Paris 2024 Olympics day five: men’s triathlon, Beaugrand wins women’s race for France – live | Paris Olympic Games 2024

Women’s hockey: It’s the end of the first quarter in the pool game between Great Britain and South Africa and it’s the latter who lead by the only goal of the game so far, which was scored by Kayla De Waal.

Women’s triathlon report: Early risers were treated to an epic women’s triathlon – and an epic result for France and Paris as Cassandre Beaugrand secured victory. Not far behind was Britain’s Beth Potter, who took a gritty bronze medal in conditions that were brutal even by the standards of this tough sport. Sean Ingle reports from the banks of the Seine …

Men’s triathlon: After Cassandre Beaugard’s incredibly popular home win in the women’s event earlier this morning, the men’s begins in considerably warmer conditions.

There are 55 competitors, with Britons Alex Yee and Sam Dickson among them. Because of the Seine’s currents, the women’s swim was brutal, while the cycling coughed up plenty of casualties too. Let’s see how their male counterparts fare as they dive off the pontoon and into the dirty drink …

Women’s hockey: Team GB have just started their latest pool match against South Africa at Yves-du-Manoir and while the contest is not necessarily must-win for the British women, it is certainly could-do-with-one.

They have lost their first two games of these Olympics and are currently bottom of the six-team pool on goal difference. Only the top four advance but Team GB have two matches remaining after this one. It’s scoreless between the sides in the early stages.

Tennis: Andy Murray and his doubles partner Dan Evans looked to be on the way out of Paris 2024 but yet again the commendably stubborn duo found a way to win. Jonathan Liew reports from Roland Garros …

Swimming: Duncan Scott won the seventh Olympic medal of his career as Team GB successfully defended their 4x200m relay title, while Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen was victorious in the 800m freestyle. Andy Bull reports from the París La Défense Arena …

Women’s gymnastics: The American dream played out in a piece of irresistible theatre to bury the memories of the Damned Games of Tokyo, writes Barney Ronay.

Catch-up: With some time to kill before the men’s triathlon begins at 9.45am (BST) and the women’s 10m synchronised diving starts at 10am (BST), now seems as good a time as any to flag up some of our writers’ musings on events from last night. Stay tuned …

Women’s triathlon: Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown finishes sixth, shaking hands with assorted members of the crowd on her way up the home straight. She seems happy enough with her performance but it’s her Scottish teammate Beth Potter who takes the bronze medal.

“I was going for the gold but Cassandre and Julie were just too good for me today,” she tells the BBC. “I’m so happy to be here with the bronze medal. I did it for me but I also did it for everyone who has helped me in the past eight years.”

Cassandre Beaugrand wins the women’s triathlon

Women’s triathlon: France’s Cassandre Beaugrand ups the pace and puts significant daylight between herself and Sweitzerland;’s Julie Derron. Beth Potter is in the bronze medal position for Britain and looking over her shoulder to see how far behind her Emma Lombardi is. About ten metres, Beth.

Women’s triathlon: Our four leaders take the bell and have 2.5km of this triathlon left to complete. That’s about eight minutes of racing in old money.

Women’s triathlon: Our four leaders pass the water station again and drench themselves with cold water as they continue to pass a steady stream of tail-enders. Switzerland’s Julie Derron tries to put some distance between herself and the other three leaders but they’re not having it and immediately up the pace. The race for all three medals is wide open and one of this quartet is going to miss out and suffer heartbreak. A reminder – they are: Julie Derron (Sui), Emma Lombardi (Fra), Cassandre Beaugrand (Fra) and Beth Potter (GB).

Women’s triathlon: A total of 1hr 35min after diving into the Seine, our four leaders pass a water station and you could throw a blanket over them. Switzerland’s Julie Derron is making the pace. Interestingly, there appeared to be a mass false start, when well over half the field appeared to jump the gun while diving into the Seine. I have no idea if any of our four leaders benefitted from that.

It could be significant as the swim looked horrendous, what with the strong currents in the famous river, and a lot of competitors’ chances of winning a medal ended before they had even getting on their bikes.

Women’s triathlon: Julie Derron (Sui), Emma Lombardi (Fra), Cassandre Beaugrand (Fra) and Beth Potter (GB) have opened a significant gap on the rest of the field with 7.5km of the run to go. It looks like our three medallists will come from this quartet. Georgia Taylor-Brown has dropped off the pace and will not be making the podium this year.

Women’s triathlon: Our nine leaders have finished the cycle and are in the early stages of the 10km run that will decide our winner. They’re well over a minute clear of the best of the rest.

Women’s triathlon: Taylor Knibb (USA) is leading the chase group. Some readers may remember her as the women who crashed no fewer than four times during the women’s Individual Time Trial. Her inability to stay upright didn’t seem to phase her and after the Race of Truth she jokingly described herself as “probably the worst bike handler out there”.

Women’s triathlon: Our nine leaders take the bell to signal one more five-kilometre lap of the cycle remaining ahead of the run. The Paris 2024 organisers are not being particularly efficient when it comes to telling how far behind the chasers are but it seems inconceivable that the winner will not come from this front group of nine who have just swung a right off the Champs-Elysees. The gap seems to be at about 1min 18sec.

Women’s triathlon: The road surface is extremely greasy and various riders are dropping like flies. In the lead group, German athlete Laura Lindemann is the latest to go down, skidding on some cobbles and cracking her right knee on the cobbles. She gets back on the bike and pedals away but is no longer in the lead group, which is now down to nine riders.

Good morning from London. And happy whatever-time-of-the-day it-is wherever you are. It’s Barry Glendenning here, picking up the cudgels from Jonathan, as our lead group of 10 in the women’s triathlon are about to start lap six of seven in the cycling.

Our leaders: Derron (SUI), Lombardi (FRA), Kingma (NED), Lindemann (GER), Beaugrand (FRA), Duffy (BER), Taylor-Brown (GBR), Potter (BR), Spivey (USA), and Kuttor-Bragmayer (HUN). Back in the field, Team USA’s kirsten Kasper has just hit the deck, landing heavily on her backside.

Although it looked like the jig was up for her, she remounted and set off again, only to come a cropper for a second time as she looked over her shoulder upon hearing a race motorbike coming upsides her.

Now two-thirds of the way into this cycling leg the leading ten remain over one minute clear of the chasing pack. Time-trial specialist Taylor Knibb (USA) is leading the chasing group and her expertise is helping chip away at the deficit, but it’s a Sisyphean task.

The course is lined with supporters four or five deep, urging on these triathletes. They are especially enthused with the presence of two French athletes in the leading pack: Emma Lombardi and Cassandre Beaugrand the number one and number three ranked triathletes in the world.

The top ten have settled into a rhythm, about half the way through this cycling portion of the triathlon. Those athletes are: Derron (SUI), Lombardi (FRA), Kingma (NED), Lindemann (GER), Beaugrand (FRA), Duffy (BER), Taylor-Brown (GBR), Potter (BR), Spivey (USA), and Kuttor-Bragmayer (HUN).

They have established a 68 second gap to the chasing pack.

It looks like we’re down to a race within a race for those leading ten with responsibility for leading the peloton switching periodically as everyone settles in ahead of the final running leg.

It’s Wacky Races out on the slippery cobblestones with bikes sliding along the Parisian streets sending triathletes crashing to the ground. The chasing peloton is now nine-strong with Seregni (ITA), Tertsh (GER), and Lopes (BRA) all losing ground after falls.

But that chasing group has done its job, with Flora Duffy (BER) on the cusp of being reeled in.

That chasing pack is now 11-strong with Beaugrand (FRA), Lombardi (FRA), Tertsh (GER), and Taylor-Brown (GBR) among the peloton. However, they are failing to make any inroads on Flora Duffy with the Bermudian extending her lead, one that she established early on the swimming leg.

Further back we’ve already seen at least three cyclists stack hard on the slippery cobblestones.

Duffy (BER) has a 17 second lead early in the cycling portion of the race. Behind her looms a chasing pack of four: Seregni (ITA), Lopes (BRA), Kingma (NED) and Potter (GBR).

Flora Duffy (BER) is first out of the water into her transition. It is a transition that includes a climb of 35 steep steps from the river up to the bridge where the bikes are waiting.

As well as the four triathletes mentioned, French contenders Beaugrand and Lombardi are in the top ten, with Taylor-Brown (GBR) and Tertsch (GER) still in the mix.

Of the pre-race favourites, Kate Waugh (GBR) is way back in 43rd, 90 seconds off the pace.

Those four triathletes drag their sodden bodies out of the Seine, jog along the starting pontoon and dive back into the water for a much shorter lap two. The field is strung out to extraordinary proportions with a massive 50 seconds separating first and 15th and an unbelievable one minute 58 covering first to last.

Duffy (BER) continues to lead the swimming leg, putting clean(ish) water between her and the chasing pack. It looks like one heck of a slog though during this upstream portion of the race. Bianca Seregni (ITA) is in second place with Vittoria Lopes (BRA) in third and Beth Potter (GBR) fourth.

The triathletes have reached the first turn at 910 of the 1500m course. Some of the back markers are almost swimming on the spot to fight the extraordinarily strong current.

Defending champion Flora Duffy (BER) has moved her way to the tip of the arrowhead of swimmers, hugging the riverbank to minimise the impact of the current.

The current in the Seine is reportedly one metre per second, which means swimming upstream is going to be exhausting. Some beautiful *triathlon cliches* on the world feed commentary with the truism that you can’t win the triathlon during the swimming leg, but you can lose it.

Replays of the start suggest it wasn’t a clean breakaway and their may be some false start penalties.

55 intrepid women triathletes have splashed their way into the soupy Seine for one of the most anticipated events of the Paris Games.

It has been raining all morning but there are thousands of fans camped on the bridges and riverbanks of the French capital to cheer on the competitors. Allez!

The women’s triathlon features an opening swimming leg of 1500m (two laps of a 750m course in the Seine), then a 40km bike ride (seven 5.7km loops through Paris), finishing with a 10km run (four 2km laps).

French supporters will be lining the triathlon route cheering on home stars Emma Lombardi and Cassandre Beaugrand the number one and number three ranked triathletes in the world.

Sandwiched between the two Frenchwomen is German Lisa Tertsch, while rankings four and five are occupied by a pair of British athletes, Beth Potter and Kate Waugh.

The defending champion is Flora Duffy, who became Bermuda’s first Olympic gold medallist when she finished ahead of Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) and Katie Zaferes (USA). Taylor-Brown lines up again today.

Here’s the triathlon course that will show off the incredible sights of Paris city centre.

We’re just about half-an-hour away from the start of the women’s triathlon. It’s an event that has featured heavily in the build-up to the games with the swimming portion of the race taking place in the river Seine.

Among the starters is American dual-sport phenomenon Taylor Knibb. The 26-year-old is a longer distance Ironman 70.3 specialist, who also qualified for Team USA in the road cycling time trial earlier this Olympics, finishing 19th.

In modern times, competing in two sports in the same summer is considerably less common. A Guardian analysis of data from the Olympic-stats site Olympedia turned up no athlete pulling double duty at the same Summer Olympics since 1992 (athletes such as cyclist-rower Rebecca Romero and baseball player-speed skater Eddy Alvarez have won medals in two sports at separate Olympics).

That drought will end on Wednesday, pollution permitting, when triathlete/cyclist Taylor Knibb competes in the women’s triathlon in Paris, four days after finishing 19th in the road cycling time trial, in which she crashed several times on a slippery day in Paris.

Staying with football, it’s a huge day for the women’s competition with the eight quarter-finalists to be decided after the final round of games. With 12 teams starting the tournament only four sides will miss out, with the winless trio of New Zealand, Nigeria and Zambia unlikely to proceed. The final spot is very much up for grabs on and off the pitch.

Defending gold medallists Canada head into the final round of matches on zero points despite winning both their matches. That is because they were deducted six points for spying on a training session of group rivals New Zealand. However, Canada have appealed that penalty with the court of arbitration for sport and a decision is expected to be handed down around 12:00 local time.

Should that penalty be reduced or erased, the qualification race becomes significantly tougher for the likes of Australia, Brazil and Colombia. Australia’s Matildas, heavily fancied coming into the tournament, were thumped 3-0 by Germany then escaped with a 6-5 victory over Zambia. They face Emma Hayes’ resurgent USWNT in Marseille desperate for a result that keeps them in the mix.

Speaking of things hotting up, Paris was sweltering yesterday with temperatures in the mid-30s. The athletes’ village is not fitted with air-conditioning.

The issue of air conditioning had been a hot one before the Games. As part of Paris’s commitment to a greener Olympics, it was decided that air conditioning would not be installed with officials instead promising that the athletes rooms would be kept cool through a geothermal water system pumping cold water underneath the buildings.

The men’s football tournament is hotting up with hosts France through to a blockbuster quarter-final match-up against bitter rivals Argentina.

Tensions have been heightened between the two football nations since the 2022 World Cup final, when Argentina fans chanted about French players with African heritage. After the albiceleste won the Copa América final in July, a video showed Argentina players singing similar chants.

That led the French football federation to file a complaint with Fifa over “racist and discriminatory remarks”. While that investigation is still ongoing, a full-scale diplomatic incident erupted between the countries before the Argentina president Javier Milei met with France’s leader, Emmanuel Macron, to smooth things over.

Friday’s quarter-final line-up is as follows:

France v Argentina
Egypt v Paraguay
Morocco v USA
Spain v Japan

The bespectacled Irishman Daniel Wiffen was a novelty when he swam to an 800m-1500m freestyle double at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, but he is now a bona fide star of his sport and a national hero after battling to 800m freestyle gold last night.

Wiffen is the first Irishman to ever win an Olympic gold medal in the pool, and only the second Irish athlete ever to do it after, ahem, Michelle Smith de Bruin, who won three of them back at Atlanta in ‘96 and was banned for four years soon after when she was caught tampering with her urine samples. Wiffen wasn’t even born when all that happened, and while it won’t much worry him either way, some of the older people around Irish swimming will feel awfully glad they finally have another Olympic champion to celebrate after all these years.

Clarisse Agbegnenou was one of just four individual gold medal-winners for France in Tokyo, making her one of the faces of the Games in the build-up to Paris. But the judoka had to settle for bronze in the 63kg category.

It was still a moment to cherish though with Agbegnenou making her daughter part of her celebrations, following her close involvement throughout her preparation for the competition. Angelique Chrisafis has more.

Agbégnénou’s popularity in France rests on her extraordinary personal story. She was born premature in the Brittany city of Rennes, where she had major kidney surgery as a tiny baby, and was in a coma. She is now a patron of premature baby charities. Talent-spotted as a teenager, she received elite training and quickly rose up the ranks to become one of France’s biggest judo stars, in both individual and team competitions.

She said in the run-up to the Paris Olympics that her trailblazing for elite women athletes who had children was one of her biggest achievements – she took her baby to training in order to feed her. “I want women athletes who follow me to feel free and legitimate, to break codes to change mentalities and change the rules. We can have a life as a woman and mother as well as champion at the same time,” she told Le Parisien before competing in Paris.

We’re roughly halfway through the swimming carnival, but there is concern for the final few days with Covid rearing its ugly head. Great Britain’s Adam Peaty and Australia’s Lani Pallister are among the confirmed cases, with the USA and Romania also believed to have recorded positive tests.

As we know all too well from the rolling lockdowns of 2020-2021, this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

There is no mandatory requirement to withdraw from the Games in cases of Covid, leaving nations to implement their own policies with athletes and staff.

Australia’s swim team, especially its female contingent, are dominating in the pool. That includes Kaylee McKeown, who defended her 100m backstroke title, and looks destined for more glory before the end of the meet.

The Queenslander very much swims her own race, in and out of the pool. While many athletes offer up platitudes to that effect, there is a sense with McKeown that her offbeat approach is very much the real thing.

Speaking of Andy Murray, the great Scot prolonged his valedictory tournament with another gritty victory alongside doubles partner Dan Evans. Jonathan Liew had the pleasure of reporting on another trademark Murray performance.

There is pain in his joints and a heaviness in his step, and yet as Andy Murray reels away in victory as the clock strikes 10.30pm local time, he looks like a child again: the child who first swung a racket in anger, the child who first discovered the pure joy of victory.

Into the good night they went, Murray and Dan Evans, and not gently either but with force and purpose and every intention of returning to fight another day. In a way this has been the motif of Murray’s elongated final curtain call, perhaps even his career: a refusal to vacate the stage before he is ready, a desire to eke out every ounce of talent in his body.

Perhaps, as he and Evans came back from two match points down in a deciding tie-break, there was even a kind of revulsion to them, a determination that no, it would not end here, at a quarter-full Court Suzanne-Lenglen against the world No 35s from Belgium. The mind is still willing, the body is still just about there for him, and the neck is just two more wins from a fourth Olympic medal.

Unsurprisingly, Biles features in another magnificent gallery of images from yesterday’s action. But for my money the shot of the day is the one capturing Andy Murray and Dan Evans in synchronised delight following their second nail-biting victory of the men’s doubles tennis competition.

There’s only one place to begin our look back at day four and that’s the Bercy Arena, where Simone Biles exorcised the demons of Tokyo and ensured she would leave Paris as one of the shining lights of the Games. Barney Ronay got to enjoy the spectacle firsthand.

Paris was getting the Biles-industrial complex, the Biles narrative arc, which reached its full extension on a wonderful night of flex and twang and defiance of the elements; one that ended, naturally, with gold for the US women.

That final Biles routine was visceral and at times hair-raising. She played the hits. She did Biles 1, Biles 2. She produced an extraordinary release of energy, that explosive athletic grace that looks at times almost like an optical illusion.

What is gymnastics exactly? Performance art? Hard-edge competitive sport? At one point in her balance beam routine Biles did an insane triple backflip (repeat: on a thin, square bar) like a wheel rolling down an incline, one of those moments where she seems to turn the entire event into something else, movements that are strange, liquid, and basically unlike any other human on the planet.

The business end of the medal table remains a free for all with Japan still leading the way with seven gold medals. The unfamiliar look is largely a consequence of the USA experiencing a poorer than expected start to the Games, especially in the pool. US athletes have won 26 medals overall (twice as many as Japan) but only four of them have been gold. In the pool, US swimmers have won 15 medals, but only two gold.

The number of NOCs on the medal table is now up to 43 with the likes of Tajikistan and Guatemala joining the party.

Triathlon is on!

Preamble – Day Five Schedule

Jonathan Howcroft