Days 9-10 at the Olympic Games

Day 9

Day 9 saw the conclusion of the women’s heptathlon competition. Following a strong start to her campaign with a huge PB in the shot put and her best high jump performance in years, Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Liverpool Harriers, Aston Moore) began the second day ahead of the competition. After a conservative first couple of rounds in the long jump, KJT found her stride in the final round with a jump measuring 6.40m to maintain her lead.

She continued to show her good form as she threw her second and third furthest ever throws in the javelin. Her best effort of 45.64m came in the third round, once again clinching vital points to her total in the hunt for a medal. Her closest rival going into this penultimate event, Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium, is a strong javelin thrower and threw a season’s best of 54.04m to claim the lead.

With a deficit of 121 points to overcome to win gold, how fast could KJT run in the 800m? Having not raced 800m since winning her world heptathlon title in Budapest last year, no one knew what sort of form she would be in. As expected, USA's Anna Hall started quickly and managed to maintain her form throughout the two laps to take the win in 2:04.39. Acting as a pacemaker, KJT was able to cling on and have the race of her life to set a new PB of 2:04.90, adding 1041 points to her total. Every second counts at the end of the heptathlon and Nafissatou Thiam finished within the eight second buffer, meaning she would take the gold and Johnson-Thompson would take home a stunning silver medal with 6844 points!

In the men’s 800m semi-finals, there were three British athletes hoping to be the first ones to make the Olympic final since London 2012. Ben Pattison (Basingstoke & Mid Hants) was up first and battled hard all the way to the line, but unfortunately, he finished fourth in 1:45.57 missing out on automatic qualification. In heat two, the late call-up Elliot Giles (Birchfield, Jon Bigg) was looking to make the most of the Olympic opportunity, but he too missed out on qualification for the final finishing fifth in 1:45.46. Max Burgin (Halifax) raced in the final semi-final, which was the fastest by a couple of seconds. This meant that Max secured a non-automatic qualifiers spot on the start line for the final after finishing third in 1:43.50.

The women etched their way into the history books in the 4x100m relay as they had the highest place finish since 1956! The quartet of Dina Asher-Smith (Edrick Floreal, Blackheath and Bromley), Imani-Lara Lansiquot (Ryan Freckleton, Sutton & District), Amy Hunt (Marco Airale, Charnwood) and Daryll Neita (Marco Airale, Cambridge Harriers) just missed out on the gold to the USA by 0.07s but were rewarded with a fantastic silver. After a turbulent individual performance, Asher-Smith said:

“We’re all so proud and so happy. We worked so hard for this. To be challenging not just for a medal but challenging for a gold is phenomenal.”

In the men’s 4x100m, Jeremiah Azu (Marco Airale, Cardiff), Louie Hinchliffe (Carl Lewis, Sheffield & Dearn), Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (Ryan Freckleton, Newham & Essex Beagles) and Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet) fought hard but a mistake from the USA team saw an opportunity for Team GB to make it on to the podium. Taking on the fast finishing South African and Canadian teams, Zharnel took it in his stride to clinch a bronze for the boys in 37.61.

Day nine was all about rewriting the record books with Amber Anning breaking an 11 year-old record in the 400m final. Anning clocked 49.29 in the final to take a tenth of a second off the mark set by Christine Ohuruogu in 2013. After the race, Amber mentioned:

“It was the best executed race, but I finished really hard. I just went for it and gave everything. I wanted more but the national record is something I’ve been chasing all season. To get it in the best competition in the world, I can’t complain.”

Day 10

Day 10 got underway with the men's marathon as they began their tour of the beautiful Parisian sights. Read the full reports from both the men's and women's marathons here.

Back to the Stade de France, the final day of track and field was full of excellent performances from the Team GB contingent, with three brilliant bronze medals won.

Georgia Bell (Trevor Painter, Belgrave) traced training partner Keely's steps as she ran a sterling 1500m final to place third with a new lifetime best and British record (3:52.61) - breaking that of teammate Laura Muir (Steve Vernon, Dundee Hawkhill) who finished in 5th place, also with a personal best. After the race, an elated Georgia said:

"I don’t know if I’ve ever been this happy. That was an absolutely crazy race. I woke up this morning really calm and in a very good mood and thought I’m not the fastest person in that race but if I was brave and got stuck in then I can make something happen. So yeah over the moon and I’m an Olympic medallist.”

Having secured bronze in the mixed 4x400m relay last week, what could the men’s and women’s teams achieve? Keeping up the podium positions, the men's 4x400m quartet of Alex Haydock-Wilson (Earl Herbert, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow), Lewis Davey (Trevor Painter, Newham & Essex Beagles), Charlie Dobson (Leon Baptiste, Colchester) and individual 400m silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith (Gary Evans, Birchfield Harriers) took the bronze medal in a new European record of 2:55.83.

Just moments later, the women's team of Victoria Ohuruogu (Newham and Essex Beagles), Laviai Nielsen (Tony Lester, Enfield & Haringey), Scotland’s Nicole Yeargin (Vince Anderson, Pitreavie) and Amber Anning (Chris Johnson, Brighton & Hove) also secured a bronze medal, setting a new national record in the process of 3:19.72.

Earlier in the evening, Max Burgin (Halifax) contested a lightning fast 800m final with, and despite finishing close to his personal best, came home in 8th place showing the incredible depth of world 800m running at the moment. George Mills (Thomas Dreißigacker, Brighton Phoenix) completed his busy Olympic programme in the 5000m final where he came home in 21st place.

An historic Olympic Games

It has certainly been a Games to remember for Team GB, as the 59-strong squad produced a historic championships taking home 10 medals, a total which hasn't been topped for 40 years! From Keely Hodgkinson (Trevor Painter, Leigh) finally getting her gold to double European records for Matt Hudson-Smith (Lance Brauman, Birchfield) in the 400m and 4x400m, it will certainly be written into the history books.

Take a look back at the Olympic Games news and reports below

Pictures from World Athletics