Tokyo 2020: Team GB's Matt Walls wins omnium gold; Liam Heath secures bronze on the water

Walls secures overdue gold for GB

Matt Walls won gold in the Olympic men’s omnium to deliver Great Britain’s first title in the velodrome of these Games.

The 23-year-old rode smartly throughout the four-discipline event to win with a comfortable final margin of 24 points from Campbell Stewart of New Zealand.

Walls, who won the opening scratch race, went into the deciding points race with a narrow advantage of just six points but gained a lap on the field early on to take control, and could then mark his rivals for the remainder of the 100-lap event.

The omnium has changed format for these Games, with four events now squeezed into one testing afternoon of racing.

Walls, the European champion who tested positive for Covid-19 in March, jointly led alongside Jan Willem Van Schip and Benjamin Thomas after the tempo race, but then outlasted the pair in the elimination race to take a narrow advantage into the decider.

And he wasted little time in taking control as he gained a lap alongside American Gavin Hoover, winning the second sprint in the process.

That gave him a cushion of 30 points over the field, and from then on he could mark the likes of reigning champion Elia Viviani, Thomas and Stewart to the finish.

Walls told the BBC: “I managed to get a good lead coming to the end. It’s been a hard day. I came into that points race with a bit of a lead which was nice, it gave me a bit of breathing room.

“Thank you to all my family and friends, I wouldn’t be here without them. Especially my parents when I was younger growing up, they travelled around the country with me and there’s no chance I’d be here without them.”

Heath undecided on Paris bid

Liam Heath says it is a case of “wait and see” whether he will continue his Olympic journey to Paris and a fourth Games.

The 36-year-old won bronze in the K1 200m at Sea Forest Waterway, his fourth Olympic medal after successes at London 2012 and Rio five years ago.

Heath, who set an Olympic-best time of 33.985 seconds during Wednesday’s qualifying, took second in the opening semi-final to set up his medal assault.

And while he could not make it successive golds, it was another medal in the collection for Guildford-based Heath.

Asked if Tokyo might be the final chapter, he said: “That’s a question still to be answered and thought about very deeply.

“It’s a decision that has got to be made between me, my family, and everyone at home in terms of the commitment that they put in and the support behind you.

“It is a unique position to be in because it’s just another three years (to Paris). It seems to be just around the corner.

“The 200m is unfortunately stepping back as an Olympic event, but there are new opportunities both in the slalom and the sprint, with the K2 500m being reintroduced, which has a legacy in this sport already. That’s something that I might turn towards.

“Those decisions still have to be made. You are on cloud nine at the minute, but you kind of forget all the hardship and sacrifices that people make and you make to get to where you are.

“It will take me a couple of weeks to look back, evaluate and see how happy I am to continue towards a fourth Games. We will have to wait and see.”

Redemption for Asher-Smith?

Dina Asher-Smith insisted she has moved on from her Olympic agony and is eyeing relay redemption after returning to the track.

The 25-year-old saw her Games wrecked by a hamstring injury she suffered in June and pulled out of the 200 metres after failing to reach the 100m final last week.

She made her comeback on Thursday to help the 4x100m relay team set a new British record of 41.55 seconds to win their heat and reach the final.

The world 200m champion said: “It (winning a medal) would be absolutely amazing but again that is not the thing I think about right now. It is about staying focused.

“That is where my head has been for the past week. It hasn’t been in what happened. It hasn’t been about the 100m or 200m. It has been about me getting back on the training track and making sure I bring my absolute A-game to this race.

“Of course, it (a medal) would mean incredible things to everybody. We are the bronze medallists in Rio. It would be amazing for us to get another medal again, for all of us, for all of our lives, for all of our individual dreams and aspirations.

“To get that we have to stay focused and make sure we execute and do what needs to be done.

“After the 100m I did say there was no way I wasn’t going to be here for the 4x100m girls. I only had one day off then John (Blackie, coach) had me back on the training track.

“Essentially all I need is a few more weeks and sessions. He was saying if I had a few more days it would have been the 100m final, another week and it would have been 10.8. It’s one of those things where I’m chasing times.”

Bradshaw bags historic medal

Holly Bradshaw clinched bronze in the pole vault to make British Olympic history in Tokyo.

The 29-year-old finished behind the USA’s Katie Nageotte and the ROC’s Anzhelika Sidorova to further boost Team GB in the Olympic Stadium following the return of Dina Asher-Smith.

She is the first British athlete to win a pole vault medal at an Olympic Games.

Bradshaw finished sixth at London 2012 and fifth five years ago in Rio having also come fourth at the World Championships in 2019 and ended her agonising run in Japan.

Only three along with Bradshaw – Sidorova, Nageotte and Katerina Stefanidi – cleared 4.70m to go into a straight shootout for the podium.

Bradshaw cleared 4.80m at her second attempt, with the bar wobbling, before going over 4.85m first time.

Defending champion Stefanidi’s failure at 4.85m and 4.90m guaranteed the Briton a medal but she could not clear the new height and secured bronze.