Day 13 turns into day 14 and a brand-new live blog: see you over there.
Usain Bolt turns 30 this weekend and repeated after his stupendous 200m victory that this is really, really it for him and Olympics Games (after the relay final, that is):
I want to say so. I think this is the last one …
I ran hard around the turn. On the straight, my body didn’t respond. I’m getting old …
There are no words, eight-time Olympic Champion. It’s my last Olympics. I can’t prove anything else.
(Technically, Usain, there is that triple triple – triple treble? – to go for.)
He still has ambitions, mind:
What else can I do to prove to the world I am the greatest? I am trying to be one of the greatest. Be among Ali and Pelé.
I hope after these Games I will be in that bracket.
Here’s Brazilian gold medal-winning pair Alison and Bruno on their victory in the men’s beach volleyball. They sound a bit overwhelmed. Although it is now 2.30am in Rio, so there’s that, too.
Bruno:
There has been so much pressure to handle. It was the most difficult time in my whole life.
Alison:
I don’t have the words to describe how I’m feeling. To win at Copacabana is the Maracanã of beach volleyball.
If you were pre-occupied with Bolt and friends you might have missed some massive results in the women’s volleyball. After shocking hosts and London 2012 gold medallists Brazil in the quarter-finals, China have now sent home the impressive Netherlands 3-1 in the semis, setting up their first shot at gold since Athens.
Their opponents won’t be powerhouses the USA, however: they too have been shocked by Serbia in the other semi-final, 3-2.
Having lost five matches between them in the group stages, the two outside chances now find themselves in the box set for gold. Serbia has one win over the Chinese already, but if we’ve learned anything from this tournament it’s that group stage form stands for nothing.
When Wesley Korir and the rest of the Kenyan men’s marathon team line up in the Sambadrome in Rio on Sunday, the prayers of millions across their homeland will go with them.
But even among Kenyan long distance runners, Korir’s biography stands out. Not only is he the winner of several top races around the world and now a dollar millionaire, but he is a serving member of parliament, having been elected in 2012 from a constituency in the far west of the country, near the city of Eldoret and his home village.
Plunged into the harsh world of Kenyan politics, Korir has had to split his Olympic preparation between the slopes and trails of the Rift Valley, a forest outside the capital Nairobi, and a gym in the National Assembly. Officials had to install a new running machine as the top speed of the one in place was too slow for the new representative.
“I got involved in politics to change things. I’m now trying to make sure politics doesn’t change me.”
Italy’s silver-medal winners from the men’s beach volleyball final have spoken warmly about their Brazilian rivals.
Paolo Nicolai told reporters:
We gave all we had but our opponents deserved to win. They have been dominant for three years.
And because they have Olympic medals and are in Rio, Daniele Lupo added:
We are young, happy about the result and we are going to celebrate anyway.
Whether you’re looking for training tips, or merely marvelling, here’s how Usain Bolt won yet another gold in the 200m, metre by metre:
There’s an interesting video over on the Australian Olympic committee website, in which Gold Coast swimmer Dan Smith travels to see Christ the Redeemer.
The Australian details his “pretty gnarly past” and the difficult journey from drug and alcohol addiction to a place on the Olympic team. Good on him.
Official timings on third, fourth and fifth place in the men’s 200m:
- third: Christophe Lemaitre, second from bottom in this photo finish, on 20.12s
- fourth: Adam Gemili, top, 20.12s
- fifth: Churandy Martina, bottom, 20.13s
Three thousandths of a second stood between Adam Gemili & #Rio2016 bronze.https://t.co/W9zt1dkm45 #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/NHGcp1Xa1p
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 19, 2016
As day 13’s sporting action winds down, here’s the top 10 on the medal table, with Team USA still in a cruising lead. Britain cements itself in second place. Australia slips to 10th.
You can see the full table – and see how each country is faring – here.
End of day 13 #Olympics medal table. No 1: #USA. No 2: #GBR. #AUS teeters at no 10 https://t.co/bpuxciBbDA pic.twitter.com/qOmdPHNT0e
— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) August 19, 2016
Controversy! Finally a moment of drama in the beach volleyball as the umpire awards the set and the gold medal to Brazil after a diving rally when even though Italy seemed to have saved – dug? – the match point against them.
An Italian player remonstrates, then gives up.
The men’s Olympic title has, finally, returned to its native home.
Boom, here comes the boom, here comes the boom boom boom boom boom!
Brazil wins this gold medal in only 40 minutes of action! (Beach volleyball is for the short-attention-span generation.)
I spoke too soon before: the seats aren’t quite full, but this is rarely apparent because the crowd spend so much time up and down on their feet.
There’s just so much to take in here. Halfway through the second set, a samba band walked on, played a few bars, then disappeared again.
The disco lights are signalling wildly. I expect an Independence Day/Close Encounters visitation any moment. We may need a Monster Block.
Brazil win gold in the men's beach volleyball!
OK, now we do have match point. It’s 20-17 to Brazil.
And they do it. Brazil has won gold!
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Time out as Brazil make it 20-15.
One point to gold. Possibly. But no: that point is switched in Italy’s direction. It’s 19-17. The crowd is … displeased.
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Brazil lead in the second set 19-15. Can they do this? The crowd is cheering as if it’s already in the (damp, sandy) bag.
Italy have a tiny edge, 12-11, in the second set of the men’s beach volleyball final.
And here’s the latest truth-untangling as the United States Olympic committee apologises for the “distracting ordeal” involving four Olympic swimmers:
The rain has done absolutely nothing to dampen the atmosphere at the men’s beach volleyball final. If anything, it’s added the perfect extra surreal touch to this grand finale of a bonkers sport.
Men and women in see-through ponchos wielding rakes keep descending on the court to shift wet sand, like acolytes performing some strange ritual.
Every seat is full – unlike at the blue riband athletics events – with majorly excited folk. They are responding to the DJ’s every command – “clap your name!” – with enthusiasm and alacrity. They are waving sodden flags like tea towels. They are chanting “monster block!” And “ace ace!” while huddled under fluorescent rain jackets.
We’re sitting here like a bunch of overexcited aliens planning an extra planetary invasion.
Brazil have won the first set.
It was a tender goodbye for Usain Bolt, Barney Ronay writes from Rio:
It is off the track as much as anything else the sport will feel the void. When he’s gone there will be no replacement, just a competing roster of normal scale humans beings. The Bolt persona above all will be missed; commercial catnip, but also an intriguing thing in itself. There is undoubtedly a real Bolt in there somewhere, some private part of himself that has remained discrete throughout the Bolt Supremacy, just as there is some clever misdirection in the party boy persona, the Swedish women’s handball team schtick, the much-trumpeted chicken nuggets. The casual airs are an act of intimidation, a racing tactic. The playfulness with De Grasse in the semi-finals was a part of this, an invitation to blink first.
Another odd thing: other sprinters like Bolt. No one resents him, or shows irritation at his theatrics. It isn’t hard to see why. For a start Bolt makes them money. Tyson Gay has said his own revenues increased steadily as soon as Bolt started beating him, so profound was Bolt’s effect on the entire sport. The wealth has been shared, if not the medals.
Here he ran his last as an Olympic sprint finalist, although another world championships will follow. Some have even suggested that retirement will quickly pall, that his value is simply too great, his racing will too strong to depart even on a high. That remains to be seen. But in Rio this felt like the greatest of solo goodbyes for the greatest, and most fondly compelling of athletes.
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Brazil wins the first set in the men’s beach volleyball final.
Alison and Bruno take it 21-19 from the Italian pair.
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China has WON the women’s indoor volleyball semi-final, three sets to one against Netherlands. It was 25-23 in the fourth set.
They’ll play Serbia – who earlier knocked out the USA – in the final.
Seriously, this is too close. The men’s beach volleyball final goes Brazil 20-19 Italy in the first set. And there’s a time out.
The women’s volleyball semi-final is pretty tense and tight too: China, two sets to one up on the Netherlands, are currently (unless it changes between me typing this and hitting go) 23-21 up in the fourth.
Closely, closely matched in the men’s beach volleyball final, playing out in the rain. It’s Brazil 9-9 Italy in the first set.
And here we go now with the final of the men’s beach volleyball. Brazilian pair Alison Cerutti and Bruno Oscar Schmidt will be hoping to go one better than Ágatha and Bárbara, who won silver in last night’s women’s final.
They face Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo of Italy.
The home crowd is, shall we say, enthusiastic.
Via ESPN, here’s a statement from USA Swimming, its first on the Lochte and co incident:
The last five days have been difficult for our USA Swimming and United States Olympic families. While we are thankful our athletes are safe, we do not do condone the lapse in judgment and conduct that led us to this point.
It is not representative of what is expected as Olympians, as Americans, as swimmers and as individuals. That this is drawing attention away from Team USA’s incredible accomplishments in the water and by other athletes across the Olympic Games is upsetting.
Back to the women’s volleyball semi-finals, and China took that close third set 29-27. Going into the fourth, they lead the Netherlands two sets to one.
Usain Bolt warned young whippersnapper Andre De Grasse yesterday about that super-quick 200m semi-final, and the Canadian, who took silver behind the main man this evening but wasn’t close enough to continue their earlier chat, has conceded the point:
I maybe used up too much energy in the semi. I tried to go but there was nothing there.
But, hey, it’s not so bad:
I’m really happy with two medals under my belt.
USOC statement on swimmers
Claire Phipps here, diverting from the sporting for a moment as we have a fresh statement from the US Olympic committee on the swimmers and the robbery-that-wasn’t. Essentially it’s conceding that the police version of events is true.
A key excerpt:
As we understand it, the four athletes (Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, James Feigen and Ryan Lochte) left France House early in the morning of August 14 in a taxi headed to the Olympic Village. They stopped at a gas station to use the restroom, where one of the athletes committed an act of vandalism.
An argument ensued between the athletes and two armed gas station security staff, who displayed their weapons, ordered the athletes from their vehicle and demanded the athletes provide a monetary payment. Once the security officials received money from the athletes, the athletes were allowed to leave.
The behavior of these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA or the conduct of the vast majority of its members. We will further review the matter, and any potential consequences for the athletes, when we return to the United States.
On behalf of the United States Olympic Committee, we apologize to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil for this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence.
USOC also confirms that Bentz and Conger have now been allowed to leave Rio.
Feigen is still trying to “secur[e] the release of his passport as soon as possible”, it adds.
You can read the full statement here.
And with the volleyball finely poised, I’ll hand the reins to Claire Phipps.
The Dutch have some momentum now in the volleyball - they’re 9-4 up in the third set against China. It’s 20 years since the Netherlands even qualified for the Olympics in the event, and they’ve never won a medal. Now they have a good chance of guaranteeing themselves a medal.
Jordan win their first ever Olympic medal
This from the Associated Press:
Taekwondo fighter Ahmad Abughaush has won gold and Jordan’s first-ever Olympic medal.
The 20-year-old wrapped up a surprising day of upsets at the Rio Games by defeating Russia’s Alexey Denisenko in a Thursday night 68-kilogram division final, during which Abughaush landed several jumping head shots that elicited gasps from the audience. Abughaush beat Denisenko 10-6.
Earlier in the day, the 10th-ranked Abughaush knocked out second-seeded Dae-Hoon Lee of South Korea before eliminating Olympic champion Joel Bonilla Gonzalez of Spain, who won the 58-kilogram division at the London Games.
Lee applauded Abughaush’s performance after being beaten by him, raising Abughaush’s arm in victory when he was announced the winner.
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China and the Netherlands are playing for a place in the final of the women’s volleyball. The winner will play Serbia in the final after the Serbs shocked USA earlier today. China are 1-0 up in sets ... but the Dutch have just levelled.
Sara Kolak of Croatia has won the women’s javelin gold with a throw of 66.18m, a national record. That’s a little better than the 21 year-ol’s last outing at a major tournament, the European Championships, where she won bronze. Sunette Viljoen of South Africa was second and Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic took bronze.
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In non-Bolt news from the 200m: Great Britain’s Adam Gemili said he was “heartbroken” to finish fourth, three thousands of a second behind third place, which went to the delighted Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre. “I’m just heartbroken. I put so much into that run and to get so close is just heartbreaking. I’m just absolutely gutted,” Gemili told the BBC. “Fourth place is probably the worst place you can be. I’ve got no words. But we’re not here to fill lanes anymore. We’ve got guys who can make these finals and push.”
Meanwhile Canada’s Andre de Grasse, who finished with a bronze in the 100m and a silver here, served notice that he might be the man most likely to being to be able to think about filling Bolt’s huge shoes.
Bolt is interviewed on NBC. And is a little frustrated. “I wanted a faster time but my body wouldn’t respond,” Bolt says. “I guess age ... has taken its toll. I really wanted to go faster. It would have helped to have someone faster than me coming into the straight.”
He’s then asked if the 4x100m will be his final ever Olympic event. “Yeah, definitely,” he said.
I make him sound downbeat here. He was actually pretty chipper. Chipper but very tired.
Bolt is still taking in the applause for the crowd - and most of them have stuck around after the race to salute him. He’ll now go for his ninth Olympic gold in the 4x100m later this week.
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The bronze was incredibly close in that race - it was down to a photo finish between Lemaitre and Britain’s Adam Gemili, with the Frenchman just edging it.
Obviously they don’t last very long, which takes some of the tension out of them, but how many times have you seen a Bolt race and worried that he won’t win it. Certainly none at this Olympics.
Usain Bolt wins the 200m
Bolt crosses himself as he gets down to take his place at the blocks. And - shock - Bolt take the win with ease in 19.79 seconds. He has now won the 100m and 200m at three consecutive Olympics. De Grasse takes silver and Lemaitre third. The result was never in doubt - to put it in context he was past Lemaitre, who finished third, within 20m.
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There are other athletes in the 200m tonight, by the way. Some of them might even finish second. USA’s LaShawn Merritt has done well to branch out from his 400m speciality to make this final. The man who may well win 100m and 200m gold in 2020, Andre de Grasse, has a good chance for a Canadian medal. Alonso Edward of Panama also had a good time in the semis.
And here’s Usain Bolt in the tunnel. The crowd cleared out the other night when the rain started falling and the finals were played out with plenty of empty seats. Not this time though - the fans wait to see Bolt in an individual Olympic final for the last time.
A quick report on Eaton’s general brilliance:
GB's Jade Jones wins taekwondo gold
Another gold medal opportunity for Team GB at the taekwondo, another golden memory safely bagged. When it comes to kicking people in the head at an Olympics there are few better than Jade Jones, who has retained the title she claimed as a 19-year-old at London 2012. In this instance she beat her Spanish rival Eva Calvo Gomez 16-7 to secure is GB’s 22nd gold – and 56th medal - of an increasingly productive Games.
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Dalilah Muhammad wins women's 400m hurdles
Muhammad is off quickly. Overtaking the athletes on the outside of her. And that trend continues, she is ahead by the final straight and is never really threatened as she coasts home. Spencer gets bronze and Sara Petersen of Denmark silver.
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The last final on the track before He races. It’s the women’s 400m hurdles, and the rain has started to come down in Rio. The two-time world champion Zuzana Hejnova has the history but USA’s Dalilah Muhammad is the future. Her compatriot Ashley Spencer will provide competition. The US have never won this event.
Perhaps no event on the Olympic track and field programme looks worse than the decathlon 1500m. Elite middle-distance running just does not square with an ability to pole vault and putt the shot and there is always the suspicion, watching the lumbering, flat-footed efforts of some, that few competitors regard it as a training priority. In fact, here is a challenge for even a moderately dedicated jogger: could you run 1500m faster than an Olympic athlete who performs the event? For those interested, the time to beat after both tonight’s heats is the 4.53.07 recorded by the back marker, Arthur Abele of Germany, 1min14 slower than that of semi-final winner, Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop, in the actual 1500m earlier.
Ashton Eaton wins the Olympic decathlon!
And we’re into the last lap, Eaton jogs back Mayer with ease - no response from the Frenchman who has to watch the gold medal heading off down the home stretch. All of which means Eaton has won gold as he crosses the line ahead of his opponent. The athletes embrace with pained expressions on their faces, tortured by two days of gruelling competition. But, you know, they’re happy too. Don’t worry too much.
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Mayer, understandably, sets off with a quick pace - he doesn’t have much choice. All Eaton needs to do is trot along behind his opponent keeping him in his sights. Which he is doing successfully so far.
So, Ashton Eaton looks to become the first man since Daley Thompson to win back to back Olympic decathlons. His chances? Extremely good. His French opponent Kevin Mayer will need to beat him by seven seconds in the upcoming 1500m to claim the title. Seeing as Eaton is a much faster 1500 runner than Mayer I would rate the Frenchman’s chances as ... nah.
That’s all from me – Tom Lutz will be taking you through the rest of this evening’s action. Bye!
Semenya and Britain’s Lynsey Sharp go through by right, and USA’s Kate Grace, in third, looks to have done enough to secure a spot in the final.
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Any planned street parties in Brazzaville will have to be cancelled, more is the pity, as Franck “the Gladiator” Elemba fetched up fourth in the shot put final, after being overtaken by New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh. Still, that is the best-ever finish by a Congolese athlete at the Olympics. In other hot shot news, the gold has been won the USA’s Ryan Crouser, who threw 22.52m, and beat the Olympic record set by East Germany’s Ulf Timmerman at Seoul in 1988. Crouser’s teammate Joe Kovacs came second.
Now it’s Caster Semenya in the third semi-final. Semenya ran 1:55.33 in Monaco in July – she wants that gold medal.
USA's Ryan Crouser wins shot put gold!
The 6ft 7in 23-year-old is the Olympic champion – his mark of 22.52m was the evening’s best. Team-mate Joe Kovacs was second, and Tomas Walsh on New Zealand was third.
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In the second women’s 800m semi, it’s Joanna Jozwik of Poland and Melissa Bishop of Canada who qualify by right. That was quicker than the first semi, so Ajee Wilson of USA is out.
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Ryan Crouser is in some form: he’s just extended his lead by putting 22.52m – that’s a new Olympic record!
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Margaret Wambui of Kenya wins from Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba. USA’s Ajee Wilson, in third, faces a wait to see if her time of 1:59.75 is enough.
Now it’s the women’s 800m semi-finals – three of them. The first two in each heat qualify for the final, plus the next two fastest times.
The women’s javelin final is about to start, and Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic, the current Olympic champion and world record holder, is the favourite.
They might be dancing in the streets of … Brazzaville? Yes, Brazzaville. Capital city of the Congo. They’ve never won an Olympic medal, but, after three rounds of the men’s shot put final, the formidable Franck Elemba, 6ft 6in and 300lbs, is in third place. He broke his own national record with his first throw of 21.20m. Elemba’s nickname is “the Gladiator” because he used to do judo. Terrifying. He’s 26, and has two kids. And that’s every last thing I know about him.
The USA’s Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs are first and second at the halfway stage, but I know who I’m rooting for.
Australia has a finalist in the 1500m! If you’re wondering, that doesn’t normally happen; it’s been 40 years since an Aussie made the cut. Ryan Gregson is the man who has done it. “I’m just trying to be like a Melbourne Cup jockey who is patient, patient … ” he says as he pants away into a microphone afterwards. “It’s a huge achievement what I did just then.”
In the second 1500m semi, it was Kwemoi of Kenya, Souleiman of Djibouti and Centrowitz of USA. The American Robby Andrews finished fifth, but it looked like he stepped off the track, and he could find himself disqualified on replay.
USA’s Ryan Crouser leads the men’s shot put in the third round, posting another personal best of 22.26m.
Asbel Kiprop and Taoufik Makhloufi are safely through in the first men’s 1500m semi-final. Nick Willis of New Zealand and Charlie Grice of Great Britain also qualified for the final, as did Ben Blankenship of USA.
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The men’s shot put final has just got under way. Congo-Brazzaville’s Franck Elemba currently leads after putting a national record of 21.20m.
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USA have beaten France 86-67. They’ll play Spain in the final on Saturday.
With one event to go in to the decathlon, Ashton Eaton of USA leads with 8,104 points. France’s Kevin Mayer is second with 8,060, and Canada’s Damian Warner is third with 7,888. The 1500m, the final event, gets going at about 9.45pm local time.
USA look like they’ll be into the women’s basketball final: they’re up against France in the fourth quarter:
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Confused about the Ryan Lochte story? So are we. But this video tries to make sense of what’s happening:
Indian wrestler Narsingh Yadav has been given a four-year doping ban after the World Anti-Doping Agency won its appeal against his earlier exoneration.
An Indian anti-doping disciplinary panel had ruled earlier this month that Yadav was a victim of “sabotage”, and cleared him to compete in Rio. Freestyle wrestling starts on Friday.
Wada filed an urgent application before Cas to challenge the decision to exonerate Yadav following two positive anti-doping tests in June and July.
“The Cas panel did not accept the argument of the athlete that he was the victim of sabotage and noted that there was no evidence that he bore no fault, nor that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional,” Cas said on Thursday.
Saturday’s men’s water polo final should be fun: Serbia, one of the favourites for gold, take on arch-rivals Croatia. Serbia beat Italy 10-8 on Thursday to set up a showdown with the defending Olympic champions, who beat Montenegro 12-8.
“It’s amazing,” Croatia goalie Marko Bijac said. “I think we still don’t think we know what we have done here, but for sure we don’t want to stop here.”
Canada's Erica Wiebe wins wrestling gold!
Gold for Wiebe in the women’s 75kg freestyle wrestling: she beat Guzel Manyurova of Kazakhstan in the final.
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For Australians who’ve woken up thinking Ryan Lochte is the only swimmer who knows how to party, I’ve got a (pleasing?) update: Aussie swimmers Josh Palmer and Emma McKeon have been banned from the closing ceremony after staying out all night in Rio. A drunken Palmer was robbed of $1,000 (here we go…) while McKeon, somewhat less dramatically, just spent the night with friends in Copacabana without telling team management.
Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller confirmed that both swimmers had failed to return to the Olympic village on Tuesday night, so they’ll miss out on the fireworks and interpretive dance. All that and more in our Australian update:
A surreal moment just now at Olympic Stadium as the United States’ 4x100m relay team qualifies for Friday’s final – with no one else on the track.
Allyson Felix had dropped the baton during this morning’s heat when she was bumped by an opponent’s elbow and the team was granted an extra shot at qualification after a successful protest to judges.
Tianna Bartoletta, English Gardner, Morolake Akinosun and Felix finished the re-run in a time of 41.77sec – the fastest time overall – to bump China from the field. By now we’ve become used to empty seats at the Engenhão, but an empty track is something new altogether.
“Very relieved,” said Felix afterward. “I just wasn’t sure how a situation like that played out. I have never been in that situation before, but I am happy that we got a shot at it.”
Here’s what’s in store on the track this evening: the men’s shot put final, the women’s javelin final, the women’s 400m hurdles final, and Usain Bolt in the men’s 200m final. Plus the final result from the decathlon.
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In women’s basketball, USA lead France 19-15 at the end of the first quarter of their semi-final. More here:
Fans in the stadium in Rio are currently watching the javelin portion of the men’s decathlon, the ninth event of the competition. We finish with the 1500m at 8.45pm local time, where we’ll have confirmation that USA’s Ashton Eaton is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
USA women's 4x100m relay team qualify for final
News from the Olympic Stadium: USA are in the final.
After dropping the baton last night but being given the opportunity to re-run after they were obstructed by Brazil, USA have just competed in an empty arena, but their time of 41.76sec was enough to take them through as a fastest qualifier.
They’ll start Friday’s final as gold medal contenders, along with Jamaica.
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Thanks Alan! Yep, it’s quiet just now, but plenty of action to watch out for later: athletics, beach volleyball, taekwondo and wrestling – and the women’s basketball semi-final between France and USA has just got under way. You can follow all that with DJ Gallo here:
Feeling lazy? This should help: it turns out Jonny Brownlee will be racing again next week after today’s silver in the triathlon. Alistair says he will take a few days off but is back in action in “a couple of weeks”.
That seems like a fine time for me to pass the baton – successfully, of course – from London to New York, where Tim Hill will guide you through the next few hours. Thanks for reading and your messages and tweets!
There is something happening now – event nine of the decathlon, which is the javelin. In the race for the minor medals, France’s Kevin Mayer sits in silver position before they start throwing, Damian Warner of Canada is in third but Germany’s Kai Kazmerk is close behind in fourth. They have all passed 7,000 points but Eaton is on 7,370. He is unlikely to break his world record set last year but it would take a remarkable collapse or an injury to stop him from winning gold.
There is literally nothing happening in Rio at the moment! So take a deep breath … because in a few minutes there will be lumps of action – with an unmistakable focus on the US for the near future, including Ashton Eaton’s romp to the decathlon title, the US re-running the relay on their own after the controversy this morning and also the second women’s basketball semi-final.
Argentina beat Belgium to win hockey gold
There we have it. Argentina have their third gold of the Games thanks to their men’s hockey team, who have beaten Belgium 4-2 having gone a goal behind after two minutes. The celebrations are predictably exuberant. “Just look at how much it means”!
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Goal! Agustin Mazzilli finds his way into the open net after taking possession off Felix Denayer and Argentina’s players and fans go wild. Belgium sink to their knees – the gamble without a goalkeeper backfired and they must settle for silver.
We are into the final minute and the ball touches Jerome Truyens foot, allowing Argentina possession. Can they kill the game off?
Belgium are bringing on a green jersey for the final three minutes. The goalkeeper, Vincent Vanasch, makes his way off, replaced by Cosyns.
With 3min 40sec to go, Belgium are awarded a penalty corner but the ball hits the left foot of Tom Boon and possession is turned over.
The head of Rio de Janeiro’s civil police, Fernando Veloso, says “theoretically” charges could be pressed against a group of four US swimmers, including gold medallists Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen, for vandalism and false testimony
The Argentina fans are amazing. At the basketball last night, in defeat to USA, they made such noise that a couple of US players, most notably the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, were applauding them from the side of the court. In the hockey they are providing their team with such incessant vociferous backing that it seems like they have an extra man on the pitch. Belgium are pushing for an equaliser but they are being met by a blue and white striped wall.
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Belgium’s Gauthier Boccard has scored at the end of the third period to cut Argentina’s lead in the hockey final in half. It’s 3-2 with 13 and a half minutes to play. The predominantly Argentinian crowd are getting edgier by the minute.
Today’s personal highlight so far has been the triathlon – even if the swimming did not particularly make excellent TV viewing. It was hard not to admire the sheer power and craft of the Brownlee brothers. “I was pretty confident we would get first and second,” Alistair, who won gold again, said. “I didn’t know entirely which way it would go. I’ve had the edge the last couple of races but he’s killed me in training every day. We’ve both been flying, pushing each other to the max. I had to go through hell and I did.”
Doping latest
Lochte accused of making up robbery story
Ryan Lochte has now been accused of making up a story of being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro, in one of the most bizarre stories to have emerged from the Games. Les Carpenter reports:
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After such a blistering start in the hockey, it’s become a little bit tense. Argentina remain two goals ahead but Belgium have plenty of time and will look to play on the South Americans’ penchant for becoming ill-disciplined. There are already signs of it getting a tad heated.
USA’s Helen Maroulis has beaten Japan’s Saori Yoshida 4-1 in the women’s 53kg wrestling final. It’s USA’s first gold in wrestling at the Games, coming against an opponent who was looking for a fourth Olympic gold.
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It is a less hectic afternoon in Rio but there is a pile of action to come later on – not least on the track, where Bolt and Semenya are in action in the 200m final and 800m semi-finals respectively. In the field there is also the men’s shot and women’s javelin. The second women’s basketball semi, starting 70 minutes from now, sees France attempt what seems impossible: beating the USA.
Your (5ft 6in) boxing correspondent bumped into 6ft 6in world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (some bump) today and the big fella says his mate and regular sparring partner, Joe Joyce, has a good shot at winning a gold medal at super-heavyweight. “If he’s fit, I think he’s got a great chance. He’s so strong and hits so hard that when his opponent walks on to one of his big punches, he’ll get turned square on. Joe mucks up their boxing. Just watch him in the early exchanges.”
At 3.15pm local time tomorrow (Just as you’re having your dinner in London, or are fast asleep in Sydney), Joe goes in the semi-final against a Kazak with a name that wouldn’t look out of place in a James Bond movie, Ivan Dychko. He’s 26, 6ft 9in, bald and won bronze in London. He lost in the semi-finals to … Joshua.
Joshua says he has boxed “thousands of rounds” with Joyce, whose boyish looks and charm have earned him a few gigs on the catwalk. So, who got the better of the sparring, AJ? “Half and half,” he chuckled. We’ll know soon enough if all that work with one of the nicest guys in sport has paid off for big Joe.
Eva Calvo Gomez of Spain will take on Jade Jones at 10pm local time in the 57kg taekwondo final after Gomez beat Hedaya Wahba on a golden point after the three rounds finished without a score.
At half-time in the hockey, it’s 3-1 to Argentina. Worth remembering that neither have won the Olympic title before.
Argentina have made it 3-1 six minutes into the second period of the hockey, Gonzalo Peillat converting from a penalty corner for his 11th of the tournament.
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Amateur boxing’s governing body has “reassigned” its most senior executive, who has operational control for the Olympic tournament, with immediate effect in the wake of corruption claims and concerns over judging decisions.
What a start in the hockey! Argentina lead 2-1 at the end of the first period. Belgium’s Tanguy Cosyns scored only two minutes in but goals from Pedro Ibarra and Ignacio Ortiz have sent the packed crowd, filled mostly with Argentina fans, absolutely bonkers.
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The reigning champion Aston Eaton is more than likely to become the first man since Daley Thompson to win back-to-back Olympic decathlon titles later this evening. Going into the final two events he holds a 124-point lead with just the javelin and 1500m to come. It’s probable that he would need to score personal bests in those two events to break his own world record, however.
Ren Qian wins gold in the women's 10m platform
It is, as expected from early on in the final, a China one-two – but gold goes to the 15-year-old Ren, with a score of 439.25. Si takes silver with 419.40 and Canada’s Benfeito wins bronze on 389.20. Williams is fifth, Parratto is 10th and Couch is last.
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Jones steps up in class at the beginning of the third and is through to the final with a final score of 9-5. The 2012 winner will defend her title about five hours from now.
The gap remains a point at the end of round two at the Carioca Arena. Glasnovic scores three with one headkick in the second round but Jones leads 4-3.
Jones v Glasnovic starts tentatively but the Briton finally scores with 20sec remaining in the opening round and leads 1-0.
To mark your card: in taekwondo, Jade Jones is about to take on Sweden’s Nikita Glasnovic in the 57kg semi-final. And the men’s hockey final between Belgium and Argentina has just begun.
Ren, who is just 15, scores 91.20 on her penultimate dive and Si’s response is just 79.20, putting 15 points between them with a dive to go. Benfeito is on 315.60 in bronze but Espinosa and Wu remain in with a shout of a medal.
Spain are into the final of the women’s basketball thanks to a 68-54 triumph against Serbia.
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Megan Rapinoe, one of the US women’s national team’s most experienced players, has spoken out against her team-mate Hope Solo over her comments following the shock quarter-final defeat to Sweden at the Olympics.
The outspoken goalkeeper was bitter after the USA lost a penalty shootout, callng the Swedes “a bunch of cowards” for what she saw as their negative style of play.
“I mean really disappointed, to be honest,” Rapinoe said in an interview with NBC sports when asked about her reaction to Solo’s comments. “That’s not our team, that’s not what this team has always been, that’s not what this team will be in the future.”
Gold is going to China in the diving, surely. Ren overtakes Si with a stunning 94.05 (256.85) while her compatriot scores 86.4 (253.80). Canada are third and fourth, Benfeito in bronze on 238.80. Wu remains just about in touch with 221.8, while Parratto makes a mess of her third effort and scores just 44.80 to leave her back in eighth on 205.00. Couch scores just 52.80 on her third dive after over-rotating and is dead last.
Inbee Park is the overnight leader in the women’s golf thanks to another 66, leaving her on -10 at the midway point. Stacy Lewis is second a shot behind and Charley Hull is tied for bronze on -8 with Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
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Through two of five rounds in the diving, it’s a China one-two. Si leads with 167.40, in front of her compatriot Ren on 162.8. Parratto is in bonze with 160.30, followed by the Canadian pair of Benfeito (159.60) and Filion (157.20). Wu is seventh on 145.50 and Couch has climbed one place to 11th with a total of 131.70.
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Some views from a namesake on the AIBA
@alansmith90 Re: AIBA...all without talking doping. Read somewhere AIBA conducted exactly zero tests in 2014 and 1 in 2015. #Rio2016
— Alan C. Smith (@algingersmith) August 18, 2016
While Lucy Briggs emails: “Capsizing is the new baton dropping for team GB. But it’s gusty on the water so more understandable. Waiting for the ‘there was a large gust at baton handover’ excuse.”
It is arguably becoming the Games’ biggest story, so here is another piece on Ryan Lochte and the robbery that wasn’t.
At the end of the first round of the diving, Benfeito leads with 81.60, tracked closely by USA’s Parratto and China’s Si, who both scored 81. Qian Ren is fourth after a 78.00. Couch is last at this early stage but her opening dive was her weakest, while Australia’s Wu is midtable courtesy of a 73.50.
Coming to the end of the third quarter in the women’s basketball semi-final, Spain lead Serbia 41-28.
Paolo Espinosa is first up on the platform and the Mexican looks forlorn with a score of 66.00. Malaysia’s Nur Dhabitah Sabri, 17, is significantly happier with a score of 72 and Britain’s Tonia Couch takes only 64.5 after a splashy entry. Meaghan Benfeito, from Canada, is the best of the early divers with 81.6.
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The women’s 10m platform final is getting underway in a couple of minutes. And it’s very windy. Si Yajie of China was the most impressive in qualifying, USA’s Jessica Parratto was second. Australia and Britain also have divers in action – Melissa Wu and Tonia Couch.
Boxing needs a good laugh, or at least an extended grin, after days of rolling rumours about suspect judging and even collusion in what has been a troubled tournament on several fronts. And on to the stage bounds Nicola Adams, whose smile could light up a graveyard, but who spared no charity on her old friend, Cancan Ren, beating her convincingly to reach the flyweight final.
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There was no shame in defeat for Thomas Barr, the Irishman who finished a gallant fourth in the 400m hurdles final won by Kerron Clement of the USA. Barr broke the national record he set in the semi-final and was 0.05sec off bronze. Barry Glendenning was at the stadium …
Pat Hickey, the Irish Olympic Council chief, has been released from hospital.
Here is Pat Hickey being escorted from hospital moments ago in Rio pic.twitter.com/UQpXnR8zTa
— Inpho Photography (@Inphosports) August 18, 2016
Sailing gold for Brazil
What scenes at the bay as home pair Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze win the medal race of the 49er FX. That’s the final event of the Games at the Marina da Gloria – quite the way for the hosts to sign off.
Britain’s Jade Jones has won her quarter-final against Raheleh Asemani of Belgium 7-2 and will face Sweden’s Nikita Glasnovic in the semi-final in about 90 minutes time.
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AIBA, amateur boxing’s world governing body (with ambitions to bring the professionals under its leaking umbrella), are digging a hole rather than filling it in after sending six officials home and “reassigning” Karim Bouzidi – without even naming him. This is old-fashioned Eastern Bloc mind-set, state-controlled media management. Except it looks even more dreadful than the judging. “The decisions taken emphasise that AIBA will not shy away from its responsibilities and will continue to ensure a level playing field and a fair and transparent sport. It is of paramount importance to protect our sport and its R&J community whose integrity has been put into question.”
But “shying away” is exactly what they are doing. No names, no numbers, no responsibility.
La Cruz is throwing some shapes during the third round and breaks into a full dance when the bell tolls. What a performance from the Cuban. He is jeered by the crowd for showboating but he looks a special boxer. The decision, of course, is unanimous.
The Cuban fighter has taken the second round unanimously too. Can Niyazymbetov find a knockout blow or is he to settle for silver?
It’s fair to say reaction to the US relay decision is mixed
@alansmith90 One of the US athletes was impeded or interfered with in the women's relay. In other sports, that's a DQ. No problem with me.
— MisterKevin (@MrKAK27) August 18, 2016
@alansmith90 Re. 4x100 No! It's not fair, but aren't there nine lanes at the OS?
— Stelios J (@Tsaksonakis) August 18, 2016
And, Andrew Benton, via email writes: “Seems unfair that Brazil, who did the bumping, get off scott free, whilst China might suffer. It should be Brazil who get bumped out if the US do a successful re-run. If they didn’t make it through, the placings just before the bumping happened should be used to determine the final placings. And Brazil should be fined heavily, to act as a deterrent.”
La Cruz takes the first round on all three scorecards.
The final piece of action for today in the boxing ring is underway. The men’s light heavy weight final sees Cuba’s Julio La Cruz take on Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Niyazymbetov – the world No1 and No2.
Is this fair? Email me your thoughts – alan.smith@theguardian.com – or send a tweet to @alansmith90
Coming up soon, we have the women’s 10m platform diving final and a little more than 90 minutes from now the men’s hockey gold medal match between Belgium and Argentina gets underway.
Towards the end of the second round of the women’s golf, there is no major surprise on the leaderboard. Stacey Lewis of Team USA leads on -9, with Britain’s Charley Hull and South Korea’s Inbee Park (who is still on the course) a shot behind. Candie Kung of Chinese Taipei, Nicole Larsen of Denmark and Norway’s Marianne Skarpnord are a further stroke back on -7.
In a further twist to the controversy over the judging at the boxing, under a cloud of corruption fears revealed by the Guardian on the eve of the Olympics, the AIBA executive director (and effectively the man who runs the show) Karim Bouzidi has been “reassigned” to a new role with immediate effect. Of course, this being an international sports federation, they don’t say why. Or, indeed, even name him in the release. Yesterday a number of officials (believed by the Guardian to be six in number) were also sent home. They weren’t named either and all the results to date stood. How’s that for transparency?
And things could get even better for the Serbians, who are in the early stages of their women’s basketball semi-final with Spain. It’s 7-6 to the latter midway through the first quarter there.
Sensationally, Serbia have beaten the USA in the volleyball! There will be no gold medal for America because Serbia have come from behind to win 3-2 (taking the decider 15-13) and will enter their debut decider in their third Games. There are tears on both sides for very different reasons. The other semi-final, China v Netherlands, takes place later – at 10.15pm local time.
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The US women’s 4x100m have been let back into the competition after dropping the baton earlier today. Sort of. Allyson Felix was bumped by a Brazilian athlete as she attempted to hand over to English Gardner, and the US successfully appealed. The US will now have a chance to try again - around an empty track. If they beat the slowest team into the final, then they’ll be in. That team is ... China, so there’s absolutely no chance of political fallout on this one. According to the IAAF China has already lodged a protest against the decision. We just need to throw Ryan Lochte and some boxing judges into the mix and we’ll have the perfect Olympic story.
In the fifth set of the volleyball semi-final, USA lead 11-10. It’s gonna go right down to the wire.
Badminton gold for Japan
Japan’s Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi have beaten the Danish duo Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl 2-1 in the women’s badminton doubles final, coming from behind to win 18-21, 21-9, 21-19.
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In the volleyball semi-final, USA have made it 2-2 in sets against Serbia. And it is 2-2 early in the fifth.
The AIBA have released a statement to say they are “fully committed to a zero tolerance policy towards fair play in boxing”. Err …
Lochte’s Rio timeline: how the story spiralled out of control
France’s Sarah Ourahmoune has beaten Colombia’s Ingrit Valencia Victoria in the other women’s flyweight semi-final on a split points decision and will face Nicola Adams in Saturday’s final.
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The swimming competition may have finished several days ago, but there are now questions over whether the pool was up to scratch. Research and data suggests competitors on one side had a significant advantage due to a current affecting times. Full story below.
Serbia now lead the USA in the volleyball semi-final – the first time the Americans have been behind in the whole tournament. Serbia take the third set 25-21 and are one away from a major upset.
Nicola Adams reaches the women's fly final
The quest to retain her Olympic title is a step closer. The Leeds fighter has beaten the 2012 finalist, Ren Cancan, 39-37 on all three scorecards. She will face Colombian or French opposition in the final.
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Ouch! Liam Phillips, who had a big chance of a medal in the BMX, has had to withdraw from the competition after a nasty crash in the first run of the quarter-final. A disappointing end for Phillips, the 2013 world champion, but it highlights the danger of, arguably, one of the most spectacular sports at the Games.
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Adams executes her jab excellently in the third round but Cancan also lands a couple of shots on the backfoot. The 2012 winner gets the decision unanimously again and leads by a point on all the judges’ scorecards heading into the final round.
The Briton responds aggressively and lands some impressive headshots. She starts and finishes the round impressively … and wins the round unanimously. It’s level heading into the third round.
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The first round is even, with a lot of standing off each other. But all three judges score Cancan 10-9 – probably on the basis of landing a couple of good early punches. How can Adams respond?
Britain’s Nicola Adams, in the red corner and the very slight favourite for women’s flyweight gold, is about to take on China’s Ren Cancan, in blue. This is a meeting of the 2012 final and the loser here, no doubt, will be very disappointed. When they met in competition earlier this year, Cancan won. The head to head puts Cancan 3-2 ahead.
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Potential shock alert! USA have been pulled back to 1-1 by Serbia in the women’s volleyball semi-final, winning the second set 25-17 after America took the opener 25-20.
While the sailing was finishing, Germany were beating the Netherlands 4-3 in the men’s hockey bronze medal match. Sander De Wijn missed his attempt for the Dutch, to give their neighbours third place.
Quelle surprise! The Russian boxer who controversially beat Michael Conlan in the bantamweight quarter-finals at the Olympic Games in Rio pulled out of Thursday’s semi-finals because of injury. Full story here.
Helen Pidd is at the scene. Here’s her on the whistle report.
Gold medal winners Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark have sailed to the beach to greet their loved ones #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/s5REluDGRm
— Helen Pidd (@helenpidd) August 18, 2016
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Mills and Clark are overwhelmed. They the sail towards the beach, jump off and are met by family members and piles of photographers looking to capture some emotional scenes at Marina da Gloria. A union flag finally appears and there are hugs all round. This is not the Done Thing in sailing, apparently, but who could begrudge an Olympic champion the chance to celebrate?
GB's Mills and Clark win gold in 470 sailing
It was a foregone conclusion before today’s delayed medal race courtesy of an unassailable lead but the 2012 silver winners – who were disappointed to let gold slip away then – have been confirmed as winners of the women’s 470 (dinghy) sailing. It is a role reversal with New Zealand’s pair, Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie, who pipped Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark in London four years ago. Camille Lecointre and Hélène Defrance of France take bronze.
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Hello! What this Olympics has shown is that some sports are undisputedly better suited than others to TV. The first leg of the triathlon earlier, much like the marathon swimming, was a struggle because it was so hard to identify those in the water – why not give them hats specific to their nationality? – while other events that the average man and woman tends to watch only once every four years look brilliant, such as the BMX biking. Anyway, I digress because there is some sailing news …
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Right, chaps - that’s about me. Thanks all for your company and comments, sorry I couldn’t use them all.
Here’s Alan Smith to guide you through the next little bit.
Enjoy the brothers Brownlee taking gold, though only if you’re in the UK, desculpe.
So USA win the first game in the women’s volleyball against Serbia, while in the hockey we’ve got a penalty shoot-out to decide who gets bronze.
Back at the volleyball, it’s 20-18 to Serbia, while at the hockey, Germany’s Butt misses a chance from all of two yards, with just five minutes to go. It was a good save, but the keeper oughtn’t to have smelled it.
“A day later than planned and British sailors Hannah Mills and Saskia
Clark are finally on the way to collect their gold medals in the 470
class. This unromantically named event - it’s the length of the
dinghies - has been dominated by the British duo, who came into the
final with such a point lead that gold was guaranteed. But the other
medals are very much still up for grabs. Looking out across the water
from the beach it seems that Team USA rounded the marker first: they
went into the final in third place. The Brits appear to be taking it
pretty easy at this point. As long as they don’t sink or get
disqualified they will definitely be occupying the podium top spot
later this afternoon.”
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“Brazil’s first ever canoeing medallist Isaquias QUEIROZ DOS SANTOS is coming to terms with his rapid journey from zero to hero here in Rio. Since his silver in yesterday’s K1 1000m he’s been struggling to make it down the street as people stop him to ask for photos – a problem when you’re still in training for your 200m final the next day. ‘I’ve actually already felt a bit of that of being an idol in Brazil,’ he told the press after he took bronze here in a dramatic finish. ‘I was walking on the street yesterday trying to get to the gym and people would stop me to take pictures of me, so my coach had to drag me so I could move.
He threw himself into the water after crossing the finish line and bobbed up and down there while he waited for the final results to come in. ‘I can tell you that the water tastes salty,’ he said. ‘I lived in Rio for two years sometime back and I used to train on the lake and I noticed that the water is much cleaner now, it’s crystal clear. I even wondered if they had some kind of chemical product in it. When we were doing the test event last year I noticed that there was a lot of vegetation in the water, but not this time.’
It’s been a while, so here’s Scott Jenkins with a ripper, as it were: “After reading that horrible Rugby story from Ben Dunn I wanted to balance it with one of more mirth.
As is a common theme kids at my school had no interest in Rugby but PE teachers did, including one who had both the physical stature and permanent angry scowl of Martin Johnson. One PE lesson he was becoming increasingly irate by us 12 yr olds’ (used to the free form jazz vibe of football) failure to stand in the correct positions at a scrum. He started yelling ‘Why cant you morons get it! Scrum half here! Fly half there! ..... hold on a moment lads....’ he then squatted, pulled a grimace and let off a fart so loud I swear birds flew out the trees. Amazingly he then continued bellowing out positions oblivious to the fact 30 12-year-old boys were now rolling around in hysterics having experienced the greatest moment in their at that point brief lives. For the rest of the year boys in my class would use the words ‘scrum half here, fly half here!’ to proceed a loud blow-off, proof how sport inspires.”
If high- and low-fives were banned, could we have the Olympics done in a week?
The quarter-final is underway in the women’s volleyball, USA and Serbia locked at 11-11.
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So the dingers are underway, with Mills and Clark of GB needing simply to finish to secure gold.
Pusarla of India is through to the badminton final...
Meanwhile, about to get underway is the women two-person dingy 470 medal race. I’ll level with you, the boat does not look as I expected.
Germany have equalised in the bronze medal hockey match, Mats Grambusch scoring from close range.
Gosh, we’ve not been to the golf for a bit, so: Marianne Skarpnord of Norway leads in the clubhouse on -7, thanks to a 66 today; Nicole Larsen of Denmark is also -7, playing the 13th.
Here’s Alistair Brownlee - “I’ve woken up in pain ever day - God that was so hard! ... Commit, commit, commit on the first lap - and we committed so hard .. I was pretty confident we were gonna get first and second ... I had the edge on Jonny but he’s been killing me in training ... I had to go through hell today and I did ... Don’t believe in the mental game, you can only go as hard as you can go ... I just have that little bit more an endurance-based engine ... that race was won on the first two laps of the bike, we went really hard.”
Goal for Netherlands in the hockey! And what a goal! Jorrit Croon makes a sort of Cruyff turn outside the circle, hares into the circle to the baseline, along the baseline, then megs the keeper from an acute angle. Superb.
Brownlee becomes the first man to defend the Olympic triathlon title.
GB'S ALISTAIR BROWNLEE DESTROYS THE TRIATHLON!
He falls over the line, by which time Jonny Brownlee is there to join him. Henri Schoeman of South Africa takes bronze.
It is impossible to overstate what a piece of work that was by Brownlee. He is so much better than the rest as to be absurd, but the mental strength to keep pushing, caning his younger brother in the process, is disquietingly magnificent.
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Alistair Brownlee hasa flag, his arms are spread. He slows to a jog, and walk, points around, what a man. What a man.
Sindu Pusarla of India is a game up and 12-10 up in the women’s badminton semi, playing Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.
Right, some discus decathlon updates:
Lindon Victor of Grenada’s 53.24 was competition’s best - it earned him 938 points. Kevin Mayer of France threw 46.78, to go third, Ashton Eaton’s 45.49 extended his lead, and Damian Warner retained second spot with 44.93. The gap at the top is now 115 points.
Alistair Brownlee is an absolute joker.
Oh and there he goes! Alistair has set off, leaving Jonny behind. Byeee, lil brar.
In men’s hockey, Germany and Netherlands are in the second period of the bronze medal match - it’s 0-0.
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Meanwhile, the Brownlees have destroyed the field in customary style - they lead the field by 13 seconds, and it’s simply a matter now of deciding which of them wins. I suppose it’ll be nice if it’s Jonny and funny if it’s Alistair.
And strychnine! The murder weapon in Agatha Christie’s first novel! Never thought i’d see the day!
Just kids having fun; Ryan Lochte is 32! I believe the term is “privilege”.
And here’s more on the stranger than fiction hullabaloo that is Ryan Loche et el getting themselves into one hell of a pickle in Rio.
A Brazilian police official has said that American swimmer Ryan Lochte fabricated a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro. The official, who has direct knowledge of the investigation, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak about an ongoing probe.
He said that around 6 am on Sunday, Lochte, along with fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen, stopped at a gas station in Barra da Tijuca, a suburb of Rio where many Olympic venues are located. One of the swimmers tried to open the door of an outside bathroom. It was locked. A few of the swimmers then pushed on the door and broke it. A security guard appeared and confronted them, the official said. The official says the guard was armed with a pistol, but he never took it out or pointed it at the swimmers.
According to the official, the gas station manager then arrived. Using a customer to translate, the manager asked the swimmers to pay for the broken door. After a discussion, they did pay him an unknown amount of money and then left. The official says that swimmers Conger and Bentz, who were pulled off a plane going back to the United States late Wednesday, told police that the robbery story had been fabricated.
A spokesman for Rio 2016 meanwhile, defended the swimmers whose accounts of an armed robbery, saying they were just kids who were having fun and made a mistake.
“These kids tried to have fun, they tried to represent their country to the best of their abilities,” Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told reporters said, without elaborating. “They competed under gigantic pressure. Let’s give these kids a break. Sometime you take actions that you later regret. They had fun, they made a mistake, life goes on.”
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Here’s confirmation that the USA are appealing the disqualification of their women’s 4x100m team.
The United States are seeking to be reinstated into the final of the 4x100m, claiming that Allyson Felix was bumped by a rival runner just ahead of a botched handover.
The US team crossed the line well behind all other teams in their relay after Felix picked up the baton and handed it over to English Gardner. Replays showed how Felix lost balance just before the handover.
“I got bumped coming into the exchange zone and it completely threw me off balance,” said Felix. “I tried to hold it together to get to English. Maybe if I had one more step I could’ve, but I was falling.”
And so it begins …
1st Rio medal stripped for doping: Izzat Artykov of Kyrgyzstan loses bronze in weightlifting after positive test for strychnine
— Steve Wilson (@stevewilsonap) August 18, 2016
Kerron Clement of USA wins the 400m hurdles in 47.73!
Boniface Mucheru of Kenya gets silver, Yasmani Copello of Turkey the bronze. Thomas Barr of Ireland smashes the Irish record again, but mmisses out on the podium by 5/100 of a second.
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Clement leads, by a few metres coming off the curve, and he’s hanging on as Mucheru challenges! Clement of Ireland, who’s given himself every chance of a sprint finish, starts his charge, but can’t get Copello of Turkey on the line.
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Away second time, Whyte’s away quickly, the two Kenyans on the outside going well too.
Javier Coulson false starts and is disqualified! Is that really necessary? Just to fit into telly schedules?
Back to that women’s 4x100m relay, as things stand, USA and Brazil are both disqualified - but presumably USA will appeal.
It’s pretty open, this. Kerron Clement is favourite, but not overwhelmingly so. And this track is not easy. Anyway, the line-up:
Rasmus Mägi Estonia
Yasmani Copello Turkey
Javier Culson Puerto Rico
Thomas Barr Ireland
Kerron Clement United States
Annsert Whyte Jamaica
Boniface Mucheru Kenya
Haron Koech Kenya
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The boys are out for the centrepiece of this morning’s track - the final of the men’s 400m hurdles. The commentary box discuss whether it’s fair on the athletes to make them run early, and not in the proper atmosphere - the hope was to entice people to these sessions. Perhaps give the tickets away to local kids who couldn’t go otherwise?
““We’re not a team no more, we’re a family, and we’re gonna fight like a family,” says Richard Kilty. Christmas at his must be good.
GB blame lane 1 for their fourth position - they’ve been fast this year - and say that they reckon no one has ever run faster from the inside.
Japan’s top is an absolutely blinding colour, a kind of shining pinky-reddy-orange, almost luminous. If someone knows what it’s called, I’d be greatful to know, all the more so if you can refer me to a hoody in similar style.
Japan, who’ve been breaking their national record in practice, apparently, lead the field home in the 4x1 heat; Jamaica are a fairly distant second, so Bolt, when he comes into the team, will have work to do. Trinidad & Tobago are second, those are the qualifiers by right, and GB, who finish fourth, qualify too as a fastest loser, along with Brazil.
GB's Ellis and Langridge win bronze in the badminton!
One of their mums is going absolutely ape, great stuff.
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...meanwhile, in the triathlon, the brothers Brownlee are putting the rest through their paces.
GB have ten match points in the badminton...
17-10 to GB in a match that’s been going for quite sometime now; is it nearly done?
“Re funding grassroots or elite, it’s not a zero sum game,,” tweets Gary Naylor, citing the below - and he’s right - I was just making sure you enjoyed the life-affirming benefit of my view as to its purpose.
Morgan Lake loves pressure! She clears another height at the final attempt, 1.94m, and will compete in Sunday’s final, aged 19.
A gatlinless USA power to victory in the 4x1, China second, Canada third - and Turkey have to wait.
While the teams reset, back to the badminton where it’s 13-5 to GB. The commentator has never seen them play better.
Anyway, we’re ready to go in the men’s 4x100m heat - but someone false starts. Maybe it should be mandatory DQ, for giggles.
I’m certain I’ve recounted this anecdote before on a liveblog of some sort, but it good enough to bear a repeat presentation: my friend is the youngest of three, so by the time he was in secondary school, his parents were nipping off for mid-term holidays, leaving his much older sister in charge. His brother asked her for a letter to get off swimming which, being a benevolent sort, she duly supplied. Off he smugly toddled, presenting the note, which read: “Gabriel is unable to do swimming today as he has his period.”
Magnificent.
“An interesting aspect of the sports funding debate is that GB’s athletes are not funded in the main by the government but through the National Lottery, a great deal of Lottery funding goes into grass roots support. True a large amount is provided for elites to enable them to deliver at the top levels but I think the real reason for GB’s success lies in the support at the grass roots. There’s never enough in that area but the amounts invested since our dismal showing at Atlanta have made a huge difference.”
So says Philip Sutcliffe. And I wonder about this - if we’re seeing the correlation between grassroots investment and medals. Though to me, the point of grassroots isn’t to make champions, it’s to make kids happier and healthier.
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GB have sprinted in away in the badminton, 7-2 ahead in the decider.
A heartwarmer from Evie: “The only thing I enjoyed at school was sprinting, everything involving balls I was so uncoordinated at that I wasn’t allowed to participate but had to sit on the sidelines and illustrate the matches or write about strategy.
Summer althetics was really exciting for me, even though all I contributed was enthusiasm. When I was about 13 we had trials for sports day and I went first in the 100m (we were running idividually). I didn’t know that my classmate who was in charge of the stopwatch forgot to press start as I began, and panicking pressed it when I was about halfway done.
This resulted in a time of 11.47 seconds for the 100m and much excitement from all staff, who had missed my flailing lurching down the track. I puffed up as I was clearly as awesome as I thought I was at running, finally a sport I could do! Once a suitable audience had gathered I was made to run again and demonstrate my amazing speed... 20 seconds later and my Olympic career dreams were dashed.”
USA drop the baton in the second relay heat! Big sniggers coming from the GB team, who fancy theirselves for a medal. They still finish though, once everyone else is in the icebath - the mistake was Allyson Felix to English Gardner - and they’ve gone. Germany win, Trinidad and Tobago second are through, the fastest loser is Canada - but USA, it seems, were disturbed by a Brazilian arm trespassing into their lane, so expect to see them reinstated.
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The triathletes are on their bikes, the brothers Brownlee at the front and planning to work together until the run. These climbs look brutal.
And China take the second game 21-19; we’ve got a decider to decide who takes the bronze medal.
19-17 to the Chinese at the end of badminton set 2. They’re serving.
The women screech round the track, and Jamaica - without Elaine Thompson - are in charge from the start. GB are also going well, and they finish second, Ukraine the third qualifiers some way behind, while Canada will have to wait and see.
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“I don’t know if it’s my pasty white skin or the hipster-doofus St Pauli T-shirt with the green, white and gold skull-and-crossbones on the front I’m wearing (be gentle, the finishing line is in sight and I’m running out of clean clothes), but while out on the Olympic Stadium concourse getting a bottle of water, I saw a girl with an Irish tri-colour draped over her shoulders. She made a beeline for me and enquired if I was Irish.
Having confirmed that I am indeed one of God’s chosen people, she asked if I’d seen other Irish folk around the stadium as she’s here on her own and was looking for like-minded folk with whom she could watch our boy in the 400m hurdles final.
I steered her in the direction of the only other Irish flag I’ve seen today, down behind the hammer and discus cage, which has been hung over a barrier by some people from Sligo. Here’s hoping she finds the owners and they all have a lovely day. Who knows, we might even get a wedding out of it.
The stadium is slowly filling up and the concession stands are doing a brisk trade out on the concourse, with lots of people enjoying an early morning beer. I enjoyed a few with some Guardian colleagues last night, but they were 2am early, rather than 11am. A lot of punters are drinking Skol, a beverage that always reminds me of Rangers Football Club for some reason. A former sponsor, presumably?”
Winning the Skol Cup, I’d say. To me, Skol means Nottingham Forest, and Johnny Metgod in particular.
GB have fought back in the second set of the badminton, though in the time it took to type that, thet went from 13-11 to 133. Meanwhile, on the track, the first of two 4x100m heats in the women’s relay is about to begin, while Lake Morgan of GB has just saved herself in high jump qualifying, clearing 1.92 at the third attempt.
More glorying in the pain of others from James Watt: “At school we were taught the scissor kick approach to the high jump to get us started on it and during his first attempts my best friend (honest!) went for a jump but landed with both legs either side of the bar. Of course this prompted much laughter from the rest of us and we didn’t think much else of it at the time.
However, he didn’t make it to school the next day so I went round his Mum’s house to see if he was ok. His sister answered the door to tell me in great detail about how he’d woken up in agony that morning and one of his testicles had swollen to the size of tennis ball. He’d had to go to hospital for an quick operation to untangle things which explained his absence and he never did the high jump again. I never forgot it though and I took great pleasure in telling this story at his wedding many years later just to finally complete the embarrassment in front of his wife.
He’s a bit of clumsy type though, he once tore his achilles getting off the sofa and then re-did it stepping in a rabbit hole playing football about 6 months later.”
We’ve a new leader in the golf: Minjee Lee of Australia is at -7, -5 for her round today playing the 11th.
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“I’ll bet when you floated the question of school sport memories you didn’t think you’d be hosting a worldwide group therapy/group hug session,” emails Hubert O’Hearn. “Healing between medals, the power of sport blogs unleashed!”
Not at all, that’s why we’re here. When I was in 6th form, my school, not exactly renowned for its sporting programme - football was in the playground, tennis was in the playground, cricket was in the playground - went to play football against a boarding school. We won, spirited discussions eventuated thereafter, and there was shoving on Golders Green Road the following Saturday night; there really was (not involving me, i hasten to add). For anyone familiar with the milieu, it was even more ridiculous in its hilarity as you might imagine.
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China are 8-5 ahead in the second set of the badminton, while Damian Warner, second overall in the decathlon, has put the shot 44.93m; the leader of the first group, Lindon Victor of Grenada, has 53.24.
“Not quite school sports,” emails Richard Morris, “but I was at college at the same time as Jon Ridgeon when he won silver at the World Championships for 110m hurdles. There was a rumour he was going to run in the university athletics cup, so I hatched a plot to enter the same, despite never having hurdled in my life, arranged a photographer to take my picture as I deliberately false started and so have a shot of me beating the silver medalist off the line. Sadly, Jon then pulled out - something to do with running in the Olympics or similar; so I pulled out too.
So nearly my finest hour in athletics; albeit that’s an amazingly low bar,”
That’s the attention to detail we don’t see enough of in modern life.
“Regarding the somewhat exacerbated British nationalism,” emails Ricardo Martén, “the triathlon’s preamble has seen the BBC presenters wondering aloud why Alistair Brownlee is actually the one competitor who wants it more than anyone else. I mean, fantastic sibling story, but it seems the BBC is not only happy with the actual medal count, but is now coopting ‘desire’ as an exclusive national triumph.”
Oh, there’s nothing new about this - it’s why the British football teams do so well, for example.
Aaaand we’re off in the triathlon! You can follow that more closely here, with Lawrence Ostlere.
GB win the first set in the badminton, 21-18!
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Story time with Luke Williams: “Judging by the things that have stuck in my memory, my school sports teachers were a worldly bunch. I recall as a 13-year-old, (mildly enthusiastic about sports, but rubbish at anything other than rugby) the whole class doing the rounds of all the athletics events. My go at the long jump, and I’m hurtling down my carefully-marked run-up when the teacher called out, in my final strides, “You look like a Sherman Tank, Williams!” Completely put me off, but he wouldn’t let me have another go, so my first and only recorded PB at the long jump was 8ft 6in….
About a year later, playing volleyball in the gym (must have been raining), I managed, in the follow-through of an energetic smash attempt, to slap myself firmly in the danglers. Luckily no serious damage, just a fair bit of greenness about the gills and a lengthy time-out, during which the teacher (a different one) displayed his sympathy by remarking that at my age I ought to be completely familiar with my own tolerance for hard handling in that area….
And later again, at rugby training, the teacher was demonstrating to the first-team pack some subtleties of track one and track two ball from the scrum, so installed himself as their hooker, and picked me to hook against him. This was a demo, so we non-first-teamers were really just there in place of the scrum machine that the school couldn’t afford. Anyway, by chance, the first time the ball came in, I flicked my 1970s-budding-rock-bass-player long hair out of my eyes and caught the teacher full in the face (cheek-to-cheek, of course, in the scrum). I won the strike. Second time around, I did it on purpose and beat him again. Third time, the teacher got fed up – just before packing down, he did the old sniff and hawk and rolled a big green grolly out of the corner of his mouth into his beard, which he then rubbed up and down against my cheek as the scrum set. When I recoiled in disgust, he asked, ‘Do we understand each other, Williams?’. ‘Perfectly, sir…..’ and the demonstration proceeded smoothly. The moral? Don’t ever try to be clever with an old club player, even when he’s a teacher….”
Three game points to GB in the badminton... but the first is quickly saved with a dipping service return backed up with a smash.
“Further to Sean’s update on the Triathlon, I can confirm from my beachside seat that it is inhumanly hot on Copacabana. Just typing these words is bringing small beads of sweat from my fingertips and thereby threatening to destroy completely my pathetically vulnerable laptop (laptop available from all Apple stores).
I just watched the Brownlees warming up, ie running into the sea and then out again. They look pretty happy, although I can also reveal this is the first time either has been in this bit of sea, having trained elsewhere for fear of infection.
Gordon Benson the other GB competitor here is also milling about the sand having a good look at the course. Up close he is, as they say, a genuine ‘unit’, looks fit as a butcher’s dog. Astonishingly beautiful conditions for this event. Rio really is the perfect place to run, swim and cycle about, three things the locals do all the time up and down this strip.”
Rio is the best city in the world, by a long way.
Meanwhile, we’re getting towards the business end of the first set of the badminton. GB have just won an astonishing rally, defending through most of it, to lead 18-16.
Anyway, we’ve got the women’s 10m platform semi going on - Hyang Kim of North Korea leads after three rounds. Britain’s Tonia Couch is 110.6 behind in 18th.
Just switched on the diving to hear the phrase “Hashtag commentator problems”. Is this or this not worse than “commentator problems dot com”?
Though, in fairness, Leon Taylor’s enthusiasm has been a highlight of the BBC’s presentation.
“Good morning from Copacabana, where my morning walk to work involved a 25-minute walk along the beach ... well, someone has to do it. While strolling through the sand I saw the Brownlee brothers Alistair and Jonny jogging along, looking as relaxed as anything. Their aim today is to finish 1-2 on the podium. Such an achievement would make them only the ninth pair of brothers in summer and winter Olympic Games history to finish with a gold and silver medal in the same event. And A believes it is possible. “I’m feeling really good,” he says. “During the last few weeks, we’ve both put in some hard sessions, and I don’t think it could have gone an awful lot better, so we’re very happy. I will stand on that start line knowing I am not far off my very best.” The bookies have Alistair as a short-priced 8-11 favourite, which is probably about right. The big unknown is whether two lads from Yorkshire can handle the conditions, which are a lot hotter and more muggy than forecast.”
And that’s the final score: Jones 12-4 Bakkal. Jones has some seriously snappy power with those kicks.
Jones is pulling away now, another hump to the heed getting her three points. It’s 12-4, and she’s starting to flow.
Jones leads 8-4, while the badminton is 8-8.
The discus is about to get off the men’s decathlon. These poor souls are going to run 1500m a bit later.
Johnson goes 1-2 down, then snaps through a clunk to the head. 4-2.
Jade Jones opens with a hoof to the body, but then takes one back amidst much screaming, and it’s now 1-0. China have pulled three points back in the badminton; 4-4.
The GB pair have started the badminton bronze match well, 4-1-up on China.
Jade Jones, the defending champion in the women’s 57kg tae-kwon-do, is about to begin her campaign against Naima Bakkal of Morocco.
The given name of one of New Zealand’s shotputters is Jacko Gill. Got to love that. He’s 21 and nails the qualification mark with his last throw.
The men are out warming up, talking of which, the brothers Brownlee and the rest of the triathletes will be upon us for their little jaunt in thirty minutes.
Li can’t carry on, and Marin is not arsed, bellowing into a camera. Next up, we have the men’s doubles bronze match: China’s Chai and Hong v GB’s Ellis and Langridge.
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Aaron Chahal emails apropos of the earlier funding discussion: “As a British Indian I keep an eye on India’s performance from afar and this Olympics has been a shocker for India they usually rely on medals in Boxing, Shooting and Wrestling with two out of the three failing substantially. Admittedly there has been a few bright sparks such as Dipa Karmarkar finishing fourth in the vault final being India’s first ever gymnast to reach the final. Sadly even her story illustrates why India do so poorly at the Olympics as she was persistently underfunded as she relied on using the discarded gymnastic equipment from the 2010 Commonwealth Games to train with. Whilst in Rio her own physiotherapist was considered surplus to requirements by the Indian Olympic association thus she had no physio throughout the Olympics to help her. So just looking into her story alone illustrates how money can breed about success and Indian gymnastics is still very far behind what I assume is the well funded British team which won all those medals this year.”
“In my humble opinion she should not be playing on,” says the BC summariser, apparently more aware of the pain Li’s in than Li herself. She’s going to have a shy at continuing, by the look of things.
Oh dear - injury in the badminton. Li of China, 0-1 down to Marin of Spain, in the women’s singles semi-final, leaps to play an overhead, lands awkwardly, and that looks like all she wrote to me. We’ll see...
Danuta Kozak of Hungary retains her kayak single 500m title!
Jorgensen of Denmark takes silver, Carrington of New Zealand the bronze. What a performance from the Hungarian!
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Kozak of Hungary who we might have encountered earlier in the week, is starting to push, and she’s got a lead! She’s going to win!
The women’s kayak single 500m final is away - Belarus are the early leaders.
Hee Young Yan of Korea has birdied five of six holes this morning. She’s -5, so too Lu, who has dropped a shot.
The enormous Darlan Romani of Brazil nails his first put and qualifies for the final of the shot with a new national record, 20.94.
And another, from Ben Dunn - perhaps save it until later if you’re on dinner: “After a farcical house rugby tournament in which my house were humped mercilously by all others, we slumped off the park and straight to the stand-up urinals. We didn’t care. We were too cool for rugby and participated soley because it meant a day out of lessons. Next to me was my talkative friend, babbling on about the ridiculousness of rugby. My friend’s head whiplashed forward, and smacked the concrete wall in front. He had been pushed in the back by a rugby lad who could not comprehend people who did not take the love of his life seriously. My friend pulled his head back, to reveal his expression had changed. The small indentation he left in the wall was because his two top front-teeth had been severed at their roots.
Later, much later, when my friend was able to speak and not simply scream, he recounted that every breath he took was like biting into an ice-cream, which had the outer temperature of zero kelvin.
This, we were later to discover, is quality rugby banter.”
Peter Davies has a confession to make: “I was captain of our school rugby team for a while. We were a sorry shower, really, but I felt it was my duty to try to make up for it with enthusiastic leadership. One Saturday, we were as usual being hammered by the C team of the local public school, when our fullback made a desperate last-ditch tackle in an vain attempt to stop the 6th try going over, and then just lay there. I yelled at him in frustration to get up and ran off in a huff, after which it was pointed out to me that he was being stretchered off with what turned out to be a broken leg. I’ve been mortified by the memory ever since.”
Back to the golf, India’s Aditi Ashok is now sharing the lead with Taipei’s Teresa Lu, out on the course, and Aria Jutanugarn of Thailand, yet to get going today. All three are -6.
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Qualifying is underway in the men’s shot - 20.65m is the required mark. And we’ve also got going in the women’s high jump qualifying.
“Justin Gatlin neatly resolved the debate about whether he should be booed at the 200m final by getting knocked out in the semis last night. That was a surprise for his rival Usain Bolt, who showed some sympathy while kind of insulting the American too.
‘Everybody’s in shock,’ Bolt said, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live about Gatlin’s early exit. ‘You can tell from the 100 meters he’s getting old. It’s a fact the older you get, the rougher it gets to double.’
For his part, Gatlin has said he hurt his ankle in the run-up to the Olympics, something that has affected his performance in Rio.”
Eaton makes a bit of a mess of his heat, clattering the third hurdle - this track is not at all easy for jumping, being as hard as it is. He fights back to come second, but it’s second to Warner, who was in second place overall - the winning time was 13.58 and the difference between that and Eaton’s 13.80 is 29 points.
Overall, we have:
Ashton Eaton USA 5621
Damian Warner Canada 5518
Kevin Framayer France 5407
Kai Kazmirek Germany 5396
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“I was picked as U16 hockey goalie to play for the County of Somerset vs Bristol Schools in the 1970 West of England tournament,” says Fraser Thomas. “We had a very rare Easter snowstorm and it was postponed. I was not picked for the rearranged game. To this day I have no idea why.”
I demand an answer.
“I hated swimming and was scared of the water until the age of 7 when I finally managed to swim 10 metres and make it out of the baby pool,” says Hugh Murphy. “A couple of years later, I was nowhere near achieving any of the qualifying spots for the actual races for the Tameside and District Cub Scouts Gala, but was told I was entered into a second tier event called the Cork Bob, the aim of which was to retrieve as many wine corks as possible from the pool (they had been placed there specially - it wasn’t just a dirty pool). I was proud and honoured to be taking on such a responsibility on behalf of Akela, the rest of the 8th Stalybridge Troop and Yellow Six in particular, of which I was then serving with distinction as a Seconder. I was also however, a bit nervous about putting my face in the water and practiced diving to the bottom of the pool at the weekend to retrieve those corks. Obviously, I hadn’t realised that cork floats. I came fourth.”
Yordani Garcia of Cuba wins heat 3 of the decathlon hurdles in 14.25. Taiwo is third in 14.57. Next up, we have Ashton Eaton, leader and soon to be all-time great.
“There aren’t too many people in the Olympic Stadium, but those that are here are making a heck of a din. Home favourite Luiz Arberto de Araujo has just won his heat of the decathlon 110m hurdles in a seasonal best time of 14.17sec and was roared home.
You have to turn to page eight of the Daily Programme to find the first Brit competing today. Morgan Lake goes in the women’s high jump at 10am local time (2pm BST) and will almost certainly need to improve on her seasonal best of 1.93m if she’s to make any sort of impression on this competition and qualify for the final. She’s down on the track warming up with her rivals at the moment.
Six pages later, Great Britain go in heats of the women’s 4x100m relay, where they’re up against Ukraine, Ghana, Netherlands, Canada, Jamaica, China and Poland. The first three in each of two heats and the two fastest losers advance to the final. They go under the gun at 11.20am local time and will be followed by their male counterparts at 11.48am. Try not to drop the baton, lads.”
Spain win gold in the K2 200M sprint!
Heath and Schofield win silver for GB - that’s one better than in London - and Lithuania take bronze.
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Lithuania start well, GB left behind, and Spain come one strong as GB accelerate!
Making their way to the start, we’ve got men’s kayak doublers for the 200m. The line-up: Serbia, France, GB, Lithuania, Spain, Hungary, Germany, Canada.
GB’s Heath and Schofield of GB have a decent chance to podium, I believe.
“Interesting that everyone’s memories of school sports involve either personal humiliation or someone getting hurt,” emails Kevin Dawson. “So on the latter subject, I can still recall the cricket nets from my sixth-form college thirty-five years ago. Originally laid down with concrete slabs in the 1960’s someone had the bright idea in the early 1980’s to cover those slabs with the new single-strip rubber matting. The only problem was that due to wear-and-tear the joints between the concrete slabs had worn down a bit. So if ball pitched on the rubber mat in a spot that lay on top of a crumbling joint it would fly off in a random direction and with significant acceleration. Cue smart-arse show-off going into the net, and casually disdaining the need for a box, with a jaunty “Oh no, I won’t need one of those sir...”. The first fast ball sent down pinged off a joint, kept low, and drove straight into the said lad’s bollocks. The supervising PE teacher was distraught, whilst the rest of us were flat on our backs howling with mirth...”
Joy in the stadium as Luiz Alberto de Araujo wins the second heat of the decathlon high hurdles. His time isn’t as quick as the previous winner’s, but still. Jeremy Taiwo, third overnight, goes in the next heat.
“This one comes from the ‘competitive dad’ angle,” emails Bill Richards. “A few years ago I went to watch my 12 year old daughter ready to cruise the 400m School Sports Day title. As she lined up in the outside lane, the horror dawned on me that the (non P.E.) teacher wasn’t staggering the lanes! As loudly as one dares in a stiff upper lip British sports day environment , I hollered to her to switch lanes, but nothing doing. She gamely finished fourth after running the full race in the outside lane and was soundly beaten by her decidedly less fit best mate. The whole farce of the day was compounded by the same teacher ringing the bell a lap too early on the 1500 metres for boys. This resulted in the leader diving and collapsing at the line in triumph only to burst into tears when seeing the rest of the field shoot past him to complete the final lap. To my eternal shame, this did make me chuckle a bit.”
A bit? You’re a kind man.
Larbi Bourrada of Algeria, in sixth spot overall, has run a lifetime best in the decathlon 110m hurdles, finishing in 14.15.
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I laughed out loud at this one, from Philip Sutcliffe, which probably tells you the kind of pupil I was:
“I went to a school in Halifax in the 1960s and most of the boys were Rugby League fans, however our much despised games master was a Union man and made us play Union during games lessons. On one occasion he was not at all happy about the scrum formation and stuck his head and shoulders in the scrum to do a bit of re-arrangement, the lad with the ball at the other side saw his opportunity and put the ball in, Mr X got a real kicking and was a lot more wary of us after that.”
Another yarn with Mike Meehall Wood: “At my school, the PE teachers would wait until the first probably rainy day of the year - and given that this was Rochdale, never took too long - and then line up all the Year 7s for what they called the Valley Run.
This entailed going down the valley on the side of the football pitches and telling the kids to run down the side of the hill, jump over the river, run up the other side around a rock and then run back via the river. Problem was, it was completely impossible to get over the river, and every kid would fall backwards into the freezing water.
It was long debated whether it was worse to be later in the alphabet - less time standing around waiting for the other kids while freezing cold, but long standing knowing you were soon to go in yourself - or to be an ABCer kid who got it over with quickly.
Still, toughens you up, I suppose. I’m still a weakling but I’ve learnt not to jump in freezing water...”
“Greetings one and all from the Olympic Stadium, where I’m covering the morning shift. The action begins at 9.30am, with the men’s decathlon 110m hurdlles and will be followed at 9.55am by the men’s shot put qualifying round. At 10am, it’s the turn of the women high jumpers to try to qualify for the final of their event.
Later in the morning, we’ll have men’s decathlon discus, two heats of round one of the men’s and the women’s 4x100m hurdles and the men’s decathlon pole vault.
WIthout question, the most important event of the day is the men’s 400m hurdles, which is scheduled for noon local time (4pm BST). Incredibly, Ireland have a representative in that who goes by the name of Thomas Barr, who qualified third fastest. He broke his Irish record to become the first Irishman in 84 years to qualify for an Olympic sprint event final and we wish him all the very best.
It’s a nice sunny day here in Rio and I’m impressed with what I’m seeing here on my first visit to the track. Unfortunately, most of the seats are empty, but it’s early doors and there are a lot of people milling around outside. Hopefully it will fill up in a bit. Spare a thought, too, for the ridiculously enthusiastic male and female warm-up act who have the unenviable job of trying to get the few hundred people who are already here fired up with enthusiasm. It can’t be easy, first thing in the morning.”
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Iurii Cheban, only reinstated into the competition last night, defends his title in the C1 200!
Valentin Demyanenko of Azerbaijan wins silver, and Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos of brazil, who already has a silver to his name, wins bronze.
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Russia’s Andrey Kraitor, one of the favourites to win, has overcome an astounding amount of adversity to be here. As a child, he was badly burned, kidnapped and rescued by his grandma, then fell out his tree and lost a kidney. And here he is, in the Olympic final; beautiful.
Time for another final: men’s canoe single 200m.
This is why I love these blogs: “In response to Oliver Smiddy,” emails Ross Bremner, “plunge for distance was held at the 1904 Olympics, won by William Dickey (USA) with 19.05m. Probably not a great spectator sport, but maybe no worse than the 10m air rifle.”
And another tear-jerker. “My school sports story is a bit brutal - when doing the 1500m one day, I was ran into by the fastest girl in the school as she overtook me. Despite the fact she’d ran into me from behind and I had blood gushing from my right foot where her spikes had dug into me (I still have the scar), it was generally decided by my classmates that the collision was my fault, because she was by far the better at sport. The unfairness of that lingered much longer than the pain.”
Playground politics, eh. Lucky the running the country version has a far more sensible hierarchy.
Jung and shin of Korea have beaten China to win bronze in the women’s badminton doubles. They like it a lot.
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“I’ve always been dreadful at football,” confesses Steve Mosby. “At school, I was usually one of the last players picked during games lessons, which meant I was stuck in defence while all the better kids played in midfield or showed off as strikers. But this arrangement backfired for the team on one memorable occasion when, in trying to pass the ball back to the goalkeeper, I managed to score three own goals in the same match. I can only put this down to the goalkeeper - the very last boy to be picked - being even worse than I was...”
Meanwhile, Lucy Briggs has a story, and it’s a jazzer: “How about this for a slap in the face from my school report in the 70s: ‘If she moved her legs as much as she moved her mouth she would be in the school teams like her sister’. These days I have just started to parkrun, chattering away to anyone going as slowly as me.”
Germany win gold in the men's kayak double 100m!
They made that look very easy, starting strongly, powering through the middle part, and finishing like the clappers. Easy. Serbia take silver, Australia bronze.
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Germany pulling away now, from Serbia, from Portugal, from Australia.
Anyway, Lithuania are in front - or at least they were, till Germany overtook them., and at halfway they’re establishing a handy lead.
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And off we go! They reckon the time will be about 3.10, with the fastest Olympic mark 3.09 - it’s not called a record, as it’s so conditions-dependent.
We’re set for our first final of the day: the men’s kayak double 100m. Our line-up is: Hungary, Lithuania, Australia, Serbia, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Slovakia.
Oliver Smiddy emails with a yarn: “At school, I remember that during House swimming competitions, one event in particular stood out. It was fondly called ‘The Plunge’. Essentially, you had to dive in and see how far you could float without moving anything, or breathing.
While this sounds like a recipe for drowning, and is probably outlawed on ‘Elf & Safety’ grounds these days, it was incredibly entertaining to watch. It was also uniquely well suited to the fat kids who were otherwise absolutely abject at swimming, given their ballast and sheer momentum would allow them to float further than their smaller, more svelte peers. [N.B. I wasn’t one of those fat kids, and so never had the pleasure of competing in it, having thrashed myself in the more traditional events previously].
I reckon they should make it an Olympic sport.”
The sadism they used to get away with in school was quite something. In mine, the teacher would open the fire doors in the winter, so the breeze came in off the Camden town coast. She also refused to let anyone get out of the pool using the steps or even the corner, so you’d have everyone shivering on the side while two or three kids struggled. I can still hear the forlorn slap of flesh on side.
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Korea are a set and 6-5 up in the badminton now; we’ve got some canoeing finals coming up.
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And a real tearjerker from Hubert O’Hearn: “I commiserate with you on your story of swimming. My story is similar. I was truly awful, spectacularly awful, sad-eyed velvet painting awful at sport. I was the slowest, the weakest and had the hand-eye coordination of a three-legged giraffe. However, I loved watching sport. I was the only child of a divorced parent (making me a novelty in a parochial school) so Mum in her wisdom taught me about football, and bought me sport magazines and books. It would, she hoped, be a way for me to fit in with the other little boys.
Well it did, in a wondrous way. In high school, our field activities were rained out one day (thank you God!) so the teacher brought us inside and decided to have a sport trivia competition. I knew the answers. All of them. I corrected a mistake in one of the answers. It was the first time I ever felt admiration from the other boys. I treasure that moment.”
Here’s James with a story from his illustrious sporting career: “As my senior school’s rugby team was short of numbers and I was a pretty handy runner, I was forced into playing on the wing in a few games. Within ten minutes of the first, having been trampled by the opposing wing who bore a passing resemblance to Jonah Lomu (though I’m aware my memory may be exaggerating), and nursing a horrible dead leg, I pleaded to be taken off, only to be confronted with a stern ‘You’re not going bloody anywhere, and if he gets the ball again, go for his balls.’ Such a gentlemanly sport, and such sympathetic teachers back then.”
“With regard to Guy Hornsby’s excellent post,” emails Gary Naylor, here’s Oscar Wilde writing about Art in The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Substitute ‘Sport’ for ‘Art’ and most of it applies, more or less.”
What a book that is. I’ve read a book! I don’t think I agree that art - or sport - are useless, but. Both have changed the world on macro and micro levels.
“The Preface
The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
The nineteenth-century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth-century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be be proved.
p.6
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.
Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.
From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type.
All art is at once surface and symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless.”
For your pleasure: here’s Gregg Bakowski’s world records quiz.
Updated
In the golf, India’s Aditi Ashok is -2 for the day, so she now has a share of second place at -5.
And while we’re talking about a sport played at school, let’s have your stories to the addresses below. I’ll start:
I did not like swimming; there was nothing I’d not to do to get out of swimming. I mean who wants to get wet in the middle of the day? So, one lesson, I told the teacher that I’d forgotten my kit; “Daniel, I just don’t care anymore!” Off I rush to the changing room.
“Lads, lads that <chain of rude words> Mr X said he doesn’t care any more. No more swimming, ever!”
I turn around. There is Mr X.
He asks me to step outside. I do. He puffs his chest, gets as close to my face as its enormity will allow, tells me he wants to headbutt me, and blows my kippa (it was a Jewish school) off with the breeze of his bellowing.
Turns out the pool was bust anyway, and so they all played football while I stood at the side.
Updated
Meanwhile, the badminton has started. Like everything, but even more so, perhaps because it’s a game most of us have had a go at, just how brilliant the players are is very stark. We’ve got China v Korea playing doubles for a bronze - Korea lead 10-5 in the first set. I urge you to give it a look-in if you’ve the wherewithal.
“Try flipping the £5 million per medal stat around,” emails Tom Farrell. “There are over 50 million people in the UK, so that’s 10p per head for a sense of reflected glory lasting somewhere between two and five minutes - with none of the tedious training and effort. A bargain at the price.”
Arf. The thing about sport is that it’s just so, so good.
Updated
This is absolutely spectacular, and guaranteed to make you smile*: Donghua Li, pommel horse champion at Atlanta in 1996, wows the crowd in Rio, aged 48. How do you feel about your life, then?
*provided you like in the UK
Updated
“Chucking money at the Olympics and trying to prove your ‘great’ nation status with sport isn’t a singularly ‘Soviet’ tactic,” tweets Katerina Webb-Bourne.
No, that’s true, and I don’t think it’s entirely about proving stuff either. People love sport, so it’s been decided that it’s important to do well.
“Have a look at this”, tweets Allison, “ medals by GDP which is also interesting. TeamGB does ok...”
Ouch! It’s not going so well for Spain’s Carlota Ciganda this morning. She shot a 67 yesterday that had her fourth; then, this morning, she opened with bogey 6, before a quadruple bogey 8 at 2 leaves her +5. She knows how Garfield feels.
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“Seeing the India medal discussion,” tweets Rebecca Caroe, “have you looked at the medals per capita ranking?”
I haven’t, that’s interesting, thanks - though it’ll take someone better at data than me to tell us what they tell us.
Teresa Lu of Taipei has birdied two of her first three holes, after a 70 yesterday - that puts her three shots off the lead at -3.
So, what do we have for you this little session? Well, the women’s golf is underway, and shortly shall begin the badminton - including a bronze medal match for GB’s men in the doubles. We’ve also got some canoeing finals, and a fair bit at the athletics, including the rare joy of a morning session final, and THE BROTHERS BROWNLEE. Get us!
My thoughts on that Simon Jenkins piece, now that you ask: sport is generally a good thing, and sadly the way it’s gone is that you can buy a lot of it. It’d be silly to forget that, as it would be silly not to respect the talent and sacrifice of those who succeed with its help. I’m am, though, suspicious of the feelgood factor mentioned - not that it doesn’t exist and isn’t very nice, it is - but that it isn’t ephemeral, and doesn’t reduce pain and suffering for those at the sharp end.
Anitdontstop. Greetings all - please do send your inspiration and perspiration to daniel.harris.casual@theguardian.com, or to @DanielHarris.
That’s all from me til tomorrow – now over to Daniel Harris, who has some Olympic sport to take you through...
Before all that, this is fascinating by Michael Lewis on the story of Henry Farrell and the history-making 1924 US men’s Olympic football team:
His granddaughter, Sue Beatrice, recently told the Guardian that Farrell talked about the Olympics quite a bit.
“They had an enormous impact on his life, to the point when he became a police officer when he did not get into the next Olympics,” she said.
Farrell was a handful on the soccer field. He was around 5ft 6in and 140lb, Beatrice remembered, not necessarily the most intimidating presence on the pitch. Whatever Farrell might have lacked in his physical presence was compensated for by skill, tactical knowledge, shooting ability and pace. Oh, did he love to run.
If you’re keen on the triathlon this afternoon, a handy reminder of when it all begins. Easy enough to remember: 3pm if you’re in the UK, 11am Rio time. The Brownlees and company are a little over three hours from the off...
Abhijeet writes in to elaborate on India’s sporting priorities:
“As an Indian, really embarrassed looking at the medal table, but here people would happily swap 10 gold medals for a win in T20 cricket against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.”
The women’s golf – and therefore the day’s action – is indeed underway. Hot on its heels, within the hour, will be the badminton bronze medal match we mentioned earlier. It’s probably easiest if you just look at this.
A thought-provoking article for us here, based on real-life experience, from the squash player James Willstrop. People should understand how drug tests work before they condemn athletes, he says, with particular reference to Lizzie Armitstead’s situation:
Sport can be a force for good. You heard. And if proof were ever needed, here is some. Monica Puig won Puerto Rico’s first-ever Olympic gold on Saturday, in the women’s tennis, and figures state that there was not a single murder there over the weekend. Cause/effect? There had been 13 in the previous week alone.
Top statting from Johan van Slooten about that medal for India:
“This means India is off the list of most populated countries in the world without an Olympic medal (so far). Of the ten most populated nations worldwide, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Pakistan have yet to win at least one bronze medal. The smallest country (population-wise) to win a medal is Grenada, with only a population of only 103,000.”
So, it’s not long until some actual sport starts. In a little over 20 minutes round two of the women’s golf event will get going. Out in front so far is the world No2, Ariya Jatanugarn of Thailand – she shot a six-under-par 65 in the first round and stands a shot ahead of Inbee Park and Sei-young Kim. Charley Hull of Great Britain is three shots off the lead, so there’s work to do if she is to emulate Justin Rose’s heroics in the men’s event.
We are on Instagram, didn’t you know? And we have some proper Olympic gold on there for you. So follow away...
We’re not at the end of these Olympics yet, oh no. But how about whetting your appetite for the closing ceremony with some extravagances from the past in our Classic YouTube selection? It’s much more fun than that sounds:
Yes, that was some story. For all the dominance of countries like USA and GB, these are the ones that make an Olympics what it still is.
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Luke Williams emails from Switzerland:
“Sometime, somewhere last week, the illustrative remark was made that GBR’s medals had, at the time, cost about £5.5m each in public funding. Do we have an update on that figure? And is the calculation simply a division of all funding by all medals, including the funding for sports in which GBR wins no medals (as a cost)?
“By the way, was anyone else hoping for a new GBR medal yesterday in order to go second in both versions of the medal table? It’s wearing to keep explaining why China aren’t second, having won more medals. Need 4 now…”
This is really worrying news about the TV presenter Charlie Webster, who is currently in a coma in Brazil after contracting malaria, and she has all our best wishes for a quick and full recovery:
Here’s the updated medal table, if you’re the competitive type. Like what you see?
Following our story about the Team GB athlete who was held up at gunpoint in Rio, the British Olympic Association have made a brief statement. It reads:
“There has been an incident of theft involving a Team GB athlete returning to their accommodation. All members of our delegation, including the individual concerned, are accounted for, and are safe and well.”
“Is the ‘casual’ in your email address a staffing status or just a dress-code lol?” asks Peter Higginson. I’m actually wearing shorts, which perhaps explains the staffing status. Who knows?
What I'm most looking forward today: the semis of the women's volleyball and handball. The Dutch women have completely and utterly exceeded expectations in both sports, nobody expected them to get this far. The team spirit in both teams is a joy to watch.
This has been the Dutch olympic story so far: most of our superstars (read: the most heavily sponsored athlets) haven't lived up to expectations, while our lowly paid underdogs have been fierce.
This doesnt bode well for our women's hockey team!
A Dutch view from our BTL army. The stars have underperformed, the surprise packages have been ... well ... surprising. And yes, their women’s hockey team face Great Britain in a final that looks pretty tough to call on current form.
Another “if you missed it” from yesterday. Brazil are in the Olympic football final, this time coming out on the right end of a six-goal margin in a home semi. There are those who suggest these Olympics are now little more than a football – and, OK, beach volleyball – competition in the eyes of a largely uninterested public. Fair?
A reminder, if you are just tuning in, that the best way to join in with this morning’s chatter is to email nick.ames.casual@theguardian.com. We can talk about how these Olympics have flown by, and the weather being distinctly agreeable.
Thoughts emailed in from Guy Hornsby about that Simon Jenkins piece:
“There’s a bit of a leap from Soviet-era institutionalised doping and state-sponsored PR to the Team GB medal hauls. This is 75% Lottery Funded, so it’s hardly like the huge budget is coming fully at the expense of others. Yes, there’s a narrative and discussion to be had on spending this money when we’re in the midst of an austerity-driven downturn, but I’d wager that seeing our success on a brilliant and globally loved state broadcaster is a feel-good factor we all need at the moment. I suppose in a decade when the BBC is no longer the rights holder and we’ve slashed funding he can go back to being happily miserable at four golds we see only on highlights. I think it’s brilliant, but as ever, there’s no pleasing some people.”
We’ll see more of Caster Semenya, who was dominant again yesterday in her 800m heat, later today – so have a look at Andy Bull’s take on her situation, if you haven’t already. Understandably, she avoided the media on Wednesday.
After seven years of intense, invasive and often ill-informed coverage Semenya has no desire to answer any more questions. She is unbeaten over 800m this year and in that period has run three of the four fastest times over that distance in the world. The best of them, 1min 55.33sec, is almost a second clear of the second-fastest competitor and two seconds clear of the third. She is in such fine form that the hardest challenge for her this week may well be the press conference she will have to give if she wins.
Updated
There was good news overnight about the future of the Paralympics, by the way, with a Brazilian federal court lifting an injunction on the transfer of public funds to make sure it goes ahead. But remind yourself of the context here. It’s a really sorry situation.
If you missed Bolt’s 200m semi-final win – and his giggle with the very impressive Andre de Grasse before the line – then it really is a must-watch and you can view it right here (UK only, I’m afraid):
Feast your eyes, now, on our selection of the best images from day 12 at Rio 2016. A grin from Bolt, a kiss for the table tennis table and poor, poor Dafne Schippers.
Talking of the Brownlees, here’s a fun and interesting piece from June – with a rather tasty recipe for banana loaf.
What are you looking forward to most today? Many of you are doubtless licking your lips for the men’s 200m final, though it’s a long stretch before that. Also much, much later it should be interesting to see whether Brazil can shake off the women’s beach volleyball disappointment of last night and win the men’s final against Italy. And if you’re British, the battle of the Brownlees in the triathlon probably won’t have escaped your attention. Tell us your hopes and dreams for the next 18 hours or thereabouts.
Updated
Another link for you, this time to today’s schedule. Hold it close, reader. The first medal event of the day begins in just over four hours’ time – Korea facing China in the women’s badminton doubles bronze medal match.
If that gives food for thought, this is a feast for the eyes. An interactive look at how Elaine Thompson took that fantastic women’s 200m gold:
Did you read this last night, by Simon Jenkins? It’s been fairly prominent in my self-affirming social media echo chamber. It’s mostly for those who have followed the Olympics on British TV, I guess, and makes some very interesting points. Is our approach to the Olympics becoming Soviet?
Updated
Hello from London. Nick Ames here to take you through the next few hours, so join in with any Oly-ephemera you might have – email is nick.ames.casual@theguardian.com, or tweet @NickAmes82. Make sure you’ve read your daily briefing below first, mind. And let’s enjoy.
Day 13 briefing
Welcome back as day 13 looms in Rio, the prospect of Usain Bolt looms over the 200m final, and question marks – a lot of question marks – loom over safety in the Olympic city.
The big picture
Away from the official evening action, reports that a member of the British Olympic team in Rio was held up at gunpoint have prompted an official warning to Team GB members that it is “not worth the risk” of leaving the athletes village.
Perching awkwardly alongside that is news that Brazilian police detained two US swimmers at the airport over their allegations that they were robbed on a night out in Rio. Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were later released but will be back for a chat with the authorities today. The headliner in this murky story, gold medallist Ryan Lochte, is already back on American soil, where he’s now backstroked on his claims that a gun was put to his head.
Back on track, Elaine Thompson propelled her way to the front of the women’s 200m field and to the history books: Jamaica’s first woman to take the Olympic sprint double (somebody called Usain Bolt has managed it for the men). She ran a season’s best of 21.78, squeezing out an apparently distraught Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands. American Tori Bowie (pronounced Bowie, not Bowie or Bowie) came third.
Can Bolt match his teammate as he goes for the 100m-200m double today? I mean, probably, yes. He was the quickest qualifier in the semi-finals on 19.78, pushed harder than he’d like by Canada’s Andre De Grasse to his fastest ever semi-final time.
I was asking him, what is he doing? He said, oh, I had to put on some pressure and I’m, like, why? It’s the semi-finals!
He’s young, so … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯*
[*artist’s impression]
Which surely leads us to…
Picture of the day
When you and your mate are relaxed enough to grin each other over the line while your rivals strain for the milliseconds at the end of your 200m semi-final:
You should also know
Out went Russia’s sole track and field athlete. Long jumper Darya Klishina, cleared for Rio, then banned, then unbanned, reached 6.63m in the final but it wasn’t enough to take her to the last eight. America’s Tianna Bartoletta ran – and then threw herself 7.17m – away with that gold.
And it seems only fair to mention – given Chinese media fury at what it’s been labelling its “worst Olympics flop” – that China has called bingo! in the table tennis, taking four of the four golds. There were two silvers, too, from those two China v China finals. Now level-pegging Team GB with 19 golds, China remains third in the overall medal table with four fewer silvers. Bring on the diving!
- Neymar and Jesus march Brazil into men’s football final with Germany.
- Six boxing judges sent home from Rio 2016 after outrage over results.
- Irish Olympic head Pat Hickey arrested in alleged ticket touting inquiry.
- How to train like an Olympian – eat loads of peanut butter and listen to robots.
Team GB roundup
The jolliest of hockey sticks for the women’s team, who are guaranteed a silver at worst after beating New Zealand 3-0 to march on to the final. That’ll be against the Netherlands at 9pm BST on Friday. The Dutch are the world number ones and gold medallists in 2012 and 2008, but the BBC One is moving the 10 o’clock news for this, so great things are expected.
Overall it was a quieter day, but let’s blame the weather for that one, because it’s the British Way and also true. Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark practically have the gold medal nailed to their mast in the women’s 470 sailing but have to wait for some wind to clinch it. And there’s plenty to look forward to on day 13, with the Brothers Brownlee restoking their 2012 fire for the triathlon, and 2012 gold winner Jade Jones in taekwondo.
Adam Gemili qualified as a fastest loser for the 200m finals; teammates Danny Talbot and Nathaneel Mitchell-Blake won’t be there alongside him. Rajiv Ouseph stumbled in the men’s badminton quarter-final to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen; but Marcus Ellis and Chris Longridge play for bronze in the men’s doubles later today.
- Boxer Savannah Marshall frustrated to find no way past her Dutch nemesis.
- GB gymnasts have rivalry between men and women, says coach Van Hoof.
- GB women’s football team could have won Rio gold, says England coach.
- Were Team GB’s cycling rivals right to question their Olympic success?
Team USA roundup
New long jump gold medallist Tianna Bartoletta (she already has a sprint relay gold from 2012) called it the “awesome hour” and I’m going to concede that one to her. Six medals fell to the Americans in a little over 60 minutes: Bartoletta’s gold medal came with a silver version for teammate Brittney Reese, just as Tori Bowie took bronze in that explosive women’s 200m final.
The real triple whammy came in the women’s 100m hurdles, the day’s finale in the athletics stadium, in which Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin took an unprecedented first, second and third places for Team USA. Here they are in gold, bronze, silver formation for their celebratory lap. They’ll figure out the order for the podium.
The sole male medallist in the athletics stadium was Evan Jager, who won America’s first medal since 1984 in the 3,000m steeplechase, a silver one. Justin Gatlin failed to qualify for the 200m final – but expect to see him back in the 4x100m relay rounds today. Also back on track will be Bowie and the multitasking Bartoletta.
In the men’s basketball quarter-finals there were no surprises as the Americans knocked out Argentina 105-78. Next up: Spain in the semis.
And after her first-ever Olympic defeat, Kerri Walsh Jennings and partner April Ross recovered to take bronze in the women’s beach volleyball. Their vanquishers in the semi-finals, Brazil’s Bárbara and Ágatha, lost gold to Germany in a midnight match on Copacabana.
Australia team roundup
Success in the men’s basketball as the Boomers (look, it could have been worse) crunched world no 3 Lithuania 90-64. The Australian men now progress to the semifinals against Serbia, to be held at the friendlier-to-this-side-of-the-world time of Friday 7pm local, Saturday 8am AEST.
Progress of a different kind for javelin-thrower Kim Mickle, whose shoulder is now no longer dislocated following surgery. She won’t make the final but has shrugged – OK, maybe not shrugged – off the disappointment: “I’m glad I had a go and I did everything I could.” Teammate Kathryn Mitchell qualified 12th and will now carry Australian hopes into the final (Friday 10.10am AEST).
The BMX cycling sparked into life, with Caroline Buchanan sitting in second spot after the women’s seeding run, behind Colombia’s Mariana Pajon. In the men’s seeding, Sam Willoughby took third and will now ride again in the quarter-finals, overnight tonight Aus time. The women skip straight to semi-finals the day after.
No new medals on day 12 but some watery contenders for day 13 – Lachlan Tame and Ken Wallace in the kayak; Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan in sailing; Melissa Wu in diving. Check the diary below to set your watches.
- Boomers emerge as Australia’s favourite team in their quest for Rio gold.
- Team Australia day 12 roundup.
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.
We’ll see 25 golds dished out, providing the wind gets up for the delayed women’s 470 and men’s 470 sailing finals.
- A busy day for canoeing: finals in the men’s kayak double 1,000m at 9.08am (Australia’s Lachlan Tame and Ken Wallace are in this one); the men’s canoe single 200m at 9.23am; the men’s kayak double 200m at 9.47am (Team GB’s Liam Heath and Jon Schofield paddle up); and the women’s kayak single 500m at 10.11am.
- The men’s triathlon is at 11am and it’s Brownlee v Brownlee again as British brothers Alistair and Jonathan battle it out.
- Six track and field finals in the athletics stadium, with deciders in the men’s 400m hurdles at midday, the men’s shot put at 8.30pm, the women’s javelin at 9.10pm, the men’s decathlon at 9.45pm, and at 10.15pm the women’s 400m hurdles final (Eilidh Doyle runs for Team GB but America’s Dalilah Muhammad is the favourite). Oh, and the men’s 200m is at 10.30pm. Perhaps Bolt and De Grasse can dance a jig over the line.
- The 4x100m relay heats, women’s and men’s, start from 11.20am.
- Golds in the women’s doubles badminton is decided at 12.30pm; it’s Japan v Denmark. British fans might want to cheer on Marcus Ellis and Chris Longridge in the men’s doubles match for bronze at 10.10am.
- Should the sailing get going, there will be four finals: the held-over women’s 470 at 1.05pm (Britain’s Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark should clinch gold) and the men’s 470 at 1.50pm (Australia’s Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan remain in medal contention).
- The men’s 49er – in which New Zealand currently leads German, Australian and British pairs – follows at 2.35pm and the women’s 49er FX at 3.20pm.
- At 3.30pm it’s the men’s light heavyweight boxing final: Cuba’s Julio Cesar La Cruz v Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Niyazymbetov.
- In diving, the women’s 10m platform final is at 4pm; the semifinals at 10am will decide if medal hopes Jessica Parratto (US), Melissa Wu (Aus) and Tonia Couch (GB) go through, though China dominated the preliminary rounds.
- The men’s hockey final between Belgium and Argentina is at 5pm; the bronze-medal bout between the Netherlands and Germany precedes it at noon.
- In taekwondo the women’s -57kg gold bout comes at 10pm and the men’s -68kg at 10.15pm. Britain’s Jade Jones begins her title defence at 10.30am.
- And there are three more wrestling golds: in the women’s freestyle 53kg, 63kg and 75kg.
- Finishing the day off, it’s the men’s final in the beach volleyball as Italy take on home heroes Brazil at 11.59pm (not a typo).
Underdog of the day
India has its first medal in Rio, Sakshi Malik grappling a bronze in the women’s freestyle 58kg wrestling. Malik is the first woman from her country (population 1.25bn but Olympic Games make underdogs of the strangest candidates) to nab an Olympic wrestling medal, and labelled it the “best moment of my life”.
Tweet of the day
Not quite the Ryan Lochte update we were hoping for:
My hair is going back to its normal color tomorrow 🙏
— Ryan Lochte (@RyanLochte) August 16, 2016
If today were a crime caper
It would be Ocean’s 11. But in a pool. And with only four of them.
And another thing
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Sakshi Malik winning India's first medal in the women's wrestling is wonderful. Now the hopes of the country for a second one lie with P V Sindhu in the women's badminton singles.
Hopefully she'll win too, and it will be the women that take the medals home!