Adam Peaty delivered a majestic performance in the 100m breaststroke to shatter his own world record again and write himself into British Olympic history.
Peaty became only the fourth male Olympic swimming champion, all of whom captured breaststroke gold, and did so in sensational fashion clocking a new all-time best time of 57.13 seconds and leaving his rivals in his wake.
Great Britain’s first medal of Rio 2016 was quickly followed by their second, one race and eight minutes later. Jazz Carlin produced an exceptional swim to follow the USA’s Katie Ledeky home and capture 400m freestyle silver.
With Ledeky way out in front, Carlin executed the perfect race to to touch home in 4:01.23 and land another lifetime best, rounding off a special evening for Great Britain at the Rio Aquatics Centre. James Guy also secured his place in Monday's 200m freestyle final earlier in the session.
Other highlights from day two included:
Fencing
Richard Kruse was agonisingly close to securing Great Britain’s first medal of the games, and our first fencing medal in 52 years, in the individual foil event.
After a thrilling run to the semi-finals, the 33-year-old four-time Olympian was beaten by world number one of USA, Alexander Massialas, then edged 15-13 by Russian Timur Safin in the bronze medal contest.
James Davis advanced to the last 16, beating Fares Ferjani of Tunisia, but his progress was also halted by Safin, as Kruse downed Algerian’s Victor Sintes 15-4, Italy’s Andrea Cassara 15-12 and USA’s Gerek Meinhardt 15-13 to put himself into the last four and in medal contention.
Cycling
Lizzie Armitstead was playing catch-up throughout the 141km women’s road race and ended up fifth after battling back to finish 20 seconds behind winner Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands.
Diving
Rebecca Gallentree and Alicia Blagg saw a promising start slip away, resulting in a sixth place finish in the women’s 3m springboard synchro. The Great Britain pair were joint third through three rounds but runaway leaders China were eventually joined on the podium by Italy and Australia.
Gymnastics
Ellie Downie suffered an awkward fall but recovered to help Great Britain qualify for the team final with the fourth best overall score of 174.064, behind the USA, China and Russia. Ellie was the highest British finisher in the all-around standings, in 12th, while Claudia Fragapane finished 16th.
Ellie was the best British finisher on the vault, ninth overall, and on the beam, in joint fifth alongside teammate Amy Tinkler. Tinkler was also the best Brit on the floor, in seventh, while Rebecca Downie was seventh on the uneven bars.
Canoe Slalom
David Florence and Joe Clarke put their names on the semi-final start list with strong performances in their respective canoe slalom heats. Florence qualified third best in the C1 discipline with a score of 94.11, while Clarke went one better in the K1, placing second overall in the heats with a score of 86.95.
Rugby Sevens
Great Britain’s women booked themselves a place in the semi-finals of the inaugural Rugby Seven’s competition with a resounding 26-7 victory over Fiji in the last eight. Earlier in the day, GB sealed a perfect record in Pool C with a 22-0 triumph over Canada. They topped the pool, following day one wins over Japan and Brazil.
Hockey
Barry Middleton scored an equalising field goal as Great Britain’s men took a share of the points in a 2-2 draw against New Zealand. GB led through David Condon’s goal but the Black Sticks came back and swung the contest in their favour. Middleton levelled the scores to ensure Britain have a point on the board after their opening 4-1 loss to Belgium.
Judo
Colin Oates was not able to progress from the 66kg division round of 64 after his opponent, France’s Kilian Le Blouch, was awarded a penalty during the decisive ‘golden score’ round.
Rowing
Racing was cancelled for the day, after the morning session was initially delayed. Conditions were deemed unsuitable after high winds affected the course at the Lagoa Stadium. Women’s pair Helen Glover and Heather Stanning were due to go in the heats, as were the men’s four of Alex Gregory, Moe Sbihi, George Nash and Constantine Louloudis. Changes have been made to the schedule to accommodate the rearranged races.
Click here to read our Look Ahead to Day 3.