A five-star showing on a momentous day pushed Great Britain to second in the medal table on the nation’s most successful day at an overseas Olympics.
A staggering five gold medals were collected, and eight medals in total, with two additional medals guaranteed to come. London 2012’s ‘Super Saturday’ the only day where a superior amount of golds were gathered, six, in the modern Olympic period, since 1920.
History was written as Max Whitlock ascended the podium as Britain’s first ever Olympic gymnastics champion with a stunning floor routine, then made a remarkable return journey less than an hour later with pommel horse gold.
Sprint king Jason Kenny won an astonishing fifth Olympic gold medal in an all-British individual sprint final. Justin Rose sunk a golden putt to become the first Olympic golf champion in 112 years and Andy Murray successfully defended the tennis title he first captured at London 2012.
Louis Smith and Callum Skinner played supporting roles on the podium to land British one-twos in pommel horse and track cycling, individual sprint, respectively. Nick Dempsey became GB’s most successful windsurfer with medals in three straight Olympics and finn sailor Giles Scott took an unassailable lead in his fleet, guaranteeing a gold medal in his maiden Games, which will be added to the tally after the medal race on Tuesday.
Gymnastics
Max Whitlock captured Great Britain’s first ever gymnastics gold medal with a breath-taking floor exercise display, scoring 15.633, while Kristian Thomas finished in seventh in the final with 15.058.
Less than an hour later, the pommel horse event commenced with Louis Smith’s impressive display scoring him 15.833 and putting him in gold medal position, until Whitlock seized the moment to put himself back in the spotlight with a tremendous routine worth 15.966, and a put British one-two on the podium.
Cycling – Track
Jason Kenny outlined his true dominance in sprint cycling by securing his fifth Olympic gold medal, and his second Olympic sprint title, with a 2-0 triumph over compatriot and team sprint champion teammate Callum Skinner, who took silver.
Rio 2016 keirin silver medallist Becky James set a new Olympic sprint record while qualifying for the last 16 of the women’s individual sprint, clocking a time of 10.721s to break Victoria Pendleton’s London 2012 record. Fellow Brit Katy Marchant also progressed to tomorrow’s knockout round.
Mark Cavendish took to the Rio velodrome in competition for the first time and he sits third overall in the omnium after the first three rounds. Cavendish finished sixth in the scratch race and set the second fastest time in individual pursuit. He followed up with 28 points in the elimination race to put himself in medal contention at the half-way point of the competition.
Golf
Justin Rose was crowned the first Olympic golf champion in 112 years, when the sport was last contested at the 1904 Games, when a dramatic gold medal was sealed on the 18th green.
The competition went right to the wire when Rose and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson were tied at -15 heading to the last. Stenson’s bogie presented an opportunity for Rose, who holed a birdie in a nail-biting finish to take the title by two shots.
Tennis
Andy Murray captured back-to-back Olympic gold medals after coming through a four-hour battle with Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro.
The finalists split the first two sets in a back-and-fourth tussle which lasted over two hours, before the 2016 Wimbledon champion stepped up a gear in to take the third set 6-2.
London 2012 bronze medallist Del Potro regained the ascendency in the fourth set but Murray dug deep to fight back and gain a 6-5 lead before breaking in the final game to seal the gold medal in a bruising contest, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.
Sailing
World champion Giles Scott showed his superiority in the finn class by extending his lead at the top of the standings at the culmination of the fleet races, to the point where the first-time Olympian cannot be caught in Tuesday’s medal race, and will therefore collect the gold medal afterwards.
RS:X windsurfer Nick Dempsey had also sealed his fate ahead of Sunday’s medal race. He was guaranteed a silver medal before sailing to fourth in a final lap of honour before the 35-year-old bowed out of Olympic competition with medals in three consecutive games, bronze in Beijing and silvers in London and Rio.
Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills sailed to eighth and first place finishes in the day’s two races to leave the pair four points clear in the women’s 470 standings. Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves are outsiders heading into Tuesday’s medal race after finishes of 15th, 15th and 12th to close out the fleet races, leaving them eighth overall.
Bryony Shaw finished sixth in the women’s RS:X medal race to confirm a ninth place in the overall standings. A tough day for Luke Patience and Chris Grube saw them disqualified in their first race of the day and finished 20th in the second, to leave them 10th overall with three fleet races remaining.
Boxing
Joshua Buatsi has guaranteed himself a Rio 2016 medal having advanced to the semi-final stage of the light heavyweight division following a win by unanimous decision over Algeria’s Abdelhafid Benchabla.
Savanah Marshall marched through to the quarter final of the women’s middleweight division by beating Sweden’s Anna Laurell Nash by decision. Pat McCormack was eliminated from the light welterweight last 16 in a split-decision defeat against Cuba’s Yasniel Toledo López.
Equestrian
John Whitaker delivered a fantastic round on Ornellaia to be the only British entry to advance to the jumping individual open final, as Nick Skelton, Ben Maher and Michael Whitaker missed the qualifying cut. GB qualified for the team final in eighth place.
Badminton
Rajiv Ouseph claimed his second men’s singles win at Rio 2016 to top his pool and advance to tomorrow’s round of 16. A 21-15, 21-9 victory over Japan’s Sho Sasaki confirmed his place.
In women’s singles, Kirsty Gilmour’s Rio 2016 run came to an end with a defeat against Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri, 12-21, 21-17, 21-16.
Diving
Grace Reid secured a top ten finish in the women’s 3m springboard individual final with a score of 318.60 points ensuring she placed eighth overall.
Athletics
Laura Weightman and Laura Muir booked themselves places in Wednesday’s 1500m final with strong semi-final runs. Weightman finished the first semi-final in some pain from a gash to the leg caused by a running spike, having edged over the line in fifth place. Muir hung with the contenders at the front of her semi-final and qualifyed comfortably in third place.
Matthew Hudson-Smith competed in the 400m final, finishing in eighth in 44.61, as South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk shattered Michael Johnson’s world record setting a new all-time best of 43.03.
Click here to read our Look Ahead to Day 10.