Olympics: Britain's Mason Takes High Jump Silver

Britain's Germaine Mason claimed an unexpected silver in the high jump to take Team GB's first track and field medal at these Games. Mason, a relative unknown who was born in Jamaica but switched nationality in 2006, cleared 2.34m and clinched second place after beating the Russian Yaroslav Rybakov in a countback.

Mason was unable to clear the next height of 2.36m - which would have been a personal best - but the failure of Sweden's defending champion Stefan Holm to clear 2.34m had already guaranteed the 25-year-old Birchfield Harrier a medal.

Rybakov, and his compatriot Andrey Silnov, were the only competitors alongside Mason to jump 2.34m. Because of the Briton's better failure rate, Rybakov was required to make 2.36m to deny Mason silver, but he was unable to do so. Silnov then coolly cleared 2.36m to secure gold.

The medal is Britain's first in the high jump since Steve Smith's bronze in Atlanta 12 years ago. Team GB's Tom Parsons and Martin Bernard finished eight and ninth respectively.