It’s offficially day six and time for a new Olympics live blog. Join us over here.
At the close of day five, the USA retains top spot in the overall medal table, with China in second. Japan sits third ahead of Australia.
Team GB hits ninth after six medals in a day doubled its overall total.
Here's how the #Rio2016 medal table looks at the end of day five https://t.co/bpuxciBbDA pic.twitter.com/rryFg4IoKj
— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) August 11, 2016
The day hasn’t been without its doping controversies. A surprise gold medal win for Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan in weightlifting came under immediate scrutiny, reports Associated Press:
Rahimov, who only returned from a doping ban last year, and the rest of Kazakhstan’s team had almost been excluded from the Rio Olympics entirely after repeated failures in retests of doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The country stands to lose five gold medals from those Games.
Kazakhstan was allowed to compete because those doping cases were not fully processed in time for the Games, the International Weightlifting Federation has said.
In a sport in crisis over doping, Rahimov’s world record-breaking performance in the 77kg class on Wednesday is unlikely to silence the critics, not least bronze medallist Mohamed Mahmoud of Egypt, who said he found Rahimov’s dramatic improvement since his ban suspicious.
Day six is supposed to bring us some rowing, but after two days were washed out by the Rio weather, could the regatta be in doubt?
David Tanner, head of British rowing, says not. Probably:
I’m not going to be a meteorologist but tomorrow doesn’t look great.
But we would have to have thunder, lightning and Armageddon itself not to finish and we will find a way.
That way has already had to be thought up and re-thought up, reports Sean Ingle from Rio:
The executive director of Fisa, Matt Smith, announced a revised programme with six finals , including the Team GB women’s double of Katherine Grainger and Vicky Thornley. But he conceded that “we are already on Plan C or D” and that they would “have to consider plan E if we are still sat here on Friday at 10am”.
The Mystery of the Green Pool continues, although we’re into plurals now, as the water polo pool followed the diving pool in a colour change.
On day four, the water polo pool was crystal blue, showing up sharply the murkier green of the adjacent diving pool.
By day five, it was heading in the same green-toned direction.
Organising committee spokesman Mario Andrada put it down to a decrease in the alkaline level in the diving well, which was affecting both pools as well as that for the synchronised swimming, adding: “We expect the colour to be back to blue very shortly.”
Organisers insist there are no health risks in whatever the hell’s going on in there, but some athletes have reported stinging eyes.
There are some advantages to being in the Australasian timezone when the late-night Rio swimming is on, and one of them is that you get to skip lessons to watch a former classmate win a gold medal.
Kyle Chalmers, until recently in year 12 at Immanuel College, Adelaide – and still only 18 – was cheered on by students there on Thursday morning:
PANDEMONIUM!!! GOLD FOR CHALMERS pic.twitter.com/YaXWr67Sk9
— Tim Morgan (@Timmy_morgs) August 11, 2016
In news that ought not to have been surprising but somehow was: Brazil’s men’s football team are through to the quarter-finals.
The beleaguered hosts beat Denmark 4-0 after two 0-0 group matches.
As coach Rogerio Micale had earlier, profoundly, noted:
Things will be different when the ball starts going in.
See, these Olympic swimmers look fast but are they really?
Here’s Australian gold medallist Kyle Chalmers versus a killer whale, a speedboat and a plesiosaur (I’m with you, seahorse).
Kyle Chalmers versus a variety of aquatic animals and vehicles #Olympics pic.twitter.com/GwW1Xy46jO
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) August 11, 2016
Because yes, we’re counting these things: Katie Ledecky, in bringing home that gold for the Team USA women in the 4x200m freestyle relay, now edges ahead of Michael Phelps in the medal table, with three golds and a silver. Phelps has only three golds. Keep your chin up, Michael. Still plenty to play for.
This is Claire Phipps in Sydney, taking that baton without a hitch.
One thing to add to Tim’s helpful summary: China has beaten China to take gold (and, for that matter, silver) in the women’s singles table tennis.
Ding Ning beat compatriot Li Xiaoxia 4-3.
Rio evening update
Lots going on in Rio tonight. Here’s a round-up:
- Michael Phelps edges Ryan Lochte in 200m IM semi-final
- Katie Ledecky helps USA women to 4x200 relay gold
- Kyle Chalmers, 18, wins surprise gold for Australia
- Doping rumors mar golden night for Kazakhstan
- Neymar helps Brazil to beat Denmark 4-0
- USA pushed hard by Australia in men’s basketball
And lots more besides. I’m passing over the baton – thanks for reading.
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Australia had a lead of over a second after 600m, but Ledecky is just so quick. That’s her third gold of these Rio Games.
USA win women's 4x200m freestyle relay gold!
Ledecky brings it home for USA! Australia second, and Canada win the bronze. The time: 7:43.03.
After 600m, it’s Australia, USA and Canada. But Ledecky is seriously quick – USA still favorites.
400m gone, and Australia have taken the lead!
We’re off in the relay, and Sweden lead after the first 200m. USA second, and China third.
Full-time in Salvador, and Brazil have won 4-0. Despite that heavy defeat, Denmark join the hosts in the last eight.
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Katie Ledecky is next up for USA in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay final.
Brazil are 4-0 up against Denmark, and they’re going through to the quarter-finals as group winners.
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Here’s more on Kyle Chalmers’ incredible feat:
Phelps: “He brings the best out of me. We’re racers.”
Lochte: “We bring the best out of each other. Any time I get up and race him, it’s the best.”
Phelps edges Lochte in 200m IM semi-final
Phelps in first, Lochte second, Thiago Pereira of Brazil in third. The time was 1:55.78 – much quicker than the first semi.
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Now it’s time for the two US rivals. Phelps goes in lane five; Lochte is next to him in four. This is just the semi-final, remember.
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Hagino of Japan, the 400m IM champion, wins the first semi-final, impressively, with Heintz of Germany second and Wang of China third. Phelps and Lochte go in the second semi.
Ready for some Phelps v Lochte? It’s time for the men’s 200m individual medley semi-finals.
Australia’s Taylor McKeown has qualified quickest for the women’s 200m breaststroke final. Japan’s Rie Kaneto was second quickest, and Britain’s Molly Renshaw third.
Brazil are now 3-0 up against Denmark, incidentally.
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From one Aussie to another:
Kyle Chalmers. What.
— Mack Horton (@_mackhorton) August 11, 2016
Such a fabulous swim from the 18-year-old: he reeled in Condorelli of Canada and finished in 47.58. Timmers was second in 47.80. Nathan Adrian, for a man who just lost his Olympic title, looked pretty chipper.
“It actually felt pretty good, to be honest. I can’t be upset about that. I wanted it – we all wanted it. Kyle’s a young guy – he doesn’t have the opening speed that some of us do, but he certainly has the closing speed.”
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Australia's Kyle Chalmers wins 100m freestyle gold!
Chalmers, Timmers of Belgium, Adrian third!
Now one of the highest profile swimming events: the men’s 100m freestyle final. Caeleb Dressel and Nathan Adrian go for USA, and Cameron McEvoy and Kyle Chalmers are Australis’s hope. And we’re away!
Wow, that was so close. Belmonte by three hundreths of a second – 2:04.85 the winning time. Cammile Adams of USA was fourth.
Spain's Mireia Belmonte wins swimming gold!
By a whisker! Madeline Groves second, and Hoshi of Japan in third!
Madeline Groves of Australia in first, and Belmonte second at 100m.
Now it’s the women’s 200m butterfly final.
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Britain’s Andrew Willis spoke after finishing fourth in the men’s 200m breaststroke final:
“It’s a strange one. I don’t know how I feel about that right now. I gave it everything, stuck to my plan. I paced myself and was coming back strong.
“I knew (Yasuhiro) Koseki would go out quick and I was up with Watanabe. I thought he might not go as quick but the outside lanes were obviously where some of the action was happening. I just stuck my head down and went for it.
“I touched and I knew I was up there. When you touch and you look around it seems to take forever. I’m just a bit gutted. But another solid time for me.
“I was definitely happy with the time and I knew it was there or thereabouts. (The gap) is nothing and that’s what makes it so much harder.”
Lots more swimming to come, including the men’s 100m freestyle final, the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay final, and Phelps and Lochte in the 200m IM semis.
Here’s some more on Gabriel Jesus, who’ll be heading to England in January:
Another goal for Brazil! Gabriel Jesus makes it 2-0 against Denmark, and it looks as though the hosts will not be tumbling out just yet.
And in the second semi, it’s Evgeny Rylov of Russia, Mitch Larkin of Australia second, and USA’s Jacob Pebley third.
USA’s Ryan Murphy wins the first semi-final of the men’s 200m backstroke in impressive fashion, from Xu of China and Irie of Japan. Australia’s Josh Beaver was fifth.
But wait! Gabigol, the Santos striker who could be moving to Leicester, has just scored! Brazil lead 1-0, and they’re now in position to go through as group winners.
In the football, Iraq and South Africa are 1-1 after about 25 minutes. As it stands, Brazil are going out of the tournament.
Cate Campbell, the favorite, wins in 52.06 – that’s a new Olympic record. Penny Oleksiak of Canada finished second, and Sjostrom was third. Abbey Weitzeil of USA sneaks through to the final in eighth place.
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Cate Campbell, Bronte’s sister, goes in the second 100m freestyle semi, as does the great Sarah Sjöström of Sweden.
Fifteen minutes gone in Salvador, and Brazil-Denmark in the men’s football is still goalless.
USA’s Simone Manuel wins the first of the women’s 100m freestyle semi-finals from Australia’s Bronte Campbell. Jeanette Ottesen of Denmark was third.
That was some race. Koseki went out so quickly, at world record pace, but he just couldn’t maintain it. Balandin came through really strongly from lane eight, and that’s two golds in a matter of hours for Kazakhstan.
Britain’s Andrew Willis finished fourth, and Koseki faded badly to finish fifth. Watanabe was sixth. When was the last time anyone won a swimming final from lane eight?
Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Balandin wins swimming gold!
Balandin wins gold! Prenot second, and Chupkov third! A big upset!
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Koseki leads at 100m from Balandin of Kazakhstan and Prenot of USA.
OK, time for swimming, and it’s the men’s 200m breaststroke final. Watanabe and Koseki of Japan, and Andrew Willis of GB, are looking for medals. And we’re off!
And a final score in the hockey: 2-1 to Australia, who now move up to third in Pool A. Britain are fifth. The top four – I think I’m right in saying – from each pool qualify for the quarter-finals.
And some walking news: Italian race walker Alex Schwazer has had his appeal against an eight-year ban for a second doping violation turned down by Cas, and he won’t be able to compete in the men’s 20km walk on Friday. Schwazer, the Beijing 2008 champion, tested positive for an an anabolic steroid in January, after also testing positive on the eve of London 2012.
There’s a big game tonight in the men’s hockey, and Australia have just gone 2-0 up against Great Britain:
Men’s #Hockey: #AUS 2-0 #GBR GOAL! Aussie break 4-on-1. @whetty12 steals it from @G_Turner4 on the goal line. #OneTeam
— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) August 11, 2016
It was a strange crowd at the US-Australia basketball game. There weren’t many fans from either country in the stands and yet most of the crowd appeared to root for the Americans rather than for the huge upset. The biggest roars in the final, frantic minutes were for US baskets and Australian misses.
At the very end of the game many of the fans began to chant the anti-impeachment slogan “Fora Temer!” Just one more piece of an odd atmosphere given what was happening on the court.
Thanks Chris! Yep, lots to enjoy tonight, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on that Brazil v Denmark game: could the hosts really be heading out of the tournament? Kick-off is about 15 minutes away, and Brazil are desperate for a win.
That’s it from me. Tim Hill will be your guide through the next slice of action, including all the highlights from football and swimming.
Les Carpenter has a full report on that remarkable Australia-USA basketball match:
USA's Daryl Homer wins fencing silver!
US fencer Daryl Homer has taken silver in the men’s individual sabre, just losing out to Aron Szilagyi of Hungary. Homer was born in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands but moved with his mother to the Bronx in New York City at the age of five. Read more about his remarkable story here.
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Emma John has seen Superman in action at the men’s gymnastics:
The men’s football ended Colombia 2-0 Nigeria and Japan 1-0 Sweden (Colombia and Nigeria advance). Which leads us to the evening’s main event: Brazil v Denmark.
It’s been desperate stuff so far from the hosts: two draws and no goals from their first two matches (against Iraq and South Africa) and the team’s captain and star Neymar looking a shadow of the player who has been thrilling fans in Europe with Barcelona. After the humiliation of the Seleçao’s 7-1 thrashing by Germany in the World Cup semi-final two years ago, this was meant to be a chance to restore some pride in the national team. Amazingly, Brazil are still in second place in Group A but a much-improved performance will be required against Denmark in Salvador to guarantee progress to the quarter-finals, with South Africa facing Iraq in São Paulo.
Nothing can be taken for granted, though. Just ask the reigning Olympic champions, Mexico, already on their way back home after their 1-0 loss to South Korea ended their Games at the group stage.
More on that basketball thriller:
Tonight Australia looked totally capable of beating the USA in basketball. Let that sentence sink in. Let it envelop you like Matthew Dellavedova’s spider-limbs as he tries to chew on your face, remove the ball from your hands and throw up an alley-oop at the same time. The Boomers lost by 10 points as things dissolved late, yes. But they let the NBA all-stars know that if they’re able to leverage this undeniable team spirit and manic intensity into a gold medal game appearance, it’s going to be a bar fight.
There will be joyless individuals out there who tell you that even this was only possible because the US team arrived without the three best players in the world and just had an off night. Those same people will also probably scold you for playing Pokemon Go and enjoying Fast and Furious films. But how about this: this US team does have 12 of the best 15 players in the world. Australia have a guy who played for the West Sydney Razorbacks. They also have David Anderson, who might actually be 57 years old. Nobody is sure.
To witness the Boomers match it with the best today was to watch Frankston’s own Ryan Broekhoff being professionally fouled by NBA star DeAndre Jordan. He had to. Australia had a run on. Andrew Bogut comes from Endeavour Hills, Matthew Dellevedova from Maryborough – towns where the local McDonalds is the hub of social activity for kids. Once they were places where childhood sporting dreams simply didn’t flourish into brain-rattling moments like this. Now, they’re places where kids are saying, “he’s doing it, why the hell can’t I?” Six Australians have now won NBA championship rings. Australian basketball had already arrived, but today it put its feet up on the desk and eyeballed Team USA. It’s almost enough to make you tear up.
At the conclusion of the game, Australian star Andrew Bogut stops by for a few terse words. “We still lost the game, it doesn’t mean anything,” he says bluntly. “There’s no small victories.”
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Sun flare-up spoils Instagram posts! – or something like that. Here’s Reuters with the lowdown:
Thousands of vitriolic comments left on Australian swimmer Mack Horton’s Instagram account have been deleted by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).
Netizens, many of them Chinese, bombarded Horton’s social media accounts after he called Chinese swimming rival Sun Yang a “drug cheat” before they competed in Saturday’s men’s 400 metres freestyle final, demanding that he apologise.
By Wednesday, all comments - which numbered at least 200,000 on one photo post alone - had disappeared from Horton’s page.
“My staff are instructed to remove any comments that are offensive and in breach of the AOC’s Social Media Guidelines. Comments must not be disrespectful, threatening or in poor taste,” AOC’s director of media & communications, Mike Tancred, told Reuters in an email.
Men's basketball: USA beat Australia 98-88
The USA, predictably, some might say, stormed back in the second half to defeat Australia’s men’s basketball team 98-88. Savour the victory/wallow in defeat here:
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Men’s football latest (about 10 minutes to go):
Colombia 2-0 Nigeria
Japan 1-0 Sweden
Kazakhstan's Nijat Rahimov wins weightlifting gold!
A truly dramatic weightlifting competition in the men’s -77kg class. China’s Lyu Xiaojun, with his gold shoes, looked a shoo-in for the gold medal having set a new world record in the snatch. But Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan stole it with a clean and jerk of 214kg. Both men lifted a combined weight of 379kg but Rahimov won by virtue of being the lighter man. Mohamed Mahmoud of Egypt took bronze.
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USA men’s boxing’s eight-year medal drought is over after Nico Hernandez decisioned Ecuador’s Carlos Eduardo Quipo Pilataxi at Riocentro in the light flyweight quarter-finals to guarantee himself no worse than a bronze medal. The Kansas native advances to Friday’s semis against Uzbekistan’s Hasanboy Dusmatov.
The Americans have won 108 medals in men’s boxing – a whole 45 more than the next closest country (Cuba) – but a program in steady decline since the fall of the Iron Curtain hit rock bottom in London four years ago, when Team USA went home without a medal for the first time since 1904.
Hernandez’s medal in the 49kg division marks the team’s first podium in Olympic boxing’s lightest weight class since the great Michael Carbajal won silver at Seoul 1988 – and the first at any weight since current WBC heavyweight title-holder Deontay Wilder earned bronze’s for the United States’ lone medal in Beijing.
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Some say there aren’t enough characters in sport these days. Jonathan Watts draws your attention to the irrepressible Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui.
Meet Fu Yuanhui, The Most Lovable Athlete At The Rio Olympics
China’s Lyu Xiaojun has just broken his own world record in the snatch at the men’s 77kg weightlifting.
Lyu’s lift of 177kg beat his previous mark of 176kg – and that gives him a 3kg lead going into the clean and jerk.
Lyu, incidentally, won gold in the 77kg at London 2012.
USA fight back: it’s now 60-60 against Australia. Details here:
Men’s football half-times:
Colombia 1-0 Nigeria
Japan 0-0 Sweden
Dramatic stuff over at the basketball court. Australia lead the USA 54-49 at half-time!
Gary Russell Sr and his wife Lawan were terrified watching their son Gary Antuanne fight the family’s first Olympic bout on Wednesday evening. Antuanne is their sixth child named Gary and their last chance at an Olympic medal. Three other Gary’s fell short.
Both parents agonized in the minutes before the fight but began screaming instructions th the American fighter as the bout began. In the final round a friend watching a telecast on his phone shouted “He’s losing! He’s losing!” Gary Sr and Lawan looked stricken. Then the man said: “No! Wait! He’s winning. He’s up two rounds! He’s already won!”
The parents seemed to relax. Moments later, the friend’s information was confirmed. Russell had won a unanimous decision.
“Whoooooooo!” Lawan shouted, exhaling. A Russell had finally won an Olympic fight.
Bryan Graham was at the press briefing about the bullet fired at the equestrian press centre with the Olympic head of security and the communications chief.
Lt General Luis RAMOS
On the incident threatening security:
“Following the shooting of a bullet into the media workroom tent at Olympic Equestrian Centre on Saturday, police arrested one guy with a rifle this morning (Wednesday) in an area about two kilometres from here. During this time today another bullet was found close to the fence near the stable.
“The bullet was not found in the stables.”
“The Brazilian Army and myself, we are working on security plans for the Olympic Games since January 2015. I know this part of the military village (in Deodoro) and you are safe.”
On shooting noises heard at daytime in Deodoro:
“We are in a military village and this morning special troops were training and shooting. It is our obligation to prepare ourselves.
“We have agreed to have no more helicopters flying over the area for not to disturb the horses and we will have no more training from now on.”
Mario ANDRADA
On security measures:
“The general has confirmed he has 5,500 men under his command to reinforce security and more measures will be taken. The extent cannot be disclosed because of its confidentiality.”
Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey isn’t looking too impressed. USA are trailing Australia 39-46 in the second quarter.
Tim Hill, though, has the key facts at his fingertips:
Carmelo Anthony is now the most prolific scorer in US men’s Olympic basketball history. Anthony, appearing in his fourth Olympics, passed LeBron James’s mark of 273 points during USA’s game with Australia.
David Robinson (270) is third on the scoring list followed by Michael Jordan (256) and Charles Barkley (231). Anthony has played in 26 Olympic games, another US record.
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Long jumper Greg Rutherford is eyeing a repeat of Great Britain’s track and field heroics at London 2012.
Justin Gatlin – the sprinter who served a four-year ban for doping – has responded to swimmer Lilly King’s suggestion that the likes of him shouldn’t be part of Team USA. “People want to label people and that’s all they want to do,” said the man who probably wishes his urine sample had had somebody else’s name on it.
In Group B of the men’s football Teófilo Gutiérrez has put second-placed Colombia into an early lead over already-qualified Nigeria.
And from the equestrian centre, an image of the bullet that entered the press room.
From over at the shooting center, an artful image of cartridges during the men’s double trap gold medal match (won by Fehaid Aldeehani, the first athlete competing under the Olympic flag to ever win gold).
For basketball fans, Australia’s men are taking on the USA.
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Plenty of action coming up but one event that’s just finished is the men’s all-round gymnastics final. Find out how it all went down here:
And that brings an end to proceedings for me … but fear not because I’m handing over Chris Taylor who will pick up and keep you up to date with all the latest goings on.
As ever, thanks very much for reading. Cheerio!
So, it’s all over in Deodoro and Australia’s men will not be able to match the achievements of their compatriots in the women’s competition (who took out gold, for those with a short memory), going down 22-5 to South Africa in the men’s competition quarter-final. In the end, the Australians failed to really trouble the South Africans, who now go on to play Great Britain for a place in the gold medal match.
Some sailing news now, as we haven’t had any for a while, and it’s been a much better day for Great Britain’s Giles Scott. He has had finishes of second and first today which puts him in the lead in the Finn class.
With Australia facing a 10-0 deficit with just over a minute remaining in the first half of their quarter-final against South Africa, Tom Cusack gets the green and gold back into things with a crucial, non-converted, try. So, 10-5 to South Africa and all still to play for as the teams head into the sheds. (They don’t head into the sheds really, they don’t have time for that.)
I brought you news of success for Patrick Huston in the archery in his first round but he’s been roundly pasted in his second.
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Things have come to a dramatic conclusion in the men’s all-around final. Find out exactly how it has finished here.
USA have clinched a spot in the women’s volleyball quarter-finals after beating previously undefeated Serbia in four sets.
The Americans, who have won Olympic silver on three separate occasions but never gold, won 25-17, 21-25, 25-18 25-19 to keep their unbeaten run going. They’re the only team in the tournament yet to be beaten. Rachael Adams (18 points, four service aces) and Foluke Akinradewo (16 points, four blocks) led the way for Team USA.
USA are coached by Karch Kiraly, the only player in history to win Olympic gold in the indoor and beach volleyball categories. And if his leads his team to victory here in Rio, he’ll become the first person to win gold as both a volleyball player and coach.
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Great Britain beat Argentina with golden try to reach sevens semi-finals
Great Britain do have a scrum though as it went forward and the ball is worked to Dan Bibby who shows and goes over! Try for Great Britain and a place in the semi-finals.
Clive Woodward, on comms, celebrated just a wee bit too much I feel …
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Penalty to Great Britain. It’s within Tom Mitchell’s drop-goal range and he’s going for it … Marcus Watson has recently come on and made a difference but here goes Mitchell. OFF THE POST!
So we’re 90 seconds into extra-time, back to seven men a side, and it’s still 0-0 …
Having quite the multi-media experience here in the Rio media centre. Just back from watching Rebekah Tiler narrowly miss top eight finish in the weightlifting and sitting here with ears plugged into Radio 5 Live’s coverage of England-Argentina rugby sevens, with a flat-screen telly just above covering the gymnastics. There’s always Twitter to play with, of course, and have started a lively conversation there (not on purpose, of course) about the Beeb’s over-the-top flag-waving. The geezer commenting on Max Whitlock just about had a seizure as he dissolved in giggling fit that would embarrass your average five-year-old. Not everyone agrees with that, of course... Brexiteers, I’d guess.
Six a side with Davies sent to the bin, and Argentina are going to kick their penalty at goal. It has to be a drop goal – and it’s wide …
Juan Imhoff has been on the pitch for a matter of seconds but he’s heading off for another two minutes – and there are only 40 seconds remaining.
Great Britain spread the ball to the right, Dan Norton is almost there but he’s tackled, very high, and the penalty is awarded. Great Britain don’t do much with it though. Still 0-0 and Argentina have a 22 drop-out.
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James Davies dashes down the left for Great Britain but just doesn’t have the gas to get to the try-line. So close but Team GB are only 15 metres out with three minutes remaining.
Half-time in Great Britain v Argentina and it’s 0-0. Here’s a bit of half-time reading/looking …
USA women’s hockey team are currently beating Japan 4-0 in the third period. If they hold on they will make it 3 straight victories in Rio. This is a fantastic moment for the sport in America given the fact that they have only gone to the Olympics seven times. To put that into perspective, India have gone 19 times. Since London in 2012, when America went 1-3, the team completely changed their philosophy by relocating their training center, hiring new coaches and focusing more on conditioning and core strength training.
Prior to today, USA defeated Argentina and Australia, the second and third ranked teams in this tournament. Brace yourselves, people. These ladies are here to make some noise.
A couple of stories for you, the first is a swimming tale – the USA’s Lilly King isn’t about to say sorry for calling out the drugs cheats in the pool any time soon.
And the second is a bit more of a story to warm the heart – Refugee judoka Popole Misenga is out of Olympics but thrilled all the same
Finally, a reminder that you can keep up with the business end of the men’s all-around final here, and the USA v Australia in the men’s basketball here.
It’s almost time for the third quarter-final in the rugby sevens – Great Britain v Argentina, who have been excellent throughout. Have I mentioned it’s tipping it down?
Success for Great Britain’s Patrick Huston in the archery. He’s through to what is effectively called the second round, which will be in about half an hour.
Wonderful Wednesday, anyone?
— Owen Gibson (@owen_g) August 10, 2016
Japan beat France to reach semi-finals of rugby sevens
Some resolute defence is keeping Japan at bay and while their line was eventually breached, the pass was forward. France are hanging on to their 7-5 lead … but they can’t hang on until full-time as Japan snipe over with just seconds remaining.
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The second gold medal of the day in the judo hall goes to … Japan with Mashu Baker sealing -90kg victory. It may not seem like that much of surprise but Japan did not win any gold medals in the men’s events in London 2012. They already have two in Rio.
Thirty seconds into the second half and Japan are on the board. Lote Tuquri (not that one, his cousin) goes over but the conversion is missed so France lead by two.
Back to the rugby sevens and France have scored the first try against Japan, Damian Cler scoring out wide on the right. It’s converted as well, an excellent kick, so France lead 7-0.
Weightlifting news now and gold in the women’s 69kg has gone to China’s Yanmei Xiang. Great Britain’s Rebekah Tiler finishes 10th after equalling her personal best.
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In the women’s -70kg judo final, after defeating Great Britain’s Sally Conway, Colombia’s Yuri Alvear ends up with silver. Gold has gone to Japan’s Haruka Tachimoto.
Great Britain now have 11 medals and three golds which puts them ninth in the medals table.
Are here is the hot take on gold for British divers Chris Mears and Jack Laugher.
Women’s Basketball: USA take care of business and make it 3-0 at the Games as they dismantle Serbia 110-84. Diana Taurasi led the team in scoring with 25 points including six three pointers - a record for America at the Olympic Games. This was the team’s 44th straight win. An amazing performance by the best basketball team in Rio. And yes, I am including the men.
Fiji lead New Zealand 12-7 with 90 seconds in the first rugby sevens quarter-final. Time is up and New Zealand cough the ball up. Fiji are the first side into the semi-finals.
Absolute scenes at the diving pool, Mears and Laugher are in floods of tears. History in the making and a second gold medal for Great Britain of the day and a third overall.
GREAT BRITAIN'S CHRIS MEARS AND JACK LAUGHER WIN DIVING GOLD
China’s score of 83.22 means gold goes to Mears and Laugher in the 3m synchro – a first ever diving gold for Great Britain. Silver goes to the USA, bronze to China.
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Great Britain have done enough to take the lead. Unless China can claim 95 points then Jack Laugher and Chris Mears will win Great Britain’s first ever diving gold medal!
So Great Britain will need just shy off 88 points to overtake the USA in the diving. It’s a tall order.
New Zealand lead in the sevens now, lovely try after a chip and chase so the All Blacks Sevens lead 7-5 at half-time.
Chaos in the diving. First Mexico were allowed a redive, now they’re not, now they’re getting annoyed about it. It’s a bit of a stand-off at the moment.
But the show goes on and the USA eventually rake their last dive, and it’s a very good one. Ooosh, 98.04. Wow, that will take some beating.
Fiji have just scored a quite ridiculous try, featuring about 3, 445,063 offloads. Conversion is wide so Fiji lead 5-0.
Drama in the diving … looks like a potential redive for Mexico after a light came on and distracted one of the divers just as he started his dive.
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The first rugby sevens quarter-final is about to begin, Fiji vs. New Zealand, who scraped through at the expense of the USA earlier by just one point.
I need a hug.
— USA Sevens Rugby (@USASevensRugby) August 10, 2016
Wowsers! What a reply from China … it’s going to be close, but Great Britain still have the lead, by less than three points with the USA eight points further back.
Big dive for the Brits – it’s a tough one … but that didn’t look too shabby at all. A good 11 points ahead of the USA. Russia are struggling somewhat, China still to come but it’s looking particularly good for Mears and Laugher at present.
And there may be more medals for Great Britain in the diving – after four rounds Mears and Laugher lead from the USA, from China. Woof!
GREAT BRITAIN'S SALLY CONWAY WINS JUDO BRONZE!
Sally Conway is closing in on bronze, she’s 1-0 up with just 20 seconds to go … and that’s another bronze for Great Britain!
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Tennis update
The vast majority, but not quite all, of the scheduled tennis matches have been postponed according to the official Rio 2016 website which would make me think everything has been cancelled. I’ll confirm when I know for sure.
Hmmm. Russia have slipped down the leaderboard in the diving but they’ve done it on purpose so to speak, getting an easy dive out of the way.
What that means is that Great Britain, who had an excellent third dive, are top of the pile after China couldn’t quite produce their best. Very interesting.
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I have something for the cycling fans out there. Owen Gibson’s hot take on Chris Froome’s time trial bronze.
Women’s Basketball: It’s the end of the first half and Team USA are leading Serbia 56-34. After a slow start - where Serbia actually led 17-16 in the first stages of the game - America finally woke up as Diana Taurasi quite simply had enough. The veteran guard who plays for Phoenix Mercury and UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia scored 22 points including five three pointers and three assists. My prediciton (and it’s not exactly mind-boggling) is that USA will keep on rolling as they look to win make it 3-0 in Rio.
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It’s over at the dressage for the day. A German one-two here as Dorothee Schnieder and Sonke Rothenberger top the table, followed by GB’s Fiona Bigwood. It’s been a tight, gloomy, day soundtracked by the usual Donna Summer dinner jazz piano tinklings. The stage is set now for Charlotte Dujardin, who will ride tomorrow and who is frankly the Bolt, the Pele, the Shane Warne of horse-dancing. Nobody’s bigger than dressage. But Dujardin is the sport’s real modern superstar. Otherwise sad to report another bafflingly lukewarm piece of staging. There was, let’s be frank, hardly anyone here. Not surprising when the arena itself is not actually in Rio but miles outside town. It’s not even in the Deodoro park but off down the road in a barracks. The idea of these competitions is to show the best of a country. Brazil is better than a lot of what it’s shown to the world here.
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Sally Conway will face Austria’s Bernadette Graf for judo bronze. It’s not the next match, it’s the one after that.
Two rounds down in the diving and China stay comfortably ahead. Great Britain are in second, Russia in third.
China: 108.00. Great Britain: 106.20. Russia: 105.
Brazil have just produced an utterly awful diving and the man responsible is beside himself. Let’s hope he can gather himself.
Australia are currently comfortably winning this battle but can Great Britain pull one back?
I'm gonna say it, Laugher and Mears to win a medal tonight, Yorkshire's first. Drag us out the gutter. #Rio2016
— Nick Westby (@NWestbyYPSport) August 10, 2016
Yes she will, Alvear eventually completes victory by taking Conway down. The best she can hope for is bronze, which she’ll go for shortly. So close for the Brit.
We’re into golden score but Conway almost won it at the death, we’ll she rue her inability to put her opponent away?
A let-off for Conway but it remains scoreless with a minute to go. Conway’s best hopes are to accumulate points on the floor.
Ooof – Conway almost had her with a surprise move but no points award. You can tell I’m an expert, right?
Sally Conway’s semi-final is under way in the judo hall. She’s facing Colombia’s Yuri Alvear, a two-times world champion.
It’s still scoreless after two of the four minutes …
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So after the first round of diving, it is the Chinese pair of Yuan Cao and Kai Qin who lead the way with the Russian pair in second and three teams, including the Brits, tied in third.
The Russian coach has a quite wonderful moustache by the by …
Now then, now then. The latest medal table, and Great Britain are into the top 10 thanks to Joe Clarke’s gold medal. A word of advice for British newspaper editors – do not crop Clarke’s kayak out of your first editions …
I can confirm the water at the diving centre remains a deep, glowing green, of the shade your gran might fancy in a bathroom suite. A clump of frogspawn beneath the boards is all that’s missing to complete the look. The competitors are being introduced now - big British presence in an otherwise scant crowd - and we’ll be underway shortly.
Shooting news now … at the equestrian arena.
If you lose the first round in amateur boxing, you’re pretty much out of the game. Making up a deficit in the second two rounds of three minutes each inspires anxiety, desperation and usually ends in a massive let-down - which is what Qais Ashfaq felt when boxed out of sight by tough Thai Chatchai Butdee on Wednesday.
“I knew he was going to be sharp and I knew he was going to be strong,” said the 23-year-old from Leeds. Ashfaq could not cope with the two well educated fists coming his way until the third round, which he won on all three cards, but the damage was done.
“I know I’m more than capable of beating kids like that but it wasn’t my day, it wasn’t meant to be. I’m a firm believer that what’s meant to be, is meant to be and I guess it wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t feel myself in there. I guess it’s been a long wait for me to box and I’m not used to that. But I can’t use that as an excuse. On the day, I got beaten by the better kid. I’ve been feeling amazing and I’m in the best shape of my life. That’s never going to be an excuse. There was no freeze. He’s a lot older than me though. He’s been to a couple of Olympics and I guess experience showed a bit that’s all.”
By the by, the men’s all-around final is getting under way very shortly, you can follow that one with my colleague Alan Smith here.
So, in the diving pool it’s the men’s 3m diving synchro and representing Great Britain will be Jack Laugher and Chris Mears. Contenders for a medal they most certainly are.
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I’ll be bringing plenty of reaction from Clarke’s gold medal, and an updated medals table to bring a bit of cheer for Great Britain fans as and when it comes through.
But the action in the still very green diving pool is about to begin and Sally Conway’s judo semi-final will begin shortly.
I’m at the Maria Lenk diving centre, of emerald-hued water fame, where the athletes may be cursing the organisers’ decision to construct an outdoor venue, unusual for an Olympics. Rio is not balmy today, the murky drizzle more reminiscent of an Irish autumn. The temperature is 19C but the breeze makes it feel cooler and never will those Stella McCartney-designed trunks worn by GB pair Chris Mears and Jack Laugher have seemed skimpier.
They are an interesting pair. Mears was given a 5% chance of survival in 2009 after being struck down by the Epstein-Barr virus while attending the Youth Olympics in Sydney. While recovering, he was hit by a seizure and spent three days in a coma, from which doctors were surprised permanent brain damage did not result. A 12-inch surgical scar still adorns his chest. What’s more, he’s a dance music producer beginning to make his name at festivals.
Mears and Laugher are expected to attempt their “mystery dive”, a forward two-and-a-half somersaults with three twists that only they have ever attempted in competition. It carries the highest difficulty tariff - 3.9 - of any on today’s slate and they freely admit that even if they nail it, it could go either way with the judges.
Well, that was exciting wasn’t it! Joe Clarke, 22-year-old Joe Clarke from Staffordshire has etched his name into British Olympic folklore by claiming their second gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympics.
GREAT BRITAIN'S JOE CLARKE WINS K-1 CANOE SLALOM GOLD!
Here comes Slovakia’s Jakub Grigar, he’s only 19, and he’s ahead at the first check point. At the second one he’s 0.87 up, this is a superb run. One or two errors creeping in, it’s going to close – actually not that close! Grigar began so well but he’s run out of puff so it’s gold for Great Britain’s Joe Clarke.
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Wowsers. Czech Republic’s Jiri Prskavec was going so well, comfortably ahead at the first check point but he gets a two-second penalty, he’s going so well that he might challenge Joe Clarke … nope, third.
So it’s at least silver for Clarke!
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He looks a little bit like he’s papping himself … but he makes a decent start. At the first check point he’s ahead! Woof.
At the second check point he’s still ahead … yikes!
Give it beans lad! Clarke takes the lead by 0.17. He’s definitely got a medal, two men to come.
Kauzer takes the lead! He posts a time of 88.70 – and he’s pretty pleased about it. Clarke is up …
In the K-1 final, Germany’s Hannes Aigner currently leads with 89.02 – Slovenia’s Peter Kauzer up next, then GB’s Joe Clarke.
Things you don’t see every day dept: with the rain still pouring down in Pontal, a lone Chris Froome has just pedlled off down the public highway on his time trial bike en route to his hotel. His progress was impeded by two heavily armed Brazilian soldiers who stepped into his path and halted his progress. Sensing a scoop from my position under a nearby tree, where I was busy not giving up smoking, I waited to see what would happen next. Froome pulled up with a skid, words were exchanged and the beaming soldiers took turns posing for pictures with the three-times Tour de France and double Olympic bronze medal winner. Their mission completed, they allowed Froome to proceed on his way and he rolled off into the afternoon traffic.
Steve Scott wins double trap bronze!
Great Britain’s Steve Scott nails his last two shots which means he gets a perfect score of 30 and gets bronze! That’s Great Britain’s second medal on the shooting range.
And, if the glass is half empty … another fourth place for Great Britain at these Games.
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It’s darky and windy at the shooting, and it’s not much better at the canoe slalom …
Cracking view of the K1 final 👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/AYIonbE1RZ
— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) August 10, 2016
After nine targets, Steve Scott leads Tim Kneale 18-16 …
So it’s Great Britain vs. Great Britain on the shooting range. The Australian James Willett has been eliminated and so either Tim Kneale or Steve Scott will collect bronze.
Now the canoe slalom K-1 final is under way, as is the double trap brone medal shoot-off. I’ll try and juggle them at the same time and try to make as much sense as possible.
Humble pie time. An earlier error re: the hockey scorers has been pointed out to me. It was not Kate Richardson-Walsh with Great Britain’s two goals, it was her wife Helen, whose jaw was not bashed up at London 2012.
@gerard_meagher @guardian_sport You've named the wrong scorer in the liveblog. pic.twitter.com/GlcNirXDT8
— Erica P (@_Eri_P) August 10, 2016
Aldeehani advances into the gold medal match, and celebrates a little too hard if you’re name is Tim Kneale and you have to shoot next …
Kneale steels himself and hits both to finish with 26 out of 30 but Innocenti of Italy ends with 27 so he goes into the gold medal match.
It’s a three-way shoot-off for the two places in the bronze-medal match – both Brits are in it which means there’ll be at least one Brit going for bronze.
Updated
Fehaid Aldeehani is leading, and he looks a cut above. It’s very dark as well as windy, but the darkness makes it easier to spot the clays as they shatter.
Five shots to go. If it stays like this we’ll have a shoot-off, which will be fun.
It’s very windy at the shooting, which I can’t imagine helps. I did it once, bit of a natural to be honest. Five shooters on 14 out of 16, one on 15 … tense – both Brits on 14.
After 10 shots each in the men’s double trap semi-finals, Tim Kneale has hit eight, which puts him in joint fifth. Better news for Steve Scott, who is yet to miss and so is in joint first. In short, three shooters have 10 out of 10, one has nine, two have eight.
A bit of a shock in the men’s football competition … Argentina, who won the gold medal in 2004 and 2008, are out following a 1-1 draw with Honduras.
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And so ends the NFL’s contributions to the Olympics. New England Patriots player Nate Ebner took a break from American football to play rugby at this year’s Olympics but the US are now done after defeat to Fiji. It was a close one too, the Americans going down 24-19 with Ebner pitching in with a try. They had their chances in this tournament too and lost narrowly to Argentina.
Here’s a bit more on a row that’s brewing in the US … Gabby Douglas did not have her hand on her heart during the national anthem following the USA’s team gymnastics gold on Tuesday but she is adamant she meant no disrespect.
Actually, before the shooting, hockey, and we’re in the final few seconds of Great Britain against Argentina, who are pressing for an equaliser, but they cannot find it. It’s finished 3-2 to Great Britain, who remain unbeaten.
Hmmmm …
Both pools at Aquatics Centre off colour today. The diving pool appears no better than yesterday. Rain not helping. pic.twitter.com/Itau0pbdux
— Aimee Lewis (@aimee_lou_lewis) August 10, 2016
To the shooting range! Steve Scott and Tim Kneale are in semi-final action imminently.
And speaking of Katie Ledecky …
The USA, with Katie Ledecky still come into the final, win their heat but Great Britain have missed out on the final by finishing fourth.
Oooh dear. Great Britain have missed a penalty and the chance to get a bit of breathing space against Argentina. It remains 3-2.
Australia cruise to victory in the first heat of the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay. Great Britain and the USA up next …
TENNIS UPDATE
No play before 3:30pm … so Andy Murray et all will have to twiddle their thumbs that little bit longer.
Updated
Argentina have another goal back, again it was scored by Florencia Habif. Great Britain still lead 3-2.
So, Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps advance through the 200m IM as the first and third fastest respectively, followed by two Brazilians, while Great Britain’s Dan Wallace and Ieuan Lloyd go through in 11th and 15th. Ooosh.
Time for the women’s 4x200m freestyle heats now …
Meanwhile, Argentina have a goal back in the women’s hockey against Great Britain, who still lead 3-1.
Updated
Sophie Bray has scored over at the hockey arena which means Great Britain are 3-0 up against Argentina.
Brazil’s Thiago Pereira has the crowd on their feet by taking a lead into halfway but Phelps is reeling him in in the second half of the race. That was awesome.
Phelps goes in the last heat now, complete with purple crop circles …
After 20 of the competitors of the dressage individual grand prix, Great Britain’s Spencer is lying second to Germany’s Sonke Rotherberger. The defending champion, Charlotte Dujardin, is yet to begin. Here’s what our man on the ground has to say …
I've travelled six thousand miles to watch a horse dancing to Donna Summer
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) August 10, 2016
And in the canoe slalom, Great Britain’s Joe Clarke has posted the third best time in the semi-finals to safely make the final. He’ll go third last in the medal showdown, which is scheduled to begin at 4:15,
Updated
In the weightlifting, Rebekah Tiler’s personal best equalling score of 227 was enough for second place in group B. Group A still to come.
So both Brits, Chloe Tutton and Molly Renshaw, advance to the semis as third and fourth quickest respectively. Yulia Efimova is also through as eighth fastest, Lilly King as 15th. A lot of swimmers holding something back for the semis and finals there.
The men’s 200m IM now, which is Michael Phelps v Ryan Lochte, which is always fun.
Efimova up now in the pool – she was absolutely nowhere after 100m but she’s now stepped on the afterburners, so to speak, and she touches home in third. She didn’t waggle her finger …
Great Britain have raced into a 2-0 lead against Argentina in the women’s hockey by the way – Kate Richardson-Walsh, she of the bashed up jaw at London 2012, scored the first, in fact she has both.
Updated
Great Britain’s Chloe Tutton comes third in her heat in an impressive swim and that should be fine to advance to the semis …
In the pool, as suspected, Lilly King has finished fifth in her 200m breaststroke heat and so may well not make it through. Great Britain’s Molly Renshaw was second though so has a better chance.
This is all news to me, but I would tend to agree with Sean … ridiculous.
This is ridiculous: Gabby Douglas is smiling and happy in the photo. Of course there was no disrespect. https://t.co/XuQXDAdieP
— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) August 10, 2016
And to confirm the quarter-final lineup …
Fiji v New Zealand – 5pm
Japan v France – 5:30pm
Great Britain v Argentina – 6pm
South Africa v Australia – 6:30pm
I think you may be right Mike …
I think that missed US conversion at end has kept NZ in - by a point #Rugby7s
— Michael Aylwin (@mdmaylwin) August 10, 2016
Confirmation that Fiji have beaten USA 24-19 in the rugby sevens which means they will play New Zealand in the next round, the All Blacks Sevens advancing by just a point …
Updated
In the rugby sevens, Fiji are leading by five against the USA which means New Zealand would squeeze through to the quarters by the narrowest of margins. Not long to go …
In the meantime, read about Great Britain’s progress to the last eight here.
A weightlifting update for you and news of a British personal best for Rebekah Tiler.
Ending with a clean and jerk of 126, Tiler equals her overall personal best of 227. Excellent stuff.
— Mark Staniforth (@markstani1) August 10, 2016
Up next in the pool, the women’s 200m breaststroke heats which means Lilly King and Yulia Efimova, round two … although King isn’t as strong in this event so perhaps not quite the tasty rematch that we’d hope for.
The men’s 200m backstroke heats have finished and Australia’s Mitch Larkin, the hot favourite for the 100m only to finish outside the medals, wins the last heat and advances as the third quickest behind Russia’s Evgeny Rylov and China’s Jiayu Xu.
Sally Conway is into the women’s -70kg semi-final, having eliminated the world and European champion in the last 16. She’ll be back on the mat at approximately 4pm.
And both Tim Kneale and Steve Scott are into the six-strong men’s double trap semi-final after advancing through a qualification round, that saw two Olympic records, in third and fourth place respectively.
Hello world! No time for small talk, straight into the action. Great Britain’s Joe Clarke is up soon in the K-1 canoe sprint after impressing in qualifying while Great Britain against Argentina has just started in the women’s hockey.
And I have news from the judo hall and the shooting range …
But that’s all from me this day - Gerard Meagher will take you through the next little bit, so thanks all for your company and comments.
Meanwhile Rebekah Tiler is getting going in the 69kg weightlifting.
Updated
In the pool, the men’s 200m backstrokers - surely they can’t be called that? - are starting their heats.
In the football, it’s Argentina 0-0 Honduras, Portugal 1-0 Algeria.
Bronte Campbell finished third and qualifies; her heat was won by old mate Sarah Sjostrom, gold medalist in the 100m butterfly and silver medalist in the 200m butterfly.
Only 15 places have been allocated for the semis - there will be a swim-off to determine the final competitor.
Argentina have beaten Brazil 31-0 in the rugby.
The day’s swimming is underway with the heats for the women’s 100m freestyle. Roughly the people who should win are winning, and Cate Campbell, Australia’s world record holder, has just streaked home despite the slowest start in the field. Bronte, her world champion sister, goes in the next race, and wasn’t at the meet where the world record went. Her da phoned to tell her, and she didn’t believe him.
In a day of weather-related disappointment, the cycling time trials did let no one down. Read Barry Glendenning on an incredible gold-medal winning performance from Fabian Cancellara - and a bronze for Chris Froome.
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Brazil do absolutely loads of half-time shouting, guaranteed to resolve the 19-0 deficit they face. They have all turned into Blanka.
“Fina have released a statement on the state of the water in the diving pool. Essentially it amounts to: don’t panic! trust us! Here’s the full thing: ‘FINA can confirm that the reason for the unusual water colour observed during the Rio 2016 diving competitions is that the water tanks ran out some of the chemicals used in the water treatment process. As a result the pH level of the water was outside the usual range, causing the discolouration. The FINA Sport Medicine Committee conducted tests on the water quality and concluded that there was no risk to the health and safety of the athletes, and no reason for the competition to be affected.’ They are, of course, an eminently competent governing body.”
Updated
And backed it up with a second try. They may well be GB’s next opponents.
In the sevens, Argentina have taken the lead against Brazil by way of unconverted try.
Tennis delayed another hour
Or 55 minutes from now. There are going to be some games at funny times, or some punishing schedules, if things don’t improve soon.
Argentina and Brazil have just started their sevens match; Argentina and Honduras - and Portugal and Algeria - have just started their football matches.
Fabian Cancellara is a happy man, and rightly so. He has taken the field apart, in tricky conditions, not just the best, but the best by far.
But spare a thought for Rohan Dennis, who finished nine seconds behind Froome, who spend more than nine seconds changing his bike. What can you do.
FABIAN CANCELLARA WIN GOLD FOR SWITZERLAND IN THE TIME TRIAL CYCLING
Silver goes to Tom Dumoulin of Netherlands.
Updated
CHRIS FROOME WINS BRONZE IN THE TIME TRIAL CYCLING
He found some extra gas from somewhere, punished himself some more, and got his druthers.
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Froome bousts around the final corner, face contorted in agony; can he grab bronze? YES HE CAN!
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And here comes Dumoulin, he’s 47 seconds slower than Cancellara - and into the silver medal position! Can Froome go fast enough to snaffle a bronze?
“A wild fire is currently raging in the hills above the Deodora Olympic Park, although sadly not close enough yet to show any signs of creeping down in the night and devouring the entire park leaving nothing standing to remember it by.
Meanwhile at the equestrian’s centre do hipismo - staffed naturally by men with beards and an interest in artisanal pickles - the first day of the dressage grand prix is well under way. Great Britain’s Spencer Wilton is currently in the lead after a round of 72.86, but a long way to run in this competition. Charlotte Dujardin, the horse dancing queen, is 52nd on the start list. She will be aiming to produce something near-perfect as anyone’s likely to get with her new, slightly secretive routine. I know what you’re thinking. Dressage. Meh. But this is a sport Dujardin (who is not, depsite her name, posh) has sent a bolt of electricity through, a kind of equine high art, with prancing. Well worth catching in about an hour from now.”
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Dumoulin is heading back towards the finish line, as Phinney finishes more than five minutes behind Cancellara.
Great Britain beat New Zealand 21-19!
GB top the group, NZ finish third.
Back in the rugby, New Zealand score another try, and though GB try and force the scorer wide, the conversion goes over anyway. 20 seconds left, one score needed to settle it for either side.
It’s hard to see how Cancellara can lose from here - there just isn’t anywhere that time can be made up. And he comes down the final stretch, and is 1:06:08 inside Castroviejo’s clubhouse lead.
New Zealand have made it 5-21 in the sevens - there are three and half minutes remaining. But there’s another try! 21-10! And it’s converted! New Zealand need two scores.
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So, what does Froome have left? It’s looking like Cancellara will take gold and Dumoulin silver, but bronze is still available, as Dennis finishes. Froome needs to make up ten seconds.
Dan Norton has scored another try for GB. They are looking ridiculously strong and powerful.
“If the gale blowing through the media tent is anything to go by, conditions out on the course must be very punishing. After 10 kilometres, Geraint Thomas posted a faster time than any of the 21 riders who set off before him and is now the leader in the clubhouse with a time that will almost certainly be beaten. In his final season as a professional cyclist, Swiss automaton Fabian Cancellara is the fastest man on the track so far, thanks in part to a mechanical suffered by Rohan Dennis who had been quicker but had to stop for a bike change. Chris Froome isn’t doing brilliantly, although it’s difficult to know if he’s pacing himself or having a bad day. In a race against the clock, it seems fitting that time will tell. The Swiss they call Spartacus looking good at the moment, but these climbs won’t be to his liking”.
And there’s another try for GB! James Davies, brother of Jonathan, draws the challenges, bundles through, and another conversion makes it 14-0.
In the dressage individual, Spencer Wilton of GB still leads, but has been joined by Allison Brock of USA.
Updated
GB and New Zealand are underway, and GB have done well to withstand the early barrage. And then some incredible skill from Norton is followed by a clever kick from Mark Bennett, who collects and scored under the posts! Over goes the conversion, and that’s 7-0.
“Popole Misenga, one of 10 athletes on the first ever Olympic Refugee Team, won his first-round match in the men’s 90kg draw over India’s Avtar Singh on last-second yuko after refusing to tap out during a 20-second armbar attempt. The inspired win drew raucous cheers from the near-full Carioca Arena 2. He would lose his following match by ippon against the top-ranked reigning world champion Gwak Dong-han of Korea for a ninth-place finish. A former judoka for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s national team, Misenga traveled to Brazil for the world championships three years ago and sought asylum here.”
Froome is nearly out of this. He’s 32 seconds off Cancellara which puts him in fourth place; he’s seven seconds off a medal, which might be doable.
Rohan Dennis has had to change his bike - that might just kill his medal hopes. Played by the helper though, who had the bike off the roof before the van had even stopped.
Tony Martin is two minutes off the pace.
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Cancellara turned over a 24-second between the second and third checks - he and Froome were level at the former.
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They reckon Cancellara saved himself for the dry roads on the descent, but however he’s done it, he’s in a very strong position.
Perhaps Dennis is tiring - or Cancellara was taking it easy. Because suddenly, he’s well ahead!
Froome is standing in the saddle now, preferring power over aerodynamics. He’ll need to have closed when he reaches the third check, else he’s not winning nowt.
Japan have beaten Kenya 31-7 in the sevens, and move on to the quarter-finals. They’re a serious medal threat.
Dennis has just finished a nasty hill and pegging it down, but he’s only holding his own against Castroviejo - perhaps he’s tiring.
19-7 to Japan now, so assuming they win and Argentina beat Brazil, New Zealand are out unless they beat Britain.
Updated
Tennis delayed a further hour, will not start before 1pm
Or in 45 minutes, minimum.
Dennis is ploughing up a hill along the coastal road. He looks very strong indeed.
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Froome is falling further behind - he’s 24 seconds slower than Rowan Dennis, who’s looking set. Dumoulin is second.
Chris Froome is supposedly 20 seconds off the pace - he’ll be at the second checkpoint soon, and will need to be closer than that.
Updated
Back to the sevens, Japan have just scored under the posts against Kenya - they lead 12-7, soon to be 14-7, you’d imagine.
Shafiq is out, but in the women’s 70kg judo, GB’s Sally Conway is looking good. She won her first match of the day in 57 seconds, and now, after a yellow card for non-combativity, she has beaten Gevrise Emane by ippon via Kami-shiho-gatame. She moves into the last eight.
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Shafiq is doing his best, but Butdee is bit canny for him, and has more power too. Not a helpful combination.
Shafiq has taken a booming overhand left to the full face of the face, and it sat him down sharpish. He lost round 2 10-8 across the board, and needs a stoppage to win.
Froome is only seventh at the first check, on terrain that should be good for him. There’s more than an hour of racing left, so plenty of time for him the remedy the situation, but that is not what the experts predicted. Geraint Thomas, meanwhile was third fastest with everyone now through the opening stretch.
Ashfaq has lost a busy first round on all three scorecard, while, before our next sevens match - Kenya v Japan - we see footage of what looks like a forest fire.
“No sooner had Chris Froome slid down the starting ramp as the last to go in the men’s time trial then the rain started up again. Feels more like a blustery day in Bridlington than the picture postcard setting the organisers had planned to be honest.”
Australia beat South Africa 12-5 in rugby sevens
Which I think means both move on, Australia by right and South Africa as a best loser.
Updated
Cancellara’s time for the first section was marginally quicker than Dennis’.
Team GB’a Qais Ashfaq is on his way to the ring for his bantamweight bout. He’ll fight Chatchai Butdee of Thailand.
Cancellara is 52 seconds ahead of Konig at the first check, but Konig, though the clubhouse leader, did not start quickly. We could use knowing how he did in relation to Dennis.
South Africa have scored against Australia in the rugby, but missed the conversion; they trail 12-5.
Rowan Dennis of Australia has beaten Geraint Thomas’ time through the first check, but only by a little.
Ding Ning is now 3-1 up in the table-tennis semi; in women’s hockey, Australia lead India 2-0; GB’s Spencer Wilton on Super Nova II leads the individual dressage.
And here comes Froom-o, the Froomester, Froominho, and Boardman reckons we can tell already that he’s going to attack this course. He really does look like someone very intent on winning, and equally intent on not being beaten.
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While we’re on the subject, why do supermarkets now sell basil in plant form, thus making your kitchen smell?
Australia now lead South Africa 12-0 in the sevens. It’s beginning to look like they must just australia this, while south africa southafrica it.
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Tony Martin, runner-up behind Bradley Wiggins last time, sets off. He’s not in the best of form, but is not unsuited to the course.
Geraint Thomas’ time at the first check is 22 seconds faster than the next best; Simon Geschke of germany is the new clubhouse leader.
And here goes Cancellara down the starting ramp! What has he left in the tank?
Jesse Parahi scores a try for Australia and it’s under the posts too, so will presumably be converted.
Second rugby sevens of the afternoon has begun - Australia must win to make the quarters.
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Preidler is our new leader in the cycling, while Philippa Matthews is killing two birds with one stone, calling her dressage horse Trotsky.
“Kristin Armstrong has done the UCI a massive favour by beating Olga Zabelinskaya, who won silver in the women’s time trial on Wednesday after serving an 18-month doping ban.
After the race, Zabelinskaya — who at 36 was the second oldest cyclist in the race, after 42-year-old Armstrong — insisted she was clean. Asked if she had ever doped, she said: “No. I have never in my life. Never.”
She said that the banned substance found in her urine, octopamine, could occur naturally after eating seafood. She said that when failed the drugs test, during competition in Costa Rica in spring 2014, she was breastfeeding her third child and was taking no medication at the time. “Any mother knows that if you breastfeed you can’t take anything,” she told the Guardian.
As for the alleged seafood link, she said: “We proved this, the microbiology, everything. I didn’t have time to go ahead with this procedure because I had to race and if I don’t race, I don’t go to the Olympics. So it was a two-way [choice] – to have a battle with the Court for Arbitration in Sport or to race. And I prefer to race and now I have this problem because I didn’t go to the end.”
She didn’t race for 18 months after failing the test and in February 2016, she accepted an 18 month ban, which she already served and which expired in September 2015.
The Russian said she didn’t think sport had a doping problem. “I believe that nobody takes nothing because I don’t take no doping and I don’t believe that somebody take this. If somebody think that somebody take, then he take also. Because if you are clean you think everybody is clean. I don’t believe when I hear that somebody have problem with doping, I don’t believe. I think there has been some mistake, because I don’t believe that somebody take this. I believe the people and I believe that all athletes are clean,” she said.
For her part, Armstrong insisted her victory wasn’t any sweeter for beating a doper. “I just race my own race,” she said, revealing that after she crossed the finish line, Zabelinsky came up and gave her a hug.
Zapelinskaya was one of 14 cyclists to have served drugs bans whose names were given by the UCI, cycling’s governing body, to the International Olympic Committee to decide.”
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The morning boxing session has started with the men’s light flyweight quarters. Joahnys Argilagos of Cuba bear Peter Mungai Warui of Kenya 3-0; the fight after the fight after next features GB’s Qais Ashfaq in the bantam prelims.
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Mizbanhi from Iran is the first finisher in the time trial, so there’s now a time to beat. It was 1:21:39.
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Some detail on that tennis delay, courtesy of PA:
“A packed schedule was due to feature the women’s singles quarter-finals and all eight men’s third-round matches as well as doubles. But the steady rain meant the start of the first women’s quarter-final between Madison Keys of the USA and Russia’s Daria Kasatkina on centre court was pushed back from 10.45am local time (2.45pm BST) until at least 11.30.
Play on the outside courts, which had been due to begin at 11, will not take place before midday.”
France have beaten Spain 26-5 in the sevens - and in just over an hour, we have Great Britain against New Zealand, who will be eliminated should they leave.
It’s still windy, but the rain appears to have stopped. Meanwhile, the BBC swimming team are chilling on the beach in the sun, which supports that localised point from earlier.
And her comes Geraint Thomas, the late entrant. Can he do a Denmark 1992?
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Edvald Boassen Hagen sets off, the first of the likely winners. He’s in a curious all-white number, with the Norwegian flag around his waist as though it’s constricting him.
Rugby sevens, the hit of the games so far, is up and running (very quickly) - France are 19-0 up on Spain in the second half.
We’re also two minutes away from the release of the sharp-teethed canines.
Geraint Thomas will be off in six minutes, while Jo Barlow’s horsename is “Gunnacomefourth”.
“Your dressage horse name is EITHER your surname in Spanish, Italian or German...” tweets D Young, “OR the first (proper) title word + any part of your favourite character’s name from your favourite novel.”
In which case, I am Windupbird Manskinner. I’ll take it.
Geschke of Germany is nearly three seconds ahead at the first time check, usurping Wellens of Belgium.
Ding has taken the first set from song in the table-tennis. They are really, really good if you fancy a look-in. I mean, of course they are, but the beauty of the game is that we’ve all had a go at it and can play a bit. And drum the ball prior to serving, “just to get the feel”.
Incidentally, Chris Froome will be setting off in 40 minutes, the final rider to get going. There are so many obscenely nails characters involved - it should be quite an afternoon.
“Dressage horsey name? Neighmar,” says Calie Rushton.
“Dressage horse name,” tweets Chris Mitchell. “Eric Canterna. We are doing puns, yes?”
Minds of my favourite play, Cantona Hot Tin Roof.
Talking of which, the weather is localised, no fronts or anything, so impossible to predict.
The weather for the cycling is kind of apt, given that the coastline is beautiful, and the sport is a suffering competition, so why should it be picturesque? Exactamundo.
“Snakebite or Pint’o’stella”, says Geoff Foley as to horse names; he’s obviously fairly well-to-do, as Stella can only be consumed from a can.
Xiaoxia Li of China has beaten Ai Fukuhara of Japan 4-0 in the women’s table-tennis semi-final. She’ll play either Ning Ding, also of China, or Kim Song I of North Korea in the final.
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Spain’s Claudio Castillo Ruiz, on Alcaide, leads the dressage currently; Akane Kuroki of Japan is second, riding Toots. I hope she has a twin called Sidney.
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Annoyance latest: tennis is delayed until 11.30am
Just what you need.
Meanwhile, Preidler is still in front in the cycling.
“Good morning from a grey and grizzly morning at Rodrigo de Freitas, where - for a second day this week - the rowing has been postponed. We’ve just been speaking to David Tanner, the performance director of British rowing, who is predicting more bad weather tomorrow.
‘I’m not going to be a meteorologist but tomorrow doesn’t look great,’ he said. ‘FISA, the governing body of world rowing, will do their very best to finish this by Saturday morning because if you go into Sunday morning there is no escape if bad weather turns up, and what we do know is that the weather here has been quite unpredictable. We can’t go past lunchtime on Sunday - after that the canoeing course is set up which takes nine to ten hours and have nine lanes and that need reconfiguring. think we will have problem tomorrow, looking at the forecast, but then you have Friday and Saturday they can fit all the racing into those two days.’
Still it could be worse: I am sat next to one British journalist who has been here three times - once for the media day, and again on Sunday and today, and is yet to see a stroke in anger.”
“What would I call my dressage horse?” tweets Rich B. “Horsey McHorseface, obviously.”
Strangely apt.
What would you call your dressage horse? I’m going for Socialist Worker.
The dressage prelims are well underway, and scrolling down the names of horses, there’s a Bukowski, a Rolex - dearie me - and Donnperignon (one word). But, on first glance, Jimmie Choo Seq has me scratching my head hardest, which is the point, right?
The roads look much cleaner now, so there’ll be a distinct advantage to going last, more so than usual. But we’ve still a while to wait before things start happening in earnest - in the meantime, Georg Preidler of Austria is ahead.
Boardman tells us that he used to start with glasses and often throw them away, with rain in coupon preferable to constant clearing of vision.
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“A three-part name where the parts can appear in any order”, tweets Joe Cox about our pal Brent. Anymore for any more?
Tim Wellens of Belgium is about to set off, and he’s the last member of the first group. But the big dawgs are all still in the hatch, as we learn the Sepulveda is now in the lead.
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Ouch. Brent Bookwalter of USA - great name, sir - touched the breaks going round the corner, crashed, and ripped his top. He’s fine, and now looks like Hulk.
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Your medal table:
The Argentina flag that’s blowing as Eduardo Sepulveda sets off tells us that’s it’s still windy as a summer’s day in San Franciso. I wonder if the men have picked up any tips from watching the women.
We’re underway in the men’s time trial, and also in the team and individual equestrian.
“An unbelievable story in the women’s time trial. America’s Kirstin Armstrong, the oldest woman in the race by eight years, has won. She turns 43 tomorrow and has just won her third consecutive gold medal. She beats London 2012 bronze medalist Olga Zabelinskaya, who served an 18-month ban after failing a drug test between London 2012 and Rio 2016 into second place. Anna van der Breggen from the Netherlands was third.”
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So, it’s Armstrong, who has retired twice, gets gold, Zabelinskya silver, and Van der Breggen bronze, added to her gold from the road race.
Armstrong is now beginning to cry, and flexing three fingers. What a ridiculous achievement this is. What ridiculous mental strength.
Kristin Armstrong wins time trial gold for USA
Armstrong of USA leads! 5.55 seconds inside the leading time, the oldest rider in the race, a day before her 43rd birthday, and that’s her third consecutive gold medal in this event! What a ridiculous effort! She comes off her bike and puts herself in the recovery position, but seems fine.
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We see Zabelinskya shaking someone - she seems to think that she’s going to win, not all that long after coming back from a doping ban. But Armstrong pushing is into a headwind, and here she comes!
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Villumsen finishes in fifth place.
Zabelinskya is now the overall leader; Linda Villumsen is in pursuit, but not near enough to do anything but snatch bronze. It’s looking like only Armstrong is in striking distance of gold, of those left on the course...
Zabelinskya of Russia is going well, to general surprise - there’s no camera on her, on that basis.
Ellen van Dijk is pacing to the line, and she’s the new leader! Inside Longo Borghini’s time by a little over three seconds! Gosh, she must be fuming already about that little accident earlier.
Pooley is disappointed, but doesn’t regret coming back - gave it her all, wasn’t quick enough, not the fault of the conditions.
And already, Whitten is out of top spot, Longo Borghini 9.22 seconds slower. Meanwhile, Armstrong is through the second checkpoint in second place.
Cloud is now higher in the sky, he typed looking at his ceiling. But the weather is more, though not very, clement - which will not please Tara Whitten, praying for rain like Choni HaMagel.
We’re with Brennauer of Germany, who’s trying to step it up, and see Duyck of Germany coming into finish. Van der Breggen, meanwhile, is third at the second checkpoint.
Karol-Ann Canuel of Canada has finished and done well enough to barge Pooley out of the top three. And we’re now fairly close to business end of things, with the top lot starting to plan their finishes.
Pooley is bousting into the finish, and she’s 1:30.82 behind Tara Whitten. That puts her on lounger three for now, but she’ll not be there long.
Boardman reminds us that radios, forbidden in the road race, are permitted in the time trial. So they know where they are and what they need to do - and I guess, where others have come a cropper.
Calie Rushton tweets on the subjected of Sunday’s crash: “Re Anna’s crash I’d say she braked too hard on the front from how the back wheel lifted, but can’t bear another look to check.”
In a move of bitter irony, the chairs occupied by finishers in first, second and third place are in fact sun loungers.
On which point, Tara Whitten is done, 1:41.94 in front of the previous leader.
But we have a new leader - sort of - Kristin Armstrong of USA, last to go out, was fastest at the first time check. She’s also got a nose bleed, by the look of things - if her mum’s reading, she was just itching.
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Yonamine of Japan has finished, 1m16s and change quicker than Plichta - she’ll shovel her off the big chair. But Longo Borghini is still in charge, and I wonder, in conditions such as these, it makes sense to go off dead fast, on the basis that no one will be able to trust the roads enough to catch up.
It’s not going well for Emma Pooley, who is now far enough behind to be certain of not getting a medal. Boardman, meanwhile, reckons Van der Breggen is the favourite, and she’s looking very strong.
Plichta is round the course and done - she’ll sit in the leader’s chair, for as long as it takes someone else to get there.
Longo Borghini still leads, with Evelyn Stevens, formerly of Lehman Brothers, more than a minute behind - this is a great ride by the Italian so far.
“Truth is Ipenema today looks pretty much like Whitley Bay”, tweets Carole Bromley in verse.
Rain in Rio is better than sun in Hounslow.
Elisa Longo Borghini is ahead now, and oh dear - Ellen van Dijk has gone into the bushes at the foot of the climb. There’s no damage, though, so all she;s lost is rhythm.
“Far be it from me to attempt to contradict the oracle Naylor, emails Charlie Talbot, “but whilst the road was pretty inappropriate and the street furniture/storm drain utterly unforgiving the crash was actually caused by her riding over the road markings and losing grip on the paint. Exactly the same initial cause to Froome’s spill on the TDF descent but sadly thanks to the road layout with much worse consequences.”
Unforgiving storm drains is a new one on me, though “street furniture” is a phrase I learnt as a student, in conversation with a policeman who stopped me walking through the street at four in the morning, wearing a roadblock. Oh, how they laughed.
Emma Pooley is 33 seconds off the lead at the first checkpoint - that puts her second, though of course, the better riders have yet to reach that point.
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Tara Whitten, the 2010 Commonwealth champion, looks to be going well. But the majority of the medal threats have yet to get very far, though Anna van der Breggen, road race champion, recently set off.
“Everybody trying to avoid the white line, or the yellow line in this case,” might be my favourite commentary of the Olympics so far. Well-in Chris Boardman.
“Inappropriate road”, pshaws Helen Goulden. “Why be euphemistic? It was downright rude.”
Cobbles are for Corrie.
The Belgian cyclists are effectively clad in that lovely away kit that was more or less disgraced in Euro 2016. I wonder if we’ll see more of that - though it’d also be nice to see more Croatia, national flag-style, as worn today by Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Poland.
Yonamine of Japan is the early leader, one minute and nine seconds ahead of Whitten.
Gary Naylor tweets an answer to Dan Thomas: “The crashes were caused by racing bikes downhill pretty much flat out: the consequences were caused by an inappropriate road.”
Audrey Cordon of France has a splendid name, but also a problem - she’s been caught and passed by Tara Whitten of Canada. It’s unlikely that’s simply because she’s not riding fast enough, as there was 90 seconds between them to begin with and they’ve not gone very far.
Eeek. We’ve just seen Lottie Kopecky of Belgium winding round a downhill corner with a foot out - or, in other words, you have to ride even slower than you thought, and can’t hit the breaks because you’ll go over the handlebars.
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In little over an hour, the dressage will begin - get yourself ready for that with this video explainer.
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“If you get bored of the sight of endless skin-suited women rolling down a ramp and onto a wet road, read this excellent ESPN profile of the defending champion, Kristin Armstrong, who sets off last today. The American turns 43 tomorrow and her five-year-old son is here today cheering his mum along. Armstrong - no relation - is an old-school Olympian, in that she actually has a proper job and just rides in her spare time. She works as a community health director in Boise, Idaho. Her selection for this year’s Games was not without controversy, with some suggesting her best form was now behind her. I would not write her off. She won the 2015 USA national champion ships in the individual time trial and was second in GC at the 2016 Tour of California.”
The starter is wearing a rather fetching pair of mustard-coloured, calf-hugging chinos, moving the conversation on from red and green. You can always rely on Rio.
Emma Pooley, who came out of retirement specially for this - and to work for Lizzie Armitstead in the road race - is on her way.
“Question,” emails Tim Todhunter. “What do people think the crashes on the weekend were caused by? Annemiek van Vleuten seemed to lose traction and go sideways before she went over her bars - was it the camber, or the surface, or the rain or... what?”
I’ll have to open this one out to the experts, for I am not one. I’ve not been on two wheels since falling off a moped in Ios, summer 1999.
“Understandable emphasis on medals,” emails Dan Thomas, “but I would prefer an overall points table based on something like: 5 points gold, 3 points silver, 2 points bronze and 1 point for each athlete finalling (verb intended!). Think it would be a better overview of nation performance and personally I like it when an athlete gets into the final bundle and it rewards 4 years work. Clearly this system doesn’t work for all sports - any thoughts?”
“If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing,” said Bill Shankly, and though it’s not as straightforward as that, winning and getting down to the last few - or not few in some events - can’t be measured on that scale. In mine.
“In hot pursuit is Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky, who zipped off on an heroic but ultimately doomed solo breakaway in Sunday’s road race. We will find out if the 20-year-old kept enough in the tank to challenge here, but she’s only the second best individual time trialist in Belgium so it seems unlikely. (The best is Ann-Sophie Duyck, who will set off shortly after Emma Pooley.) “
Plichta is now ploughing up a hill, though it’s not actually a particularly long one. But it’s sufficient to the calves going.
The route takes the riders along the sea-front, which is nice. Meanwhile, Mark asks as follows: “Any idea how the running order for the TT is determined?”
In theory, the best go last - it’s not quite according to ranking, with attention also paid to form. How does form in cycling work? I can see it in sprint finishes, when sometimes you might see the route through, but otherwise, is it not a synonym for fitness, more or less?
The riders are speeding up a little on a “fast, sweeping road” - but it’s not going to get any the less gloomy by the sound of things.
“First down the ramp in a very damp and murky Pontal should be Poland’s Anna Plichta. The 23-year-old from Krzywaczka isn’t yet a big name in the sport, with her best result to date 10th in GC at the 2014 Thuringen-Rundfahrt and a second place in this year’s Polish national championships. Like a lot of time-triallists who aren’t Emma Pooley, Plichta is quite a strapping lass, standing 176cm (5’9) without her cycling shoes on.”
Anna Plichta of Poland is first at Pontal, and she’s taking care at the first corner, which is particularly slippy. The majority of the corse is “untechnical”, apparently, so the rain might not intervene too much.
Right, here goes with the women’s time trial.
John Inverdale has just heard that a double-drop of rowing is likely on Friday. Let’s see...
Boardman also thinks that the weather will help Emma Pooley of Team GB, winner of the silver medal in Beijing and an outside bet to medal, podium, rostrum and verb here.
It is not a nice day in Hio. The wind and rain will be particularly ill-received by the road cyclists, who’ll be using wider tyres so they’ve got the confidence to push hard. But in general, they’ll need to exercise caution on the descents. Well, that’s what I think Chris Boardman thinks.
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Points for discussion:
- Is there anyone who has been to Rio who doesn’t believe it to be the greatest city in the world?
- Olympic anecdotes
- Olympic miscellany
Email and Twitter addresses below.
Anyhow, even without the rowing, we’ve still got a marriage plenty to keep us entertained and enthralled, starting with the women’s individual time trial, which seems not to take a hyphen; I’d have awarded it one myself. Nonetheless, it begins in 13 minutes.
Send other bad puns and observations to daniel.harris.casual@theguardian.com, or tweet @DanielHarris.
ROWING SUSPENDED FOR THE DAY. SAKE.
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION: Racing postponed. No racing today. A new schedule will be announced soon. #rowing #rio2016
— World Rowing (@WorldRowing) August 10, 2016
But fear not - there remains plenty of scope for arguments, disagreements and fights.
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Greetings all, and welcome to yet another day of the nowhere over run of days of wall-to-wall, ear-to-ear, Soul II Soul elite sport. Well-in, world!
And on that note, I’m off. Thanks for your company through the graveyard shift. It’s now over to Daniel Harris to kick off the day five action. See you tomorrow.
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JUST IN: we have an Andy Bull exclusive from the pool. This is messy.
The credibility of Olympic swimming, already suffering from spats and doping scandals, has been further damaged by serious discrepancies in the entry times of a number of competitors.
Barry Glendenning is finally off the bus having made it to the cycling time trials, beginning in half an hour. Conditions sound a bit grim, though:
“The bus that was bringing us to another bus has successfully completed its missions and the other bus is now taking us to the start of the cycling time trials. I said earlier that the conditions were drying up, but as we approach the start of the time trial, the rain is actually getting worse. It’s dark, overcast, and chucking it down. The first of the women are due to set off in just over half an hour and if the roads stay wet, then descents are likely to play a much greater role in deciding this time trial than anyone originally imagined. It’s also quite windy, which will effect all concerned as they cycle along the coast”
USA! USA! One for the Americans: this is where you’re going to scoop up all your gold on day five.
Yep, Team GB only have one Gold so far. But as Jacob Steinberg writes, you just gotta chillllll ooooout about it. It’s just like London, you see:
It was on day five, in 2012, that Heather Stanning and Helen Glover became the first British female rowers to win an Olympic title and Sir Bradley Wigginsfollowed suit later on in the men’s time trial. But the day before there had been similar disquiet to now, with the British Olympic Association forced to calm a few nerves. “The athletes remain confident,” Andy Hunt, the chef de mission, said as the mood turned jittery and angry mobs brandishing pitchforks and torches descended on the Olympic Park in Stratford (that’s how I remember it). “There is no sense at all among the team that we are not delivering. We are on plan.
Some beautiful imagery and informative words here: how the US women won the gymnastics teams event. Make sure if this comes up on any highlights package that you stop what you are doing and take a look. Quite stunning.
And now an official postponement at the rowing. Far from ideal after the lost day earlier in the week.
ROWING: Racing has been postponed here in Rio due to weather conditions. More updates to follow #OneTeam
— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) August 10, 2016
There’s some talk about that the rowing may again be suspended today due to heavy winds. A decision expected to be made soon. We’ll bring that news to you as soon as it comes in, one way or another.
USA’s World Cup winning women’s football team suffered a bit of a scare overnight, registering a 2-all draw against Colombia. However, Beau Dure believes they are in pretty good shape to defend their gold from London.
They play Sweden in the round of eight on Friday.
And before we completely turn our attention to today, take one more look into recent history with Claire Phipps daily briefing that captures all you need to know about what went on in Rio on day four. It’s an excellent daily email as well, showing up in your inbox just as you wake up in Britain. You can sign up here.
It’s morning in Brazil. Coming up to 7:20am to be precise. About time to start sifting through the schedule for the long day and night to come. Anyone out there setting their internal body clock to local Olympics time so not to miss anything? I gave that a go for Athens in 2004. Must be why I was so popular at university.
I like the look of this as well, take a run and make it like you’re going around the Rio marathon course. In your ears at least. Informative and healthy.
We have the start list for the time trials as well, the first of the big events on day five. Helen Pidd is there on the ground.
Start lists for the TTs. Reigning Olympic champ @k_armstrong rides last. Froome (bronze 2012) last of the blokes. pic.twitter.com/A6871okSxx
— Helen Pidd (@helenpidd) August 10, 2016
Barry Glendinning is gearing up coverage of the cycling time trials, starting in about 90 minutes (8:30am local). Here is his preview from the bus:
“It’s 6.51am local time and myself and Proper Journalist Helen Pidd are on a bus, which is taking us to get another bus, which will hopefully take us to the start and finishing point of the cycling time trials. For reasons that aren’t quite clear, the women’s begins at 8:30am and will be followed at 10am by the men’s.
Emma Pooley goes for Great Britain in the opener, having come out of a bike-racing retirement spent doing triathlons because she liked the look of the hilly course. It’s a schlep around the Grumari circuit, the 25 kilometre loop which featured in both road races and has two fairly stiff climbs (not to be confused with the VIsta Chinesa Circuit, whereAnnemiek van Vleuten, VIncenzo Nibali, Geraint Thomas and Sergio Henao all crashed on the descent). Pooley looked more than at home on the Grumari on Sunday as she gave the peloton a good tow around it.
In the men’s time trial, Chris Froome and Thomas go for Team GB, the latter a late entrant after the high rate of attrition in the road race having left a few vacancies in the starting line-up. Thomas has recovered from the injuries he suffered in his fall on Saturday, while Froome is the favourite for the race. It was raining earlier, which he won’t like, but appears to be drying up now. Pooley and Froome may be concerned by my presence at their events, because after just four days of competition, I’m already streaking clear in the Guardian Rio 2016 “Jonah” table. Events featuring genuine British medal contenders covered: 4. Events in which these medal contenders have made the podium: 0.”
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Lost a bit overnight is that Serena Williams has been bundled out (in only tennis can one be bundled out, right?) of the women’s singles; a straight sets job by Elina Svitolina. Contrary to some reports the Ukrainian isn’t a total unknown, featuring in the top 20. What she will be is popular with the rest of the field for eliminating Williams, who was trying to defend her gold from London.
Serena Williams crashes out in third round after shock defeat to Elina Svitolina https://t.co/23su8QsYSO
— The Guardian (@guardian) August 10, 2016
James McNulty has dropped us a line from Zambia, where he has “shelled out the best part of a hundred quid to watch the Olympics on satellite TV.”
I call that commitment to the values that underpin Olympism. Nicely done. James goes on to address the earlier question about cross-event entertainment:
“I’d propose combining the pole vault with archery. Extra points if you can hit the bulls eye pasted on the pole vaulter’s abdomen from the OTHER side of his or her body. I also humbly resubmit the idea that all the Olympic gold winners have a massive game of dodgeball to find the overall winner.”
I’d veto the first on the basis that in 2016 that can only end up going wrong. But the latter could be a closing ceremony staple.
More on Phelpsy. As we noted this morning, with a couple more gold medals overnight he’s jumped into 39th position of all time... as a country. Level with Ethiopia, and now well clear of Argentina. With three gold medals in four days, we can surely already declare this the most successful comeback in the history of swimming. As if he wasn’t the best ever in enough ways. Seems like a really nice fella, too. Probably calls his parents a couple of times a week and never forgets a birthday.
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Bet Michael Phelps rounds his medals up and tells his mates he got "30-odd"
— The Grade Cricketer (@gradecricketer) August 10, 2016
Also in that piece there is a reference to the St Louis Olympics/shambles of 1904:
“And yet here is where things get complicated. The St Louis Olympics were essentially a farce, such an outrageous joke that there have been movements to eliminate them from the record completely. They were originally awarded to Chicago but moved to St Louis because the city was hosting the World’s Fair that year and wanted the Games to be a part of the exhibition. As a result, the events weren’t really an Olympics but rather a series of sporting contests held sporadically over five months.”
Which gives me a chance to link to one of the funniest podcasts I’ve ever happened upon, The Dollop’s take on St Louis. From memory there’s plenty of adult language, but you’ll swear too when hearing about some of the carry on. Have a listen at lunch, or while pretending to work.
The USA are about to win their 1000th Summer Olympics medal. Or is it their 999th? Historians duking it out in their mission for the truth, reported by Les Carpenter in Rio:
“You sticking point is that the US has a problem with their 1,000th gold medal. It may not be their 1,000th but rather their 999th or maybe their 1,001st. As with much of history, it’s a matter of interpretation and the primary interpreters cannot agree.”
Here’s Marina Hyde with a philosophical-to-sarcastic take on drugs in sport:
“Maybe Olympic sport is just another thing that people perceive as lying to them. The call for chemical libertarianism has many of the hallmarks of other radical populist shifts: it is founded in profound disillusionment, it is a devil-may-care revolt, and it is already handily rooted in nationalism (international sport being a place where an open distaste for the foreigner is positively encouraged). From the Republican party to Brexit, people are moving against dysfunctional established systems, which could certainly include anti-doping laws.”
In response to the earlier poser there’s a suggestion to me on twitter that equestrian horses should trampoline. I’ll let that go.
Meanwhile, Raymond Reardon predicts Team GB will thrive “once the darts, snooker and spilling beer competitions commence.”
Or recommence. You never know what featured in Olympics of yesteryear. Cricket got a go in 1900 much the amusement of many of us pushing for its introduction from 2024 onwards. Then? A couple of club sides, one representing England, and the other France. Sure.
They got beat 6-1, but how about this last minute celebration from Zimbabwe’s Msipa Emmaculate? Worth noting they were down 6-nil at the time. Australia’s medal-hunting Matildas proceed to the round of eight, where they will come up against the hosts Brazil, or powerhouse USA.
When you are losing 6-0 , score and think, 'Why not celebrate with our choreographed dance?'. #rio2016
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 10, 2016
https://t.co/bUb5oForwO
Another great shot from overnight in Rio from over at the beach volleyball.
I asked, you responded. Tom Sneddon, again: “Which athletes would you love to see compete against each other in the other’s events: eg weightlifters in the rowing to see how their huge upper bodies cope vs rowers in the weightlifting to see whether their strength training would make them competitive.”
Most worthy for this time of day. Hit me.
But all I can think when you put that is whether there will ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark?
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For the record. I said I wasn’t going to post this, but Australia is actually doing better in the real table (fourth) than the per-capita one (sixth). Thanks to Tom Sneddon on the email for clearing that up. Forza Kosovo.
That’s a good prompt. Let’s correspond. As I said off the top, this is the graveyard shift after all. Push the boat out there a little bit. Either Adam.Collins.Freelance@theguardian.com or @collinsadam will do the trick.
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This is a bit tasty. Mark Cavendish has had a flick at Sir Wiggo for his omission from the team pursuit starting four...
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Just cruising through the medal table. My countrymen and women of Australia are taking the 1996 Nike advertising campaign “you don’t win silver, you lose gold” quite seriously, not a single medal of the Ag variety as yet. Meanwhile, Japan have the third most medals on 14, but sit in eight spot as ten of them are bronze.
Later, I’ll post that thing we antipodeans love during Olympics, reverse-engineering the medal tally to reflect our modest population. “Here’s How Many We’d Have If We Were As Big As America/China!”, and all that. Actually, I won’t. But believe me when I say it is a thing.
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The Olympic Games are many things, including the place where sports photographers do some of their most memorable work. I could trawl through shots all day, and probably will. Here’s a gallery of the best of day four to get the heart pumping.
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Get your highlights! 67 seconds of the best (for UK viewers only, I’m afraid). Phelpsy’s brace, of course. Also Siobhan-Marie O’Connor’s unbelievable swim to take silver for Team GB in the 200IM, and a taste of some of most breathtaking gymnastics you’ll ever see from America’s women.
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I better give you a pic of it, then. The green pool, in contrast. Very 2016.
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The diving pool has turned green. You can’t make this stuff up. Here’s our report from Elle Hunt, punctuated by plenty of high-quality tweets, as you’d expect in the circumstances. Bound to be some of the most iconic images of these Games.
“An official statement on “#greenpool” is understood to be being prepared by the organising committee for imminent release.” You’d hope so.
As promised some more words on the Phelps’ triumph, some excellent ones via Sean Ingle who was privileged to witness it, who also heard from the champ himself after the fact.
“All athletes try to find “the zone” when they compete, that mystical state where everything flows like water and the mind develops tunnel vision. For Phelps, however, this is more like a war zone. His geeky, easy going demeanour was replaced by thunder. The blood-red crop circles on his back – the effects of the controversial Chinese healing technique of ‘cupping’ – only added to the overall effect.”
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The main thing to know as you wake up in this part of the world is that Michael Phelps won the 200 fly again, his 20th gold medal. Later in the night he anchored the USA’s 4x200 freestyle relay to collect his 21st. I’ll save the superlatives for those on the ground enjoying writing on it late into the night.
But (I dig this stat) it now makes Phelps the 39th most successful country in the history of the Olympics. Cop that.
And it’s a longevity story as well. He first competed in the pet event at Sydney in 2000, coming fifth as a 15 year old lad. That was 5804 days ago. Or just short of 15 years and 11 months, if that’s how your brain works. Think about what you were doing then. I had an undercut.
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Good morning from London, where it’s Adam Collins here bringing you the graveyard shift and I’m feeling Olympic. We can get a bit funky during the graveyard shift, so don’t be shy in getting involved the old fashioned way at adam.collins.freelance@theguardian.com or @collinsadam in the new money.
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Day five briefing
After a day in which the pool turned green, Michael Phelps turned even more gold, and Simone Biles turned sideways, upside-down and virtually inside-out, what will day five bring?
The big picture
The insuperable Phelps took his 20th and 21st Olympic gold medals as those late-night swimming bouts continued to go his way. Teammate Katie Ledecky strolled off with her second gold of the Games, and the US women caused gasps (of the wow kind, not the surprised kind) taking top spot in the team gymnastics final. All of which kept Team USA in the medal table top spot, a stretch ahead of China, whose synchronised diving pair of Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia nabbed a gold in the jade-hued pool.
Team GB waited all day for a medal and then, wouldn’t you know it: two came along in quick succession and in the dead of (BST) night as well. It was silver for Siobhan-Marie O’Connor in the women’s 200m individual medley, and for Stephen Milne, Duncan Scott, Dan Wallace and James Guy in the men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay.
Hungary has leapfrogged Australia into third place in the medal table, thanks to Katinka Hosszú, who holds 50% of her country’s medal haul.
And spare a thought for journalists covering the Rio Games (and not a “jammy bastards” thought): on Tuesday night a bus carrying reporters to the Olympic park was attacked – whether by bullets or stones is unclear – leaving three people with minor injuries.
You should also know:
- Syrian refugee Rami Anis records personal best in 100m freestyle heats.
- Japan rock the old order again as Olympic rugby sevens takes hold.
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China falls in love with swimmer Fu Yuanhui and her ‘mystic energy’.
- Trail-blazer Zahra Nemati wins hearts and minds with stirring effort in archery.
Picture of the day
It’s Simone Biles. Every day it could be Simone Biles.
Diary
All times are local: add four hours for UK, add 13 hours for eastern Australia; subtract one hour for east-coast US and four for west coast. See the full timetable for your timezone here. Here’s a smattering of the highlights:
- Rowing in the morning, with golds to come in the men’s quadruple sculls at 10.10am – Australian and Team GB fours feature here – and the women’s at 10.34am.
- Team GB gold hopes centre on Chris Froome in the men’s individual road cycling time trial: that’s at 10am. The women’s event comes at 8.30am.
- No medals today, but in the equestrian field, the team and individual dressage gets going at 10am.
- Also not a final but some men’s rugby sevens to monitor: South Africa v Australia at 11.30am, New Zealand v GB at 12.30pm and Fiji v USA at 1.30pm, among others.
- The hockey pool matches continue: women first with India v Australia at 11am, GB v Argentina at 1.30, and USA v Japan at 5pm. Team GB’s men take on Australia at 8.30pm.
- At 12 noon it’s the first of two shooting finals, with the 50m men’s pistol, followed at 3.45pm by the men’s double trap.
- In the canoe slalom, the men’s kayak (K1) final is at 3.15pm.
- Two weightlifting finals: the women’s 69kg at 3.30pm (watch out for Team GB’s Rebekah Tiler) and the men’s 77kg at 7pm.
- At 4pm, the men’s gymnastics individual all-around final springs into action. Max Whitlock is Team GB’s best chance, but Japan’s Kohei Uchimura is the gymnast to beat.
- There’s also diving at 4pm in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard final; Team GB’s world bronze medallists Jack Laugher and Chris Mears step up.
- We’ll see two new judo golds: at 5pm in the women’s -70kg and 5.20pm in the men’s -90 kg.
- Two fencing finals: at 8.15pm the women’s individual foil, followed by the men’s individual sabre at 8.45pm.
- We get the winner of the women’s table tennis singles at 9.30pm.
- And there’s more swimming gold: the men’s 200m breaststroke at 10.03pm; the women’s 200m butterfly at 10.54pm; the men’s 100m freestyle at 11.03pm; and the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay at 11.55. See the roundups below for who to cheer on.
Team GB roundup
Day four was quiet but night four was not: Siobhan-Marie O’Connor swiped an impressive swimming silver behind the mighty Katinka Hosszú of Hungary (her third Rio gold) in the women’s 200m individual medley; before the men’s team did the same in the 4x200m freestyle relay. The US won that one, obviously.
Elsewhere, the rowing was up and down, with Vicky Thornley and Katherine Grainger one of three crews to push through to the finals, and two others – the women’s lightweight double sculls and men’s lightweight four – ending their Rio run.
It was a painful last-placed finish for David Florence – a medal hopeful in the canoe slalom. France’s Denis Gargaud Chanut took gold.
Day five promises better, with Chris Froome hitting the road in the individual time trial, for one (see diary above for the full rundown).
Insomniacs will be thrilled to learn that Duncan Scott made it into the men’s 100m freestyle final and will swim at 3.03am BST in the early hours of Thursday. Andrew Willis topped his semifinal with a personal best in the men’s 200m breaststroke; that final is at the slightly less eyelid-testing UK time of 2.03am.
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Jo Konta beat Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the last eight in the tennis singles – and Andy Murray beat Juan Mónaco in his second-round match.
- Giles Scott took his first steps out of Ben Ainslie’s sailing shadow.
Team USA roundup
So Michael Phelps did win his 20th gold medal, with a win in the men’s 200m butterfly. And then he won his 21st as the American men walked away, while in fact still swimming, with the 4x200m freestyle relay.
The also astonishing Katie Ledecky snapped up another gold in the women’s 200m freestyle, making her only the third woman to win gold in both the 200m and 400m freestyle at the same Olympics.
And that’s before you scroll back to the women’s gymnastics finals, where Team USA comprehensively ran, jumped and twisted away with the gold medal. The team – Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian – took top marks in all four disciplines and won by a margin bigger than all five of them standing on each others’ shoulders: 8.209 points.
Elsewhere on day four, a handful of unscripted errors by Hope Solo helped Colombia to a 2-2 draw with the US women’s football team, which nonetheless tops Group G to soldier on to the knockout stages. And Travis Stevens took a silver in the men’s -81kg judo.
Back in the pool for day five, Nathan Adrian will be looking forward to the final of the men’s 100m freestyle this evening, having topped the semis; he’ll be joined by Caeleb Dressel, both of them already gold winners in the 4x100m relay.
Australia team roundup
Success in the pool for Emma McKeon, who grabbed a bronze in the women’s 200m freestyle, a coup she put down to “just being tough”. But there was less of a splash from the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team, who landed fourth; and Alicia Coutts finished fifth in the final of the women’s 200m individual medley, in what will be her last individual swim of three Olympic campaigns.
The men – Tom Fraser-Holmes, David McKeon, Daniel Smith and Mack Horton – did snag an early lead in the relay but couldn’t hold off the inevitable Phelps-led US win. Cameron McEvoy, presumed to be in need of a rest after his individual 100m freestyle semi-final earlier in the evening, was withdrawn from the team. He’ll line up alongside Kyle Chalmers for that final around noon Thursday AEST.
On dry land, there was bronze too in the equestrian eventing team competition, behind France and Germany. The Matildas cheered a 6-1 victory over Zimbabwe in the women’s football but now face a stamina-jangling quarter-final match against Brazil or the US.
And Kim Brennan and Rhys Grant in, respectively, the women’s and men’s single scull are through to the semifinals.
Underdog of the day
For the second time, this award goes to an athlete who’s put Serena Williams out of the Olympics: after the Williams sisters’ doubles defeat, on day four it was the turn of Elina Svitolina to send Serena packing in the third round of the women’s singles.
Rio is the first Olympics for the Ukrainian player, who had lost on all four previous occasions she’d faced Williams. And the world number one’s reaction? “The better player won.”
Tweet of the day
Where are they now, eh?
10 years ago: A 9-year-old named Katie Ledecky gets an autograph from Michael Phelps (Credit: Ledecky Family) pic.twitter.com/oOOPns5mor
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 10, 2016
If today were a c19th fairytale
It would be Charles Kingsley’s the Water-Babies. Olympic swimming: where even the old ones are young.
And another thing
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