Britain’s Noah Williams snatched a bronze medal in the men’s 10m platform final on the penultimate day of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 24-year-old produced a brilliant comeback to challenge for a podium place towards the end of the competition.
Williams was fourth going into the fourth round, but some over-rotation caused him to drop down to fifth.
However, he delivered a brilliant response with scores of 93.60 and 94.35 on his final two dives to claim the bronze.
He said: “I’m pretty shocked, I did bad earlier. I don’t feel like I didn’t deserve to get into the final.
“With the semi it was what I deserved, but I feel I am among those boys, like last year’s World Championships I came fourth, this year I came seventh.
“It’s not a crazy shock, but to medal is a different thing.
“I actually think it played in my advantage going first so I could only focus on myself.
“Even though I was following someone, there’s a minute break between each round so it was just like training almost, go up there by myself, stand on the 10m for a while. It worked today so I can’t complain.”
Cao Yuan claimed gold, meaning China take a clean sweep of all diving gold medals at this Games, while Japan’s Rikuto Tamai finished with silver.
Williams’ team-mate Kyle Kothari had to settle for an 11th-placed finish.
This is Williams’ second medal of Paris 2024 after taking silver with Tom Daley in the men’s synchronised event.
Meanwhile, fourth seed Caden Cunningham made it through to the men’s +80kg final of the taekwondo and is guaranteed a medal at Grand Palais after upsetting Cheick Cisse in the semi-finals.
The 21-year-old from Huddersfield edged the verdict via unscored registrations – the number of punches landed that are too light to score – after finishing tied with the Ivory Coast veteran.
Cunningham’s win was sweet revenge for the British squad against an opponent who famously beat Lutalo Muhammad to gold in the final second of their Olympic final in Rio in 2016.
Muhammad watched from the stands as Cunningham seized control of the contest with a dominant opening round, only for Cisse to level after a cagey second in which both fighters were penalised for non-combat.
A three-point head kick with half a minute on the clock put Cunningham in control of the final round and although Cisse fought back to level, there was to be no final-second heartbreak for the Briton.
Rebecca McGowan was beaten by Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Osipova in the quarter-finals of the women’s +67kg, but will get another shot at the repechage for bronze after Osipova subsequently reached the final.
Jokic leads Serbia to Olympic bronze
Nikola Jokic grabbed the fifth triple-double in Olympic history as Serbia beat Germany 93-83 to win the men’s basketball bronze medal.
Jokic finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists to help Serbia claim their first medal since winning silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Serbia bounced back after nearly upsetting four-time defending gold medallists USA in the semi-finals.
Jokic joined Sasha Belov of the former Soviet Union, the United States’ LeBron James (twice) and Slovenia’s Luka Doncic as the only players with Olympic triple-doubles.
Paris go muffin crazy for Christiansen
The Norwegian swimmer who has gone viral for his obsession with the chocolate muffins in the Olympic village is still mulling over how he might capitalise on his new-found fame.
Henrik Christiansen, better known as ‘muffin man’, is still flabbergasted by the degree to which his social media following has exploded over the course of these Games, ever since he started documenting his love for the “11 out of 10” sweet treats in Paris.
Four of his TikToks have attracted more than 10 million views – the most popular video nearing nearly twice that at 17.8 million.
Christiansen, 27, said: “I think three weeks ago I had 3,000 followers on TikTok, now I’m at almost half a million. So it’s been unreal. You never really think it’s going to happen. You see other people blowing up like that and then you think it’s never going to happen to you, but here I am.
“I think as professional athletes we are definitely in the entertainment industry, so we kind of need to produce content by doing the sport and also being on social media. We need to produce content that other people want to watch.
“That’s how we can make money, so if I’m now able to earn more money from doing my sport and being able to continue doing that for longer, I would love that. I still have to see yet. Currently I haven’t dived too much into it, but hopefully I can make a little bit by doing it.”
Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app – giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost.