Olympics LIVE: Men’s 100m begins as Lizzie Diegnan rides road race and Tommy Fleetwood chases golf gold

The headline act is the men’s 100m final, in which America’s Noah Lyles goes up against Jamaica’s rising star Kishane Thompson. Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo is another contender and Britain’s Zharnel Hughes will hope to be in the mix for a medal too, after he was disqualified from the final in Tokyo.

Keely Hodgkinson will go in the women’s 800m semi–finals, before Josh Kerr battles against his fierce rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s 1500m semi-finals – the two have been drawn in the same race.

No immediate reason was revealed for the Jamaican’s absence, which was announced on the scoreboard at the Stade de France moments before the semi-final battle with Sha’Carri Richardson and Julien Alfred.

The shock announcement came several hours after footage spread on social media of the 37-year-old caught arguing with officials after being blocked from entering a warm-up track.

On the opening morning of the men’s 100m at the Stade de France, Noah Lyles was in his element as the world’s eyes fell on him. Wearing a crown of white beads and with each of his fingernails painted with the flag of the United States, Lyles exuded his trademark main character energy. He expected to win comfortably.

Then came a flash to his left, as a mulleted 22-year-old from Sheffield with safety pins in his ears burst past him, handing the world champion a surprise defeat in the opening round of his bid for 100m gold. There could be no hiding the secret of Britain’s new sprint sensation any longer. Louie Hinchliffe, welcome to the Olympics.

Hinchliffe carried on his breakthrough year with an impressive display on his Olympic debut, clocking 9.98 seconds. Beaten by Lyles in London last month in his final race before the Olympics, Hinchliffe was not shy to admit he sought revenge and declared there will be more to come in his bid to reach Sunday night’s final.

Given that half that boat would go on to become Olympic medallists at Paris 2024, you’d assume that they would have been absolutely unbeatable, and yet all the talent did not quite come together.

Emily recalled: “We’ve been out with our two older brothers in the four before and it wasn’t very good from memory. There were no arguments but it didn’t quite gel.”

Thankfully for the duo, that was absolutely not the case on the final day of the Olympic regatta at the Stade Nautique in Vaires-sur-Marne, as Emily was part of the women’s eight that won bronze before older brother Tom helped the men’s eight to gold 20 minutes later.

Imane Khelif scribbled words onto the canvas with her hand after dropping to her knees in celebration. The Algerian boxer had just overcome Anna Luca Hamori in the Olympics to advance to the women’s welterweight semi-finals amid the gender controversy that clouds Paris 2024.

Khelif thumped the canvas in delight, relief painted across her face, she then fell into the arms of her adoring team. The tears flowed as she stumbled back to the dressing room. There would be no urge to speak to the media, but this was a moment of joy for the fighter and a ray of light amid a dark episode in the sport’s history.

An emotional Max Whitlock held back the tears after he was unable to sign off his decorated gymnastics career with a fourth consecutive Olympics medal – as Rhys McClenaghan won Ireland’s first ever gymnastics gold in a high-level pommel horse final.

Whitlock had confirmed before the Olympics that Paris would be his final Games, having reversed his decision to retire after Tokyo. The 31-year-old was bidding to win a third consecutive gold on the apparatus he had dominated since Rio 2016, to add to his bronze won at London 2012.

But McClenaghan, the two-time world champion from Northern Ireland, won a sensational gold, with Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov taking silver and America’s Stephen Nedoroscik – aka “Pommel Horse Guy” – knocking Whitlock off the podium to win bronze.

Simone Biles landed her signature ‘Biles II’ on the vault to win a third Olympic gold medal of Paris 2024.

The American added to her individual and team all-around medals with her first apparatus title of the Games.

Biles had performed the Yurchenko double pike in qualifying, becoming the first woman to complete it at the Olympics.

The move involved a round-off back handspring onto the table with two backward flips in pike position and it scored Biles a huge 15.700.

It took the pressure off her second attempt with Biles electing for a safer move, and her combined score of 15.300 was comfortable enough to win gold.

Katie Ledecky has won her ninth Olympic gold medal to equal the all-time women’s record and defend her 800m freestyle title ahead of Ariarne Titmus.

Ledecky becomes just the second swimmer after Michael Phelps to win the same race event four times in a row at the Olympics, and is only the sixth Olympian overall to win a four consecutive golds in an individual event.

“I think given that Michael is the only one that’s ever done that I think that just shows how difficult that is,” she said.

“I think especially in the 800, it’s just a lot of miles. Just year after year trying to put in the work to make it happen. I definitely wouldn’t have pictured this in 2012.”

The track has a new Olympic queen, and her name is Julien Alfred. Alfred led from gun to tape, streaking away from the rest to win this 100m final in pouring rain at the Stade de France and assume her place as the world’s fastest woman.

She will be royalty in Saint Lucia forever more, too. The tiny Caribbean island had never won an Olympic medal despite sending 31 athletes to Games over the past 30 years. None were quite like Alfred, shy and unassuming but blessed with blistering speed. ‘National record’ popped up on the giant screen beside her time of 10.78sec in perhaps the most irrelevant footnote in Olympic history.

The headline act is the men’s 100m final, in which America’s Noah Lyles goes up against Jamaica’s rising star Kishane Thompson. Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo is another contender and Britain’s Zharnel Hughes will hope to be in the mix for a medal too, after he was disqualified from the final in Tokyo.

Keely Hodgkinson will go in the women’s 800m semi–finals, before Josh Kerr battles against his fierce rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s 1500m semi-finals – the two have been drawn in the same race.

There is plenty to look out for beyond the track, too. Novak Djokovic has the chance to finally win Olympic gold in the men’s singles final but he faces the man who beat him in the Wimbledon final this year, Carlos Alcaraz, at Roland Garros.

The women’s road race will see Britain’s Anna Henderson – who won silver in the time trial – and national champion Pfeiffer Georgi alongside Lizzie Diegnan, competing in her fourth Games. The Dutch have phenomenal strength in Lorena Wiebes, Demi Vollering and the great Marianne Vos, but Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky is the world champion out to spoil their plans.