Great Britain’s Liam Heath has won a bronze medal in the men’s K1 200m canoe sprint at the Tokyo Olympics.

The 36-year-old defending Olympic champion clocked 35.202 seconds to finish third behind gold medallist Sandor Totka of Hungary, with Italian Manfredi Rizza taking silver.

It was Guildford-based Heath’s fourth Olympic medal after successes at London 2012 and Rio four years later.

While he could not make it successive golds, he said he was happy with his performance.

“It’s hard to put into words, it’s what you’re working towards, to be at your best for these events and I’ve learned so much along my journey,” he told the BBC.

“You learn more about yourself, your competitors and the people you work with day in, day out. It’s them working tirelessly behind the scenes which provides the support for me to be able to achieve my dreams.

“A massive thanks to everybody that’s watching at home. Not quite the gold, but I’m happy with my performance so I hope you guys can be happy too.”

He added he was yet to decide whether he will continue his Olympic journey to Paris.

“It will take me a couple of weeks to look back, evaluate and see how happy I am to continue towards a fourth Games. We will have to wait and see,” he said.

Elsewhere, Team GB boxer Galal Yafai guaranteed himself at least a silver medal after making it through to the final of the men’s flyweight category.

The 28-year-old Birmingham fighter beat Kazakhstan’s Saken Bibossinov in Thursday’s semi-final following an explosive start which helped him secure the win.

Bibossinov landed key punches at the end of the third and final round – but Yafai kept going to the end with the judges awarding him victory on three of the five scorecards.

“To be in an Olympic final is something I never thought I could do, and now I’m in it. It just goes to show, if you put in hard work, you reap the rewards,” he said.

Yafai will take on Carlo Paalam of the Philippines in the showpiece on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Irish boxer Kellie Anne Harrington advanced into the women’s lightweight final with a narrow split-decision victory over Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee at the Kokugikan Arena.

Seesondee had edged out Team GB’s Caroline Dubois in a tight contest and this semi-final was another bout where the result was on a knife-edge, with little to separate the pair.

While Seesondee upped the tempo in the final round, Harrington was given the verdict on three of the five judges’ scorecards and will take on Brazil’s Beatriz Ferreira in the gold medal match.

“I’m a little bit lost for words… I’m speechless,” Harrington said afterwards.

There was drama at the Izu Velodrome where Britain’s Katy Marchant’s hopes in the women’s keirin were ended in cruel fashion as she was caught in a crash through no fault of her own in the quarter-finals.

Marchant was taken out when Dutch rider Lauren van Riessen appeared to clip a wheel in front and swung up the bank.

“I think that’s just bike racing – wrong place, wrong time. I hope everyone’s alright that was in the crash. I think I’m alright, just a bit battered and bruised,” Marchant told the BBC afterwards.

“I needed to finish the race in case there was something that came up on the results, a relegation or anything. I’m not really sure what happened, wrong place, wrong time, I just got caught up in it.

“I’ll be back tomorrow to start the sprint competition.”

The Dutch rider received treatment at the track side before being taken away on a stretcher.

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