Olympics 2024: Great Britain’s Toby Roberts wins climbing gold; Katarina Johnson-Thompson faces Nafi Thiam battle | Olympics News
Teenage sport climber Toby Roberts won Great Britain’s 14th gold of the Paris 2024 Olympics after victory in the men’s boulder and lead competition.
Roberts, 19, secured 155.2 points to beat favourite Sorato Anraku of Japan, who lost his grip and fell needing only 86 points on the lead wall to relegate Roberts into silver-medal position.
Austria’s Jakob Schubert took bronze, with another Briton, Hamish McArthur, finishing fifth.
Roberts, given the nickname ‘The Terminator’ due to his determination told the BBC: “I’m just absolutely lost for words. To find out that I got the gold in that moment, it was just truly incredible.
“I’ve been training for this moment my whole life, and now I’ve just won. To say it hasn’t sunk in is an understatement.
“I don’t really know what to think right now, but I imagine later, there’s just going to be a flood of emotions. It’s a goal I’ve been training towards for 10 years, basically. Just no words.”
Roberts later added: “To find out you’ve won Olympic gold is definitely a shock. It was a rush of adrenaline, emotion and then happiness.
“I hope this makes climbing bigger and bigger. The sport is growing in the UK with climbing gyms opening up, and it’s so cool to see climbing on this big stage.”
KJT still has chance of Olympic gold
At the Stade de France, Katarina Johnson-Thompson lost top spot in the heptathlon to Nafissatou Thiam ahead of Friday evening’s final event, the 800m, which takes place at 1925 BST.
Sky Sports’ Miriam Walker-Khan explains what Katarina Johnson-Thompson must do to win Olympic gold in the heptathlon
The reigning world champion began day two in the gold-medal spot and retained that place with a leap of 6.40 metres in the long jump.
However, Johnson-Thompson was usurped by two-time Olympic champion Thiam after the javelin, with the Belgian throwing 54.04m and Johnson-Thompson landing 45.49.
The Briton now trails Thiam by 121 points and will need to beat her rival by around eight seconds to win the gold medal in Paris.
Johnson-Thompson’s best 800m time is 2:05.63, a little over six seconds better than Thiam’s 2:11.79.
Harper misses out on diving medal as China win gold again
In the women’s 3m springboard, Britain’s Yasmin Harper came fifth and compatriot Grace Reid 10th as China won their seventh gold from seven in the diving events in Paris.
Chen Yiwen – who also won the synchronised 3m title with Chang Yani on the opening day of the Games – registered a score of 376.00 to finish ahead of Australia’s Maddison Keeney (343.10) and countrywoman Chang (318.75).
Harper (305.10) was unable to add to the bronze she claimed alongside Scarlett Mew Jensen in the 3m synchro event.
Plus, Great Britain’s Hector Pardoe came sixth in the men’s 10km open water swimming after pipping France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier in a photo finish, while Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen, who won 800m freestyle gold and 1500m bronze in the pool, finishing 18th as he made his debut in open water swimming.
Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky took open water gold with a time of one hour 50 minutes and 52 seconds, 2.1 seconds ahead of Germany’s Oliver Klemet, with Rasovszky’s compatriot David Betlehem bagging bronze.
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