Beth Shriever with her gold medal
Beth Shriever with her gold medal

Tokyo 2020: Beth Shriever wins BMX gold at Olympics


A review of Friday's action at the Olympic Games, where British BMX rider Beth Shriever won gold.

BMX history for British duo

Beth Shriever and Kye Whyte made BMX history for Great Britain on Friday morning as they delivered gold and silver medals at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.

Moments after Whyte won Britain’s first medal in the event since its introduction to the Olympic programme in 2008, taking silver behind Dutchman Niek Kimmann, Shriever led almost from start to finish to claim a superb gold in the women’s race.

As the 22-year-old collapsed in tears a jubilant Whyte scooped her up and held her aloft in celebration.

“I’m more happy for her than I am for me,” Whyte said. “That girl puts in some serious serious graft.”

Both Londoners have taken a long road to get to this point.

Whyte, 21, grew up in south London, where his father was a co-founder of the Peckham BMX Club which sought to steer youngsters away from gang culture and crime.

Shriever, from Leytonstone, dropped out of British Cycling’s programme in 2017 after UK Sport had announced there would be no funding for women’s BMX in this Olympic cycle.

But her coaches saw the potential in the 2017 junior world champion and, at a time when they were keen to diversify Britain’s medal opportunities, persuaded the agency to let them reassign funds.

It was still an uphill battle – Shriever worked as a teaching assistant and also used crowdfunding to keep going before being brought back on to the programme in the summer of 2019 – but on Friday the journey ended with Olympic gold.

Djokovic suffers shock defeat

Novak Djokovic’s dreams of a Golden Slam are over after a shock defeat by Alexander Zverev in the Olympic semi-finals.

The world number one was looking to become the first man in history to win all four grand slam titles and Olympic singles gold in the same year but Zverev fought back brilliantly after losing the first set to win 1-6 6-3 6-1.

It is the third time Djokovic has lost in the semi-finals at the Olympics, with his only medal so far a bronze in Beijing in 2008.

He still has a chance of gold here in the mixed doubles with Nina Stojanovic, while he will face Pablo Carreno Busta on Sunday for singles bronze.

An emotional Alex Zverev after his comeback victory over Novak Djokovic
An emotional Alex Zverev after his comeback victory over Novak Djokovic

Page lands trampoline bronze

Bryony Page claimed her second Olympic medal on the bounce with bronze in the women’s trampoline event at the Ariake Arena.

The 30-year-old, who won a surprise silver in Rio in 2016, scored 55.735 to finish behind Chinese pair Zhu Xueying and Liu Lingling.

Page had qualified for the final in third place after her two routines, but British team-mate Laura Gallagher failed to make the final.

She led with the two Chinese athletes still to go but a pair of strong routines ensured the Briton had to be content with bronze.

Page said: “I can’t quite believe it – the day went painfully slow and painfully quick at the same time.

“I’m extremely happy and relieved. I can’t believe I’ve got a second Olympic medal. I hoped I could do it, and I put a bit of pressure on myself about it.

“I’m happy to have upgraded my routine and I feel the strongest I ever have. I need to work on my mental strength as I’d have liked that confidence throughout the day, rather than have it build through the competition.

“I’ll go back in the gym in a few weeks time and talk to psychologists and my coaches and try and improve for the next few years.”

Another near-miss for Scott

Duncan Scott took some pride in claiming his third medal at Tokyo 2020 after being initially disappointed at another agonising near-miss for individual Olympic gold this week.

He came into these Games with two silvers in his possession from Rio 2016 and he claimed a third on Tuesday after finishing runner-up to Tom Dean in the men’s 200 metres freestyle, with just 0.04 seconds separating the British duo.

Scott was able to call himself an Olympic champion after Great Britain prevailed in the relay event, but he found himself back in familiar territory on Friday despite a personal best time in the men’s 200m individual medley.

The Scot was sixth at halfway and fifth heading into the final length before upping the ante terrifically in his preferred freestyle leg to clock one minute and 55.28 seconds, but gold by 0.28secs went to China’s Wang Shun.

He seemed crestfallen at learning his fate, facing away from the scoreboard confirming Wang’s win, and he admitted as much before reflecting with a little satisfaction at finishing runner-up in a discipline he is still learning.

After for his reaction, he responded: “Not PG (parental guidance) words. I think initially I’m just really gutted. Obviously times at an Olympic final almost go out of the window for me.

“But I’ve had enough time to think about it a bit more and let it sink in, a massive PB again, I’ve dropped over a second and a half in this event this year, still learning it a lot.

“I can hold my head high. Just not enough again.”

Bronze for Greenbank

Luke Greenbank’s Olympic bronze medal win in the men’s 200 metres backstroke was overshadowed as runner-up Ryan Murphy made cryptic remarks about the race not being clean after Evgeny Rylov’s victory in the event.

Murphy made no outright accusation about the Russian Olympic Committee’s Rylov, who backed up his win in the men’s 100m breaststroke earlier this week with an Olympic record time in this 200m final of one minute and 53.27 seconds.

He was 0.88secs clear of defending champion Murphy – while Greenbank finished third 1.45s adrift of Rylov – but the American told reporters afterwards it is a “huge drain” on him to swim “in a race that’s probably not clean”.

Asher-Smith makes low-key introduction

Dina Asher-Smith’s rivals sent out an Olympic warning in Tokyo as the Team GB star qualified for the 100 metres semi-finals.

The world 200m champion clocked 11.07 seconds in heat one on Friday, easing down to finish behind the United States’ Teahna Daniels.

But defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah made a statement with a run of 10.82 seconds – initially the fastest opening round in the event’s history at the Olympics.

The Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou then ran 10.78 seconds and favourite Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the double 100m champion, clocked 10.84 on the first morning of the athletics at the Olympic Stadium.

GB rowers end low week on high note

British Rowing’s Olympic Games post-mortem began in the Tokyo sunshine with bronze medal winner Josh Bugajski calling for honesty and claiming he “popped a bottle of champagne” when head coach Jurgen Grobler left last year.

Barely an hour earlier, Bugajski had helped the Great Britain men’s eight crew to a bronze medal in the rowing regatta’s final event at Sea Forest Waterway, joining forces with Jacob Dawson, Tom George, Mohamed Sbihi, Charles Elwes, Oliver Wynne-Griffith, James Rudkin and Tom Ford.

But a Games total of two medals – one silver and bronze – was the first time for 41 years that a gold medal was not among Britain’s collection for a sport that received just over £24million of UK Sport funding in the Olympic cycle.

Grobler surprisingly stepped down in August 2020. He coached eight gold medal-winning British crews across seven Olympics, overseeing sporting superstars like Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent.

But Bugajski did not hold back, claiming: “I will admit he is a good coach to some people.

“But there were people that he seemed to take a disliking to, and what he did to them was destroy them, destroy their soul, destroy everything. He had complete power.

“I am going to be brave and say something the crew don’t want me to say. I popped a bottle of champagne when Jurgen retired.

“I had three very dark years under him. I would be a coward not to say on behalf of the guys who are back home and didn’t make it on to the team and that got the darker side of Jurgen.

“It’s the end of an era for British rowing, but it is the start of a much better era. We’ve had six boats come fourth, on the cusp of a medal, and we’ve had two medals.

“Come Paris (in 2024) we’ve got a lot of potential, but we need to be honest about where it went wrong.”

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