BBC Wales at the Olympics

Welshman Rupert Shipperley scored a late equaliser for Great Britain to finish with a 2-2 draw against South Africa in their pool match.

South Africa were ahead for most of the game, but a succession of penalty corners in the final quarter saved Great Britain.

Great Britain now turn their focus to facing world number 1 ranked Netherlands on Tuesday 30th July - 1145 BST.

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Matt Richards has reached his first individual Olympic final.

The 21-year-old finished fourth in his 200m freestyle semi-final. He qualified seventh-fastest for the final, which takes place at 1940 BST on Monday night.

Great Britain's gymnasts, including Cardiff teenager Ruby Evans, have waited a good nine hours before confirmation came through that they have qualified for the women's team final.

This will be held at the Bercy Arena on Tuesday evening.

Team GB women’s rugby 7s were defeated by a strong Australian side 36-5 in their second match of the day.

Australia were dominant across both halves against the squad including Wales’ Jaz Joyce-Butchers.

Great Britain are now third in their pool and will need a win against South Africa on Monday in their final pool match of the competition, which takes place at 1300 BST.

Great Britain triumphed in the first women's sevens match of Paris 2024, fighting back to win 21-12 having trailed 12-7 at half-time.

Wales’ Jaz Joyce-Butchers - formerly Joyce - and Meg Jones were in the starting line-up.

Joyce-Butchers scored a try at the start of the second half as GB improved significantly after the break.

They will be back in action in their second pool game, against 2016 Olympic champions Australia, at 18:30 BST.

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Wales' Ella Maclean-Howell has finished 23rd in the women’s mountain bike.

The 19-year-old from Llantrisant, competing at her first Olympic Games, finished in 1:36.26.

The home favourite, France’s Pauline Ferrand Prevot, took gold as she finished almost three minutes ahead of anyone else.

Great Britain women have lost their opening pool match 2-1 to Spain at Yves-du-Manoir stadium.

All three goals came in the opening nine minutes with Laura Barrios and Lola Riera scoring for Spain, either side of Giselle Ansley's equaliser for Team GB.

Great Britain, who include Wales' Sarah Jones, pushed hard for an equaliser but struggled to create chances outside of penalty corners.

Ansley's goal was the only one of 13 set-pieces they were able to convert.

With four of the six teams in the pool progressing to the next round, Great Britain have plenty of opportunity to recover from this loss and face Australia tomorrow in their next match.

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Team GB’s Anna Hursey is out of the women's singles table tennis after she was beaten 4-1 by India’s Manika Batra in the first round.

The 18-year-old, the first Welsh table tennis player to appear at an Olympics, trailed 3-0 before pulling a game back, but ultimately slipped to defeat against 18th seed Batra.

“Of course I feel a bit disappointed but I think it was a really good experience to go out there and play,” Hursey said.

“The game was difficult and the scores were quite close. It was quite an awkward game for me but I think I handled it quite well.

“It was close and maybe had I changed something it might have been different.

“I think I gave it everything. It feels great to be an Olympian and I hope there will be many more."

Hursey, from Carmarthen, added: “Obviously, I’m really proud to be Welsh and it’s great to play for Great Britain out there and I know everyone was behind me.”

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Welsh teenager Ruby Evans started her first Olympics in the artistic gymnastics qualification event on Sunday morning.

After subdivision 2 finished competing, 17-year-old Evans failed to qualify for any individual apparatus finals, but Team GB overall are in fourth place.

If Team GB remain in the top eight, Evans and her team-mates could qualify for the women’s team event on Tuesday evening.

Evans is currently 17th in the all-around standings, where the top 24 gymnasts qualify for the final.

However Team GB’s Georgia-Mae Fenton and Alice Kinsella are ranked higher than Evans and a maximum of two athletes per nation can go through to the final.

Evans and Team GB will have to wait until Sunday evening to see the final standings.

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Welsh boxer Rosie Eccles is out of the women’s 66kg after a surprise split-decision loss to Poland’s Aneta Rygielska.

Eccles was on the front foot throughout the three-round bout but after edging the first on the judges' scorecards, she was deemed to be second best to Rygielska in the next two.

The Pole was deducted a point late in the third round for failing to keep her head up but, despite that, both judges who scored the fight even at 28-28 called it in favour of Rygielska.

Only one judge actually had Rygielska ahead on the scores, 29-27, while two gave it to Eccles, 30-26 and 29-27.

"I'm genuinely shocked, I'm stunned. That was a brutal outcome," said BBC boxing pundit Steve Bunce.

"We've got independent judges here. They went with the one who got deducted a point and she actually fouled. The two judges who had it even voted for the woman who had an infringement. I'm really annoyed. It's a bad decision."

Eccles won gold for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 in the women’s over 66kg-70kg (light middleweight) category.

In rowing, Team GB's men’s four, including Wales' Matt Aldridge, have qualified for their final, which takes place on Thursday morning.

The quartet finished second in their heat, with the first two in each heat qualifying for the final.

Aldridge is Welsh-qualified through his grandmother.

Welsh rower Ollie Wynne-Griffiths is safely through to the semi-finals of the men's pair alongside partner Tom George.

Having won their heat, the Team GB duo can look ahead to Wednesday morning's semi-finals in confident mood.

Matt Richards has put the disappointment of the men's 4x100m relay to one side by easing into the semi-finals of men's 200m freestyle.

Richards was part of the team which could only manage a fifth-place finish in Saturday's relay final.

But the Welshman was straight back in the pool on Sunday morning, booking a place in this evening's semi-finals courtesy of a second-place finish in his heat.

"I’ve got the job done there. I’m very happy with that result," he told BBC TV.

"We’re safely through to the semi later and we’ll see how we do again tonight.

"I was just racing the race, doing what I needed to do this morning. I’ve got a heavy schedule this week so it’s all about trying to manage that load across the week. I’d be lying if I said it was easy but I’m happy with the result."

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It is set to be a special day at the Olympics for three Welsh women.

Anna Hursey, Jasmine Joyce-Butchers and Ella Maclean-Howell all start their 2024 Games in France on Sunday, with each making significant landmarks.

Table tennis player Hursey, 18, takes on India's Manika Batra in the women's singles round of 64 from 12:00 BST.

In doing so, Carmarthen's Hursey will become the first Welsh table tennis player to play at an Olympics.

Rugby star Joyce-Butchers - previously Joyce - will become the first British rugby player to feature at three Olympic Games when Team GB take on Ireland at Stade de France at 14:30 BST.

The wing is bidding to make it third time lucky by clinching a medal this summer having finished fourth with Great Britain at in the last two Games.

Like Hursey, Maclean-Howell is making her Olympic bow this summer, in addition to writing her name into the record books.

The 19-year-old, from Llantrisant, is the first Welsh mountain biker to go to an Olympics and begins her quest for glory in the women's cross country MTB at Elancourt Hill from 13:10 BST.

Matt Richards’ first appearance of the Paris Olympics ended in disappointment as Great Britain finished fifth in the men’s 4x100m relay final.

Richards came in for the final and swam the first leg in 47.83. Jacob Whittle, Tom Dean and Duncan Scott followed but GB finished just under a second off the podium. The race was won by USA, with Australia and Italy completing the podium.

"Obviously it's frustrating - we really wanted to try and get in there and go after the medals," Richards told BBC Sport.

"So it's tough to be on the wrong side of it but I think we all put in a great effort. We couldn't have asked for much more."

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Josh Tarling missed out on a medal at the cycling men’s time trials, finishing fourth overall.

Aberaeron's Tarling, 20, was forced to change to a new bike after sustaining a front wheel puncture at the beginning of his race, losing around 15 seconds.

Despite a fine recovery, Tarling finished 2.16 seconds adrift of Wout van Aert who clinched bronze, with the Belgian's compatriot Remco Evenepoel taking gold and Italy's Filippo Ganna earning silver.

"The stars were miles apart today [they did not align]," Tarling told BBC One.

"It was a front puncture near the rim, I had no choice really but to make the change before that corner and then try my best."

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Welshmen Tom Barras and Graeme Thomas, alongside Callum Dixon and Matthew Haywood, have secured their place in the final of the men's quadruple sculls.

The quartet finished second in the first heat with a time of 5:44.82, 3.13 seconds behind the Netherlands.

The final gets underway at 11:02 BST on Wednesday, 31 July.

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Team GB have qualified for the Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay final.

Great Britain secured a time of 3:12.49 to finish second, behind China, in the opening heat.

Welshman Matt Richards did not feature in this morning's line up, although he is expected to be in the team for tonight's final (20:44 BST).

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Rebecca Wilde and Mathlida Hodgkins Byrne have qualified for the semi-final of the women’s double sculls.

The duo set a time of 6:52.31 to finish second behind New Zealand in the opening heat and book their place in the semi-finals.

The semi-finals take place on Tuesday, 30 July from 09:50 BST.

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Swimmer Kieran Bird has failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 400m freestyle.

Bird, 24, finished fifth in his heat with a time of three minutes and 47.54 seconds, 3.41 seconds behind German Lukas Märtens who finished first.

With only the fastest eight from this morning's five heats reaching tonight's final, Bird has not progressed.

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Gareth Furlong likes to score from penalty corners and he did just that - twice - on his Olympics debut in Great Britain’s 4-0 pool A win over Spain.

Thanks to his powerful drag flicks, he has scored more than 75 international goals for Wales and has now made his mark with a brace for GB on the biggest stage.

Fellow Welshman Rupert Shipperly also got on the scoresheet with a late goal in a clinical GB performance.