Biles at brilliant best as curtain comes down on Murray’s career

Simone Biles was at her brilliant best to recapture her all-around gymnastics crown as Andy Murray’s glittering tennis career came to an end on day six of the Paris Olympics.

American Biles, 27, became the oldest winner of her sport’s blue-riband event for 72 years and just the third woman to win two all-around Olympic titles after Vera Caslavska and Larisa Latynina.

Murray, 37, one of Britain’s sporting greats, was unable to deliver a medal-winning swansong as he and Dan Evans lost 6-2 6-4 to US pair Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.

Earlier on Thursday, Team GB missed out on the rowing gold they craved but added three more medals at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

It keeps GB on track to better the haul of Tokyo three years ago, where they had 18 by the same stage on day six.

Helen Glover, Esme Booth, Sam Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten took silver in a thrilling women’s four race after being edged out by just 0.18 seconds by the Netherlands.

Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Becky Wilde earlier clinched bronze in the women’s doubles sculls, while Oli Wilkes, David Ambler, Matt Aldridge and Freddie Davidson also claimed bronze in the men’s four.

But there was disappointment for British 800m medal hope Jake Wightman, who has withdrawn from the Games because of a hamstring injury.

Widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, Biles made history as the first women to reclaim the Olympic all-around title, having first won it in 2016 at the Rio Games.

Despite pulling out of most of her events at Tokyo 2020 after experiencing the ‘twisties’ – a disorientating mental block – she was already the most decorated gymnast coming into the Paris Games.

And she underlined her enduring excellence in a gruelling sport that has traditionally been dominated by teenagers.

An electrifying display got under way with a sensational vault that scored 15.766 and while there was a rare mistake on the uneven bars, she did not put a foot wrong thereafter.

She concluded with a peerless floor routine to take gold well ahead of Brazil’s silver medallist Rebeca Andrade and defending champion Sunisa Lee, who took bronze.

Biles now has as many Olympic medals as the great Nadia Comaneci and her tally of 39 at world and Olympics level is unparalleled in the sport.

And with floor, beam and vault finals in the coming days she could yet add to her collection.

Having staved off retirement with the help of Evans in the first two rounds against Japan’s Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori and Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, there was to be no fairytale ending to Murray’s 19-year professional career at Roland Garros.

Fritz and Paul’s non-existent celebrations, rapturous applause and well wishes only emphasised the respect and admiration that Murray has earned as a giant of the modern game.

While Murray has been ravaged by injuries in recent years, he famously ended Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s champion at Wimbledon when he defeated Novak Djokovic in 2013.

He added a second title in 2016, taking his career majors total to three after breaking his duck at the 2012 US Open.

Murray also won gold at the 2012 Olympics on an emotional day at the All England Club when he defeated Roger Federer just weeks after he had lost the Wimbledon final to the Swiss on the same Centre Court.

And four years on, he beat Juan Martin del Potro to become the first player, male or female, to win two Olympic singles golds.

Murray, who won 46 titles in all, also led Britain to the Davis Cup title in 2015, the country’s first in 79 years.

Glover’s bid to become the first woman to win three Olympic rowing gold medals for GB came up agonisingly short as the women’s four were pipped to the title by the Netherlands.

At 38, and having twice previously retired from the sport, mother-of-three Glover’s legacy as a GB Olympic great was already cemented following gold-medal success at London 2012 and in Rio four years later.

But there was a sense that the quartet of Glover, Booth, Redgrave and Shorten were the favourites for this event in Paris.

Instead, it proved almost a reverse of Wednesday’s dramatic finish in the water, when GB women’s quadruple scullers edged the Dutch to gold right at the finish.

“We put it all out there,” said Glover. “We raced the plan we wanted to race, we raced together.

“We raced with so much heart and I think there can’t be regret at looking back and not thinking you did all you can.”

Glover was the first mother to row for Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

She has paved the way for others, including Hodgkins-Byrne, who produced a stirring performance alongside Wilde to take bronze in the women’s doubles sculls.

Hodgkins-Byrne took time away after Tokyo 2020 to give birth to son Freddie, while Wilde has an inspiring story of her own having started out as a swimmer who only switched sports in 2017.

The Olympics is just her third international event after needing surgery on her forearms last September, but just 10 months on, and having only recently teamed up with Hodgkins-Byrne, the pair earned a surprise spot on the podium behind champions New Zealand and silver medallists Romania.

The men’s four of Wilkes, Ambler, Aldridge and Davidson followed up with another bronze to bring GB’s total to four rowing medals in Paris, already one more than they managed at Tokyo 2020.

Team Ireland’s Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle also won bronze in the men’s double sculls.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif reached the quarter-finals of the women’s 66kg as opponent Angela Carini abandoned their bout after 46 seconds.

Taking a punch to the face inside 30 seconds, Italy’s Carini went to the corner for her coach to fix her headgear but, after briefly resuming, returned to her corner once more and stopped the fight.

It comes a day after Algeria’s Olympic Committee condemned “baseless” attacks on Khelif.

The 25-year-old – who received a bye in the first round – is one of two athletes who have been cleared to compete in the women’s boxing in Paris, having been disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Championships.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said welterweight Khelif was disqualified in India because of elevated levels of testosterone.

It added that all boxers in Paris “comply with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations”.

“It could have been the match of a lifetime, but I had to preserve my life as well in that moment,” said Carini, who was in tears as she faced the media after the bout.

Khelif, who has lost nine times during her 50-fight career, told BBC Sport: “I’m here for the gold – I fight everybody.”

Tommy Fleetwood carded a four-under-par 67 to sit four shots off the lead as his Olympic campaign got under way at Le Golf National, where the British golfer helped Europe to Ryder Cup success in 2018.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama is the clubhouse leader at eight under.

Given the tragic events in his hometown of Southport, where three young girls died after a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed event on Monday, Fleetwood’s thoughts this week have been with the families and those affected.

“When one of you gets hurt, you feel like all of you do. That’s just what home is,” said the 33-year-old.

“Everybody is feeling it, for sure, but nobody as much as the families that are involved and that’s what comes first.

“We all follow our dreams, whatever it is, and that’s obviously a huge part of life but for those kids that won’t have the chance and those families that have got to deal with it, it massively puts things into perspective.”

Fleetwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick are representing GB in Paris, while Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are competing for Ireland.