Tears and tributes as Team GB rack up medals on wonderful Wednesday

The British rower Lola Anderson choked back tears as she told of her pride in fulfilling her late father's faith in her talent on a wonderful Wednesday that saw Team GB chalk up five more Olympic medals in Paris, including two golds.

- Daniel Boffey

Great Britain was propelled into fourth position in the medal table, behind China, Japan and France and ahead of Australia, Korea and the US, by the gold medal-winning feats of Anderson, Hannah Scott, Lauren Henry and Georgie Brayshaw in the women's quadruple sculls crew and Alex Yee in the men's triathlon.

There was also a silver in the men's BMX freestyle and bronze medals in the women's synchronised diving and triathlon, as well as dazzling performances from Joe Fraser, 25, and Jake Jarman, 22, in the men's all-round final of the artistic gymnastics at the Arena Bercy.

The British gymnasts missed out on medals but kept in touching distance throughout with the eventual winner, Shinnosuke Oka from Japan, and the Chinese silver and bronze medallists, Zhang Boheng and Xiao Ruoteng.

Anderson's gold came courtesy of a dramatic photo-finish victory for the women's sculls crew over the Netherlands that was seen as a watershed moment for British rowing after a difficult Games in Tokyo where they had failed to win a single gold for the first time since 1980.

As Anderson celebrated with her crewmates in the Vaires-sur-Marne nautical stadium, she said the medal would join a scrap of paper given to her by her father before his death among her most treasured possessions.

Anderson had been inspired as a 14-year-old watching the London 2012 Games by Helen Glover and Heather Stanning's rowing triumph in the women's pairs to make a short entry in her diary.