They left it late. Very late. But the Danish swimmers finally lived up to expectations on the very last day in the Olympic pool in Rio, winning Denmark’s first gold medal in swimming since 1948.

And it came from an unlikely source. Pernille Blume, who wasn’t even expected to make the final of the women’s 50m free, leapt into the hearts of the Danish fans when she touched the wall in a time of  24:07 seconds, just two one-hundredths of a second faster than US swimmer Simone Manuel in second.

And Bluming hell if she didn’t help her country to another medal less than an hour later as she teamed up with Jeanette Ottesen, Mie Ø Nielsen and Rikke Møller Pedersen to win the bronze in the women’s 4x100m medley.

The time of 3:55:01 was a new European record and just one-hundredth of a second from the silver.

Elsewhere, it was the end of the road for the men’s football team which lost 0-2 to Nigeria in the quarter-finals.

Medals on the horizon
It was a mixed bag in the sailing where one of the medal favourites Jonas Høgh-Christensen looks done in the men’s finn following two 16th place finishes. He currently sits 12th.

Things were certainly better for Jena Mai Hansen and Katja Salskov-Iversen in the women’s 49er FX. With three seconds and one fourth, the Danish duo lead the standing with seven points.

Anne-Marie Rindom lost her gold medal position in the laser radial after coming 22nd in her ninth race. Fortunately, she still has a good chance to medal following a third place finish in the tenth race and she is second overall ahead of the final medal race tomorrow.

Last women standing
The women’s doubles in badminton progressed to the quarter-finals following a 2-0 set win against South Korea. They are the only Danish doubles team still competing.

In the women’s singles, Line Kjærsfeldt fell to world number one Carolina Marin of Spain and is out.

On the athletics track, Andreas Bube failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 800m.