France’s record haul & 100m fine margins – day nine in Paris

Team GB added another four medals to their Paris 2024 tally and France broke their own record while Noah Lyles took men’s 100m gold by the tightest of margins on day nine.

British shooter Amber Rutter took silver in the women’s skeet final after a controversial call in the shoot-off.

Tommy Fleetwood also came up just short in the men’s golf, finishing with silver behind US world number one Scottie Scheffler.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic finally won the Olympic gold medal he had craved in the men’s tennis to secure the ‘Golden Slam’.

Great Britain won their fifth equestrian medal of the Games as Lottie Fry, who has already helped GB win team dressage bronze, followed that with another bronze in the individual event on Sunday.

In the gymnastics, Harry Hepworth became the first British man to win an Olympic vault medal with bronze but reigning world and European vault champion Jake Jarman finished fourth.

The athletics heats continued, with Dina Asher-Smith bouncing back from her early exit in the women’s 100m to progress in the 200m alongside team-mates Daryll Neita and Bianca Williams.

Keely Hodgkinson progressed to the women’s 800m final while both Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley eased into the final of the men’s 1500m.

There was, however, penalty shootout disappointment for GB in the men’s hockey as they exited at the quarter-final stage, beaten by 10-man India.

At La Defense Arena, Adam Peaty questioned China’s relay victory on the final night of swimming in Paris, saying “there’s no point winning if you’re not winning fair”.

US sprint star Lyles won the Olympic men’s 100m title by five-thousandths of a second from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in a dramatic photo finish on Sunday.

It took a spectacular fightback from showman Lyles – who was seventh at the halfway stage- to overhaul his rivals and triumph in a personal best 9.79 seconds.

Olympic debutant Thompson was awarded the same time, but had to settle for silver by the finest of margins.

It means the American had a successful beginning to his bid for a potential four gold-medal haul at these Games, with the 200m and relay events still to come.

The 27-year-old – an athlete who thrives on the sport’s grandest stages – won three golds at last year’s World Championships.

The USA’s former world champion Fred Kerley took bronze in 9.81, edging out South Africa’s Akani Simbine for the podium.

Olympic hosts France have broken their record for medals at a single Games.

On Sunday they clinched their 44th medal courtesy of a bronze in the men’s foil fencing team finals.

After just nine days in Paris, the host nation are already doing better than their previous benchmark for a modern Olympics of 43 at the Beijing Games in 2008.

France won more than 100 medals at the 1900 Paris Games but that was contested over five months and their delegation represented almost half of the 1,000 participants, while some events were not sporting.

There have been plenty of highlights for the country, from Shirine Boukli winning their first medal with a bronze in the judo to swimming sensation Leon Marchand taking four golds and a bronze in the pool.

They currently sit third in the medal table with 12 golds, 14 silvers and 18 bronze and have seven more days of events to add to that.

Great Britain’s Fleetwood had to settle for Olympic silver in the men’s golf after falling agonisingly short of America’s Scheffler.

In an exciting final round that saw the lead change a number of times, Fleetwood was tied with Scheffler on 19 under walking on to the 17th hole.

But a bogey after missing the green and over-hitting a chip left him trailing Scheffler going down the last.

The 33-year-old Englishman also misjudged an approach on the 18th as he attacked and had to settle for a par which secured the silver medal in his second Olympic games.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama took bronze on 17 under while Rory McIlroy, representing Ireland, finished in a tie for fifth on 15 under.

Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz in thrilling fashion to secure a long-awaited Olympic title and complete the career ‘Golden Slam’.

The 37-year-old Serb, who has won a men’s record 24 majors and swept up every title there is in tennis, finally clinched Olympic gold at his fifth Games.

In what was arguably his best performance of the year, he beat French Open and Wimbledon champion Alcaraz 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-2) in front of a packed crowd at Roland Garros.

Djokovic was visibly emotional, immediately bursting into tears and falling to his knees in the middle of the court after hugging the Spaniard at the end of the match.

He won singles bronze in Beijing in 2008, finished fourth at London 2012, suffered an emotional early loss in Rio in 2016 and lost the bronze-medal match in Tokyo three years ago.

Djokovic becomes just the fifth player to win the ‘Golden Slam’ in singles – all four majors and the Olympic title – after Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Great Britain’s Rutter won silver in a dramatic and controversial final of the women’s skeet shooting.

The 26-year-old finished in a tie of 55 shots out of 60 targets with Chile’s Francisca Crovetto Chadid.

They went to a shoot-off and were still tied after three rounds but, in a moment of contention, Rutter was called to have missed a shot which slow motion replays appeared to show she hit.

She contested the call but shooting’s version of a video assistant referee (VAR) or Hawkeye is not in use at the Olympics and the judges did not overturn the decision.

Crovetto Chadid, 34, struck with both her next shots to make history and clinch her country’s first ever shooting gold medal.

Former world champion Rutter takes a medal, though, just over three months after giving birth to her first child, Tommy, on 25 April and was surprised by her husband at the end, who had brought their son to the final.