Great Britain and Northern Ireland have had their best day one at an Olympics in years - with two medals in total and one of them for a Hertfordshire athlete.

Anna Henderson, who was born in Hemel Hempstead, won silver in the women’s time trial at the Paris Olympics as she edged out third-placed American Chloe Dygert by less than one second.

In damp, treacherous conditions that found out several riders, Henderson clocked a time of 41 minutes 10.7 seconds over the 32.4km course through the centre of Paris, a minute-and-a-half down on Australian Grace Brown’s gold medal-winning ride.

Dygert was among those to hit the deck and that proved critical as she lost the 15-second advantage she had held over Henderson at the first intermediate time check, coming home nine tenths of a second off the Brit’s time.

“I had half an eye on a dream on the podium, and I didn’t think I could come this far on the podium so I’m really pleased,” the 25-year-old said.

“I didn’t realise how slippery it was out there until I was on the course.

"I thought I can lose a whole Olympic Games on one corner here, so really take control and you gain all the good time on the straights.”

The Hemel Hempstead-born rider came to Paris as an obvious contender but one happy to stay under the radar after a start to the season which saw her break her collarbone twice, most recently in April, before winning a second British time trial title in June.

“I was pretty much on my bike three days after the surgery (in April),” she said.

“The second (broken collarbone) mentally hurt a lot and it got a lot to get back the motivation again but I always had Paris on my mind and that really carried me through.”