Rio 2016 round up: Max Whitlock leads charge for Team GB's sensational Sunday as Britain sits second in medal table

The Great Britain gold rush became a scintillating, smashing stampede on Supersonic Sunday as Team GB shot up the medal table at the Rio Olympics with two victories in gymnastics (Max Whitlock), one in cycling (Jason Kenny), one in golf (Justin Rose) and – after an epic game – in tennis (Andy Murray).

It was due to be the night everyone was excited about Usain Bolt. But it was certainly a marvellous day of Olympic joy for GB – up there with Super Saturday of London 2012 when they won six golds – with sailor Giles Scott also guaranteeing gold although he won’t finish racing until Tuesday. It put GB second in the table behind the USA with 15 golds.

Wonderful Whitlock led the way winning two gold medals. It is 120 years since Great Britain had won a top gong in gymnastics and the 23-year-old from Hertfordshire brought that wait to a crashing end with a surprise victory in the men’s floor exercise upstaging the double world champion Kenzo Shirai.

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He then backed that up with another gold – barely an hour later – on the pommel horse to secure his status as Britain’s greatest ever gymnast.

Whitlock produced a series of death-defying somersaults to win gold on the floor with a score of 15.633. The Rio Olympic arena was a cacophony of noise as the Brazilian Diego Hypolito, who burst into tears of joy at the end, claimed silver and his compatriot Arthur Mariano bronze.

Shirai messed up a triple twisting front somersault – easily done one imagines – to miss out on the medals although Whitlock still had a nervous wait before the Japanese athlete’s score flashed up.

On the pommel horse, Whitlock saw his British team-mate Louis Smith sit in the lead in the final until he stepped up for the penultimate display of the competition and calmly eclipsed him with an effortless routine, and sweet landing.

Whitlock punched the air, clearly aware that he had performed to the maximum and delivered a gold with a score of 15.966, leaving Smith with the same silver he won at London.

While the wait for gold in gymnastics was 120 years, golf has not even been in the Games for 112 years. Upon its return Justin Rose took the top prize when he beat Henrik Stenson of Sweden on the final hole in a drama-packed finish out at the Olympic Course.

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The pair were neck-and-neck on the 18th tee and were chipping on to the green after two shots each. Stenson’s effort span 18 feet past the hole before Rose nailed a beauty to within two feet of the cup. The Swede missed the return putt and the next to card a bogey leaving Rose clear to take glory.

Rose had led at the start of the day but was pegged back by the Swede. The Brit then birdied 15 to take the lead. Stenson replied with his own birdie on 16 and they both parred 17 before the dramatic conclusion on the last.

One wonders what the stayaway Fab Four, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson, made of the scenes of jubilation at the end in front of a packed grandstand on a gorgeous blue-sky day.

Rose won’t care. He has been very vocal about supporting the event and representing his country and his reward is glory and gold.

Juan Martin Del Potro lost to Andy Murray 5-7, 6-4, 2-6, 5-7 in an astounding four hours where the Argentinian played the match of his life. Murray joined the elite of double Olympic title holders in a rollercoaster that left even the fans looking exhausted.

Jason Kenny joined the GB party when he moved to five individual gold medals by winning the sprint final against his team-mate Callum Skinner, who, of course, took silver.

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Kenny won the first race in the best-of-three final that only needed two when he used all his experience to outfox Skinner. With Skinner starting on the inside of the track he had to lead out and the two were cat and mouse with pedals barely moving for half a lap. On the back straight, though, Kenny made all his experience count, flooring it and by the time they came round the bend Skinner was staring at his back.

First blood Kenny and Skinner, although better in the second race, couldn’t match the sprint king in race two either. Sir Chris Hoy has six golds, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Steve Redgrave and now Kenny have five. It prompted girlfriend Laura Trott to tweet: “Ohhhhh myy!!!!! @JasonKenny107 your are my super hero!! #nostoppinghim”.

Britain's Nick Dempsey knew he had silver in the bag but he still gave it his all in the final medal race, managing another fourth place, as Dutchman Dorian van Rijsselberge again pipped him to gold.

After five Olympics and three medals, the 36-year-old now plans to retire.

Dempsey, who said he had mixed feelings about finishing behind Van Rijsselberghe for a second successive Games, said of his children: "Oscar wasn't bothered but Thomas said 'you've got two silvers now which is worth one gold.'"

As for Usain Bolt, could he cap such a marvellous day? It would be hard to trump Wayde van Niekerk's new 400m world record in another astounding performance on an unforgettable Olympic day. But Bolt stormed past Justin Gatlin for his hat-trick performance to prove the irresistible force is still with him.