Great Britain’s Anna Henderson has won a cycle road time trial silver medal on her Olympic debut in Paris.
The 25-year-old, who has suffered two broken collarbones this season, edged out third-placed American Chloe Dygert by less than one second.
In damp, treacherous conditions that found out several riders, Henderson clocked a time of 41 minutes 10.7 seconds over the 32.4km course through the centre of Paris, one minute 31 seconds down on Australian Grace Brown’s gold medal-winning ride.
The rain that marred Friday’s opening ceremony continued well into Saturday, leaving nasty conditions on a route that set off from the Esplanade des Invalides and then went east before doubling back to the Pont Alexandre III in front of the Grand Palais.
Several riders crashed, with American Taylor Knibb hitting the deck three times – even her mechanic fell over trying to give her a new bike – but Henderson was able to keep everything neat and tidy to secure the most notable result of her career to date.
The two-time British national time trial champion finished fourth in last year’s world championships before going on to take silver at the Euros.
On both occasions she was within a second or two of Christina Schweinberger – who beat her to bronze in Glasgow but had to settle for third place in Drenthe. But in Paris the Austrian was well off the pace, finishing down in 10th place.
The Hemel Hempstead-born Henderson was a junior national slalom champion who once dreamed of competing at a Winter Olympics, but her debut at a summer Games will be considered a massive success.
It’s the second Team GB medal, after diving duo Yasmin Harper and her teammate Scarlett Mew Jensen made history with the first GB women’s diving medal in 64 years.
The pair claimed bronze in a dramatic women’s three-metre synchronised springboard final on Saturday.
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