Rio 2016: Day seven wrap-up as Britain enjoy further rowing success while Bradley Wiggins makes history

Great Britain shot up the Olympics medal table on Friday – to go above Australia and Germany, wahoo! – on a golden day of success here in Rio for Team GB.

In the evening in a rocking velodrome, the British men’s pursuit team of Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull added a golden cherry to the day’s cake beating Australia in an amazing final. It was Britain’s seventh gold of the Games.

Australia led the way for the majority of the race and it looked like GB hearts would be shattered… but the team proved too strong and overtook with just three laps to go. The victory secured Wiggins’ status as Britain’s most decorated Olympian with eight medals one ahead of Sir Chris Hoy who was in the arena to give the Londoner a huge hug at the end.

Earlier in the day rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning in the pairs and then the men’s coxless four of Constantine Louloudis, Alex Gregory, George Nash and Mohamed Sbihi were victorious on the Estacio da Lagoa to swell the medal count.

The three wins put Team GB in a comparatively better place than they were four years ago in London in that most golden of summers.

Britain also won two silvers with Charlotte Dujardin leading Team GB to silver in the dressage, just missing out on becoming Britain's most successful female Olympian, and Bryony Page came second in the gymnastics trampoline.

Dujardin, who won team and individual gold four years ago in London, and her team-mates Spencer Wilton, Fiona Bigwood and Carl Hester were beaten by Germany. Dujardin and her horse Valegro delivered a wonderful performance but it was not quite wonderful enough to secure another top gong.

Page’s medal was something of a surprise, not least to herself, and was Britain’s first in trampolining in which they have had more downs than ups over the years.

“After my performance I was so happy because it was the best I could have done on the day and, finding out I’d got a medal, I couldn’t hold my legs up,” the 25-year-old from Preston said. “I collapsed and was crying my eyes out.”

There was also an extraordinary performance in the 10,000m women’s race where Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana smashed the world record by 14 seconds leaving Britain’s Jo Pavey, who came home 15th, stunned. The Swedish runner Sarah Lahti questioned the legitimacy of Ayana's run and Pavey, 42, said: “I just couldn’t believe it. It’s so much faster than you could ever imagine anyone could run.”

Glover and Stanning led the way at the lake below Christ the Redeemer as they won gold in the women’s pairs to defend the crown they won in London four years ago.

They were utterly dominant, after all this was their 39th outing unbeaten, as they skimmed across the lake to glory beating New Zealand and Denmark into silver and bronze. Their rivals closed on them in the last 500m but the damage had been done with Britain’s blistering start.

The victory had a poignancy to it as their coach Robin Williams has been battling cancer since being diagnosed with it in December 2013. “I've been an emotional wreck this week, maybe that's a bit extreme, but it means such a lot,” Stanning, a captain in the Royal Artillery regiment, said. “It just reiterates how much me and Helen have worked and Robin as well. Without Robin we would be nobody, so a massive thanks to him he's the best coach in the world.”

“In London it took about six months to realise that I was an Olympic champion,” Glover said. “It was all so new and I was so stressed. Here it took about four minutes. This feels so much better.”

The coxless four gold medal has been in British mitts since 2000 and it never looked like slipping away on Friday. Australia and Italy came in second and third but they couldn’t touch the GB boys who were working as one.

Louloudis admitted the pressure of keeping the gold run in the fours going was a weight they had had to deal with on the road to Rio. “There’s no question that weighed on us,” Louloudis said. “I know it weighed on me personally. Team GB has won this event for the last four Olympics, now five. That was not a run we wanted to break.

“We are the top ranked men’s boat in perhaps the top rowing nation in the world. It was on us to win it. We had to do that. That was our best row ever, definitely our best race.”