Tokyo 2020 Olympics Briefing: A Pool Party And Shocks Aplenty

At present in a nutshell: Staff GB choose up their first medals – however Andy Murray and Jade Jones see their hopes dashed.

Tomorrow’s key moments: there’s an enormous morning of swimming finals within the pool, the lads’s triathlon begins on the morning time in Tokyo, and the rugby sevens will get underneath method.

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Join our Tokyo 2020 briefing with all of the information, views and previews for the Olympic and Paralympic Video games.

Listed here are among the most eye-catching headlines from an extremely busy day of sport in Tokyo. Australia’s 4x100m girls’s freestyle relay staff smashed their own world record in the process of picking up the country’s first gold, whereas the US picked up six medals within the pool, together with a gold and silver one-two with Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland within the males’s 400m particular person medley. Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus progressed to arrange a 400m freestyle closing conflict tomorrow morning. Tunisia’s 18-year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui pulled off the swimming shock of the day, profitable gold within the males’s 400m freestyle.

Staff GB claimed their first medals with a bronze for Chelsie Giles in the judo, adopted by Bradly Sinden selecting up silver in a hard-fought taekwondo final against Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek Rashitov. Sinden was bitterly disenchanted, saying: “It was my gold medal to provide away. We’re right here to get gold, anything just isn’t what we’re right here to have fun. Perhaps ultimately I’ll recover from it.”

Elsewhere, China’s Li Fabin won a weightlifting gold with a unique one-legged lift style nicknamed the “flamingo”, Naomi Osaka progressed in the tennis, and the IOC warned athletes against breaching Covid protocols by hugging on the podium, though it can permit them to take off their masks for 30 seconds for a photograph alternative. World No 1 Jon Rahm will miss the golf tournament having tested positive for Covid, as will Bryson DeChambeau of the US.

Li Fabin and the ‘flamingo’! {Photograph}: Chris Graythen/Getty Photographs

We’ll draw a discrete veil over this article speaking up Andy Murray’s probabilities yesterday. He withdrew from the men’s singles with a quad strain, though the two-time Olympic champion will proceed to play within the doubles. It was Jade Jones’s exit that brought about probably the most shockwaves for Staff GB, although. Jones said she was “absolutely gutted”, however it was a heart-warming success for the IOC’s Refugee staff.

Jones was going for a report third gold within the taekwondo, however lost her opening contest to Kimia Alizadeh. Alizadeh received bronze for Iran in Rio in 2016, however this 12 months, having denounced the Iranian authorities, and sought refugee standing in Germany, she is collaborating within the refugee staff. She confronted Jones after profitable an emotionally charged preliminary bout in opposition to Nahid Kiani of Iran.

Kimia Alizadeh Zonouzi of IOC Refugee Team celebrates. — Kimia Alizadeh Zonouzi of IOC Refugee Staff celebrates. {Photograph}: Maja Hitij/Getty Photographs

There was an astonishing victory for Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer in the women’s road race cycling. She attacked in a breakaway from the beginning of the 137km race then rode alone out entrance for the final 40km. Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands completed second. With Kiesenhofer up to now out forward, and no race radio within the Olympics, the Dutch pre-race favorite appeared to suppose she had received when she crossed the road for silver. Italian Elisa Longo Borghini took bronze.

Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria on her way to winning the women’s road race. — Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria on her approach to profitable the ladies’s street race. {Photograph}: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

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Image of the day

Georgia Godwin of Team Australia competes on balance beam during women’s qualification in the artistic gymnastics. — Georgia Godwin of Staff Australia competes on the steadiness beam throughout girls’s qualification within the creative gymnastics. {Photograph}: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Photographs

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Staff USA replace

With out discovering her finest type at this time, Simone Biles nonetheless progressed via qualifying in pursuit of six extra Olympic golds. The US softball staff, in the meantime, booked their spot in opposition to Japan for Tuesday’s 8pm closing. As for the men’s basketball team, nonetheless …

The medals are going to begin coming thick and quick over the subsequent couple of days, particularly within the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. However Tom Dart asks for us, is Tokyo the Olympics the place USA’s swimming empire crumbles? He writes:

Dressel might nicely win gold in three particular person occasions in Japan, however he mirrored on what the US staff has misplaced in addition to what the approaching days might deliver. Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers and Nathan Adrian, with 15 Olympic golds between them, didn’t qualify for Tokyo. Then there’s – or somewhat, isn’t – the now-retired Michael Phelps, who picked up 5 of his profession 23 Olympic titles in Rio 5 years in the past.

🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 Staff GB replace

I haven’t talked about the equestrian sport a lot, however dressage has steadily been going via qualifier rounds. At present Charlotte Dujardin and her horse Gio had been considered one of solely 4 mixtures to attain over eighty factors, and progressed to the medal rounds later within the week. Carl Hester and En Vogue went via as nicely.

Charlotte Dujardin of Britain on her horse Gio. {Photograph}: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The hockey groups each have match-ups tomorrow. The lads face Belgium at 1.30am UK time, and the ladies face South Africa on the considerably friendlier UK time of 10.30am. The ladies lost their opener to Germany at this time. The lads opened with a win over South Africa yesterday.

Additionally beginning tomorrow is Tom Daley within the diving. Our Donald McRae has profiled him as the teenage sensation turned crocheter competes in his last Olympics. And with the athletics beginning later within the Video games, Tom Lamont has interviewed the fastest woman Britain has ever seen, Dina Asher-Smith.

🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺 Australia replace

I really feel like in addition to cursing Murray, I additionally put the whammy on Ash Barty yesterday. Having written that Naomi Osaka would begin her match as quickly as Barty had distributed with Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, that didn’t the truth is occur. Barty lost in straight sets, making 55 unforced errors within the course of. Sorry, Ash.

Australia’s males received their basketball opener in opposition to Nigeria convincingly 84-65. Italy are up subsequent for them on Wednesday.

🇯🇵🇯🇵🇯🇵 The hosts and past

The organising committees gamble on together with the game in these Video games paid off because the very first ever Olympic skateboarding medal went to Yuto Horigome. He grew up in Tokyo and discovered to skate there, the place the exercise is usually appeared down on. In truth, any guests to the Ariake City Sports activities Park discovered themselves confronted with some DIY “skateboarding banned” indicators posted on the perimeter fence to dissuade anybody from emulating the athletes inside.

A poster that says ‘skateboarding banned’ is duct-taped to a white wall where Olympic skateboarding events are taking place. — A poster that claims ‘skateboarding banned’ is duct-taped to a white wall the place Olympic skateboarding occasions are going down. {Photograph}: Mari Saito/Reuters

Sister and brother Uta and Hifume Abe each received judo gold for Japan. He received the lads’s 66kg and she or he received the ladies’s 52kg inside an hour of one another.

China stored piling on the golds too, with Chen Lijun becoming a member of Li and Zhihui Hou with a weightlifting gold. France additionally picked up their first gold, with Romain Cannone profitable within the particular person males’s epee fencing competitors on Sunday. Lee Kiefer of the US took gold within the particular person girls’s foil.

And are the host viewers warming as much as the video games? It might have set low viewing figures within the US, however Friday’s opening ceremony was probably the most watched TV programme in Japan for a decade.

Do you know?

Tokyo was supposed to be the host of the 1940 Video games, which had been cancelled because of the second world struggle. When the town did first host the Olympics in 1964, it was the primary time they had been held in Asia.