Richards scores Olympic silver with outside smoker

The British highlight of night three in the La Defense Arena was Matt Richards silver medal swim, with Duncan Scott and Freya Colbert going incredibly close to adding to further to Team GB’s medal count from the pool. There was also strong showings from Katie Shanahan, Oliver Morgan and Angharad Evans who were all appearing in their respective maiden Olympic finals.

All eyes were on the Men’s 200m Freestyle, where Richards - the 2023 world champion - walked out to the far end of the pool to occupy lane one, and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, Scott, stepped up onto the blocks in lane five.

From the gun Richards was among the athletes laying down the opening pace, with Scott sticking in among the pack across the opening lengths exchanged before beginning to wind up for his move at the halfway stage.

The battle to be first to the wall was wide open following the final turn as Richards rampantly went to his legs to propel him home with Scott drawing up level in the centre. Going under the flags it would all come down to the finest of margins with Richards bettered by two hundredths to take silver, while Scott agonisingly missed out on a medal completely - only 0.15s away from gold in fourth.

“I can’t be too disappointed with that, my first ever individual at an Olympic Games and to walk away from that with a silver is fantastic,” said Richards.

“Obviously two hundredths off gold is excruciatingly frustrating but if anything it has added more fire to my belly. I’ve got a lot more to do this week, the hundred starts tomorrow as does the 4x200m relay, so myself and Duncan going second and fourth here bodes well the relay, but I am absolutely gutted for him just missing out on a medal [tonight] as he deserves it more than anyone.

“Being out in lane one is not ideal if I’m honest but that semi-final last night I misjudged it a bit, and being out there it kind of meant I had to swim it on my own which sometimes can be fantastic but in other ways on a close race like that it can mean you end up on the wrong side of it. That happened tonight but it’s all experience - I’m 21, I’m young, and I’ve got a long time to go in the sport yet and we’ll take that forwards.”

At the top of the evening’s order of scheduled events, Freya Colbert and Katie Shanahan were the first in action having opened their Olympic accounts by booking a spot in the line-up for the Women’s 400m Individual Medley final earlier in the day.

Colbert had a bright start on the fly leg to be in third at the first change of strokes, with Shanahan drawing up close to the top three across the backstroke as both Brits looked well positioned in the medal hunt at the halfway stage.

The breaststroke section tightened up the chasing pack of the field in contention for bronze, and with 100m of Freestyle remaining Colbert dug in to hold on as best she could but not quite fend off the charge of the American in the centre lane who would keep her off the podium.

“I’d said to some of the other media guys I was really confident in my training coming into this and I felt I was in a good position to a PB, but then the way the meet has gone we knew it might be more about who can get there hand on the wall first rather than just the time you swim it in – today unfortunately that just wasn’t me,” said Colbert.

Shanahan meanwhile was content with seventh in the first Olympic final of her career.

“I’m really looking forward to the 200m Backstroke as that was always my main event coming to this Games,” she said,

“I hadn’t pinned too much on getting to the final of the 400m medley, but training had been going really well for it and I’m pleased with that.”

Meanwhile Angharad Evans mixed it up alongside a number of longstanding names on the international circuit as she added further to the credentials of her breakthrough year with a strong showing in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke final.

Tactically opting to push the first part of her race the Bradley Hay and Steve Tigg-coached swimmer turned third at 50m, and was within three tenths of a second of the podium as she recorded a top six finish in her maiden Olympic final.

“It's my first year of swimming internationally with the senior team. I felt a lot of pressure there, but I controlled it, swam the race a little differently, went out a bit faster because yesterday me and my coach spoke about me going out a bit slowly,” said Evans.

“This is just all experience for me, and I'm looking forward to my next chapter.

“I'll have a bit of a swim down now and then get ready for the women's medley relay later in the week, so that's where my attention will go now.”

A loaded Men’s 100m Backstroke witnessed Oliver Morgan as another of the British cohort to enjoy strolling out to take his place in a first ever Olympic final.

The University of Birmingham swimmer produced a solid effort from the outside lane, with good closing speed helping him dip fractionally below his semi-final time as he placed eighth overall in the standings.

“I’m coming away with an appearance in an Olympic final and am somehow quite disappointed with myself, so I think that shows how far I’ve come in this journey,” said Morgan.

“The key to this has been enjoyment of training and competing, and that’s something we’ve said all along – it’s just swimming. Turning up to training, having fun I’m in such a good environment at the moment and it’s really exciting to see where we can push onto.”

Earlier in the day Kathleen Dawson and Medi Harris both contested heats of the Women’s 100m Backstroke, finishing respectively in 18th and 19th overall.

Three British swimmers and the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle team will be in action as pool swimming resumes with Sunday’s heats, while you can find details of all the upcoming aquatics disciplines from Paris 2024 through our What’s On? Page.

Where can I watch?

The BBC will be covering the majority of the Games across BBC One and Two, the BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer. You can find their coverage schedule by clicking here.

Discovery+/Eurosport will also be broadcasting every minute of the Olympic Games but these channels require a subscription fee.