Welcome back for day 11 as Rio’s athletes towel off the rain, primp their windswept hair and prepare for another day of action.
Your Guardian correspondents will do the same (even those of us miles from Rio) to keep you updated on what happened and what’s coming up.
The big picture
After the medal storm of day nine, day 10 was all about the weather. There was too much wind. There was too little wind. There was a lot of rain. There was a huge forest fire flicking ash over the hockey pitch. And in enthusiastic bursts between it all was some sport.
Whether it was prompted by a puddle, a stumble or a desperate effort to catapult herself across the line first, Shaunae Miller’s dive to win the women’s 400m – ahead of favourite Allyson Felix of the US, who was first to cross the line with her feet but ended up with silver – was the dramatic centrepiece of day 10.
Miller, of the Bahamas, later confirmed the lunge was not part of her training plan: “I’ve never done it before. I have cuts and bruises, a few burns. It hurts.”
An invigorating encore came courtesy of the men’s pole vault, pushed back into closing time by the weather but culminating just before midnight with a soaring win from Brazilian Thiago Braz Da Silva.
An Olympic record-busting 6.03m vault saw off the challenge from French favourite Renaud Lavillenie, who at least took the silver – and the boos from a partisan crowd – graciously. Just kidding: he compared it to Nazi Germany.
Renaud LAVILLENIE (FRA): "In 1936 the crowd was against Jesse Owens. We've not see this since. We have to deal with it." #AT #pv #silver
— Olympic News Service (@ONS_Rio2016) August 16, 2016
The two late nailbiters threatened to drag attention away from a tremendous win by Kenya’s David Rudisha in the men’s 800m final. He adds to his London 2012 gold and to the googling of “synonyms for graceful” by athletics reporters.
There is headscratching in China, third in the overall medal table being an uncomfortable position for a country used to being a notch better than that. At the close of day 10, it held 15 gold medals (the tally at the same stage of the 2012 Games was 31). You can read about what’s inevitably being labelled the Great Fall of China here. Team China won’t be.
You kidding me? The country which has never finished above China is about to... pic.twitter.com/ejyIuwFoZ9
— Team China (@XHSports) August 16, 2016
You should also know:
- German canoe slalom coach Stefan Henze dies of injuries after car crash.
- Egyptian judoka sent home for refusing to shake Israeli opponent’s hand.
- Yuliya Stepanova ‘certain’ there are athletes doping at Rio Games.
- Aurélie Muller disqualification mars Olympic swimming marathon.
- Ireland’s Katie Taylor, 2012 winner of lightweight gold, goes out in boxing quarterfinals.
Team GB roundup
Take a moment to consider that a day that produced a gold, a silver and a bronze, and kept Britain in second spot overall, felt a bit quiet. Charlotte Dujardin was that gold-winner (along with Valegro: does the horse get a medal?), showing off a technically brilliant display that should put to rest any comparisons between dressage and that dog who won Britain’s Got Talent.
Mark Cavendish was, you know, fine with silver in the men’s omnium, his first Olympic medal confirmed when he escaped punishment for his part in a pile-up during the points race:
I have to be happy. I did everything I could in the race and ultimately I couldn’t have done any more. I have to be happy.
That bronze hangs round the neck of Sophie Hitchon and is Britain’s first Olympic hammer medal. The 25-year-old will no doubt now encourage countless young Brits to fling hammers around in the hope of securing the second. Legacy, people, legacy.
There are prospects spilling all over that shiny velodrome floor today, with Laura Trott, Becky James, Katy Marchant, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner all in action again.
Divers Jack Laugher and Freddie Woodward will contest the men’s 3m springboard; and there are nailed-on medals for Joshua Buatsi (at least a bronze in the light-heavyweight boxing) and Giles Scott (a must-be gold in the Finn sailing). Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge take on China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan in the badminton men’s doubles semifinal.
- Great Britain’s women hockey team beat Spain to progress into semi-finals.
- Team GB asks partying competitors to keep noise down in Olympic village.
Team USA roundup
Heartbreak for America’s best female sprinter, Allyson Felix, in the 400m, pipped at the line by a tumble from Shaunae Miller. In truth it was an underwhelming day, if one is allowed to be underwhelmed by the overall medal leaders. It was silver (Laurie Hernandez) and bronze (Simone Biles) – and not the predicted gold – for Team USA in the women’s balance beam.
The women’s hockey team are out, losing 2-1 to Germany in the quarter-finals.
There were track and field bronzes for Emma Coburn in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase; for Clayton Murphy in the men’s 800m; and for Sam Kendricks in that taut men’s pole vault final. But no golds. U ok hun?
No men’s basketball today, but news that Team USA will face Argentina in the quarter-finals. The men’s volleyball team reached the same stage with a 3-0 win over Mexico.
Australia team roundup
Tom Burton sails today – probably, depending on the right amount of wind – for gold in the men’s laser, after another weather delay meant a second day without medals for Australia, still lodged in ninth position in the overall table.
Team captain Anna Meares battled home 10th in what she labelled a “brutal” women’s individual sprint, and immediately found herself fending off questions about retirement. “Give me a week or two and I’ll let you know,” said Meares, who’d just cycled eye-blinkingly fast around a treacherous velodrome and probably needed to think about breathing first.
The women’s water polo and hockey teams both waved goodbye at the quarter-final stages. But there was a stronger showing from discus thrower Dani Samuels, who lobbed her way into the final with a throw of 64.46m.
Keep an eye on the canoe sprints on Wednesday morning: Murray Stewart qualified fastest for the men’s K1 1,000m final, which will charge off at 11.12am AEST. Alyce Burnett and Alyssa Bull also scooped a place in the final of the women’s K2 500m event.
Picture of the day
Team GB cyclist Mark Cavendish double-checking his silver medal for the men’s omnium.
Diary
All times below are local to Rio: here’s the full timetable tweaked for wherever you are. Or add four hours for UK, add 13 hours for eastern Australia; subtract one hour for east-coast US and four for west coast.
There are 27 golds available today, including the two sailing finals held over from day 10 (please just assume I’m appending “weather permitting” to any outdoor events, so I don’t have to keep cutting and pasting it).
- Back on track (and field) with athletics and the morning session kicks off at 9.30am, with the men’s triple jump final at 9.50am and the women’s discus final at 11.20am. Heats for the men’s 200m – Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin again, plus Team GB’s Adam Gemili – start from 11.50am.
- The evening session offers the men’s high jump final at 8.30pm (Australia’s Brandon Starc qualified fourth), the women’s 1,500m final at 10.30pm and the men’s 110m hurdles final at 10.45pm. Unbanned Russian athlete Darya Klishina will appear in the women’s long jump heats at 9.05pm.
- Another big day in the velodrome where there are three track cycling golds in play and Team GB have their eye on all of them: the women’s omnium (three rounds: 10.57am, 4.10pm, 5.05pm; Laura Trott leads the way), the women’s sprint at 5.44pm (Becky James and Katy Marchant are pushing for an all-British final), and the men’s keirin at 6.20pm (team sprint gold-winners Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner race again).
- In diving, Britain’s synchronised winner Jack Laugher goes solo in the men’s 3m springboard semifinal at 10am and – let’s be positive – the final at 8pm.
- More gymnastics, with finals in men’s parallel bars at 2pm, women’s floor at 2.47pm (Team USA’s Simone Biles goes for a fourth gold) and men’s horizontal bar at 3.34pm: Britain’s Nile Wilson qualified second here.
- Weather delays mean there are four sailing finals due: the women’s laser radial at 1.05pm; the men’s laser at 1.50pm (Australia’s Tom Burton is assured a medal); the men’s finn at 2.35pm (we already know Britain’s Giles Scott will get the gold); and the Nacra 17 mixed at 3.30pm. Probably.
- In boxing it’s Brazil v France in the final of the men’s lightweight at 7.15pm, but watch out earlier for British favourite and defending champion Nicola Adams, who pops up at 11am in the women’s flyweight quarter-final. Teammate Joshua Buatsi is guaranteed at least a bronze from his light-heavyweight semifinal at 6.30pm.
- British pair Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge face China in the badminton men’s doubles semifinal at 10.40am.
- Four to-the-minute finals in the canoe sprint: the men’s canoe single 1,000m at 9.08am; the women’s kayak double 500m at 9.23am; the women’s kayak single 200m at 9.47am; and the men’s kayak single 1,000m at 10.12am – Australia’s Murray Stewart was fastest qualifier.
- The men’s 10km open water swimming splashes off at 9am; and there’s a synchronised swimming gold for the duets at 2pm.
- The women’s table tennis final is at 7.30pm, with China unable (rules, eh?) to take on China so instead battling Germany.
- The weightlifting men’s +105kg final is at 7pm; and there are two golds going in the Greco-Roman wrestling: in the men’s 66kg and the men’s 98kg.
Underdog of the day
Because anyone up against all-conquering gymnast Simone Biles is an underdog of sorts, gold for Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands on the balance beam was a double triumph. The 24-year-old – ancient in gymnastic years, ridiculously – became the oldest beam champion since Eva Bosakova in 1960, and takes home the first Dutch gold in women’s artistic gymnastics since a team win at the home Games in 1928.
Just deal with it of the day
Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui – she of her hilarious “Whoooaah! I was so fast!” post-race interview fame – has broken what is apparently a big Sports Taboo, saying she’d not been at her best in the women’s 4x100m medley relay because she had her period.
It’s a dead heat in the candour stakes with news from Team GB’s cycling strategists, who brought in vulval specialists to sort out saddle-sore female cyclists. Tilting the seat and banning waxing are the answer, it turns out.
Tweet of the day
Last week this 10-year-old photo resurfaced of a nine-year-old Katie Ledecky meeting her swimming hero Michael Phelps (then with a tiny haul of six Olympic gold medals to his name). Now the world-record-holding and gold-winning Ledecky has returned the favour, saying she was “more than happy to sign a poster for the greatest Olympian of all time”.
A lot can change in 10 years! @katieledecky with @MichaelPhelps in 2006 and today in Rio! #Rio2016 #RioTODAY pic.twitter.com/cYwUyz3PZO
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 15, 2016
If today were a song
It would be anything by Earth, Wind and Fire. Or Wet Wet Wet.
And another thing
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