GB gold, Covid hits 200m and KJT starts well – day 13 in Paris

Team GB are back among the gold medals after Ellie Aldridge secured their 13th podium-topping triumph of the Paris Olympics, winning the women’s kite sailing final on the water off Marseille.

There was also success in the velodrome where Emma Finucane took bronze in the women’s keirin to win her “surreal” second medal at these Games.

A good start for Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson means she leads the heptathlon after day one.

But there was heartbreak for Jade Jones as she suffered a second successive Olympic first-round loss in the women’s under-57kg taekwondo.

British team-mate Bradly Sinden cruelly missed out on the podium, having to pull out before a bronze medal bout because of injury.

Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo claimed a surprise but brilliant Olympic 200m gold at the Stade de France, with Covid-affected 100m winner Noah Lyles leaving the track in a wheelchair after taking bronze.

In the diving, Grace Reid and Yasmin Harper progressed to the final of the women’s 3m springboard, but there was disappointment for Jack Laugher and Jordan Houlden in the men’s final.

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Aldridge secured Great Britain’s 13th gold of the Olympics with her kite sailing victory.

In doing so she became the inaugural champion, with the discipline making its debut.

It is a fast and furious event, with competitors flying above the water on hydrofoils attached to lightweight boards and powered by huge kites at up to 40 knots.

Aldridge secured gold by winning two races in the final series on Thursday.

The 27-year-old went into the last of those tied on points with France’s Lauriane Nolot but behind her on countback.

World silver medallist Aldridge led almost from start to finish in the first race of the day and was even more dominant in the second, in which Nolot fell off her board early on to put herself out of contention.

Aldridge was able to cruise to the finish line before celebrating her moment of history and Team GB’s 50th medal of the 2024 Games.

Botswana’s Tebogo claimed a surprise Olympic 200m gold medal as Lyles was denied a sprint double at Paris 2024.

Tebogo, 21, stormed clear of his rivals to clock an African record of 19.46 seconds and finish ahead of American Kenneth Bednarek, who crossed the line in 19.62 secs.

America’s sprint showman Lyles, who claimed 100m gold by five-thousandths of a second on Sunday night, burst out on to the track to huge cheers before the race.

However, he struggled to compete with those at the front and ultimately matched his Tokyo bronze in 19.70 secs, before receiving medical attention and leaving the track in a wheelchair.

US Track and Field then revealed that Lyles had tested positive for Covid and pictured showed he had been wearing a mask before coming out to race.

Winner Tebogo, competing in his first Olympics, lost his mother in May and wears her date of birth on his shoes.

“It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field. It gives me a lot of motivation. She’s watching up there, and she’s really, really happy,” he said after taking gold.

Johnson-Thompson made a strong start in her bid for an elusive Olympic medal, taking the lead after day one of the heptathlon.

Twice a world champion, the 31-year-old finished 14th on her Olympic debut in 2012, came sixth four years later in Rio and injury prevented her from finishing in Tokyo three years ago.

In the opening discipline – the 100m hurdles – she was eighth fastest overall before going toe to toe with two-time defending Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam in the high jump.

Johnson-Thompson and Thiam were the only two women to clear 1.92m, and while the Belgian won the event as she needed fewer attempts to reach that height it was enough to put the Briton top of the standings after the first two events.

And she was top at the end of the day, too, after posting a new shot put personal best of 14.44m, before going on to win her 200m race in 23.45 seconds.

Those results put Johnson-Thompson on 4,055 points, 48 ahead of Thiam in second, while Anna Hall of USA sat third on 3,956, with GB’s Jade O’Dowda in 17th.

The athletes compete in long jump and javelin on Friday morning, before the 800m decides the medals.

Sinden and Jones were among Britain’s major medal hopes at these Games, and both started their taekwondo campaigns on Thursday.

Tokyo silver medallist Sinden beat Croatia’s Marko Golubic 8-6 9-11 18-10 in the quarter-finals.

He then won the first round of his semi-final against Zaid Kareem of Jordan. However, after losing a tight second round, he received two kicks to the head in the decider and slipped to a 10-2 defeat.

That left Sinden facing a bronze medal bout but he was forced to pull out with a knee injury.

But Jones’ hopes of gold were over at the last-16 stage, as they were in Tokyo. She was beaten 7-6 4-5 1-1 by Miljana Reljikj – who won the tie despite the drawn final round as she landed more hits across the bout.

It follows a controversial build-up to the Games for Jones. She was provisionally suspended for failing to provide a sample to testers before being cleared to compete after she was found to having committed a no-fault doping violation on confidential medical grounds.

Conditions in the River Seine have been a constant concern for Games organisers, with pollution leading to several familiarisation sessions being cancelled and the men’s triathlon being delayed by a day.

But they got some respite as the women’s 10km marathon swim was cleared to take place as scheduled early on Thursday morning.

The Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal took gold after two hours of gruelling swimming, for her second Olympic title after winning at Rio 2016.

Australia’s Moesha Johnson came second with Italy’s Ginevra Taddeucci in third, while GB’s Leah Crisp finished 20th.

Afterwards, Van Rouwendaal dedicated the victory to her pet dog Rio, who died in May and had been given his name because of her golden success eight years ago in Brazil.

“My world stopped and I didn’t care about swimming for three weeks. He was my little baby,” she told the BBC.

“I swam for him with my whole heart. I won it for him.”