It’s time now to say goodbye to this blog, and to sign into the next one, where Tom Lutz will bring you the finish. Will Wellbrock hold on? He looks to have it in his grasp but you just never know in the world of open-water marathon swimming. The gap is getting closer with 2km to go or so. And Gregorio Paltrinieri, the man with a sprint finish, is lurking in second.
More feeding, more whistling as the swimmers go into it. All of them take a long drink though it looks like Olivier missed his feed which may be a crucial error. Paltrinieri’s Italian team doing plenty of shouting and the pack concertinas, with Athanasios Kynigakis of Greece in there, as well as Israel’s Matan Roditi to form a leading pack of six. Paltrinieri ends up back in fifth.
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Olivier has gone into second, and has done much of his work amid the waves of Wellbrock, who is pushing the pace along and wants to keep the likes of Gregorio Paltrinieri away for a sprint finish. He’s got a gap of almost seven seconds on Rasovszky, though the gap to the chasers looks shorter each time.
Weertman makes his way along the field but is 40 seconds behind the top four. A flying fish leaps over the hands of Wellbrock as he sails along at the front. There’s the first sound of a whistle too, as Paltrinieri, who was by far the fastest on that previous lap, lurks with intent. Hau-Li Fan of Canada is in fifth, leading the chasing pack.
Wellbrock is back in front, after perhaps idling on that lap. His long stroke looks comfortable too, with Olivier far more rapid in his stroke-making. The gap to the chase group now down to 15 seconds, almost half of what it had gone up to. More feeding approaches, and Wellbrook and the other two take long feeds. The energy levels must be sapping by now. Paltrinieri et al are now very close to the lead group, with the Italian leading the charge.
The gap closing to the pack? It looks that way. Wellbrock is sat off Olivier, perhaps because of the backwash ahead of him. And Kristof Rasovszky is now leading, having sat behind the other two for some time. Wellbrock is second. Paltrinieri is leading the pack, which is making plenty of waves across the water. The question is whether Wellbrock is pacing himself or burned himself off in those early stages. The American, Jordan Wilimovsky is in fifth as they go past the halfway stage.
#Marathonswimming Men's 10km LIVE
— FINA (@fina1908) August 4, 2021
Rankings after 3 km:#GER WELLBROCK Florian#FRA OLIVIER Marc-Antoine +3.05#HUN RASOVSZKY Kristof +5.9#ITA PALTRINIERI Gregorio +33.5 pic.twitter.com/NYdFj7Da46
The feeding station again after 48 minutes of the race, and Wellbrock again takes his time while Olivier takes a quick feed. Wellbrock looks at the pack behind him as he does backstroke and then off he goes, and Olivier now takes the lead to the encouragement of his coaches. Wellbrock sits in the slipstream of the new leader.
Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy, who lost his cap somewhere near the feed station, is the main chaser of the three swimmers in medal positions. He’s leading the pack who are giving chase. His gap to Rasovszky is around 28 seconds as they go up past 3.6km. Mellouli is in that pack as is Hector Pardoe, while Weertman, the defending champion is still way off the pace.
Wellbrock appears to be master of his own destiny here, with Olivier giving chase gamely enough as they reach the 30 minute mark, having covered over a quarter of the distance. The German’s stroke is smooth as his arms slap the water. Yesterday’s race was edgy, full of yellow cards and whistles but there’s been none of that through this procession. Wellbrock takes his time over his drink as they reach the feed station, and Olivier gets close as his coaches bellow at him to get a wriggle on while the leader is idling. Wellbrock though keeps himself away from his chaser and continues to glide on. Rasovszky is in better touch, too.
Olivier on the tail of Wellbrock’s feet, and there’s a view of some flying fish as the cameras drop into slo-mo. There’s three clear at the front, with Rasovszky off the leading pair. Wellbrock, by the way, won a bronze in the 1500m in the pool. He went off like a rocket in that race, too. He’s left the pack for dead at this point. Plucky Brit Hector Pardoe is in the back-markers group. He’s an AFC Wimbledon fan.
💙💛 Good luck to @hector_pardoe from all at #AFCW. We hope to see you soon at Plough Lane - and maybe with a medal! Come On You Dons! https://t.co/w9AJF0XPui pic.twitter.com/eHSwDwGMMI
— AFC Wimbledon (@AFCWimbledon) August 3, 2021
Wellbrock remains well clear after over a kilometre, with Marc-Antoine Olivier of France around 11 seconds back. Oussama Mellouli, the 2012 champion, and Ferry Weertman, the 2016 gold medalist, 24 and 27 seconds back respectively. Wellbrock grabs his feed, and lies on his back to drink. Olivier did not take on the feed and chose instead to give chase. The swimmers don’t seem to get much of a drink at that point. Wellbrock is still 6.4 seconds clear of Olivier and better fed, too. Kristof Rasovszky. Weertman is sat at the back, almost 40 seconds back. That’s a brave strategy to say the least.
Updated
Wellbrock is well away from the field and seems to be following the racing line well, with the rest of the pack well behind him. They probably think they know better than going off like that. This is a heroic choice of tactics.
Early doors in Tokyo, and off they go in the swimming marathon. A couple of swimmers stay back on the pontoon, and away they go. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock takes up the early pace around the red buoy with German colleague Rob Muffels for company. The water is still, like a millpond.
We are just about to get underway at the Odaiba Marine Park where the windspeed has dropped since the women’s event early yesterday morning in Tokyo. The water is warm, and that means the swimmers may need to make use of the feed stations, which until the final few metres are the best way to find out who’s where in the feed.
Open-water swimming one of the tougher sports to commentate on. Like watching soap suds travel round the bath. #Olympics
— John Brewin (@JohnBrewin_) August 3, 2021
Before the open-water swimming marathon, here’s the excellent Tom Dart on what the women dealt with and what the men must now face over 10km.
And a further tranche on what’s been another big day.
A reminder of the big stories of the day.
We are under an hour away from the first event of day 13 in Tokyo, and it’s the final swimming race of the Games at the Odaiba Marine Park. It will be the fourth appearance of the event, having first been held in 2008. The women’s event was won on day 12 by Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil, though Team GB’s Alice Dearing struggled in what was a fiercely competitive race.
Here’s a short preview from the website of Fina, the swimming governing body.
In the water, racing for a second Olympic gold medal will be the past two champions: Oussama Mellouli (Tunisia) who won the second Olympic Marathon 10km held in the Serpentine of London’s Hyde Park in 2012 and Ferry Weertman (Netherlands) who will seek to retain the crown he claimed at Copacabana Beach in Brazil five years ago during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Tunisia’s Mellouli became the first African male swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event when he won the 1500m freestyle with a dramatic victory over Grant Hackett in a star-studded field at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In Tokyo he is competing in his sixth Olympic Games and is the only swimmer to earn an Olympic medal in pool and open water events at the same Olympic Games.
Simone Biles has thanked the Tokyo gymnasium she visited in secret to overcome a bout of “the twisties” that threatened to end her Olympics.
I’ll forever be thankful for Juntendo for allowing me to come train separately to try to get my skills back. The Japanese are some of, if not the sweetest people I’ve ever met.
I’ll forever be thankful for Junetendo ❤️ for allowing me to come train separately to try to get my skills back. The japanese are some of, if not the sweetest people I’ve ever met. https://t.co/2ZWrItJwAO
— Simone Biles (@Simone_Biles) August 4, 2021
Jon Henley, who ingested that Michael Phelps diet in the name of journalism, has also got in touch. “I cannot believe,” Jon writes. “That more than 12 years after I suffered so painfully in the name of our craft, my most humiliating ever G2 stunt has just made a reappearance in your most excellent Olympic liveblog ...Happy days :)“
Question from Kurt Perleberg: “What do you remember about Michael Phelps?”
Some superhuman performances in the pool that made us think Ian Thorpe and Mark Spitz were mere mortals would be the short answer. And a redemption story, too. Then there was all the stuff about his diet, too.
Anis gets in touch: “IMO, the best athlete of this Olympic definitely, has to be Cate Campbell. After the tragedy in the pool during Rio, she hasn’t performed like the way she did pre-Rio.
“But these Games turned out to be her redemption. Two dominant performances in the relay (with one turning out to be a world record) and one hard fought bronze medal accompanied with the prestige of being Australia’s flagbearer had really launched her back to the top. A far cry from that tragic two days in Rio.”
Five equestrian events and five medals for Team GB. And the team event to come on Saturday.
Ben Maher followed in the footsteps of Nick Skelton at Rio 2016 in winning the showjumping.
More on Kriscina Cimanouska, the Belarusian sprinter who departed the Games to seek political asylum. This from the Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Kriscina Cimanouska has safely landed in Warsaw. I want to thank all Polish consular&diplomatic staff involved, who flawlessly planned and secured her safe journey. Poland 🇵🇱 continues to show its solidarity and support. https://t.co/9ScZUUyP8d
— Marcin Przydacz (@marcin_przydacz) August 4, 2021
Tumaini Carayol on what has been one of the hits of the Games, and is quite the TV sport.
The speed climbing, in which the athletes simply flit up the wall as fast as they can, is seven to eight seconds of fast-pumping adrenaline. With bouldering, in which the competitors solve climbing problems in the least amount of attempts, the countless falls make the payoff of a successful climb extremely satisfying. Lead, a high-endurance climb, is growing tension throughout.
Rory McIlroy, a previously reluctant Olympian, has been bitten by the bug.
Per Reuters
Speaking ahead of this week’s PGA Tour event in Memphis, Tennessee, is singing a whole new tune after falling short in a seven-man playoff for the bronze medal in his Olympic debut.
“I certainly didn’t expect to feel the way I did when I was there, but it was great. It was a great experience. I had a wonderful time,” McIlroy told reporters at TPC Southwind at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. “I had a good chance of getting a medal there at the end and didn’t quite pan out, but it was a great week. I’m already looking forward to Paris.”
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy cited concerns about the Zika virus for sitting out the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics but later conceded it was in large part due to being put in the difficult position of having to pick between playing for either Ireland or Britain.
US gymnastics superstar Simone Biles changed what fans of the sport thought was physically possible.
Now she is at the forefront of a new conversation about athletes and mental health. Hear Tumaini Carayol tell Nosheen Iqbal that the withdrawal of the greatest gymnast of all time came as a shock to everyone involved in the sport and prompted discussion about athletes’ mental health.
Another golden day for Team GB, as reported by Alexandra Topping.
Though less productive on the track and in the field.
Team GB’s woes continued in track and field, as Johnson-Thompson’s heptathlon dream came to an end with a calf injury that saw her drop out of the competition. In one of the most heartbreaking moments of a Games that has not been short on tears, the 28-year-old’s right calf gave way midway through the 200m. After dropping to the floor, she refused to get into a wheelchair and painfully got to her feet to slowly finish the race. To add insult to injury, she was then disqualified for leaving her lane.
It was the latest blow to hit Britain’s athletes in these Games, with Dina Asher-Smith and Adam Gemili having suffered injuries. But there was better news as Jodie Williams produced the performance of her career to break the 50-second barrier for the first time by running 49.97 to move into the 400m final. Laura Muir, a medal hopeful, made it into Friday’s 1500m final.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, the Belarusian sprinter, is headed to Poland.
Per Reuters
A plane carrying Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya took off for Warsaw on Wednesday, a Reuters eyewitness in Vienna said, following her arrival from Tokyo three days after refusing her team’s order to go home early from the Olympics.
The apparent Cold War-style defection of an athlete has been one of the major stories of the Games and could further isolate Belarus, which is under Western sanctions after President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on opponents since last year.
After spending two nights in Poland’s embassy, the 24-year-old sprinter walked onto a plane at Tokyo’s Narita airport wearing wearing jeans, a blue blouse and sunglasses with “I RUN CLEAN” written on them.
“She is safe and is doing well under the circumstances,” Magnus Brunner, Austria’s deputy environment minister, told reporters after her Austrian Airlines flight touched down in Vienna. “She is naturally worried and excited and nervous about what will happen next for her.”
Tsimanouskaya was later seen boarding a LOT Polish Airlines plane, which subsequently departed for Warsaw, according to a Reuters eyewitness. Poland has granted her a humanitarian visa and another to her husband to join her.
The excellent Kieran Pender delivers a history of the Australian Olympic basketball team, who will take on the the not-so dreamy Team USA on day 13.
But the heart and soul of this Boomers team was carefully moulded over four decades in Canberra. The current senior leadership – Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes, Matthew Dellavedova – were all at the AIS within a few years of each other. The program instilled in them a love of national team basketball that persists. Mills – Australia’s co-flag bearer at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony – is one of the program’s favourite sons.
There’s been a reverse ferret in the world of social media disgrace, this time by the social media behemoth itself.
Per Reuters.
Facebook Inc mistakenly blocked gold medallist sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah, the fastest woman in the world, from Instagram, the company said on Wednesday.
The Jamaican sprinter had tweeted that she had been blocked for posting videos of her victorious 100 and 200 metres races because she “did not own the right to do so.” However, a Facebook spokesperson later said that while the content was removed, the suspension was wrongly applied.
Thompson-Herah defended her Olympic titles from the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics over the two distances in Tokyo, making it four Olympic gold medals from two Games. But her attempt to share her Tokyo competitions with her 310,000 followers on Facebook-owned Instagram appeared to have backfired.
She later posted on her Instagram Stories that the block had been cleared with smiling emojis.
I was blocked on Instagram for posting the races of the Olympic because I did not own the right to do so. So see y’all in 2 days
— Elaine Thompson Herah (@FastElaine) August 3, 2021
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Some further imagery from Day 12 here.
The Olympics are an ideal place to showcase photographic techniques such as a slow shutter-speed or in-camera multiple exposures to give viewers a sense of motion and can produce an image that is far removed from what would be seen with the naked eye.
Evening all. News, features and reaction to follow from Day 12 to follow until we reach the open-water swimming. Where to start? Martin Belam’s daily briefing is usually the best place.
Today in a nutshell: There was another world-record 400m hurdles, Kenya retained the men’s 800m, Andre De Grasse won the men’s 200m, Team GB won gold on horses and in boats, and at 13 Sky Brown became Britain’s youngest medallist of all time – but still wasn’t the youngest person on the skateboarding medal podium.
Tomorrow’s key moments: There’s the men’s hockey final, the men’s 10km swimming marathon, more skateboarding and sport climbing, and the conclusion of the heptathlon and decathlon in the athletics – but without Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Niklas Kaul, who both picked up injuries.
And the schedule.
All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Sydney, subtract eight hours for Aberystwyth, 13 hours for New York and 16 hours for San Francisco.
🌟If you only watch one thing: 7pm Hockey – Australia and Belgium are going to battle it out in the final for gold. Australia last won it in 2004. Belgium have never won, but will be aiming to go one step better than their silver in Rio 🏑🥇
- 6.30am Marathon swimming – it’s 10km of open water for the men, and I’m still tired from watching the women swim it late last night/early this morning 🥇
- 7.30am Golf – day two of the women’s competition.
- 9am-10.50am and 9pm-10.50pm Beach Volleyball – the women’s semi-finals are in the morning, the men’s semi-finals are the late night session.
- 9am-3.05pm and 7pm-9.45pm Athletics – the main attractions in the stadium include the men’s triple jump final and men’s shot put final in the morning, when we also get the men’s 110m hurdles final at 11.55am. In the evening session, it is the women’s pole vault final and the men’s 400m final is at 9pm. Throughout the day there’s more heptathlon and decathlon, and those conclude with the women’s 800m heats and the men’s 1500m which round off the day 🥇
- 9am-12.30 Skateboarding – the men go in the park event 🥇
- 9.30am-1.05pm Canoe sprint – there are finals in the men’s kayak single at 11.42am, the women’s canoe single 200m at 11.57am, the women’s kayak single 500m at 12.29pm and the last race of the day is the men’s kayak double 1000m at 12.55pm 🥇
- 1.15pm and 8pm Basketball – the men’s semi-finals. Team USA v Australia to start with, then the evening game is Slovenia v France.
- 3pm Diving – the final of the women’s 10m platform 🥇
- 3.30pm-6.50pm Track cycling – Thursday’s action features the women’s keirin final at 5.45pm and the conclusion of the men’s omnium at 5.55pm 🥇
- 4.30pm Race walking – it’s the one where you end up shouting at the television: “Just run! Or walk! But not this! What even is this?” It’s in Sapporo to try to make it cooler for the men, who go over the 20km distance 🥇
- 5pm Football – USA v Australia for the women’s bronze medal 🥉
- 5pm and 9pm Handball – the men’s competition is at the semi-final stage: France v Egypt first then Spain v Denmark. It’s dead good. You should give watching it a go.
- 5.30pm, 6.30pm and 9.10pm Sport climbing – it is medal time for the men 🥇
Updated
Righto, my watch is over. I’m going to disappear for the day, and leave you in the capable hands of John Brewin, who’ll take you to within an hour of SPORT.
And roundabout full-time, we’ve got the men’s hockey gold medal match between Australia and Belgium – that starts just as the evening athletics sesh gets going, so we’re going to need a lot of screens.
I mentioned it a while ago, but I’m looking forward to the bronze medal match in the women’s football it’s tomorrow at 5pm local time, 9am BST. It’s beginning to look like USA are in transition; if they couldn’t find themselves for the semi, there’s no reason to assume they’l find themselves for this. But on the other hand, they’ve got so many good players it’d be no surprise at all if they produced a performance.
I was about to wonder what we’ll come to see as the definitive performance of the Games, and was obviously thinking about Sydney McLaughlin and Karsten Warholm. But if Sifan Hassan pulls off her treble, we’re not just talking about the greatest feat of Tokyo 2021 or even of the Olympics, but in all sport.
Still, do send in your suggestions and reasons.
On which point:
Love or hate boxing, there are surely lessons in life here for all of us: by whatever means you choose, expend every ounce of aggression you have in you and do so in a controlled and mindful way. Keep calm and collected, no matter what blows life lands on you. And when your particular fights have been fought, embrace your foes to forgive and forget, and move on.”
As sports lovers we’d love to see it, but as people lovers we’d just love to see Simone Biles happy.
Updated
It’d be such a shame if these were the last Games to feature weightlifting.
And what a run from Christine Mboma! I can’t even begin to comprehend what she’s been through.
Every time I watch a post-event interview, I’m glad that the winner was the winner because of how much it means to them – even though I’d be feeling the same way had it been someone different. But I especially enjoyed Andre de Grasse’s.
This Italian performance was one of the best I’ve seen all Games, and that’s saying a helluva lot.
Also, what on earth is going in Italy? I’d love to know, but in the meantime any chance we get to hear that anthem is worthy of celebration.
This was horrible to watch, but at 28 and with just three years until the next Olympics, there’s a strong chance KJT comes back for another go.
The denouement of this was absolutely great.
There’s been a power-shift in the world of cycling, underway before these Games but highlighted by them. Here, Kieran Pender looks at things from the Australian perspective.
Check out our day 15 briefing! Coming up tomorrow, we’ve got the men’s hockey final, the men’s 10km swimming marathon, more skateboarding and more sport climbing. And in the Olympic Stadium, we’ll enjoy the end of the heptathlon and decathlon, the men’s triple jump final, the men’s shot final, the men’s 110m hurdles final, the men’s 20km walk final, the women’s pole vault final and the men’s 400m final. Goodness me!
No sign whatsoever.
Sport is so, so hard.
“I was doing it for everybody at home and I felt like a failure,” he said. “At the time, I should have put this beautiful silver medal round my neck and smiled because this is not just for me, it’s for the country.
“When I look back in a few years, it will probably feel like a great achievement, but I was so upset that I couldn’t enjoy it.”
Reminder: we’ve still got some live sport we’re bringing you, and you’ll be flabbergasted to know that England are mid-collpase at Trent Bridge.
I’m old, but I can still grasp that this is absolutely great.
Even thinking about this terrifies me, but the piece is right: it makes surprisingly good telly.
And what I said about knowing less fear: just over a year ago, Sky Brown fell, fracturing her skull and breaking wrist and hand. So she knows the potential consequences of having no fear, but still went about her business like a boss. Incredible.
I can’t get over this. Olympic medals at 12 and 13! I guess you know less fear at that age – be very sure, when I say “you” I mean it, because this was not so of me – but even so, it’s absolutely mind-boggling.
This is the first Olympics in 20 years that hasn’t had USWNT in its football final, but their bronze-medal match against Australia should be excellent.
What a world.
I enjoyed Peter Bol’s run and this, from Kieran Pender, is an important piece on him and it.
Bol was born in Sudan, to Sudanese and South Sudanese parents. The family fled violence to Egypt, and then migrated to Australia. But while Bol’s personal journey is important – he has spoken of the pride he holds in his dual identities – it is only one part of him. As fellow South Sudanese Australian Nyadol Nyuon wrote so powerfully this week, Bol’s athletic achievements should stand on their own – we do not interrogate so closely the journeys of white Australian athletes. We should be able to appreciate Bol as a remarkable man and athlete – distinct from and inclusive of his journey to this point.”
“A quick note regarding that update on the 10km women’s swim,” emails Teo Teng Kiat. “Singapore qualified for it for the first time ever and Chantal Liew finished 23rd, but just the fact that she made it to the start line was remarkable. She only picked up the sport in 2017 and only qualified for Tokyo two months ago in June. Her words after the race were great – she said ‘they can kiss my ass’ to the haters. Brilliant.”
More on marathon swimming, Alice Dearing in particular, with Tumaini Carayol.
The shorter sprints aren’t quite where they were, but goodness me the 400m hurdles have delivered two of the greatest sporting performances of all-time. Read about the second of them here!
Hockey at these Games is played at the Oi Stadium, and if that sounds impertinent it has nothing on the impudent, insolent and downright rude manner in which the Netherlands dispatched Great Britain in the Olympic semi-finals and ended the reign of the women’s champions.”
Ach, that completes day 12’s live action ... but worry not, we got you. We’ll be here to share thoughts, feelings and great writing for the nine hours 15 minutes we must endure before the action gets underway again.
Women’s volleyball: Brazil beat ROC 3-1, 25-22 in the fourth! They play Korea in the semis with Serbia and USA, silver and bronze medalists in Rio, contesting the other.
Updated
Women’s volleyball: Every time Russia come, Brazil nudge away – they look to have just that bit more and now leads 22-21 ... but then miss a smash and it’s 22-all!
Even thinking about this makes me feel poorly. 10km! Swimming!
Women’s volleyball: We’re back at 18-all, no we’re not; a service fault gives ROC 19-18.
Definitely wrap yer lugoles around this. And never forget, Biles might be better at her thing than anyone has ever been at anything.
The volleyball is our last live action of the day, so while it finishes, let’s start rounding things up.
Women’s volleyball: Hello! ROC are on a roll, now leading Brazil 16-15, an ace follows, and might we get a deciding set?
Women’s volleyball: Brazil now lead ROC 2-1 9-7 and , though it’s close, look more in control than their opponents.
Men’s table tennis: Germany have beaten Japan 3-2 in the team competition and will play China for gold; Japan must now beat Korea if they want bronze.
Updated
Nothing to do with the Olympics yet everything to do with the Olympics. Go on Christian!
Reminder: We’ve other brilliant sport for your delectation. Join Tim de Lisle now!
I’m looking forward to this one.
“One has to wonder at what’s going on with the GB Athletics’ medical team,” emails Shelley Coleman, “after so may key injuries in sprints, no?”
I doubt they all have the same regimen or the same physios, and KJT, for example, came into the Games with a pre-existing achilles injury. My guess is that it’s unfortunate coincidence rather than institionalised incompetence.
Women’s volleyball: Brazil have taken the third set against ROC 25-19 and now lead 2-1; the first to three moves into the semis.
Updated
Sport climbing: GB’s Shauna Coxsey is out of the lead climbing, finishing 13th. Chaehyun Seo of Korea finished first of the eight who move into the final.
Go on Simone!
One morning I woke up and I was like, ‘I’m more than my medals and gymnastics, I’m a human being,’” Biles said. “And I’ve done some courageous things outside of this sport as well and I’m not a quitter and it took all of that realizing to see that, because ... if this situation didn’t happen I don’t think I would have ever seen it that way, I would have never been able to walk away and think I’m more than just gymnastics and medals.”
Women’s volleyball: Brazil now lead ROC 17-16 in what’s been a really good match. I’ve no idea which way this is going, but get it on if you can.
What happened today?
- Gold for Great Britain in the women’s 470 sailing, despite protest
- Australia win bronze after New Zealand crash in men’s team pursuit
- Italy take men’s pursuit gold and a world record
- Japan played a classic to make the women’s basketball semis
- Two Australians into the women’s 1500 metres final
- GB’s Jodie Williams into the women’s 400 metre final
- Katrina Johnson-Thompson injures her achilles
- India knocked out of the women’s hockey
- Gold for Peruth Chemutai and Uganda in the women’s 3000m steeplechase
- Great Britain win gold in the individual equestrian jumps
- Sky Brown becomes GB’s youngest-ever medalist, taking bronze in the skateboarding
- USA’s Sydney McLoughlin wins gold in the women’s 400m hurdles, breaking the world record in the process
- Canada’s Andre de Grasse wis gold in the men’s 200m
- Emmanuel Korir wins the men’s 800m for Kenya
Women’s volleyball: Brazil lead ROC 13-9 and are looking strong.
Men’s table tennis: Japan and Germany are 2-2 in the men’s team semi-final.
Men’s beach volleyball: Qatar have beaten Italy 2-0 and will now meet ROC in the second semi-final; the first will feature Norway and Latvia.
Women’s basketball: France beat Spain 67-64! That’s a huge win, and France move on to meet Japan in the semi-final, with USA and Serbia contesting the other.
Updated
Women’s basketball: Here we go. Spain have 3.6s to sink a three...
Women’s basketball: ...they miss and here comes another timeout...
Women’s basketball: Poor handling from Spain gives France the ball with 11.7s left; can they keep it, or score again? They find themselves with two free throws and take one, so it’s a three-pointer or bust for Spain....
Meantime, another interview with Andre de Grasse has him talking about all the injuries he’s had and what it’s taken to come back from them – he seems an absolutely top man.
Women’s basketball: Eesh! A foul gives France two free throws ... these for the match, with 16.6s left, and they make the second then call a timeout at 66-64!
Updated
Women’s basketball: Brilliant from Johannes of France, who takes the ball into the key but looks to have been forced wide before leaping for some swish; that’s a huge basket, and France now lead 65-62 with 23.3s to go.
Women’s volleyball: Brazil have taken the second set against ROC 25-21 and we’ll now enjoy a decider.
Women’s basketball: France are back in front, 63-62 the score with 48.7s remaining and a timeout in progress.
Baseball: Three runs at the bottom of the eighth have taken Japan past Korea and into the final, where they’ll meet USA or ... Korea. Such is the system.
Women’s basketball: Spain now lead France 62-61 with 1.20 remaining.
Women’s volleyball: Brazil are storming back against ROC and leads 21-19 having lost the first and been trailing in the second.
Women’s basketball: With three minutes to go, Spain lead 60-59, but as I type that France sink two free throws for 61-50!
Misogynoir in Medical Media: On Caster Semenya and R. Kelly, by Moya Bailey can be read here and I cannot recommend it highly enough; it’ll open your eyes to things that go well beyond athletics.
De Grasse tells Eurosport that he’s been training his butt off and he felt good going into the race. He knew he has to stay with the leaders so he was there to deploy his strong point, his speed endurance. It feels surreal that he did it and he’ll doubtless watch the race back a million times, and his joy is permeating through the screen; what a beautiful thing.
Women’s basketball: France now leads Spain 57-55 in the fourth with 6.30 to go, and this is getting intense.
There’s a terrific paper on this issue, focusing on Caster Semenya but examining the unfair and unacceptable portrayal of black women, that I’ll post as soon as I can find it.
I absolutely loved this run. Power to both Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi.
“Have I read that right?” asks Kelly Struwick. “They DQ’d KJT because she didn’t fall straight into her lane when injured??? Because the spirit of the Olympics goes both ways surely? If an athlete is injured surely it’s really unfair to penalise them for that injury.”
I baulked on hearing it too, but unfortunately it makes sense. If you disturb another competitor, then what? The rule needs to be uniform so can’t reshape itself for unfortunate events, and if you step out of your lane you’ve got to go. I feel for her, but I doubt she’s especially arsed given the recurrence of a nasty injury, and I’m not sure what alternative we’ve got.
Men’s beach volleyball: ROC have beaten Germany 2-0 and will meet Qatar or Italy in the semis.
Updated
Baseball: Japan and Korea are locked at 2-2, the winner to progress to the final and the loser to play USA in the other semi, the losers of which meet Dominican Republic in the third-place playoff.
Updated
Men’s 200m final: Here a rundown of their run-down.
Women’s volleyball: ROC lead Brazil 1-0 and 2-2; the winners meet Korea in the semis, the second of which will feature Serbia and USA.
Women’s basketball: A huge basket for France gives them 48-38 and prompts a major celebration with six minutes to go in the third.
Talking of which, we’ve already got that in the cycling, GB evicted from the top of the tree in unceremonious fashion.
Men’s 200m final: I’m really pleased for De Grasse, but you still feel he’s an interregnum champions. No less a champion for that, but Bednarek is 22, Lyles 24 and Knighton 17, so it feels like we’re on the cusp of a new era.
Men’s 200m final: Ultimately, Lyle didn’t have the “speed endurance” – get Michael Johnson over here – to see it out, and De Grasse, who probably thinks he missed a chance in the 100, was much, much stronger over the final 40. De Grasse’s time of 19.62 is a personal best, a Canadian record, and the eighth-fastest ever run.
Gold! Andre de Grasse wins the men's 200m for Canada!
Redemption for the man who won silver in Rio! Bednarek takes silver here and Lyles bronze, both of them representing USA.
Updated
Men’s 200m final: Brown gets away well but Bednarek zooms off and here come lyle and De Grasse! For a second, Lyle looks in charge but De Grasse streaks by!
Men’s 200m final: They’ve taken their marks...
Men’s 200m final: This should be a bazzer of a race. I can’t wait to see how Erriyon Knighton does – he’s just 17 – but Andre De Grasse, the bronze medalist over 100m is favourite with Noah Lyles, the fastest on paper, also a strong shout...
Updated
Men's 200m final start list
2 Richards (T&T)
3 Lyles (USA)
4 Brown (Canada)
5 Knighton (USA)
6 De Grasse (Canada)
7 Bednarek (USA)
8 Fahnbulleh (Liberia)
9 Dwyer (Jamaica)
Coming up in four minutes: the final of the men’s 200m!
Standings at the end of day 1 of the decathlon
- Warner (Canada) 4722
- Moloney (Australia) 4641
- Lepage (Canada) 4369
- Bastien (France) 4369
- Mayer (France) 4340
- Scantling (USA) 4338
Niklas Kaul, Germany’s world champion, pulled up in that final 400m, which probably means the end of his Games.
Decathlon: Moloney goes off quickly in lane seven and he powers through brilliantly as Warner and Lepage look to claw him back. But Warner ploughs through, winning in 46.29, with Lepage second in 46.96 and Warner third in 47.48. Warner will lead overnight, but not by much.
Decathlon: Warner of Canada, who leads, Moloney of Australia who’s second, and Lepage of Canada who’s third, all go in this final 400m heat...
Men’s hammer: GB’s Nick Miller is disappointed with sixth but he was carrying a knock. He notes that athletes want to win so anything that isn’t that is a problem; he says his result “isn’t terrible”, and I hope that when he has time to look back, it gives him some satisfaction.
Women’s basketball: France leads Spain 36-30 at half-time. The winners here meet Japan, with USA taking on Serbia in the other semi.
Decathlon: There’s something faintly amusing about watching strapping decathletes haul their exhausted bodies around the track – they must hate their event, and this aspect of it more than most. Urena of Spain wins in 48.00, but the rest of the medal-contesting lads are in the next heat.
Decathlon: Here comes the second 400m heat...
Heptathlon: Man, this was hard to watch.
Women’s basketball: Spain, who were solid favourites for this match, now trail France 33-24 with just under three minutes left in the second quarter.
Men’s decathlon: The first 400m heat is away and Mayer of France, the silver medalist in Rio whose high jump effort yanked him into contention, can only come fourth in 50.31. Erm of Estonia wins in 48.25, with Ziemek of USA, who was fifth overall, coming second in 49.06.
Men’s beach volleyball: ROC have taken the first set off Germany; the winner will play Qatar or Italy in the last four, with the other semi between Norway and Latvia.
Gold! Wojciech Nowicki wins the men's hammer for Poland!
Henriksen drops 96cm shy of his target and the perennial bronze medalist has finally done it! Henriksen of Norway and Fajdek of Poland come second and third respectively.
Men’s hammer final: Henriksen ascends the duchen; can he stop Nowicki?
Men’s hammer final: Fajdek, his left leg and shoulder covered in tatts, looks for something special from his final go ... and can’t find it. He too is short of 80m and bronze is the best he’s getting; at 32, though, having presumably worried his time had passed, he’ll take it.
Men’s hammer final: Kokhan of Ukraine lies fourth, but his final chuck dives short of 80m and that’s the end of him. But at 20-years-old, he’ll come again.
Men’s hammer final: Here come the big dogs; we’re down to the final four...
Men’s hammer final: GB’s Nick Miller has just chucked 78.15, a season’s best, and will finish sixth, the best anyone from these shores has ever managed in the event.
Men’s hammer final: Nowicki of Poland still leads with 82.52, and Fajdek, his “fellow countryman”, briefly moved form third to second with 81.53. But Henriksen of Norway then luzzed 81.58 and sits in the silver-medal position; all three have one go left.
Check out how great this is!
.@TheKoriMonster and @natashahastings' reaction to THAT 400m hurdles race is all of us rn.
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 4, 2021
🥇 51.46 – @GoSydGo 🤯
🥈 51.58 – Dalilah Muhammad 🤯
🥉 52.03 – Femke Bol 🤯
Still live on #WAInsideTrack trying to comprehend what just happened: https://t.co/G8W3jF2IDw pic.twitter.com/mt2I9cqTWI
Coming up:
– The end of the men’s hammer final
– Spain v France in the last eight of the women’s basketball; France lead 21-16 at the end of the first quarter.
– Germany v ROC in the last eight of the men’s beach volleyball; ROC lead 17-15 in the first set.
– 400m heats in the men’s decathlon.
– Brazil v ROC in the last eight of the women’s volleyball.
– The men’s 200m final.
– Qatar v Italy in the last eight of the men’s beach volleyball.
Men’s 800m final: Korir is the quickest of all these over 400m and Dobek used to be a 400m hurdler, so when the first lap was slow, the race massively favoured those two and made the lads who lingered at the back look silly. No way were they going to close the 10m they needed to, and perhaps the days of staying tight for the final 200m are probably gone.
Men’s 800m final: Korir won that a little bit too easily – I’m not sure what happened to Rotich, who was going backwards 500m out, then found his legs halfway down the home straight. By then, Korir was clear – another 10m and he might’ve come second – but the line was where he needed it to be and Rudisha’s successors are involved!
Gold! Emmanuel Korir wins the men's 800m for Kenya!
Rotich, who left himself to much to do, takes silver for Kenya, with Dobek of Poland taking bronze.
Updated
Men’s 800m final: Korir hits the front and here come Dobek and Rotich! Dobek looks hard but has Rotich left himself too much to do?
Men’s 800m final: Bol takes it on at the bell but it’s slow, so Bol steps on the gas, Korir and Dobek with him...
Men’s 800m final: Amos, who came second to Rudisha in London, is the fastest in the field though past his best, and he comes across from lane eight while Korir of Kenya leads, Bol and Rotich tucked in.
Men’s 800m final: Away we go!
Men’s 800m final: Sadly, we’re bereft of the great but injured David Rudisha, so here’s an interview with him – he’s every bit the don you hope he is.
And here is in in Joy of Six: sporting beauty.
Men's 800m final start list
- Tual (France)
- Tuka (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
- Dobek (Poland)
- Korir (Kenya)
- Murphy (USA)
- Rotich (Kenya)
- Ben (Spain)
- Bol (Australia)
- Amos (Botswana)
Rotich is favourite, but based on what i saw in the heats, I kind of fancy Dobek for a medal.
Updated
Hi everyone and thanks Geoff. Let’s get straight on with the final of the men’s 800m...
What happened today?
As of 9pm Tokyo time, that is.
- Gold for Great Britain in the women’s 470 sailing, despite protest
- Australia win bronze after New Zealand crash in men’s team pursuit
- Italy take men’s pursuit gold and a world record
- Japan played a classic to make the women’s basketball semis
- Two Australians into the women’s 1500 metres final
- GB’s Jodie Williams into the women’s 400 metre final
- Katrina Johnson-Thompson injures her achilles
- India knocked out of the women’s hockey
- Gold for Uganda in the women’s 3000m steeplechase
- Great Britain win gold in the individual equestrian jumps
That’s it from me. Daniel Harris for the men’s 800 metres and beyond. Bye now.
Baseball: 2-1 to Japan at the top of the sixth in the semifinal.
More important updates from Netherlands, emailed by Inge Kersten.
“You might be pleased to know that, after climbing wasn’t mention on an Tokyo update here on Dutch radio, that after I sent them a message saying that over on the Guardian live blog they are waxing lyrical (is that the phrase?) about climbing but I don’t hear anything about it here. And my message was just called out on the radio and their commenter will start watching it. You are spreading the love.”
We climb together, Inge, all of us. We ascend to the summits of our hearts.
Gold for Ben Maher on the jumps
He holds on! Fredricson silver for Sweden, van der Vleuten bronze for the Netherlands. All six riders got around without taking a rail, so it was only time to separate them. 37.85 is the winning time.
Gold for Russia with the spiders
The arachnids do it in the artistic swimming duet final. Last to perform, straight to the top, with 195.9079 their score. Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina win gold. China silver, Ukraine bronze.
Ben Maher goes into the gold medal spot in the equestrian jumps
Four riders done, two to come, and Maher lodges 37.85 seconds with no penalties to take top spot.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson is injured
Ah, this is awful. KJT has done her achilles in her 200 metres heat for the heptathlon. The GB champion gets up and hobbles through the rest of the race, then gets disqualified because she fell out of her lane when she hit the ground.
Updated
Artistic swimming: Aaaaaah, the Russians are doing a swim routine to the theme of ‘spiders’, and they have spiders on their swimsuits, and they started off on the pool deck squatting together and making a kind of eight-legged creature with their bodies, and I will never sleep again.
Really creepy music in the background, too. Hope the judges like horror.
Hockey: Argentina go into the gold medal match. It’s been a wonderful run for India’s women, and their first goal here made you think that it might continue. But Argentina fought back to take a lead, then hold it, to win 2-1.
Equestrian: Six riders get around the course with no faults. So you know what that means?
<Zoolander voice> It’s a jump off! </Zoolander voice>
Ben Maher for Great Britain will be in there, he was third fastest around the course. Along with the aforementioned van der Vleuten and von Eckermann, Peder Fredricson, Malin Baryard-Johnsson, and Daisuke Fukushima.
Three Swedes in that lot. Three! Why are you so good at perfect horses, Sweden? What is going on?
One Dutch, one British, and one Japanese. To jump for medals. To dance for coins. Go on, horse whisperers.
Sport climbing: Garnbret storms it home! Top spot for Slovenia in the bouldering section with - get this - a perfect score. She climbed every boulder at her first attempt. Four tops, four zones, four attempts. Extraordinary, given how much everyone else battled with at least one of these courses. No one else even got four, let alone in four attempts.
Raboutou (USA) stayed in second with three tops, and the only other climber with three was Noguchi Akiyo for Japan, late in the piece. GB’s Shauna Coxsey stayed in fourth, with the fewest attempts to score two tops, ahead of Meshkova and Seo.
Next will be the Lead event, and then the top eight climbers on all three events combined go to the final.
Equestrian: GB’s Scott Brash is in seventh spot so far. Got around without any fence penalties, but gets one for time, finishing less than half a second outside the 88 on offer. Malkel van der Vleuten is into the gold medal spot ahead of von Eckermann, having got around in a few tenths of a second faster.
Hockey: Argentina go 2-1 up in the third quarter, Barrionuevo again with the score. Now they’re into the fourth quarter. India’s women have one more chance to pull out something memorable.
Gold for Uganda on the track
3000 metre steeplechase: Peruth Chemutai brings it home in the steeplechase. What a brutal event: 3 clicks around the track, with the jumps and the water hazards. Courtney Frerichs was leading by 20 or 30 metres for the USA coming into the last lap and a half, but Chemutai never looked worried. And for good reason. Caught her and beat her handsomely, Frerichs really battling through the last 200 metres. Hyvin Kiyeng takes bronze for Kenya.
Australia’s Genevieve Gregson doesn’t finish. She placed her foot on the hurdle at the water hazard on the last lap, and fell heavily. Might have twisted an ankle, by the look? The first people over are photographers, who cluster around to take pictures of her. Nice touch. Eventually stewards get her into a wheelchair. A real shame for it to end that way.
3000 metre steeplechase: Get ready to capture some churches! The women’s race is about to start.
Baseball: Japan scores against Korea, 1-0 in the third inning.
Sport climbing: Janja Garnbret has played a blinder. The Slovenian has topped the first three boulders on her first attempt at each. Made it look straightforward. She’s got Boulder 4 up next, which only Raboutou has conquered so far.
Equestrian: Great Britain’s Harry Charles retires on Romeo 88. I think he took a rail down early, would have been out of the medals, might have decided not to finish the round.
400 metres: Stephenie Ann McPherson wins the third semi for Jamaica in 49.34, so they’ll have two runners in the final. Allyson Felix, the great American, comes through in second at 49.89. Sada Williams of Barbados gave it everything she had to catch Felix, and she’s down on the track on all fours gasping for breath afterwards.
Williams will miss a finals spot on time to the runners in the first heat, Roxana Gomez and Quanera Hayes, who both went just under 50 seconds while Williams went just over. So that’s another USA spot and a spot for Cuba.
Jodie Williams qualifies for the 400m final
400 metres: Shaunae Miller-Uibo wins her semifinal comfortably, but the Bahamas runner doesn’t look happy about it. I wonder if she felt a muscle twinge or something while going around? She certainly wasn’t dropping the hammer towards the end, and she looks more upset than satisfied after coming through in 49.60.
Jodie Williams of Great Britain looks extremely happy though: a personal best time for her, 49.97, and a guaranteed final spot.
Updated
400 metres: Two automatic qualifiers from the first women’s semifinal.
Marileidy Paulino for Dominican Republic wins with a national record of 49.38, ahead of Jamaica’s Candice McLeod in 49.51.
Sport climbing: Shauna Coxsey tops the first two boulders! And does it easily. Or efficiently, at least. Three attempts in total to beat both courses, much faster than anyone else... except for Raboutou, who has just topped the fourth boulder to take top spot with three tops.
Coxsey zooms up into fourth, Meshkova third, Seo second.
Equestrian: Henrick von Eckermann riding King Edward goes around in under the required 88 seconds, with no penalties. Goes top of the standings and in medal contention.
Hockey: Argentina equalise! No easy path to the gold medal match for India’s women. Maria Barrionuevo scores. Her name means ‘new neighbourhood’, and they might build one in her honour if she can get Argentina through this match.
Sport climbing: I’ve had this on in the background to everything else, can’t turn it off. New favourite sport. 20 climbers in the women’s category. Nine of them have scored tops on Boulder 1, which must be the easy one. (Doesn’t look easy.) Three tops on Boulder 2, only one on Boulder 3, and nobody has yet conquered Boulder 4.
Seo Chaehyun of Korea, Meshkova who we mentioned earlier, and Brooke Raboutou of the USA each have two tops to their names, from the first two boulders. So they lead.
Laura Rogora is the one climber to beat Boulder 3, but couldn’t get the previous two that the others beat. She’s fourth. Jessica Pilz is fifth.
But none of these climbers did very well in the speed round. Pilz was the highest there in 13th. So it’ll be interesting to see how the standings pan out.
Equestian: It’s the gold medal for the Individual Jumping at the moment. We’ve had five competitors finish, one eliminated, and two retired. Cian O’Connor of Ireland is in top spot just now, then two riders each from Japan and Egypt. The Brits haven’t gone around yet.
1500 metres: Interesting here, Hassan hangs right at the back as she did in the heat. I guess she figures that if she can gobble up the rest of a field after a fall, she can do it when she starts upright.
And she does, 50 metres after the bell on the last lap, just comes up past the field like they’re not there. Has a bit of resistance from Linden Hall of Australia, who has led the whole race, but Hassan eventually breaks her and goes past. What a runner. Hall finishes third and qualifies.
Marta Perez of Spain, Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda, and Laura Muir of Great Britain are the other qualifiers on placings. I’ll post up who else qualified on time if I can work it out later.
1500 metres: All eyes on Sifan Hassan after the Dutch runner’s extraordinary heat, when she fell hard, hit the track, and got back up to win. She’s in the other semifinal about to start.
Hockey: Early goal for India in the women’s semi! They go up 1-0 thanks to Gurjit Kaur after two minutes. They’re irresistible at the moment.
Jessica Hull breaks the Australian 1500m record
Qualifies for the women’s 1500 final on the track in fourth position, and blows away the national record in the process. A great tactical run. Faith Kipyegon blew everyone away down the home straight. There was a fall, as well, Cory Ann McGee of the USA got tripped up and hit the deck, running 11th out of 13. Here are the five qualifiers.
Kenya - Faith KIPYEGON 3:56.80
Ethiopia -Freweyni GEBREEZIBEHER 3:57.54
Canada - Gabriela DEBUES-STAFFORD 3:58.28
Australia - Jessica HULL 3:58.81
Japan - Nozomi TANAKA 3:59.19
Japan make the women's basketball semis in a thriller
Basketball: A time out as both teams talk tactics. Back on court. Belgium’s ball, in defence. Transition up. Cross-court pass. Drives inside...
and misses the basket! Kim Mestdagh’s shot goes in and out. Japan win. They’ll play Spain or France in the semis.
Updated
Basketball: Two free throws in for Belgium. Down the other end...
Japan hit a three!
Takes the lead with 15 seconds left.
Basketball: 83-83 with 40 seconds left. Belgium miss the shot, but get a lucky foul called! Ran into the defender, I’d say.
Basketball: Just under two minutes left, and Japan close it to 79-81 with a free throw. Then draw level! An open charge to the basket for two, and it’s 81-81.
Sport climbing: Laura Rogova for Italy gets a top hold on Boulder 3, and goes to second place ahead of Australia’s Oceania Mackenzie, who had one top and two zones. I think she failed to score on the other boulders, so she’ll slip further down the rankings as more climbers compete.
We’ve got 10 who haven’t started on the course yet, and half a dozen in the current lot who have at least one boulder yet to go.
Basketball: The Belgians strip the ball and score a two-pointer to lead 77-80. Japan miss a three from the top of the arc to tie it up. Both teams look exhausted. Time out.
Updated
Sport climbing: Meshkova has completed all four boulders with four tops, two zones. The Russian nearly got the top on her final boulder as well: she reached it with one hand, then fell. The rules are that you need a controlled hold, which means both hands on the hold, and hanging onto it for long enough to satisfy a judge.
Basketball: Japan have drawn level! It’s 72-72 with five minutes to play, then duelling three-pointers takes it to 75-75.
Oh, this is gorgeous. Check out our gallery of images from the Games.
Sport climbing: Viktoriia Meshkova is having a blinder in the bouldering phase. Basically how this works is this: there are four different boulder courses, of different configurations. A range of protuberances on a wall that you have to climb, not in a logical straight line but requiring dexterity, sideways movement, sometimes upside down, all kinds of stuff. If you reach a hold halfway through the course, that’s called a zone. You score a zone by reaching it. If you reach the end of the course, that’s called a top.
Then you move onto the next boulder course. You get ranked by how many tops and how many zones you’ve achieved over all the courses, and then if equal there, ranked by how many attempts you had to reach them.
Basketball: The wily Belgians have blown it back out to 59-68, but the Japanese sink a couple of free throws right before the buzzer to make it 61-68 at the three-quarter-time break.
Sailing: A bit more on the protest earlier, from reader Lance Miller.
“Hi Geoff, there is some confusion about why the Polish boat got in front of the British boat at that final mark. Looking at the video, you can see that they arrived nearly together at the mark, but the Polish boat had right of way as it was on starboard tack, so Hannah had to let the Polish boat round the mark ahead of them. They also couldn’t risk trying to squeeze between the Polish boat and the mark because they did not have rights to do that, there could have been a collision or touching the mark, which would have incurred a penalty.”
Basketball: Another women’s quarter-final at the Saitama Super Arena, with the home team just hanging in there: Japan trailing Belgium 55-60, but they’ve brought that margin back from about 10 points. Only in the third quarter, some clock to run in that match.
Updated
Handball: Close to the end for the Korean women’s team, who are being pushed around by Sweden 39-29 at the moment with only a few minutes left. That’s also a quarter-final, meaning the Swedes will take on either the French or the Dutch in a semi, depending on the match later tonight.
Volleyball: Not so great for Italy in the quarters for the women’s comp, where Serbia produced the miracle of a short match. Straight sets, including a 25-14 demolition in the second. A whole volleyball match over in less then an hour and a quarter.
Serbia will play the USA in the semis, playing off for a shot at gold.
Italy get a world record and gold
Cycling: The men’s team pursuit finishes with a bang. A searing contest, a desperately tight finish, and the Italians get home. They set a world record in qualifying yesterday. Denmark beat that world record today. But so did the Italians, by more. The final times are 3:42:032 versus 3:42:203.
As close as that.
Italy’s wonderful Olympic Games continues. Six golds, 30 medals in all.
Updated
Bronze medal for Australia in the men's team pursuit
Cycling: Germany beat Canada for fifth spot, and then it’s time for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy contest for third: Australia and New Zealand. The Australians out well and have the lead up to the 1500 metre point, then New Zealand take it back by 1.4 seconds. They stretch that out to 2 seconds... then there’s a crash!
New Zealand lose their fourth rider. And the rest of their pack splits. They have two and one, and the Australians are catching up to the one. They pass him without crashing into the back of him, and Australia win bronze.
Seeing that on replay, I think it was Campbell Stewart who crashed? Can’t confirm that, correct me if wrong. Clipped the back wheel of the third rider while going into a turn, and ate pavement.
Sport climbing: More info from my Readerpedia, via Jerry Spring, who says there is a time limit of six minutes on the Lead event, but it doesn’t matter how long you take within that.
“Bouldering is usually 5 minutes for each problem (in qualifications) or 4 minutes if they had an observation period before (finals). It’s a pity they’re not showing the observations – you’ll see at the height of this competition all the climbers work together to work out the best moves and will then be chatting again back in observation. It’s a nice cooperative side of climbing.”
Just like the women’s skateboarding this morning, after Misugu Okamoto fell during her run.
失敗しても最後の子が滑り終えたら各国選手駆け寄って肩車してるの最高すぎんか#スケートボード pic.twitter.com/KW7Iy2vB0y
— niwa (@niwa1014) August 4, 2021
Cycling: The British men’s pursuit team that got crashed out by Denmark yesterday is back out on the track. They ride for seventh place against Switzerland and beat them comfortably, three seconds outside the world record. They were losing heavily to Denmark when the crash happened, but were annoyed that they lost the chance to lodge a time that might have qualified them for the bronze ride.
If you didn’t catch up on that:
“Will these Olympics be remembered as the greatest Olympics of all time?” emails Kurt Perleberg.
Aside from linking to the wiki entry on recency bias, I’d say let’s wait until we get through the next five days without a covid outbreak before we consider that.
Diving: The women’s 10-metre platform qualification has been completed, with 18 divers going through to a semi-final. For Australian enthusiasts, Melissa Wu qualified fourth, while Nikita Hains missed out on a reserve spot by one placing. Great Britain has two qualifiers in Andrea Spendolini Siriex (10th) and Lois Toulson (7th). Chinese pair Chen Yuxi and Hongchan Quan went one and two, surprise surprise. So strong in this sport. Delaney Schnell, who would have been a sprinter had she been German, is instead from the USA and thus came in third.
Sport climbing: A knowledgeable reader, Tim Cross, sends in this. “Thought you might be interested why we’re seeing so many PBs in speed.”
I am!
“It’s down to the slightly awkward competition format that mixes the three disciplines. Speed has historically had its own very different sub-culture compared to lead and boulder, without much cross-over. So many of the climbers we’re watching will have only been training speed for a couple of years and they still have room for ‘newbie gains’. That’s why Miroslaw, the world speed champion, hasn’t put up a PB, but lots of the boulder or lead specialists have.”
Updated
Sport climbing: Miroslaw finishes top after the two speed rounds, with Anouck Jaubert of France second, and Song Yiling of China third. There’s no qualification threshold though: this sport is decided by combining these results with the bouldering (sorta climbing obstacle course) and the lead (one chance to climb as high as possible, without being timed).
Updated
Cycling: Australia’s Kaarle McCulloch has progressed to the next round of the keirin - that’s a race she’s targeting, but she looked shaky failing to automatically progress in qualifying. She pulled through in the repechage.
Sport climbing: A big result in that heat. Ilullia Kaplina, the Russian who owns that world record, tries to respond. She’s on course to tag a sub-7 time... but she falls. On the very last hold, as she leaps to tag the clock, her foothold gives way and she can’t touch the button. She flails her limbs and shouts, and she’s in tears by the time she hits the ground, distraught.
She’s fifth overall on time, from her first heat, but speed is her best event and she wanted to be in the top couple here to give herself the best chance.
She was racing with Great Britain’s Shauna Coxsey, who tags 9.65 and is sitting 16th.
Sport climbing: Nonaka Miho has lit up this event as well, the Japanese home favourite. Apparently she’s not foremost a speed climber, and will dominate in other disciplines. Could have fooled me, because she’s just blitzed her first lane time by hitting 7.55.
Even better in the next race when Miroslaw comes back. Clubhouse leader with 7.01, and she flies up second time around with 6.97. That’s her first time under 7 seconds, and she was one hundredth of a second away from the world record.
Updated
Sport climbing: I am starting to get the hang of this sport a bit. It still looks like they’re just levitating up the wall, it’s extraordinary as a sight. But there are tiny little footholds that they use as well as the big handholds. So that’s where they get the leverage to push off with their toes, while with the camera behind them it looks like they’re just walking on air. A side-on view would be useful as something to switch to.
Sport climbing: Perfect name for an Australian athlete: here’s Oceania Mackenzie. Has a really good run against Jessica Pilz, the Australian, but just slips on her last hold. It pushes her time out to 9.38 when it would have been comfortably 8 something.
Sport climbing: Erin Sterkenburg of South Africa was the one climber to fall on her first lane, so she goes steadily on her second attempt to make sure she logs a time, any time. Gets up in 11.10. Seo Chaehyun of Korea clocks a PB of 10.01.
Cycling: If I could ever fulfil a dream of being at the Olympics, I’d like to be the pace-setting rider at the velodrome who sits at the front and makes everyone go slowly. He’s all in black, wearing some Olympic rings, and he’s just chilling. Having a nice little ride around with all these super-pumped athletes. Telling them to calm down, man. Look around you. Appreciate the moment. Then when things get hectic he just rides off for a cuppa. The dream.
Sport climbing: We’ve got the speed round wrapping up for the women on the first lane, and they’ve been flying. Lots of personal bests, lots of fast times, although world No1 Janja Garnbret slipped and had a slow climb for her of 10.32.
Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland has the best time so far, 7.01, and she was celebrating delightfully on her way down on the rope afterwards. Just beaming. She must have nailed the route that she’s been planning.
So now, everyone has attempted the wall once. But because there are two climbers at a time, in different lanes, they now swap lanes and everyone tries again.
Updated
Let’s get ready to sport climb! The new hit sport, all the kids are doing it. Around the world they’re just going up walls like there’s no tomorrow.
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Here’s another good-news boxing story for Great Britain, despite falling short in the final bout.
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Sailing: An update by email from Alexandre Chesneau: “Just wanted to report what L’équipe says on the French contestation in the sailing race.It’s not to get gold - it’s to get silver. Apparently just near the end of the race the Polish boat got in front of the British one. Finishing above the British boat meant the Polish boat gets silver instead of the French one. And the French suspect the Brits let the Poles go in front of them on purpose. Personally I think it’s probably more a case of the Brits no longer caring since the gold was wrapped up for them, but being at work I haven’t seen the race.”
Got an email in from Rakesh Nag. “I was waiting for the ‘inevitable’ Golden slam by Novak Djokovic. But then I saw him lose three matches inside 24 hours (and give a walkover for the bronze match of the mixed doubles). Now I find myself calculating Djoker’s sufferings: 9 matches, 20 sets and 2 broken racquets! Did Djokovic have the highest workload for any athlete in a single Olympics, which has not resulted in any medal?”
It’s an interesting question! There would have be athletes who run or swim a lot of races in heats and so on for a range of events without qualifying, but in terms of time on court it’s hard to beat tennis. Then again, a lot of tennis is resting and waiting. Anyone who runs the marathon has an argument for having worked harder. How about volleyball matches? They seem to take about five hours apiece.
From a purely personal perspective, after Novak’s pandemic-era contributions to humanity, can’t say I was sad to see him miss out. Also, playing the singles but pulling out of the doubles, rather than vice versa, didn’t seem great. Denied his teammate a chance at a medal.
Here’s our report about the Opals and the USA. Not a surprising result, per se, but deflating after that mad last-second result over Puerto Rico.
Sailing: It looks like that French protest has met no joy. Gold stays with Great Britain and Hannah Mills.
Update:
— World Sailing 🌎⛵️ (@worldsailing) August 4, 2021
The protest in the 470 Women has been dismissed. Great Britain 🇬🇧 have confirmed gold, with Poland 🇵🇱 in silver and France 🇫🇷 in bronze.#Sailing #Tokyo2020 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/uZbUYn7nw9
Cycling: Scott mentioned a few minutes ago the GB rider Jack Carlin’s Olympic record in the sprints - the 200 metre flying start. He got through in 9.306. But as has been habit here, the record lasted all of a few minutes. Two Dutchmen have taken it with a tied best: Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen in 9.215.
Here’s our report on the women’s 470 sailing.
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What's on today?
Here’s what I’ll be looking at over the next five hours. Times are Tokyo time: add one hour for Australia, perform the requisite witchcraft or burnt offerings for other timezones.
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Now: lot’s of cycling at the velodrome, with heats and qualifying for men’s sprint and women’s keiren, then just before 6pm the team pursuit medals for the men.
- At 5pm, the women’s handball quarters with Sweden and Korea, and volleyball quarters with Italy Serbia.
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Also from 5pm, the women’s sports climbing event starts with the speed climbing round. This is the sport about which I received more emails in a shorter time than any previous Guardian blog in history.
- 5:20, the women’s baseketball quarters with Japan amd Belgium
- 6:20pm the men’s water polo quarters with Italy and Serbia
- 7pm the women’s 1500m semifinals, as well as the equestrian individual jumps gold with three Brits competing, and the women’s hockey semi-final between Argentina and India, which will attract huge interest in the latter team. Oh, and the small matter of a baseball semi between Korea and Japan.
- 7:30pm the artistic swimming duet gold
- 7:30pm the 400m semi finals for the women
- 7:50pm the big boys of weightlfting, in the 109+ kg catergory
- 8pm the womne’s steeplechase 3000m gold
- 8:15 the men’s hammer throw gold
- 9:05pm the men’s 800m gold
Updated
Gold for Great Britain at the sailing - probably?
Third gold in two days for GB on the water. Britannia rules the waves? Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre win the women’s 470, making Mills the most decorated woman in Olympic sailing history... as long as she gets to keep the medal. The French have lodged a protest, and that will have to be heard by the race jury and will take some time.
As it stands - GB gold, France bronze.
What ho, hounds and foxes. Thanks Scott for the last five hours. I’m yours for the next five. Please do email me when I’ve drastically misunderstood the height of the sports climbing course / insulted the nation of your preoccupation / not had time to look up the UCI race regulations in sufficiently granular detail. We’ll get through this together.
I am not long for this liveblog. As I prepare to hand over to Geoff Lemon, Team GB’s Jack Carlin is showing the way in qualifying for the men’s sprint - with an Olympic record of 9.306 if you don’t mind - at the Izu Velodrome.
Big night of cycling, athletics and plenty more ahead. Thanks for your company. Let’s do it again tomorrow.
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Apart from damaging their rooms - naughty, naughty, Australia, very naughty - it might not surprise you to know athletes are getting up to some other things in the Olympic village.
Once you’ve extricated your mind from the gutter, have a read of this yarn.
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Australia are still searching for their first track cycling medal at Tokyo 2020 as the third day of action gets underway. The Australian men finished fourth in the team sprint on Tuesday, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal.
That loss came about following an unexpectedly slow final lap from former world champion Matthew Glaetzer - it has emerged today that the Australian is unwell (not Covid-related) and has been withdrawn from the individual sprint qualifying, which is currently taking place. That is a big blow for the Australia track team.
Later in the afternoon, we will see Australia’s Kaarle McCulloch in action in the first rounds of the women’s keirin, before the men’s team pursuit squad take to the boards for the fourth and final time in Tokyo, racing against New Zealand for a bronze medal. If the Australians triumph, it would mark a remarkable recovery from the crash on Monday that left Alex Porter nursing minor injuries after a snapped handlebar sent him flying at 65km per hour.
A couple of emails to get through. First up, here’s Jonathan Perry:
I’ve just walked from my house in Tokyo to my favourite cafe, and I’m pouring with sweat. Was going to ride my bike but the saddle was so hot threatened to burn a hole in an embarrassing part of my trousers.
According to the thermometer, it’s a cool 36.5 degrees. Frankly any athlete doing any kind of running around today deserves three or four gold medals, in my book. Many thanks for the coverage, doing a grand job of distracting me from work!
Now JP, it takes a leap of faith on my part to believe you actually are in Tokyo. But, really, why would I not believe you? Now get back to work.
And Mary Waltz:
Diana Taurasi deserves special mention. She is going for her fifth Gold for the US women’s team. Kobe Bryant gave her the title White Mamba and just shy of age forty she is still one of the best basketball player in the world. Remarkable athlete.
100%, Mary. There are a few multi-Games veterans in Tokyo as it goes. But, yes, Taurasi is a gem of the sport.
Updated
Sports climbing. Tell me more, I hear you say.
Women’s basketball: USA are through to the semi-finals after a clinical 79-55 win over Australia. The all-powerful Americans will now face Serbia for a place in the gold-medal match. As ever, they will be hard to beat as they stride on in pursuit of a seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal. Sends shivers down your spine just typing that.
Though the Opals will be disappointed, you can only do what you can do against a team head and shoulders above the rest. They are just too good. Breanna Stewart led all scorers with 23 points, going at 80% from the floor, while Leilani Mitchell chimed in with 14 points for Australia.
Australia win men's 470 sailing gold!
All Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan had to do in today’s medal race to win gold was not get disqualified - but for good measure they won that, too, putting some sweet icing on an already tasty cake. The Australians dominated this 470 event, winning gold from Sweden and Spain, and went one better than five years ago in Rio when Belcher and Ryan claimed silver.
It is Australia’s 15th gold medal at Tokyo 2020 and Belcher’s second after he teamed with Malcolm Page to win in London.
Updated
Women’s basketball: USA are putting Australia to the sword in this quarter-final match, leading 68-39 at three-quarter-time and marching inexorably towards a semi-final meeting with Serbia. Breanna Stewart has 23 points and Brittney Griner can seemingly not miss but the champs could, and are, just tossing it around. They just have too much quality for the Opals.
Fancy a recap of today’s notable events? Good, I’d hoped you would say yes.
- Sydney McLaughlin ran a world record 51.46 to beat fellow American Dalilah Muhammad in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles
- Japan completed a 1-2 in the women’s park skateboarding final, with Sakura Yosozumi beating 12-year-old Kokona Hiraki. Team GB’s Sky Brown, just 13 herself, claimed bronze
- Australia’s Kareena Lee won bronze as Alice Dearing made history as Britain’s first female black swimmer in the 10K marathon swim
- Canadian Damian Warner is showing the way at the completion of the shot put leg of the men’s decathlon. Warner (2,966 points) leads from countryman Pierce Lepage (2,773) and Australian Ashley Moloney (2,741)
- Australia’s Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen beat Germany in an Olympic-best time of 3:08.773 in a heat of the men’s K2 1000m
- And Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has left Japan on a Vienna-bound plane after she refused to fly home earlier this week
.@GoSydGo's game face - she was ready to go ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/rnAV4ZnkOS
— Olympics (@Olympics) August 4, 2021
Some cycling news:
Update from Izu Velodrome: Matthew Glaetzer will not ride the Men’s Sprint as he is unwell. Matthew Richardson will now ride for @AusCyclingAus @NathanHart4 remains the other 🚴 rider.
— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) August 4, 2021
Wishing @MatthewGlaetzer a speedy recovery! 💪#TrackCycling #TokyoTogether pic.twitter.com/mLa0Ia3ckI
Women’s basketball: it’s half-time and Australia have it all to do in their quarter-final against USA, trailing the defending, defending, defending etc champs 48-27. The winner of this encounter will advanced to a semi-final meeting with Serbia, who earlier today accounted for China 77-70.
Canoe sprint: plenty of qualifying action at the Sea Forest Waterway today but huge pats on the back to Australia’s Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen, who knocked off the mighty Germans in an Olympic-best time of 3:08.773 in a heat of the men’s K2 1000m.
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It’s that time when readers in Britain are awaking, so let’s have a quick recap of what they might have missed while in the land of nod:
- Skateboarding: Sky Brown, aged 13, has become Britain’s youngest Olympic medal winner after grabbing bronze in the park competition
- Hockey: Team GB’s reign was brought to a shuddering halt with a 5-1 defeat by the Netherlands in the women’s quarter-finals
- Marathon swimming: Alice Dearing made history when she became Britain’s first female black swimmer; she finished 19th in the 10K race
- Athletics: Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s heptathlon competition is under way; she posted a quick time in the 100m hurdles
- Coming up: Going for gold are Ben Whittaker (boxing), Hannah Miles and Eilidh McIntyre (sailing) and Ben Maher, Harry Charles and Scott Brash (individual showjumping)
Updated
Women’s golf: just dipping away from the basketball court for a moment. In the first round of the individual stroke play event, India’s Aditi Ashok and Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom are sitting atop the leaderboard at five under. Both women are just a hole or two from completion. The best score in the bank goes to USA’s Nelly Korda, who carded a four-under 67 earlier in the day.
Australia’s Minjee Lee is the best-placed Australian at one under through 14 while Team GB’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff is one over after 17 holes.
Smith and Chelsea Gray have hit the deck and the tension builds The Opals returned from quarter-time with renewed intent and discovered some momentum after what was a below-par first term indeed. But the USA are turning the screw again and pouncing on too many turnovers.
The first quarter has finished 26-12 in the USA’s favour. A couple of late and sorely needed baskets for the Aussies courtesy of Alanna Smith and Leilani Mitchell shaves the deficit slightly but American star Breanna Stewart is asking a lot of questions the Opals aren’t adequately answering. Australia forward Cayla George is also on the bench with two fouls.
The USA aren’t used to losing at the Olympics. In fact, they haven’t lost once since Barcelona 1992. Do the maths.
If you aren’t watching the basketball now is probably a good time to tune in. The USA have rushed to a 15-point lead over Australia early in their women’s quarter-final and the Americans are moving at a pace their counterparts are struggling to keep up with.
In case you missed it earlier - it happened so early that most people would have - Australia’s Kareena Lee did a sterling job to grab bronze in the women’s 10km marathon swim.
Here’s a nice read by Tom Dart on this unique event.
Congratulations to Sky Brown, now Team GB’s youngest ever Olympic medalist. It might not have been the colour she wanted but the two Japanese girls in front of her were all class. It was a hot event.
Sky Brown, #GBR's youngest ever Summer Olympian, wins bronze at her debut Olympic Games!
— Olympics (@Olympics) August 4, 2021
She places third after an exciting final in the inaugural Olympic #Skateboarding park competition.@worldskatesb @TeamGB @skyandocean_ pic.twitter.com/PEb8NMW1Ou
Sakura Yosozumi (JPN) wins women’s park skateboarding gold!
An incredible performance from Sakura Yosozumi (60.09) to take gold with her first run in the final, winning from Kokona Hiraki (59.04) in a stunning 1-2 for Japan.
A big final run from Team GB’s Sky Brown (56.47) to jump from fourth spot and take the bronze medal, relegating Misugu Okamoto and in the process denying Japan an amazing clean sweep in this event.
Australia’s Poppy Olsen did her country proud but could do no better than fifth place, one spot ahead of USA’s Bryce Wettstein.
So a 12-year-old wins silver and a 13-year-old wins bronze. Remarkable.
Updated
As Sean Ingle points out below, today’s women’s 400m hurdles final was probably the greatest Olympic track and field race since, well, yesterday.
Women’s park skateboarding final: Australia’s Poppy Olsen improved on her first run, scoring 46.04 second time around, but it’s not enough to move in to medal contention.
Olsen presently sits in fifth position behind Japanese trio Sakura Yosozumi (60.09), Kokona Hiraki (59.04) and top qualifier Misugu Okamoto (53.58), and Team GB’s Sky Brown, who came down nearing the end of her second run and is in fourth position after her first run of 47.53.
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Women’s park skateboarding final: each of the eight competitors have had their first of three runs ... but it hasn’t gone to plan just yet for Team GB’s Sky Brown, who came down at one point but still scored 47.53 to sit in bronze medal position.
The Japanese have a very strong hand in the decider at Ariake Park, and Sakura Yosozumi (60.09) is leading the way from Kokona Hiraki (58.05). The first run of Australia’s Poppy Olsen wasn’t her best effort, scoring 35.20, but there are two runs to go. USA’s Bryce Wettstein is currently sitting in fourth spot.
These #skateboarding outfits are 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wzDUH2Jb0n
— Olympics (@Olympics) August 4, 2021
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Men’s decathlon: Canadian Damian Warner is showing the way at the completion of the shot put leg. Warner (2,966 points) leads the way from countryman Pierce Lepage (2,773) and Australian Ashley Moloney (2,741). Reigning world champion and world record holder, Kevin Mayer, is breathing down the necks of the leaders in fourth, just in front of USA’s Garrett Scantling. Australia’s Cedric Dubler has work to do way down in 17th place.
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Women’s hockey semi-finals: the Netherlands, quite likely still smarting from their defeat to Team GB in the gold medal match in Rio, were resounding 5-1 winners over the Brits to progress to the Tokyo 2020 decider.
More here from Stephen McMillan.
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A hearty hello to Alexandra Fullerton:
Hi Scott, I cannot begin to tell you the excitement at seeing Sergey Bubka handing out flowers and medals! So so wonderful to see him, its brought a tear to the eye!
Bubka brought a tear to the eye of anyone and everyone who had the misfortune of competing against him. There were definitely shades of Sergey in the way Armand Duplantis turned the men’s pole vault final into a one-act affair.
Women’s hockey: the Netherlands are putting on a masterclass at Oi Hockey Stadium, leading Team GB 5-1 in the shadows of the fourth quarter of their semi-final. More to come on this.
Women’s park skateboarding: a big final run in the final heat from Japan’s Misugu Okamoto (58.51) to take the top qualifying spot from Team GB’s Sky Brown (57.40).
Japan occupied three of the top four spots, with Kokona Hiraki, who at 12 years of age is a babe in arms compared to 13-year-old Brown, and Sakura Yosozumi filling the next two spots.
Australia’s Poppy Olsen scored 44.03 with her first run, an effort that saw her safely through to the final in sixth place.
USA’s Bryce Wettstein (44.50) finished fifth overall across the four heats but her compatriots Jordyn Barratt and Brighton Zeuner were outside the top eight and will not contest the final later this afternoon.
And here are the finalists, in qualifying order:
- 1 Misugu Okamoto (JPN)
- 2 Sky Brown (GBR)
- 3 Kokona Hiraki (JPN)
- 4 Sakura Yosozumi (JPN)
- 5 Bryce Wettstein (USA)
- 6 Poppy Olsen (AUS)
- 7 Yndiara Asp (BRA)
- 8 Dora Varella (BRA)
Updated
Sydney McLaughlin (USA) wins women's 400m hurdles gold!
It’s a 1-2 for the USA with Sydney McLaughlin outsprinting Dalilah Muhammad in the run to the line in a world record 51.46 - bettering her own mark of 51.90 set in June.
Muhammad, the Rio gold medalist, ran a PB 51.58 and was excellent over the jumps, but could not match the flat speed of the winner. Young Dutch hurdler, Femke Bol, ran out of her skin to claim bronze in an AR 52.03 and will be one to watch in the future. Disappointment for USA’s Anna Cockrell, who was disqualified for lane violation.
But this was all about McLaughlin, who now adds an Olympic gold to her world title in the 4x400m relay. Could this be the beginning of the end for world champion Muhammad at the age of 31? Either way, this is a great rivalry.
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Men’s 110m hurdles: easy does it for USA’s Grant Holloway, who is untroubled to win his semi-final in a time of 13.13 from Jamaican Hansle Parchment. One of the fastest men over over the sprint sticks, Holloway went quicker than anyone in the semis and will be awfully hard to beat in the final.
And I take it all back regarding Team GB’s Andrew Pozzi, who has indeed qualified for the final despite finishing fourth in the first semi. Obviously, both “lucky losers” came from that heat, with third placegetter, Spaniard Asier Martinez, also through to the final.
Women’s park skateboarding: Japan’s Misugu Okamoto is the big mover in the fourth heat, scoring 54.31 with her first run to move into second place behind qualifying leader Sky Brown of Team GB. Behind Brown, Japan now occupy three spots in the top four.
Australia’s Poppy Olsen scored 44.03 with her first run to leap into sixth place - at present that is good enough to progress to the final - but she was unable to better that with her second run, coming down at one stage to register a score of 38.04.
USA’s Bryce Wettstein scored 44.50 with her first run in this heat go move into fifth overall, helping to seal the fate of compatriots Jordyn Barratt and Brighton Zeuner, both of whom will finish outside the top eight and therefore not qualify for the final.
Men’s 110m hurdles: Jamaica’s Ronald Levy has won the first semi-final in a time of 13.23, with Pascal Martinot-Lagarde of France running second and also automatically through to the final. Team GB’s Andrew Pozzi finished fourth in 13.32 and likely won’t be running in the final with only the two fastest “losers” from the three heats progressing.
The second semi was taken out by USA’s Devon Allen in a time of 13.18. France’s Aurel Manga ran second. The third semi is to come, featuring gold medal fancy Grant Holloway of the USA.
Men’s decathlon - long jump: a new Olympic decathlon record has been set by Canadian Damian Warner, who jumped a mammoth 8.24m to rack up a very handy 1,123 points. Australians Ashley Moloney (7.64m) and Cedric Dubler (7.36m) also showed up prominently in Group B, where USA’s Garrett Scantling jumped 7.30m to finish in seventh.
In Group A, another Canadian, Pierce Lepage, was the leading jumper with an effort of 7.65m. The top seven in that group all recorded seasonal-best leaps.
Here’s the latest on the mysterious case of Belarusian sprinter, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya.
Women’s park skateboarding: Team GB’s Sky Brown takes it nice and easy on her third run, boarding well within herself to finish with a run of 40.03. The tricks stayed in the bag on that run but as well they might have. The 13-year-old is the leading qualifier with a score of 57.40 but to underline her brilliance, that third run alone would have put her into sixth place and in with a shot of qualifying for the final. And she wasn’t even trying.
I feel old and envious.
Skateboarding sensation Sky Brown could not stop smiling ahead of the Olympic debut of her sport and is having the time of her life, as she calls it, "skating with friends". 🛹#StrongerTogether #Skateboarding@skyandocean_ | @TeamGB | @worldskatesb
— Olympics (@Olympics) August 3, 2021
Women’s park skateboarding: Team GB’s Sky Brown has got some game. That was some run from the 13-year-old, whose score of 55.26 at Ariake Park with her first go in the third heat has rocketed her into first place. So effortless, so stylish. It’s almost a surprise to see the board become detached from her feet once she’s done. And then she betters that with a score of 57.40 with her second run!
Japanese duo Kokona Hiraki, who at 12 years of age is a babe in arms compared to Brown, and Sakura Yosozumi round out the top three qualifiers. Brazilian Yndiara Asp, competing in the same heat as Brown, moved into fourth with a score of 43.23 in her first run.
USA pair Jordyn Barratt and Brighton Zeuner are clinging onto seventh and eight place respectively. Team GB’s Bombette Martin is in 13th place and will not be competing in the final. Only the top eight go through. Australia’s Poppy Olsen to come in the fourth heat.
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To be fair, officials did ask all the horses competing at the Games if they wanted the statue removed or at least covered with sheet or seven. But all of them just said: “Neigh.”
horses on the equestrian course are getting scared by a statue of a sumo wrestler and his huge ass pic.twitter.com/JpTcWwra3d
— Alex McKinnon (@mckinnon_a) August 3, 2021
Women’s park skateboarding: heat No 2 at Ariake Park is done and dusted and Japan’s Kokona Hiraki, a veteran of 12 years of existence - meaning she was born in 2008!!!!! - has moved into the overall lead with a big score of 52.46.
Hiraki is almost seven points clear of countrywoman (countrygirl?) Sakura Yosozumi in second place. Notable movers and shakers from the second heat were USA pair Jordyn Barratt and Brighton Zeuner, both of whom have moved into the all-important top eight.
There are four heats with five skaters in each heat. The top eight overall go through to the final - so, theoretically, the finalists could all come from the same heat. Next up is Team GB’s Sky Brown while Australia’s Poppy Olsen will go around in the final heat.
Don’t know who Poppy Olsen is? Really? Well, you’ve come to the right place. She is a Starr.
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Women’s heptathlon: Well, there’s a pleasant surprise to British eyes. Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who ruptured her hamstring in December and has only just started her comeback, runs 13.27 sec in the opening event of the heptathlon.
That’s her second fastest ever, only behind her run in Doha in 2019 when she won the world championships so no wonder she is smiling afterwards. That scores her 1084 points. Meanwhile Nafi Thiam, the big favourite, runs 13:54 to score 1044 but this isn’t one of her strongest events.
As for the Americans, Kendell Williams was the fastest of all three hearts, running 12.97 sec to score 1129. Erica Bougard will be happy enough with 13.14 to score 1103. And Annie Kunz’s time of 13.49 scores her 1042.
Thanks Tom. Onto day 12 we go. The Olympics is like a Groundhog Day of clusterfun, a wall-to-wall array of sports that we can treat more or less like a lolly shop. Or a sweets shop, depending on your locale. How good is it (note the absence of question mark). Before we carry on with the day’s events, a quick word on Australia’s men’s basketballers – speaking as a basketball fan as much as an Aussie, that last quarter against Argentina last night was as close to sporting eroticism as it gets. Dead set counting the seconds to tomorrow’s semi-final against the Americans.
And that’s it from me for the day. Enjoy the rest of the action. Scott Heinrich will be your host next.
It’s always interesting to think about what sports could be next to make it to the Olympics. But Wales, Argentina, NZ, Argentina and Australia will be rubbing their shears at this one. Sheep shearing for Brisbane 2032 anyone?
Considering it has a population of 1.3bn, India has not had a huge amount of Olympic success. It’s won nine gold medals in Games history, the last one coming in 2008 in shooting. But we have a contender in the men’s javelin: Neeraj Chopra. The Asian and Commonwealth Games champion put in a huge throw of 86.65 to qualify for the final. Lassi Etelätalo of Finland was the only other man from Group A of qualifying to guarantee his place in the final. USA’s Michael Shuey fouled on all three of his attempts.
Given Australia’s historic success in the Olympic swimming pool, the nation’s lack of a medal in the marathon swimming was an anomaly. Since the 10km discipline was introduced at the 2008 Olympics, not a single Australian has finished on the podium in the open water event.
But after Australia’s best-ever medal haul at an Olympic swim meet last week, Kareena Lee continued her nation’s success in the water with a bronze medal in the marathon swim on Wednesday. It was a remarkable swim by Lee, moving up through the field in a gritty effort in the latter stages to finish on the podium.
With a finishing time of 1:59:32 at the Odaiba Marine Park, Lee was barely two seconds off the winner, Ana Marcela Cunha.
Lee’s medal success on her Olympic debut is a remarkable achievement after the swimmer narrowly missed out on the 2016 Games. Racing at the 2015 World Aquatic Championships in the hope of a top 10 finish that would have sent her to Rio, Lee was hospitalised with a combination of asthma, dehydration, hypothermia and a facial injury. The withdrawal ended her hopes of a 2016 Olympic appearance, but Lee fought back to qualify for Tokyo.
Lee is coached by legendary swim coach John Rodgers, a three-time Australian swim coach of the year.
Kai Edwards will be aiming to repeat Lee’s success when he takes to the water in the men’s marathon swimming on Thursday.
Women’s park skateboarding: To the skate park! The first heat is done and Japan’s Yosozumi Sakura won with a score of 45.98, followed by Brazil’s Dora Varella (41.59) and Germany’s Lilly Stoephasius (38.37). There are four heats with five skaters in each heat. The top eight overall scores go through to the final - so you could win your heat and still not get to the final. Britain’s Bombette Martin (16.21) finished fourth and is unlikely to progress with 15 more skaters to come.
GB’s big hope, 13-year-old Sky Brown will compete in heat three. Here’s more on her story:
Men’s decathlon 100m: Spain’s Jorge Ureña wins heat two in 10.66, the fastest time of the day so far. Norway’s Martin Roe is second and Australia’s Cedric Dubler is third in 10.89, the fifth best time of the day so far. In heat three, Canada’s Damian Warner sets a lightning fast time of 10.12 - that equals the best-ever 100m in the decathlon, which was set in 2019 by ... Damian Warner. Australia’s Ashley Moloney also has a good run with 10.34. After the first heat, it’s Warner in first place, Ashley Moloney is second and another Canadian, Pierce Lepage, in third. But it’s very early days. Obviously. About 10% done by my estimation.
The men’s decathlon has started with the 100m. The 2016 silver medalist, reigning world champion and world record holder (yeah, but what’s he ever done with his life?) Kevin Mayer goes in the first heat. The Frenchman finishes second behind Grenada’s Lindon Victor. Mayer’s time of 10.68 is short of his personal best of 10.55 but it’s a solid start.
And now we’ve looked at the Aussie chances, here’s where Team USA can go big today.
10.30pm EDT: women’s 400m hurdles final
Three US women – including the newly minted world-record holder – are set to square off in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles. Sydney McLaughlin, 21, set the world record at the US Olympic trials in June, and she won her semifinal heat Monday with a time of 53.03 seconds. (That’s 1.13 seconds off her time from the trials.) Dalilah Muhammad, the previous record holder, won her semi, too, clocking in at 53.30 seconds, and Anna Cockrell, a recent USC graduate competing in her first Games, placed second in her semi-final. McLaughlin and Muhammad are expected to contend for gold, and Cockrell, too, has a real shot at medaling.
7am EDT: women’s 3000m steeplechase final
Emma Coburn is competing in the steeplechase in her third consecutive Olympics; she didn’t medal in 2012 and took bronze in ‘16, and she’s expected to contend in Tokyo. Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech is favored in the race – she holds the current world record – but had a mediocre showing in her preliminary race Saturday. Chepkoech did qualify for the final, but she’s dealing with an inflamed Achilles tendon, potentially leaving a door open for Coburn to take gold. Two more Americans, Courtney Frerichs and Val Constien, also qualified for the steeplechase final.
7.15am EDT: men’s hammer throw final
Two American men, Daniel Haugh and Rudy Winkler, qualified for the hammer throw final. In the semi-final, Winkler had the second-farthest throw of anyone in the 31-man field, and Haugh’s throw was good for ninth. Winkler is competing in his second Games; he placed 18th in the qualifying round in 2016 and did not advance to the final. These are Haugh’s first Olympics.
8.05am EDT: men’s 800m final
Clayton Murphy, who won bronze in the 800 in Rio, was the only American man to qualify for the finalsin the event this summer. His semi-final time was third-best among the field of 24. Wilson’s wife, sprinter Ariana Washington, is also an Olympian; the two met in the Olympic Village in 2016. Washington isn’t racing in Tokyo.
8.55am EDT: men’s 200m final
The men’s 200m final is packed with Americans, and in a field that doesn’t include Usain Bolt, it’s anyone’s race. Of the Americans, 22-year-old Kenny Bednarek ran fastest in the semi-finals, finishing second to Canada’s Andre de Grasse, who took second in the event behind Bolt in Rio. Erriyon Knighton, who’s just 17 years old, won his semi-final heat, and Noah Lyles, who’s the reigning world champion in the event, also made the field.
It’s that time of day where we look at Australian chances over the 15 hours or so. Peter Bol and Genevieve Gregson go for gold in the men’s 800m and women’s steeplchase finals, while Mat Belcher and Will Ryan are poised for sailing glory and the Opals play the US in a basketball quarter-final.
For the full rundown click here:
Ivor Leonard writes in with a good question: “Having watched the 1500m swim and how close the swimmers are after swimming for what seemed forever,” he says. “I can’t believe that after a 10k swim taking nearly two hours the winner won by only 0.9 seconds. Surely in percentage terms (0.0125% I think) this is the closest finish of any sport. In some of the pool events the winner was further ahead! Hopefully someone out there can confirm!
Well, the golf takes four days, and Xander Schauffele only won the men’s tournament by one stroke. Which takes around a second. But maybe that doesn’t count.
Women’s golf: Very early days here. The first round has just started and only a few of the athletes are out on the course. Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines is -2 after three holes, Ko Jin Young of South Korea is -1 and everyone else who is out is on par. But the majority of the field are in the clubhouse.
Women’s marathon swim: The end is amusingly confusing as most of the athletes have white caps. Only the Aussie Lee is easy to pick out in her yellow cap. And she touches home for bronze! Brazil’s Cunha sprints home for gold and the Netherlands’ Van Rouwendaal gets silver.
Women’s marathon swim: Cunha tries to break from the pack in the closing stages but Lee, Beck and Van Rouwendaal have her in their sights...
Women’s marathon swim: The final turn and 500m to go. Cunha of Brazil leads then Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands, Germany’s Beck and Australia’s Lee. It’s very close though.
Women’s marathon swim: Brazil’s Cunha has the lead with 650m to go. But only just...
Women’s marathon swim: The group of eight - who sounds like a spy ring - soldier on to the finish. They are Leonie Beck of Germany, Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha, USA’s Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson, China’s Xin Xin, Australia’s Kareena Lee, Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal and Hungary’s Anna Olasz. All have a chance with five minutes or so to go.
Updated
Women’s marathon swim: About 10 minutes to go in the race, which is more than most of have ever done the front crawl without stopping. These women though? They laugh at your 15 minutes of front crawl [NB: other strokes are available]. By my estimation any of nine swimmers could take the gold, they’re all bunched up as we reach the final lap, including USA Haley Anderson and Ashley Twichell, and Australia’s Kareena Lee. GB’s Alice Dearing is too far back to threaten the leaders though. Germany’s Leonie Beck leads by two seconds.
Preamble
Hello. A few early starts today at the women’s marathon swim (does the water get hot later on in the day?) and the start of the women’s golf tournament - they’re out and about already. As for the rest of the day? Here’s Martin Belam with a rundown of the upcoming action.
Day 12 at a glance
All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Brisbane, subtract eight hours for Hastings, 13 hours for Miami and 16 hours for San Diego.
- 9am-12.25pm and 6.30pm-10pm Athletics – a lot of the day is taken up with decathlon and heptathlon. There are semi-finals in the men’s 110m hurdles, women’s 400m and 1500m. The medals will come in the women’s 400m hurdles final (11.30am), women’s 3000m steeplechase (8pm), men’s hammer throw final (8.15pm), men’s 800m final (9.05pm) and the last race of the day at 9.55pm is the men’s 200m final 🥇
- 9am-12.30pm Skateboarding – it’s the women’s park event, there are four rounds of prelims and then the final starts at 12.30pm, and 13-year-old Sky Brown is involved 🥇
- 10.30am and 7pm Hockey – the women’s competition reaches the semi-final stage. After the dramatic shootout with Spain, next for Team GB is the Netherlands in the morning match. Argentina face India in the evening game.
- 1.50pm and 7.50pm Weightlifting – it is the final day of weightlifting at the Tokyo International Forum, with the men’s +109kg 🥇
- 2pm-4.10pm Boxing – it is semi-final bouts all-day, including Team GB’s Frazer Clarke at 3.03pm. The last fight of the day is scheduled for 3.35pm, and will be the men’s light heavy final featuring Ben Whittaker of Great Britain against Cuba’s Arlen López 🥇
- 2.33pm and 3.33pm Sailing – conditions permitting, it is the final day of sailing and the Olympics end at Enoshima with first the men’s and then the women’s two-person dinghy – 470 finals 🥇
- 3.30pm-7pm Track cycling – absolutely packed programme featuring men’s sprint, women’s keirin and then at 5.59pm there’s the bronze and gold medal races in the men’s team pursuit 🥇
- 5pm, 6pm and 9.10pm Sport climbing – admit it, you were absolutely gripped by this yesterday, weren’t you? It’s qualification day for the women.
- 7pm Equestrian – it is the individual jumping final 🐴🥇
- 7.30pm Artistic swimming – it is the duet free routine final 🥇
You can find our full interactive events schedule here, and I’ve been finding it absolutely essential, because as well as telling you what is coming up next, it also tells you what is in play with live scores throughout the day.
As it stands
Here’s how the emoji table looks:
1 🇨🇳 China 🥇 32 🥈 21 🥉 16 total: 69
2 🇺🇸 USA 🥇 24 🥈 28 🥉 21 total: 73
3 🇯🇵 Japan 🥇 19 🥈 6 🥉 11 total: 36
4 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 14 🥈 4 🥉 15 total: 33
5 ◽️ Not Russia 🥇 13 🥈 21 🥉 18 total: 52
6 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 13 🥈 17 🥉 13 total: 43
7 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 8 🥈 8 🥉 14 total: 30
8 🇫🇷 France 🥇 6 🥈 10 🥉 8 total: 24
9 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 6 🥈 7 🥉 7 total: 20
10 🇰🇷 South Korea 🥇 6 🥈 4 🥉 9 total: 19
