GB swimmers, Murray & Biles star on day four of Olympics

Team GB won two gold medals and sporting superstars Andy Murray and Simone Biles triumphed on day four at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The swimming quartet of James Guy, Tom Dean, Matt Richards and Duncan Scott retained their men’s 4x200m freestyle title, adding to Nathan Hales’ men’s shooting trap final gold earlier in the day for Team GB.

Murray once again saved multiple match points – and his career – alongside men’s doubles partner Dan Evans as the British pair beat Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-3 6-7 (8-10) 11-9 in a dramatic contest.

American Biles inspired the United States to victory in the women’s team gymnastics event and her first gold medal since Rio 2016 after pulling out of several events at Tokyo 2020 three years ago with the ‘twisties’ – a disorientating mental block.

Her success came on the day a heatwave hit Paris – and there was also disruption to the triathlon events.

With the water quality in the River Seine still deemed too poor to swim in, the men’s race has been pushed back to Wednesday and remains in doubt.

Hales secured Great Britain’s first medal of the day as he set a Games record, shooting 48 out of 50 to claim gold on his Olympics debut.

The 28-year-old, who set the world record by hitting 49/50 to win his first World Cup title in Linato last year, qualified for the final by recording a score of 123/125 from five rounds to progress joint-first in the 30-man field.

Hales made the perfect start in the final, hitting 15 out of 15 shots, and held his lead throughout as the five other competitors were eliminated one by one.

He celebrated by pumping his fist, before raising his shotgun in the air with both hands as fans waved British flags in the crowd, pipping China’s Qi Yang, who took silver, and Guatemalan bronze medallist Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas.

Guy, Dean, Richards and Scott then added Team GB’s fourth gold of the Games and their 12th medal overall with success in the pool in the evening.

The team held a slender lead going into the final leg before Scott brought the team home to win by a comfortable 1.35 seconds.

Victory marked the first time a British relay quartet has retained an Olympic title in swimming or athletics.

Elsewhere in the pool, Team Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen set a new Olympic record of 7:38.19 in the men’s 800m freestyle to become Northern Ireland’s first individual gold medallist since Lady Mary Peters in 1972.

British tennis great Murray has confirmed he will bring his magnificent career to a close following the Games and for the second consecutive match found himself one point away from retirement.

Murray, 37 and partner Evans, 34, saved two match points in overcoming Gille and Vliegen to reach the quarter-finals – two days after saving five in their first-round win.

After missing two match points of their own in the second-set tie-break, the British pair took their third in a see-saw first-to-10 match tie-break as Evans stuck away a volley.

The pair jumped for joy before an elated, elongated embrace as Murray broke down in tears afterwards.

They will be joined by Spanish Grand Slam-winning pair Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal in the last eight after they defeated the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof, while in the women’s doubles Britain’s Heather Watson and Katie Boulter won their first-round tie.

Team GB’s hopes are over in the men’s singles, however, after Jack Draper lost 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-2 to American seventh seed Taylor Fritz in the second round.

Biles is one of the true global stars at the Paris Olympics with her status underlined by the celebrities who were in attendance to watch her at the packed Bercy Arena, including fellow sporting greats Serena Williams and Michael Phelps.

The 27-year-old went into the event as the world’s most decorated gymnast, with 37 world and Olympic medals, before adding to her total with a dazzling performance across each rotation.

She delivered excellent bars and beam routines before a crowd-pleasing floor display that sealed her fifth Olympic gold and eighth Games medal in total to help the USA finish ahead of Italy in silver and Brazil in bronze.

Great Britain came an agonising fourth, just 0.234 of a point behind Brazil.

There is reason for optimism for Team GB, however, after they completed their routines free of any major faults in a performance that will give them great confidence going into the individual finals.

The men’s triathlon was due to start at 07:00 BST on Tuesday, with the swimming leg taking place in the River Seine.

But after swimming training for triathletes was cancelled on Sunday and Monday, tests revealed the water quality still did not reach the required standard.

Heavy rainfall in Paris on Friday and Saturday has caused the water quality to diminish and the men’s race has been put back to Wednesday at 09:45 BST.

The women’s event is due to start at 07:00 BST, but organisers say both races only have a 60% chance of going ahead.

Friday remains a back-up date for both races and, as a last resort, organisers say the event could be contested as a duathlon – just the cycling and running legs.

The Olympic surfing is being held in Tahiti, French Polynesia, but that has also been affected by bad weather, with Tuesday’s sessions postponed because of adverse conditions.

Team GB won medals in five of the six equestrian events at Tokyo 2020 but their preparations for Paris were jolted last week after a video emerged that showed Dujardin “excessively” whipping a horse.

Britain’s joint-most decorated female Olympian pulled out of the 2024 Games and was replaced by Moody, who made the most of her opportunity by topping her group with a score of 74.938 to qualify for Sunday’s individual final.

She is likely to be joined by fellow Briton Carl Hester, who missed out on automatic qualification by coming third in his group with a score of 77.345, but is well placed to make it through as one of six athletes with the next highest overall scores.

Charlotte Fry – the world number three – starts her campaign as qualification continues on Wednesday at 10:00 BST.

Team GB currently sit second behind Denmark in the team standings and are in strong contention to qualify for Saturday’s final.