how close the Aussies were”. Team GB has won this event for the last four Olympics, now five.
Britain had also broken the world record in their semi-final.
He joked that it wasn’t an individual effort to achieve the joint Tour and Olympic victories, but, much like Gary Lineker’s makeup, it was a team masterpiece, and repeatedly called Sue Barker “Susan”, to the delight of the crowd.
During the national anthem, the camera panned onto the 36-year-old’s face and he chose to stick his tongue out on LIVE TV. For pure and undiluted tension, this will take some beating in the days ahead.
“I take it back to Sydney in 2000 and what that meant to me as a 20-year-old, wandering around there”, he said.
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One of Wiggins’ golds was in the London 2012 road time trial, weeks after winning the Tour de France.
Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi claimed China’s first ever Olympic track cycling gold medal when they won the women’s team sprint title, beating Russian Federation in the final.
Ennis-Hill had the flawless start in the heptathlon, winning the 100m hurdles in 12.84 seconds, and then cleared 1.86m in the high jump.
High praise from someone who was a team-mate of three-time Tour victor Chris Froome.
Organisers say just 58% of available tickets have been sold for the first day of the athletics.
So arise Sir Bradley, you are now the greatest British cyclist ever.
Ayana obliterated the 10,000m world record in the opening track event of the Olympics.
There were also Olympic records in the men’s sprint, set first by Callum Skinner, then by Jason Kenny as both British riders made it through to tomorrow’s latter stages. I just wanted to come here and enjoy these Olympic Games and win this medal, that’s all.
His team trailed Australia by over 0.6 seconds at the half way point of the 4km race but held their nerve to close the gap and clinch victory to lift Britain up to third in the medal table.
Andy Murray and Heather Watson were knocked out of the mixed doubles tennis.
“I take myself to Sydney in 2000 and what that meant to me as a 20-year-old kid wandering round there, watching Steve win his fifth gold there and thinking how incredible and awesome it was”.
The media, in the United Kingdom at least, have loved his amusing soundbites, the smiles as he delivered a risqué comment – witness his colourful language in the Rio Velodrome on Friday night – and the manner which makes people feel like they have been friends with him for years. Great Britain’s Tom Daley questioned why the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre was closed on Friday for training.
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Athletics’ governing body suspended Kenyan official Michael Rotich over corruption allegations.
