Emma Finucane became the first British woman in 60 years to win three medals at a single Olympics as she took bronze in the individual sprint on the final day of the Paris Games.
The 21-year-old, the reigning world champion in this event, needed only two races to beat Dutch rider Hetty van de Wouw in a best-of-three format.
Finucane was part of the British team sprint squad that won gold on Monday, and then followed it up with keirin bronze on Thursday, with her latest success making her the first British woman to win three medals in an Olympics since Mary Rand in 1964.
It was one of two medals won by Team GB on the final day, as Emily Campbell won bronze in the women’s 81kg and over weightlifting competition, leaving Great Britain with a final medal total of 65 one more than they won at the Tokyo Games.
“Honestly, it feels amazing,” Finucane said. “I know I had the expectation on me coming into these Games but honestly, a gold and two bronzes is more than I could have expected. It’s been such a rollercoaster this week.”
New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews stormed to gold, comfortably beating Lea Friedrich in the final after seeing off Finucane in the semi-finals. Team GB’s Sophie Capewell won the classification race to claim fifth spot.
Campbell celebrates bronze with cartwheel!
Emily Campbell celebrated with a cartwheel after clinching bronze in the women’s +81kg category to become the first British weightlifter to win two Olympic medals in over half a century.
Emily Campbell was Team GB’s 65th and final Olympic medal in Paris
The 30-year-old set a new combined personal best of 288kg over snatch and clean-and-jerk disciplines to finish behind defending champion Li Wenwen of China, and 21-year-old Hyejeong Park of South Korea.
Campbell’s respective totals of 126kg and 162kg in each respective category were also personal bests as she finished with a cumulative score five kilograms better than the one that sealed her silver medal in Tokyo.
“The field today was a lot tougher than in Tokyo,” Campbell said. “I really had to pull it out of the bag and this road has been really long. We have had a tough year building up, a tough 18 months really, so I could not be more elated with my performance. You can’t really complain with a personal best.”
China’s Li, who was forced to withdraw prior to last year’s World Championship due to injury, took gold with a total of 309kg that, while some way off her best, was easily enough to see off the challenge of rising star Park by 10kg.
Grainger: GB athletes ‘delivered beautifully’ in Paris
The bronze medals for Finucane and Campbell on the final day, took Team GB’s final medal tally to 65 for the Games, the same number achieved at London 2012 and one more than at Tokyo three years ago.
Team GB’s medal haul in last four Olympic Games
Katherine Grainger, chair of UK Sport, told Sky Sports News: “To get to 65 [medals] is very near the top end. It’s a brilliant performance.
“I’m thrilled for every single athlete who added to those numbers. There’s a lot of expectation, pressure and they’ve delivered beautifully.
“I’m not surprised… I’m just very happy, because it shows the system is working.”
Despite an Olympic medal haul in the 60s for a fourth-straight Games, only 14 of their 65 were gold, meaning Team GB dropped down into seventh position in the final medal table.
“Normally if you win over 60 medals, you’re good to be in the top five,” Grainger added. “It’s very unusual to be outside of it.
“What you normally see is about a third of your medals as a team converted to gold.
“We always knew between third and eighth on the medal table it gets very congested and all it takes is for some not to convert to gold and you’re in a different place on the table.”
Carlin ends Team GB’s winning streak in men’s keirin
Jack Carlin crashed out of the men’s keirin final in what turned into a painful competition for Team GB. He initially struggled to get up after the high-speed incident on the final bend of the race but eventually walked off the track without the need for the waiting stretcher.
The Scot had been caught at the back of the group and was fighting to make up ground when Japanese rider Shinji Nakano and Malaysia’s Muhammad Sahrom tangled in front of him and left him with nowhere to go but down.
Jack Carlin missed out on a medal in the men’s keirin event
Carlin’s team-mate Hamish Turnbull crashed heavily in his semi-final after trying to avoid an incident involving Germany’s Luca Spiegel, with Turnbull not taking part in the race to determine the 7th to 12th places.
Victory went to Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen, who wore all three of his gold medals on the podium after also winning in the team sprint and individual event, marking the first time since 2004 that the men’s keirin hasn’t been won by a British rider.
Neah Evans could only manage 15th in the women’s omnium, having crashed in the opening scratch race, as American Jennifer Valente took gold.
French misses out on pentathlon defence with illness
Defending champion Kate French pulled out of the women’s modern pentathlon final due to illness, despite qualifying comfortably from Saturday’s semi-final and being among the favourites for a medal.
Team-mate Kerenza Bryson, who set an Olympic record in winning her semi-final, was unable to match her performance in any of the five events and eventually struggled to a ninth-place finish.
“I came here to try and get a medal,” Bryson said. “My performances this season and how I was feeling, I really thought I was capable of one. I didn’t quite put in the performance I knew I was capable of.”
Elsewhere, Sifan Hassan completed a remarkable week with Olympic gold in the women’s marathon, setting an Olympic record time of two hours 22 minutes and 55 seconds barely 36 hours after claiming third spot in the 10,000 metres final.
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Sifan Hassan has become the only woman in history to win an Olympic gold medal in the 5,000m, 10,000m and a marathon
The Ethiopia-born Dutch runner, who also clinched bronze in the 5,000m on Tuesday, defeated Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa by three seconds in a sprint finish, while Great Britain’s Clara Evans posted a season’s best as she finished in 46th spot.
Compatriot Rose Harvey was 78th and Calli Hauger-Thackery did not finish.
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