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News

Highlights From Day 1

Published 7 August 2016

Great Britain may not have captured a medal on day one of Rio 2016 but world champion Adam Peaty lit up the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre on his Olympic debut.

Peaty turned heads in his 100m breaststroke heat with a sensational display, not holding back at all and destroying his own world record with a time of 57.55 second, a stunning 0.37 quicker than his best and more than one second quicker than his closest rival. He eased off slightly in the semi-final, posting the world's second quickest time of 57.62 to qualify fastest for Sunday’s final by almost 1.5 seconds.

Hannah Miley was pipped at the finish line and forced to settle for fourth in the 400m individual medley, while James Guy flew out to a strong lead in the 400m freestyle but faded to finish sixth. Max Litchfield posted an impressive display to take 400m individual medley fourth, Ross Murdoch missed out on the 100m breaststroke final with an 11th place finish in the semi-final.

Other highlights from day one included:

Cycling – men’s road race

In a scintillating road race, Geraint Thomas was primed for a medal charge heading into the final descent before a crash saw him forced to settle for 11th, with Chris Froome placing 12th, and Adam Yates four places behind the pair.

Equestrian

William Fox-Pitt made an emotional return to the Olympics and delivered a sublime ride on Chilli Morning to lead the eventing field, only 10 months after a cross-country accident left him in an induced coma.

Hockey

Goals from Lily Owsley and Alex Danson secured a huge win for GB’s women over Commonwealth Games champions Australia, 2-1, in their pool opener. The men’s team were downed 4-1 by Belgium.

Gymnastics

Great Britain advanced to Monday’s team event final with the fifth best qualifying score, with Max Whitlock and Louis Smith posting the two best scores on the pommel, and the team overall securing eight finals places.

Rowing

On choppy waters in Lagoa, Katherine Grainger and Vicky Thornley progressed to the double sculls semi-finals in second place, as did the men’s lightweight four of Mark Aldred, Chris Bartley, Pete Chambers and Jono Clegg.

Alan Campbell won his single sculls heat, and the men's pair of Alan Sinclair and Stewart Innes finished second fastest. The men’s quad and double sculls teams will need to go through the repechages following fourth place finishes.

Boxing

Three Brits all advanced to the last 16 phase of their respective divisions on day one. Lightweight fighter Joe Cordina downed Charly Suarez of the Phillipines, light-flyweight Galal Yafai recorded a points win over Cameroon’s Simplice Fotsala, and heavyweight Lawrence Okolie put away Poland’s Igor Jakubowski.

Judo

Ashley McKenzie defeated Turkey’s Bekir Özlü but his progress was halted by world champion and eventual silver medallist Yeldos Smetov of Kazhakstan in the last 16.

Rugby Sevens

Rugbg sevens made its Olympic debut on day one in Rio, and Great Britain got off to a dream start. The men’s team beat Japan 40-0, while the women bested host nation Brazil 29-3.

Click here to read our Look Ahead to Day 2.

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