Amid treacherous conditions for cycling at high speed through the Paris streets, Team GB’s Henderson finished the time trial in 41 minutes and nine seconds to claim silver behind Grace Brown of Australia, who was a remarkable 90 seconds faster.
American Chloe Dygert fell less than a second short of Henderson’s time to end up in third place.
It was a gutsy performance from Henderson, especially so as the 25-year-old has twice broken her collarbone this season. She kept her nerve and her balance as others fell around her on the slippery surface.
There was bad news, however, for GB’s Josh Tarling, who missed out on a medal in the men’s time trial after sustaining a puncture. He finished fourth, pipped to the podium.
Earlier in the diving, Harper and Mew Jensen were only in sixth place with two dives remaining and were fourth before their final attempt.
Australia looked set for bronze at worst, but an excellent final effort by the British pair moved them into third and a horrible mistake on Australia’s final dive meant they failed to overhaul Harper and Mew Jensen.
The bronze-winning pair were in tears at the end of the competition as they snatched Britain’s first women’s diving medal at an Olympics for 64 years, finishing behind impressive duos from China and the United States.
