By Sportsbeat in Paris

When Sir Chris Hoy bagged his seventh Olympic medal at London 2012, he must have thought his record haul for a Scottish athlete was as safe as the Mona Lisa.

But Duncan Scott etched his own name onto the canvas of Scotland’s sporting superstars by equalling that tally on a historic night at the La Defense Arena.

Scott delivered the first Scottish gold of Paris 2024 by anchoring Great Britain’s 4x200m freestyle relay team to a stunning victory.

The Alloa express held off USA’s Kieran Smith and sped home to equal Hoy’s record and bag Team GB’s first gold in the pool – and fourth overall – at the 2024 Games.

Five of Scott’s haul have come in relays and he was joined on the top step by teammates James Guy, Tom Dean and Matt Richards, the quartet touching the wall in a combined 6:59:43s to defend the title they won in Tokyo three years ago.

The win will reinvigorate Scott’s Olympic campaign after a painful pair of near-misses so far.

He finished fifth in the 4x100m freestyle relay and then missed out on a medal in the individual 200m event by less than a tenth of a second.

But the 27-year-old looked in supreme form down the final leg to notch up a fourth gold of the Paris Games for Team GB, and the second of his career.

Down at the shooting in Chateauroux, Nathan Hales kept his head while all around him lost theirs to claim a nerveless shooting gold.

In a sport of movement, action, and split-second timing, Hales was the iceman in searing near 40-degree temperatures in the venue located over 200 miles south of Paris.

Rivals wilted but he stayed mentally and physically strong - smashing the Olympic record in the process as friends and family, including wife Charlotte, a double Olympian, watched silently on before exploding with joy.

Hales’s success was Great Britain's first Olympic shooting gold in 12 years, after Peter Wilson's win in the double trap at London 2012, and the first in this discipline since Bob Braithwaite in 1968.

He kept his composure during a flawless qualification, as the 11cm targets whizzed 20 metres above his head at 40mph.

And in the six-man final he started with 15 perfect shots and concluded with 18 - his two misses putting him four ahead of nearest rival China's Qi Ying, while Guatemala’s Jean Pierre Brol Cardenas completed the podium, his nations second ever Olympic medal.

Simone Biles wore a megawatt smile that could have lit up the Eiffel Tower as she exorcised personal demons and helped USA regain their team title in the process.

With the world watching, Biles was at her sparky best and performed four solid routines to lead Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey to gold.

The outcome was never in doubt with first-time silver medallists Italy and bronze medallists Brazil in a different league, with Great Britain mounting a late charge into fourth place.

As the temperature at Roland Garros finally started to drop, Andy Murray did what Andy Murray does and pulled another rabbit out of the bag.

The most exceptional tennis career this country has ever known was extended a little further, saving match points for his second match running.

Up against Belgian duo Joren Vliegen and Sander Gille, Murray and Dan Evans were pushed to the very limit, but eventually triumphed 6-3 6-7 (8) 11-9.

This was not quite as outrageous as Sunday’s comeback over Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel. Murray and Evans dictated play for much of this encounter.

Where in round one, victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat, this would have been a loss which would have stung, such was the control they demonstrated.

You are a long time retired, so the saying goes, and Murray is clearly desperate to push that date back as long as possible.

He and Evans are now into the quarter-finals of the men’s Olympic doubles. One more victory against either Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, or Dutch duo Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer, and his career will end playing for a medal.

Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.