As Constantine Louloudis and the British men’s four team powered over the finish line to comfortably take gold this afternoon, it completed another page in an impressive and historic week for Oxonian Olympians.
In truth, the result of the final was not really in doubt. With the power to pull away from rivals Australia in the final 500m, and Australia never holding the lead over the British team let alone one big enough to hold off the inevitable powerful final push, Britain’s fifth gold of the games and their fifth gold in a row in this particular event was as comfortable as any other.
Australia battled hard, and offered all the questions they could have, but Louloudis – who is a graduate in classics from Trinity College – and his team had the answers and brought Britain up to fourth in medal table as they seek to take advantage of a reduced Russian cohort at the Rio Games.
Louloudis’ accomplishment was not the only praiseworthy exploit from Oxonians in Rio. A comprehensive 31-7 win over Kenya for Great Britain’s Rugby 7s team led by Tom Mitchell provided a comfortable start to the Oxford graduate’s 2016 Olympics campaign. A narrow 21-19 victory against an impressive Japan, who had previously beaten New Zealand further strengthened British hopes before a win by the same score line over the All Blacks secured a quarter final berth.
After that first victory over Kenya, Britain wouldn’t enjoy any comfort throughout the rest of the tournament. A dramatic quarter final against Argentina, who missed a seemingly straightforward drop goal attempt to seal the match, before Tom Mitchell struck the post, finally ended with the latest of match-winning tries. Their semi-final with South Africa was no less tense; scores first from the South Africa and then Britain on either side of half time were separated only by the Springbok’s missed conversion. Brave defence from Britain maintained the lead and, by the final whistle, the victory for the British team, who had only been together for ten weeks before the Games.
Though the final did not pan out as planned, with pre-tournament favourites Fiji putting on an imperious display to cruise to a 43-7 victory, Britain and Tom Mitchell have it all to be proud of in securing silver in the first Olympic Rugby sevens tournament and losing to a faultless display of rugby that earned Fiji their first ever Olympic medal in any sport.
Around the games, other Oxonian athletes will have to wait to see what successes may lie ahead. Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Paul Bennett qualified first in their heat of the men’s coxed eight to put themselves comfortably into tomorrow’s final and surely in with a shout of winning a medal. Similarly, Zoe de Toledo coxed the women’s eight team into the final courtesy of a second-place finish in their heat.
Meanwhile, Dan Fox and the British men’s hockey team haven’t had the best start to their Olympic campaign. Losses to Australia and Belgium, in addition to a draw against New Zealand have left them with a solitary win with one game to spare in their group, sitting fifth of six and needing to finish in the top four to qualify for the quarter finals. A win against Spain tonight in their final game should be enough if Belgium get Britain out of their hole and continue their 100% record against New Zealand.
