Tokyo Olympic Games 2020: men’s road race, first gold won, boxing, swimming and more – live! | Sport

Tennis – Ladies’s world No.1 Ash Barty is on court docket alongside Storm Sanders within the ladies’s doubles. The sixth seeds are taking over Japanese pair Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya.

Weightlifting – There’s an opportunity the subsequent medal handed out gained’t in reality be the lads’s street race, however the ladies’s 49kg weightlifting. We’re within the early levels of the snatch portion of the ultimate.

Biking – The skilled commentators masking the lads’s street race have knowledgeable viewers that the peloton now means enterprise, approaching midway. The breakaway group has splintered and the 5 remaining riders are starting to be reeled in because the course flattens out following the primary descent.

Should you’re simply dipping into the weblog for the primary time, right here’s a rundown of a few of the motion to this point this Saturday.

• Yang Qian won the first gold medal of the Games, the Chinese language shooter triumphing within the ladies’s 10m air rifle.
• An Algerian judoka has been sent home from the Olympics after refusing to compete in opposition to Israeli
• Andy Murray’s Olympic marketing campaign has began in fashion with a doubles victory alongside Joe Salisbury in opposition to second seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert
• Australia’s Kookaburras defeated hosts Japan 5-3 of their opening hockey conflict.
• The subsequent medal up for grabs is within the males’s street race. The cyclists usually are not removed from midway however British medal hope Geraint Thomas is up in opposition to it after crashing early.

Tennis – Muraay and Salisbury have completed it!

Tennis – Sam Stosur didn’t final lengthy within the ladies’s singles. The Australian was *bundled out* in straight units by rising Kazakh Elena Rybakina.

I’ve at all times been extra a Cracklin’ Rosie or I’m… I stated man, however every to their very own.

Time for a business indie break whereas I pop the kettle on.

Tennis – Nice Britain’s Heather Watson is out of the ladies’s singles. She misplaced in straight units to Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam.

Biking – CRASH! Geraint Thomas, one of many nice hopes of Staff GB is down within the males’s street race. One other British rider is on the deck too.

It’s nonetheless early in a gradual race, to allow them to nonetheless get again into the combination, however that’s removed from perfect. Thomas is a magnet for bingles.

Biking – 77km, or round one third race distance, into the lads’s street race and the leaders are heading in direction of the summit of the primary climb. That breakaway bunch is all the way down to seven, however they proceed to increase their lead, which is now over 18 minutes from the peloton.

These main seven are: DLAMINI (RSA), KUKRLE (CZE), SAGAN Juraj (SVK), GROSU (ROU), TZORTZAKIS (GRE) AULAR SANABRIA (VEN), DAUMONT (BUR).

Tennis – Sir Andrew Barron Murray, a legend of Olympic tennis, is on court docket within the males’s doubles alongside Joe Salisbury – and he’s simply served out the primary set within the opening spherical conflict in opposition to Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert. The Frenchmen have 5 grand slam doubles titles as a duo, so this may be some scalp for the Brits if they will see it house. On the very least, let’s hope Murray’s bionic hip holds out.

Spot quiz time:

Repechage is a kind of phrases thrown round loads in rowing protection, however within the 4 years between Video games its that means fades into the ether. The phrase itself comes from the French verb repêch which interprets immediately as “fish out”, however in widespread utilization means to supply a second likelihood.

In rowing (and different Olympic sports activities) it’s a way by which crews who didn’t end first previous the publish are entered right into a secondary race to permit them to qualify for the subsequent spherical. It’s a method of making an attempt to make the draw fairer in case a aggressive boat is dropped right into a warmth with a crew that blows them out of the water. Different occasions obtain the identical consequence by means of seeding or taking quickest warmth instances for opponents outdoors the automated qualifying locations.

Tennis – Iga Swiatek is a severe medal likelihood within the ladies’s singles and the sixth seed Pole is underway with a routine 6-2 6-2 victory over Mona Barthel. Swiatek is in Naomi Osaka’s quarter of the draw.

Badminton: Staff GB’s Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith are ranked eighth on the planet in blended doubles, and so they started their Olympic marketing campaign confidently earlier at the moment.

Biking – 46km into this race, one other 188km to go, and the lads’s street race is starting the lengthy ascent to the primary of three peaks. There may be nonetheless a large hole from the peloton to the breakaway group of eight unfancied riders.

DLAMINI (RSA), KUKRLE (CZE), SAGAN Juraj (SVK), GROSU (ROU), TZORTZAKIS (GRE) AULAR SANABRIA (VEN) WANG (CHN) ASADOV (AZE).

What are the sports activities you get sucked into in the course of the Video games? I’m at all times drawn to volleyball – each indoor and seashore. I used to play a bit in my youth, and now I can solely marvel on the athleticism of these repeat jumps on sand. My calves ache simply watching. There’s been loads of seashore motion already at the moment, highlighted by Brazil doing the double over fierce rivals Argentina.

Softball – Fast replace for our Australian readers, and it isn’t one. Canada are cruising 7-1 within the seventh inning. The Aussies are heading for his or her second heavy defeat of their opening three matches. Their group stage concludes with fixtures in opposition to the unbeaten USA tomorrow and winless Mexico on Monday.

The primary evaluations of Australia’s Olympic protection are in:

Biking – With 206km to go within the males’s street race the breakaway group at the moment are eight minutes forward of the peloton. The favourites have been unperturbed to this point, pleased to gas up, tackle water, however now they’re stepping on the gasoline.

Ladies’s 10m air rifle – Yang Qian has simply obtained her gold medal – the primary of the Video games. She positioned it round her neck herself, in one other signal of the Covid protocols at these Olympics. The socially distanced podium seems prefer it’s been designed for giants however populated by Lilliputians. We’ll get used to it quickly, I’m positive.

The 21-year-old seems uncertain what to do with herself because the Chinese language flag is raised and the nationwide anthem is performed. Finally she does probably the most lovable Mobot coronary heart signal along with her arms over her head, and my throat tightens up a contact. There’s a minor incident when the trio of medallists stumble upon one another on their method out of the world. Giggles all spherical from the opponents. Thomas Bach seems on bloodlessly.

Biggest Olympian – For what it’s value, Agnes Keleti deserves a point out. She survived the holocaust in unbelievable circumstances, turned the main medal winner on the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, claimed asylum in Australia whereas the Soviet Union had been driving tanks by means of Budapest, resettled in Israel, and continues to be going sturdy at 100! She is a useless set legend.

If you wish to be taught extra, Sean Ingle wrote beautifully about her earlier this year. I’m delighted she was concerned within the opening ceremony.

Biggest Olympian – Right here’s an unattainable query to chew over for the remainder of time: who’s the best of all Olympians? Because the IOC counsel under, Michael Phelps, with 28 medals (23 gold), has very, very sturdy claims. However then, swimming has so many occasions there needs to be some type of algorithm to match Phelps with Usain Bolt, or Jesse Owens, or Eric Moussambani.

Biking – There’s been a breakaway group of eight very very early into this 234km street race:

DLAMINI (RSA), KUKRLE (CZE), SAGAN Juraj (SVK), GROSU (ROU), TZORTZAKIS (GRE) AULAR SANABRIA (VEN) WANG (CHN) ASADOV (AZE).

There’s a 90 second hole, for what it’s value, however the peloton couldn’t care much less. Clearly they’re unconcerned concerning the calibre of rider forward and extra anxious about this lengthy difficult course with three severe climbs.

The primary gold medal of those Video games has been gained! After a top quality last the final pair of photographs had been stuffed with nerves however Qian Yang proved the goldeneye, holding off Anastasia Galashina (ROC). Nina Christen (SUI) picks up the bronze.

We’re all the way down to the ultimate pair of shooters within the ladies’s 10m air rifle last. Anastasia Galashina and Qian Yang. Who will win the primary gold medal of Tokyo 2020?

Huzzah for the Kookaburras! Australia prevail in a rollercoaster. 2-0 up, 2-3 down, then 5-3 victors. Extra from Kieran Pender to comply with.

After that shiny poptastic palate cleanser it’s time to thank Bryan and the US crew for his or her wonderful lead-off work on this day-long liveblog extravaganza. It’s now time for Staff Australia to hold the baton across the first nook.

What’s on the agenda over the subsequent 5 or so hours?

• MEDALS – The primary medal ceremony of Tokyo 2020 will arrive quickly following the conclusion of the Ladies’s 10m Air Rifle Capturing Ultimate. We’re into the latter levels of this contest.
• MEDALS – The Males’s Street Race has simply obtained underway within the biking.

We’ll be throughout the all of the breaking information from the numerous occasions underway throughout Tokyo, and we’ll be conserving a particular eye on the Australian opponents, with the lads’s hockey seconds away from ending up in opposition to hosts Japan.

That’s all for me, however our Jonathan Howcroft is stepping in to take you thru the subsequent few hours.

The primary ever Olympic 3×3 basketball result’s within the books because the top-ranked Russian ladies’s group held off a spirited problem from hosts Japan to win 21-18, reaching the 21-point mark with 25.6 seconds remaining on the Aomi City Sports activities Park.

The foundations for 3×3 basketball are made for a faster-paced competitors than the standard five-on-five recreation. Groups play with one- and two-point baskets over a single 10-minute interval (with a 12-second shot clock), although a recreation can finish sooner if a group reaches 21 factors inside the gap. If a recreation is tied on the finish of regulation, the primary group to attain two factors in time beyond regulation wins. Either side is awarded two free throws from the seventh group foul, then two free throws and possession after the tenth.

“I have a look at it like seashore volleyball is to the traditional volleyball,” stated Robbie Hummel, who captained the US males’s group to the 2019 world championship. “It’s a very cool spin on a very fashionable sport. I believe that almost all youngsters rising up, you grew up taking part in in three-on-three tournaments, and also you grew up taking part in three-on-three within the backyards, so it’s very relatable to the followers. Everyone has performed three-on-three at a while of their life.

Portuguese surfer Frederico Morais, the world No 11 who’s thought to be the highest European surfer within the Tokyo Video games, has introduced that he examined optimistic for Covid-19 and can miss the game’s Olympic debut.

“That is seemingly the saddest video I’ve ever needed to publish. In 2019 I certified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that had been postponed due to Covid-19. And now, due to the virus I gained’t have the ability to compete nor signify my nation,” Morais stated on Instagram.

“Fortunate my life has at all times been stuffed with obstacles that I’ve overcome one after the other, this can be no completely different. Paris 2024 I’ll be prepared! Good luck to my nation Portugal, I’ll be there with you in thought!”

The 29-year-old stated he was “very cautious” in a press release issued by means of Portugal’s Olympic group, including: “I’ve been totally vaccinated for over a month, however I ended up contracting the virus. I really feel high quality and I’ll perform my isolation. I can be following each second of our group.”

Morais was scheduled to surf in opposition to Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi, France’s Jeremy Flores and Peru’s Miguel Tudela when the eight-day shortboard browsing competitors interval begins Sunday at Tsurigasaki seashore and stays listed on the warmth draw.

The Worldwide Browsing Affiliation had no rapid remark however its deadline to register alternates is 3pm on Saturday in Tokyo, roughly 4 and a half hours from now.

Syrian desk tennis participant Hend Zaza, who’s the youngest competitor in Tokyo, has simply launched her Olympic marketing campaign on the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The 12-year-old is facing Austria’s Jia Liu within the ladies’s singles preliminary spherical.

Zaza, who was her nation’s feminine flag bearer within the opening ceremony, turns into the fifth-youngest recognized Olympian in historical past and the youngest since Romanian determine skater Beatrice Hustiu in 1968.

The youngest Olympian ever was 10-year-old gymnast Dimitrios Loundras, who gained bronze in a group occasion on the delivery of the trendy Olympics in Athens in 1896.

I’m heading off now however Bryan Graham is approaching deck to take you thru the subsequent hour or so.

A small storm is brewing within the pool. The US Olympic group revealed that round 100 of its 613 athletes are not vaccinated (which is across the identical price as athletes on the Olympics as a complete). A type of is swimmer Michael Andrew, who stated he had not obtained a jab because it might have an effect on his coaching routine.

That led former Olympic champion – and certainly one of three athlete representatives on USA Swimming’s board of administrators – Maya DiRado to voice her considerations on Twitter.

“That Michael would decide that places even a little bit of threat on his teammates for his personal perceived well-being frustrates me,” DiRado wrote.

A few of Andrew’s fellow US swimmers have defended him. Former gold medalist Anthony Ervin stated Andrew has had Covid and subsequently has immunity [science bit: you can get Covid more than once]. Whereas Andrew’s teammate Tom Protect tweeted: “What a part of that duty entails shaming certainly one of our Olympian’s (sic) on the eve of competitors?”

Athletes don’t should be vaccinated to compete on the Video games, however they’re examined frequently.

The hosts are dealing with Australia within the males’s hockey for the time being. It’s nonetheless early days and it’s 0-0 after quarter-hour or so.

Tom Dart is following Staff USA for us in Tokyo and has an replace on what at the moment holds for the anticipated medal table-toppers:

After yesterday’s flag-waving on the opening ceremony, with baseball’s Eddy Alvarez and basketball nice Sue Chook wielding the large Stars and Stripes for Staff USA, a lot American curiosity at the moment will revolve round the ladies’s soccer group, who face New Zealand at Tokyo Stadium.

The US raised the white flag on Wednesday, surrendering three goals to Sweden without reply in a stunning and deserved final result that ended the group’s 44-match unbeaten run. The US actually ought to beat the Soccer Ferns, who had been outplayed by Australia in a 2-1 loss of their opening Group G recreation in Tokyo. They’re coached by Glasgow-born Tom Sermanni, who was fired as US head coach in 2014 after 16 months in cost. Something lower than a cushty win will pile stress on the present coach, Vlatko Andonovski.

The US softball group, which has loved a happier begin, successful their first two video games, face Mexico because the opening spherical continues. There’s additionally some novel basketball motion as a brand new occasion, 3×3, will get underway. The US ladies face hotly-tipped France and Mongolia at Aomi City Sports activities Park; the American males didn’t qualify. And the US ladies meet the hosts within the preliminary spherical of the water polo, with the group going for a 3rd straight gold medal.

Among the many new sports activities in Tokyo is browsing. It kicks (paddles?) off this weekend and Mike Hytner has slightly extra on its Video games debut:

One to look at within the ladies’s 10m air rifle at the moment is Luna Solomon, who’s competing for the Refugee Staff. She fled her nation, Eritrea, in 2015 earlier than arriving in Switzerland. She took up capturing there and is now competing in Tokyo. She’s close to the underside of the qualifying spherical for the time being and nearly actually gained’t make the ultimate however simply being right here is sort of one thing.

Barack Obama wish to want you good luck (in case you are a world-class athlete. And American. However I’m positive he needs you nicely even if you happen to’re not):

We requested earlier which new sports activities you’d wish to see on the Olympics. Brucie Morris needs to see lacrosse:

“It’s a sport that hasn’t appeared since 1948, and 1908 was the final time it was a medal sport (Canada beating GB 14-10). The worldwide federation, World Lacrosse has simply been awarded full IOC member standing, and the large purpose is to be invited to the LA 2028 Summer time Video games as a result of reputation in North America.

“It’s a particularly quick paced sport, and the latest format of the sport is function constructed (for good and in poor health) for TV with the Olympics in thoughts. Males’s and ladies’s lacrosse will seem as a full occasion on the 2022 World Video games in Birmingham, Alabama, the place hopefully the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy will seem because the very first consultant of a First Nation indigenous peoples at a multi disciplinary occasion!”

If nothing else, we would be treated to some excellent names. Shackleford Stanwick and Bizzy Blanding anybody?

Some info about Staff USA (and NBA) star Kevin Durant:

1) He is excellent at basketball

2) He’s (surprisingly) very tall

3) He is excellent at basketball

4) He is just a little thin skinned

5) He is excellent at basketball

6) His birthday is 29 September

Taking the final level into consideration, why had been the US group singing Completely satisfied Birthday to him at the moment?

Hey. We’re lastly underway (even when we’ve been form of underway for a number of days now, however here’s what is arising within the subsequent few hours:

Ladies’s 10m air rifle: now

Males’s hockey: Australia v Japan (1.30am BST/8.30pm ET/10.30am AEST)

Males’s rowing: (2am BST/9pm ET/11am AEST)

Males’s biking street race begins: 3am BST/10pm ET/12pm AEST)

My pal and colleague Jeff Zillgitt and I as soon as had the concept for a Pub Video games that would come with darts, varied billiard/pool sports activities, foosball and that shuffleboard factor you generally see. At this time’s bar-goers within the US are extra hooked up to trivia contests, which may very well be a number of enjoyable. Perhaps Jeopardy legend Ken Jennings might do commentary.

Tom, take it away.

Trivia and new sports activities

Miguel Aviles has answered my query concerning the hat trick within the first day of ladies’s soccer competitors with Vivienne Miedema of the Netherlands. I suppose so, although she went on to attain a fourth. I’d truly forgotten about her as a result of, in the identical recreation, Zambia’s Barbra Banda additionally had a hat trick.

On new sports activities, Stephen Broadley asks a official query: “Why are they introducing so many sports activities that may’t be measured objectively?” As a result of controversy sells! (Additionally as a result of the youngsters appear to love this stuff.)

Please begin directing your concepts for brand spanking new sports activities to the sensible Tom Lutz, who can be taking on for me in … two minutes? Wow, this simply flew by. Years of anticipation to get these Olympics underway, so I suppose it’s no shock that it looks as if it’s going shortly now that it’s right here.

Trinidad and Tobago doesn’t have many athletes within the Olympics in occasions apart from monitor and subject / athletics, however certainly one of them, rower Felice Chow, simply left her fellow opponents within the single sculls repechage not simply in her wake however behind her wake. Not unhealthy for a 44-year-old. (All of it goes downhill after that, I say as a 51-year-old who hasn’t handle himself within the final 25 years.)

This was a query raised within the final weblog after we talked about Final, which was left off the Paris program in favor of breakdancing. Sport climbing, browsing and skateboarding can be carried over from Tokyo; baseball, softball and karate is not going to.

One thought from bethyl t through e-mail: “firstly to resurrect the swimming impediment race, final seen within the 1900 video games, as a result of there appear to be countless swimming disciplines however none that contain swimming over poles and beneath boats. deliver it again.

“secondly, and i might actually love for this to occur – double dutch! it’s a lot enjoyable, countless room for inventive expression, and it’s exhilirating to look at. the game stays sturdy – i imagine there’s a league construction within the states, and so they have common tournaments too. can be a pleasure to see it on the video games.”

That’s old-school proper there:

You’ve seen the ceremony (or at the least the highlights). You’ve seen some soccer and softball (or at the least some highlights, hopefully together with the ladies’s soccer hat-trick – first particular person to e-mail [email protected] with the identify of the scorer wins … their identify on this weblog). You’ve seen rowing preliminary heats (or at the least some highlights). You’ve spent a few hours taking part in the Google Doodle.

Now all of it begins for actual.

Any biking man nonetheless standing after the Tour de France will spend one other few hours within the saddle chasing Olympic gold. Individuals will begin punching, kicking, throwing, choking and brandishing swords at one another with out being arrested. Horses and folks will do horse folks issues. We’ll all develop into instantaneous consultants on 3×3 basketball and marvel how the US males might have did not qualify in a sport performed in hundreds of parks and driveways throughout the nation.

Badminton gamers, seashore volleyball gamers, indoor volleyball gamers, tennis gamers and desk tennis gamers will hit issues over nets of varied sizes. Individuals will raise heavy issues. Women and men will vault and flip. Swimmers and rowers will go quick throughout the water’s floor or barely under it. And handball, subject hockey, softball and water polo groups will battle to nudge foot-soccerball out of the highlight.

The primary medal, although, is in ladies’s 10-meter air rifle, which at all times appears to have a pleasant story concerned. In 2008, the winner was the Czech Republic’s Katerina Emmons, who had a brand new surname due to her choice to say a number of comforting phrases to US shooter Matt Emmons in 2004 after he spoiled his probabilities of successful a second gold medal by firing on the improper goal on his final shot. In 2016, the shock winner was US teenager Ginny Thrasher, who smiled by means of her few hours of fame earlier than returning to West Virginia College to win some NCAA {hardware}, full a biomedical engineering diploma and develop into a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship.

These Olympians … such slackers.