Cyréna Samba-Mayela thrilled the Parisian crowd by winning France’s first athletics medal of these Olympic Games, landing silver in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Running from lane one, the2024 European champion was quick away alongside the Netherlands’ Nadine Visser to her immediate right. The Dutch two-time former European indoor champion seemed to have the slimmest of lead going into the penultimate hurdle.
But Samba-Mayela, USA’s Masai Russell and Puerto Rico’s defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn began their charge off the last barrier.
At the line, Russell just got the edge to win in 12.33 (-0.3m/s), Samba-Mayela was just one hundredth behind and Camacho-Quinn won bronze with 12.36 while Visser had to settle for fourth in 12.43.
Bell wins improbable bronze
After giving up the sport for five years, Georgia Bell got her hands on an improbable Olympic medal in the women’s 1500m. It crowned an extraordinary comeback to the sport for the British athlete who also won 1500m silver at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships in June.
It was an incredible final in Paris with Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay setting a searing pace right from the gun.
Bell, a training partner of 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, took the brave decision to go with the pace, hanging off the back of the lead pack which included Kenyan two-time winner and world record holder Faith Kipyegon.
In contrast, her British teammate Laura Muir, silver medallist in Tokyo, chose to run her own race adrift of the leaders.
As they entered the last lap, Muir was still striving to get back into contention. But by the back straight, the medals looked to be between Kipyegon, Bell, Australia’s Jessica Hull and Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji.
Down the home straight, Kipyegon pulled away for her third successive title. Bell was in fourth coming off the last bend but dug deep to overhaul Welteji for bronze, finishing in a national record of 3:52.61, just 0.05 behind silver medallist Hull as Kipyegon won gold in 3:51.29.
Despite not making the podium, Muir could also be contented she had drawn the best from herself, finising fifth in a personal best of 3:53.37.
Tual's bold bid falls short
In the men’s 800m final, France's European champion Gabriel Tual put himself right in the mix for medals, but faded to sixth place in the finishing straight.
Tual sat on the shoulder of eventual god medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi and he was still with the Kenyan leader coming into the last 100 metres.
But as he tired, the pack closed in and he dropped back to finish in 1:42.14. Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui, silver medallist behind Tual at Roma 2024, came home as the leading European in fifth with 1:42.08, just 0.04 outside his national record, as Wanyonyi (1:41.19), Canada’s Marco Arop (1:41.20) and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati (1:41.50) got the medals in the super-fast race.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics