Sport

Rio 2016: Day 13 preview – Brownlee brothers and triathlon make Rio bow

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark may have had to wait an extra 24 hours but they should finally collect their sailing gold for Team GB on an exciting day 13 at Rio 2016.

The duo had to settle for silver in London but four years later they only need to finish the medal race to win gold heading – that was due to happen on day 12 before being delayed due to a lack of win.

There are four medal races on Thursday but only Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign are close enough to snatch a medal – but they will need a lot of luck along the way.

The Team GB duo have to finish at least four boats ahead of Australia to steal bronze and could even finish on the second step of the podium if they are six boats ahead of Germany.

The Brownlee brothers have had to wait in line as Team GB have secured a record medal haul at an away Games, but their chance arrives on Thursday in the triathlon.

Alistair – who took gold at London 2012 – and Jonathan Brownlee – who took bronze – will kick off the triathlon with a 1500m swim on the iconic Copacabana beach before a 40km cycle and a 10km run around Atlantica Avenue.

Gordon Benson joins Alistair and Jonathan in Rio for Team GB before the women go on Saturday.

Another hero from London 2012 is Jade Jones and she goes in the -57kg taekwondo on the Olympic Park.

The 23-year-old from Flint is looking to defend her title and her first fight pits her against Morocco’s Naima Bakkal in the Carioca Arena 3.

Elsewhere, Olympic bronze medallists Liam Heath and Jon Schofield will be hoping to repeat – or indeed improve that performance when they go in the men’s canoe sprint’s K2 200m final.

They had to go through a semi-final after they could only finish third in their heat but they looked supreme in winning their semi-final in the fastest time.

Diver Tonia Couch will have history on her mind when she goes in the 10m platform semi-finals, and later hopefully the final as no British female has won a diving medal at the Olympics since 1960.

Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge are also looking to re-write history in the badminton mixed doubles bronze-medal match – Team GB have not won a badminton medal since Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms won silver at Athens 2004.

On the athletics track Eilidh Doyle is in the 400m hurdles final while Adam Gemili snuck through the 200m semi-finals as a fastest loser and will also be in the final.

Nicola Adams has already bagged a bronze in the women’s boxing flyweight category but will be looking for more than that when she goes in her semi-final

Over in Deodoro Liam Phillips and Kyle Evans get serious in the men’s BMX quarter-finals.

And Charley Hull and Catriona Matthew continue the historic first women’s golf competition at the Olympic Games for 116 years and the first day of modern pentathlon begins with the fencing ranking round.

Image courtesy of Boardman Bikes via YouTube, with thanks.

Related Articles