Sir Bradley Wiggins rose to the summit of great British Olympians and cemented his legacy with a breathtaking display to help win Rio 2016 team pursuit gold.
Wiggins, Owain Doull, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke triumphed in a mesmeric gold medal clash with Australia, where the Brits trailed for the majority of the race before lifting themselves to smash the world record for the second time in the day, and pip the Australians to the finish line by 0.743 seconds, in a time of 3:50.265.
In victory, Wiggins, who was among the first intake of athletes on to UK Sport’s World Class programme when National Lottery funding was introduced 19 years ago, captures an unprecedented eighth Olympic medal, won on both road and track, five of which are gold. He eclipses Sir Chris Hoy’s total of seven medals.
In the process, Great Britain triumphed in the event for a third straight Olympic Games. Ed Clancy was present in each of them, Owain Doull gathers his second gold medal and Steve Burke collects his first.
Other highlights from day seven included:
Rowing
Great Britain showcased their rich rowing tradition on day seven of Rio 2016 with two dominant gold medal displays on the waters of the Lagoa Stadium.
Women’s pair Helen Glover and Heather Stanning were in typically sensational form, powering ahead to seize control of the race to defend their London 2012 gold in imperious style.
Such is their supremacy in the discipline, Glover, an ambassador for UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport’s biggest ever multi-sport talent ID campaign #DiscoverYour Gold, and Stanning have not tasted defeat since 4 September 2011, some 1,804 days.
It was never likely to happen, as Glover, who herself was discovered on talent ID campaign Sporting Giants, and Stanning became Great Britain’s first females to retain their Olympic rowing titles.
Less than 20 minutes later, Great Britain’s rowers were celebrating again on the banks of Lake Lagoa when the men’s four of Alex Gregory, Moe Sbihi, George Nash and Constantine Louloudis clinched gold.
They showed incredible drive and focus to dig in and pull away from the Australia boat, who pushed the British quartet all the way. Their reward was GB’s fifth consecutive triumph in the men’s four, spanning back to the Sydney Games of 2000.
Equestrian
Great Britain have claimed a fine silver medal in the Team Dressage, to win the Equestrian team’s first medal of the Games.
The team, comprising Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro, Carl Hester on Nip Tuck, Fiona Bigwood on Orthilia and Spencer Wilton on Super Nova, produced some fine performances throughout the two-day competition.
Although Dujardin and Valegro’s beautiful final routine recorded a superb score of 82.025%, the Gold was convincingly won by the German team who were deserving winners. The medal follows up the first ever British medals in dressage which were won in London.
Gymnastics - Trampolining
In a remarkable and unprecedented performance, trampoline athlete Bryony Page captured an Olympic silver medal.
The historic final saw Great Britain qualify two athletes – Page and Kat Driscoll – for the first ever time. A visibly stunned Page delivered the routine of her life to take the silver medal, while Driscoll finished sixth.
Only the defending Olympic Champion, Canadian Rosannagh Maclennan, was able to beat Page’s score, which delivered the first ever medal at world level for British Trampolining.
Swimming
Jazz Carlin has sealed her second silver medal of Rio 2016 with a strong 800m freestyle performance.
With USA swimming sensation Katie Ledecky landing a huge world record in 8:04.79, Carlin held off the challenge of Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas by 0.2 seconds to finish runner-up in a time of 8:16.17.
Carlin put the disappointment of missing London 2012 through glandular fever behind her with a 400m freestyle silver on Monday 8 August, and has now delivered a fifth medal of the Games in the pool, to hit swimming’s upper medal range target (3-5).
Athletics
Defending Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill holds an overall lead in the heptathlon competition through four events, with fellow Brit Katarina Johnson-Thompson closing in on podium places in fourth.
Ennis-Hill’s consistency through the first four events puts her on top of the standings, while Johnson-Thompson paid the price of a disappointing shot put, despite breaking a British high jump record and winning the 200m.
After Ennis-Hill set the bar in the opening 100m hurdles event, racing to the top of the standings in 12.84 seconds, Johnson-Thompson returned the favour in the high jump.
As the pair traded blows with Canada’s Brianne Thiesen-Eaton, the 23-year-old broke the British high jump record of 1.98m to move to the top of the overall standings, with Ennis-Hill dropping to third.
Both Brits struggled to assert themselves in the third round, the shot put, but Ennis posted a solid round of 13.86 to stay second in the standings, while Johnson-Thompson’s 11.68m meant she fell to sixth.
The final round of the day was the 200m, with Johnson-Thompson took in a British one-two with Ennis-Hill, in times of 23.26 and 23.49. Ennis-Hill remains on top with 4,057 points, with Johnson-Thompson on 3957 points, only 7 points behind third-placed Aklea Jones of Barbados.
Sailing
Five-time Olympian Nick Dempsey is guaranteed a silver medal after the Netherlands’ Dorian van Rijsselberghe pulled away with a 21 point lead in the in the RS:X windsurfing standings.
Dempsey, who also took silver at London 2012, cannot move up or down in the rankings with Poland’s Piotr Myszka 26 points behind him in bronze medal position heading into Sunday’s medal race.
A pair of race wins and a sixth puts Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills in gold medal position in the 470 standings through five races. Luke Patience and Chris Grube also picked up a race win, and they sit third overall in the men’s 470 after five races.
Nick Thompson is in fourth place in the laser class, while Alison Young is eighth in the laser radial, both through eight races. Three straight fourth-place finishes for Bryony Shaw leaves her eighth overall heading into the RS:X women’s medal race on Sunday.
Badminton
Chris and Gabby Adcock kick-started their Rio 2016 mixed doubles campaign by taking their first victory over Danish duo Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christina Pedersen, 21-19, 22-24, 21-17.
Having lost their first Pool B match against Xu and Ma of China, all four teams lie on one win and one loss, meaning the Adcocks’ final pool match against Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba of Poland on Saturday will prove decisive.
Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis also got off the mark with victory against Kim and Kim of Korea Republic, 17-21, 25-23, 21-18 and need to win their final men’s doubles game on Saturday to progress.
Lauren Smith and Heather Olver were defeated, for the second straight game, against Greysia Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari of Poland, 21-10, 21-13.
Hockey
Great Britain’s men were held to a 1-1 draw by Spain, a result which sees them eliminated at the pool stage. GB went behind early on before Sam Ward came up with an equaliser. Having won only one of their five matches, GB finish fifth in Pool A and do not advance to the quarter-final.
Fencing
Great Britain’s Team Foil quarter final against Russia went right to the wire before their opponents snatched victory by 45 points to 43.
The quartet of Richard Kruse, James Davis, Laurence Halstead and Marcus Mepstead fell behind and fought their way back into the contest, before a nail-biting finished ended in disappointment.
Shooting
Amber Hill advanced to the six-person skeet semi-final but the 18-year-old missed out on competing for a medal by one bird after shooting 13/16.
Click here to read our Look Ahead to Day 8