Brits in brief
Hockey
Britain’s women made it three wins out of three with a hardfought 3-2 victory over Argentina, which booked their place in the quarter-finals with two games to spare. Two goals from Helen Richardson-Walsh gave GB a 2-0 lead at half-time, and Danny Kerry’s side looked to be coasting when Sophie Bray scooped home following a goalmouth scramble after 37 minutes. However, Florencia Habif then struck twice in the space of 64 seconds to set up a nervous finale, especially after Richardson-Walsh missed out on a hat-trick when her penalty was saved by Belen Succi. Argentina threw everything at Britain in the final few minutes and replaced Succi with an extra attacker, but were unable to find an equaliser.
Weightlifting
Seventeen-year-old Rebekah Tiler equalled her own British record in the women’s -69kg category with an accumulated total of 227kg, placing her second in the ‘B’ final and earning her 10th place overall after the results of the ‘A’ final were added later in the day. Hitting the target she sought at the start of the event, it was a composed display by the Keighley teenager, who had earned the solitary Great Britain’s women’s slot at the Games after an injury to her only realistic rival for the place, Zoe Smith.
Sailing
Giles Scott got his gold medal hopes back on track on his second day of competition in the Finn class. The 29-year-old, seen as the heir to Sir Ben Ainslie’s throne, is favourite to land the title in his first Games and recovered from a frustrating opening day to lead the competition after four races. Having sat 10th overnight, Scott finished second and first in races three and four to lift his fortunes. He has a five-point cushion over Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar.
Equestrianism
Britain made a solid start to their defence of the dressage team title after strong performances from Fiona Bigwood and Spencer Wilton in Deodoro. With London 2012 gold medallists Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester performing their first tests today, Britain were third overnight behind Germany and Holland. Bigwood posted a score of 77.157 per cent on Orthilia, while her fellow Olympic debutant Wilton scored 72.686 per cent on Super Nova II.
Tennis
Andy Murray and Johanna Konta will have to try again today after their matches were rained off. The start of play at the Olympic Tennis Centre was pushed back several times, but rain continued to fall and at 4.30pm local time the day session was abandoned. Defending champion Murray had been due to face Italy’s Fabio Fognini in the third round, while Konta will take on second seed Angelique Kerber in the quarter-finals.
Boxing
Qais Ashfaq exited the bantamweight competition when he was beaten by Thailand’s Chatchai Butdee in his opening bout. The Leeds fighter looked distinctly off the pace as he was dominated by his smaller rival, losing every round on all the judges’ cards. Butdee, the 2015 Asian Games champion, was sharper in the first and the bout was effectively over after Ashfaq was floored by a jolting left hand midway through the second.