Olympics Latest: Krajewski wins individual eventing gold
TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:
Julia Krajewski of Germany won individual eventing gold after countrymate and two-time defending champion Michael Jung stumbled during the cross country segment.
Jung broke a frangible pin that cost him 11 penalty points and a shot at a medal.
Krajewski suffered a combined 0.80 penalties over cross country and both jumping rounds, earning her first individual Olympic medal. She also won silver in the team event with Germany in 2016.
Tom McEwen earned the individual silver hours after helping Britain to its record fourth team eventing gold. Australia’s Andrew Hoy, competing at an eighth Olympic Games, earned the bronze.
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Jake Gibb and substitute teammate Tri Bourne lost to Germany on Monday night in the beach volleyball round of 16, ending their shotgun partnership after just two weeks.
Bourne was a last-minute swap after Gibb’s original partner, Taylor Crabb, tested positive for COVID-19 when he arrived in Japan. The pair had just three practices before their first match, but they made it out of pool play with a 2-1 record.
Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler beat Bourne and Gibb 17-21, 21-15, 15-11 to advance to the quarterfinals. They will play Russians Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy.
The Americans trailed 16-14 in the first set before scoring seven of the next eight points. After losing the second 21-15, they fell behind 12-6 in the third and could only get back within three points.
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MEDAL ALERT
Discus thrower Valarie Allman won the first track and field gold medal for the United States at the Tokyo Games.
Allman’s winning throw went 68.98 meters (226 feet, 3 inches) to hold off Kristin Pudenz of Germany in a competition that was delayed by rain. Yaime Perez of Cuba captured the bronze.
The 26-year-old Allman’s winning throw was on her first attempt. She went to high school in Colorado, college at Stanford and trains in Texas.
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MEDAL ALERT
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands started her bid to win three medals at the Tokyo Games by earning gold in the 5,000 meters.
Hassan pulled away with about 250 meters to go and cruised to the win in a time of 14 minutes, 36.79 seconds. She beat Hellen Obiri of Kenya by nearly two seconds. Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia was third.
Earlier in the day, the 28-year-old Hassan had a scare when she fell on the final lap in the opening round of the 1,500. She picked herself up, caught the pack and won her heat to advance. She’s also entered in the 10,000 meters.
Hassan won the 1,500 and 10,000 at the 2019 world championships.
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MEDAL ALERT
Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen has won gold in men’s singles badminton, denying a repeat title to the Olympic defending champion, China’s Chen Long, in convincing fashion 2-0.
Axelsen, who won bronze at the 2016 Rio Games, was aggressive from the start, taking the first game 21-15, and then overwhelming Chen in the second 21-12.
Both players routinely mixed incredibly fast precision smashes along the edges of the court with delicate touch shots near the net. Some of the rallies approached a minute in length. Chen had been trying to become the second Chinese man in a row to win back-to-back Olympics in the sport. Lin Dan won at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games.
Chen's loss will be keenly felt in China, which has had two spotty Olympics after a long reign of dominance.
Earlier Monday, Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting won the bronze medal, ending the surprising run of Kevin Cordon of Guatemala, which is not a traditional power in badminton.
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MEDAL ALERT
Li Wenwen has taken the gold medal in women’s over-87-kilogram weightlifting for China’s seventh victory in the sport at the Tokyo Games.
Li was far ahead of her challengers as she lifted a total 320 — 140 in the snatch and 180 in the clean and jerk.
Emily Campbell became the first British woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal with silver on a total 283kg.
Hair dyed red and blue, Campbell let out a scream of delight on her final lift and bowed to the audience. Sarah Robles of the United States repeated her bronze from 2016 with 282kg. She was challenging for silver but had her last lift ruled invalid for elbow movement.
Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was also competing but didn’t finish after three invalid lifts.
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Overwhelming favorites Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko of Russia are leading artistic swimming after the duet free routine preliminaries.
Romashina and Kolesnichenko received marks totaling 97.9000 points for a routine that was accompanied by the music “Spiders.” They were followed by China’s Huang Xuechen and Sun Wenyan with 96.2333 and Ukraine’s Marta Fiedina and Anastasiya Savchuk at 94.9333.
The 31-year-old Romashina is going for her record sixth gold medal. She is currently tied for the most in the sport’s Olympic history with fellow Russians Anastasia Davydova and Natalia Ishchenko.
Romashina teamed with Ishchenko to win duet gold at the 2016 Rio Games. Now, she’s seeking to repeat with a new partner at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
The Russians have dominated the sport formerly known as synchronized swimming for more than two decades. Their last Olympic loss came at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The 22 teams will compete again Tuesday in the technical routine preliminaries. The pairs with the top 12 combined scores advance to Wednesday’s final.
The American duo of Anita Alvarez and Lindi Schroeder tied for 13th with 86.5333.
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MEDAL ALERT
Soufiane el-Bakkali of Morocco has won the 3,000-meter steeplechase to end more than 40 years of Kenyan Olympic dominance.
El-Bakkali won in 8 minutes, 8.90 seconds on a wet track at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. He finished well clear of Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia, who took the silver.
Benjamin Kigen claimed a bronze for Kenya after Ethiopia’s Getnet Wale, who was third heading to the final straight, fell. Wale struggled back to his feet and clung on for fourth.
The 25-year-old el-Bakkali was fourth at the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and on the podium at the last two world championships, but this was his first major title.
Kenya had won nine straight Olympic golds in the 3,000 steeplechase since 1980. Kenya’s Conseslus Kipruto, the leading star of the steeplechase, didn’t defend his Olympic title in Tokyo after failing to make the Kenyan team at the national trials.
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MEDAL ALERT
Germany’s Aline Rotter-Focken has beaten American Adeline Gray 7-3 in the 76-kilogram wrestling final.
Gray was trying to join Helen Maroulis as the only two U.S. women’s wrestling gold medalists.
Gray was the No. 1 seed and Rotter-Focken was No. 2. The two are long-time friends who have competed since their teenage years.
Rotter-Focken scored an early point for Gray’s inactivity. She countered a shot by Gray to go up 3-0, then scored four points on a throw to go up 7-0.
Gray finally got on the board on a stepout with just over a minute to go and scored two on a takedown with about 30 seconds left. That was all she could manage.
This was Gray’s first Olympic medal and just the sixth for a U.S. women’s wrestler. She finished a disappointing seventh in Rio while fighting through injuries that kept her out of action for a year after the Games.
China’s Qian Zhou and Turkey’s Yasemin Adar earned bronze medals.
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Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made her mark by competing in the women’s weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics but couldn’t complete a lift.
Hubbard is not the only transgender athlete competing at the Tokyo Games, but she has been the focus of attention as a medal contender in weightlifting.
The New Zealander overbalanced on her opening weight of 120 kilograms, taking the bar behind her shoulders.
Hubbard’s second effort of 125 kilograms was ruled invalid on a majority decision by the referees. The third attempt was almost a repeat of the first, ruling Hubbard out of medal contention in the women’s over-87-kilogram division.
Athletes are eliminated if they do not record at least one valid lift in each of the two parts of the competition.
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MEDAL ALERT
Cuba’s Mijain Lopez became the first man to win four Olympic gold medals in wrestling by defeating Georgia’s Iakobi Kajaia 5-0 in the Greco-Roman 130-kilogram final.
The 38-year-old was unscored upon in his four matches. He joins Japan’s Kaori Icho as the only wrestlers to claim four Olympic golds. Icho won freestyle gold medals in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. Lopez won gold at 120 kg in 2008 and 2012 and 130 kg in 2016 before his victory Monday.
Lopez got a point for passivity by Kajaia, then scored two points on a gut wrench. He scored another point on passivity and another on a step out to go up 5-0.
Lopez defeated Turkey’s Riza Kayaalp 2-0 in the semifinals Sunday in a rematch of the 2016 gold medal match.
Kayaalp won bronze by defeating Iran’s Amin Mirzazadeh 7-2. The Russian Olympic Committee’s Sergey Semenov won the other bronze, defeating Chile’s Yamani Acosta Fernandez.
It was Cuba’s second gold medal of the night in Greco-Roman. Luis Orta Sanchez defeated Japan’s Kenichiro Fumita 5-1 in the 60 kg final.
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MEDAL ALERT
Cuba’s Luis Orta Sanchez has beaten Japan’s Kenichiro Fumita 5-1 in the men's Greco-Roman 60-kilogram final.
Orta Sanchez led 4-0 at the break, then held on for the victory.
Fumita, trying to win in his home country, was the No. 1 seed and a two-time world champion.
Bronze medalists were the Russian Olympic Committee’s Sergey Emelin and China’s Sailike Walihan.
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MEDAL ALERT
Shin Jeahwan of South Korea has won the gold in men’s vault.
Jeahwan earned the gold in a tiebreaker with Denis Abliazin. Both men averaged 14.783 on their two vaults. Jeahwan claimed the top spot because he had the single highest vault score. The 14.833 he received for his second vault was higher than Abliazin’s top score of 14.800.
The silver was the third straight on the event at the Olympics for Abliazin, who is competing for the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee. Abliazin won a gold earlier in the Games while helping ROC to the team title.
Artur Davtyan of Armenia earned bronze.
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MEDAL ALERT
Britain has won its record fourth Olympic gold medal in team eventing at Tokyo’s Equestrian Park.
It’s the first gold in the event for Great Britain since 1972. It’s 11 medals in team eventing trail only the United States (12) for most. Riders Tom McEwen, Laura Collett and Oliver Townend combined for 86.30 penalties, easily exceeding the 100.20 by silver-winning Australia.
McEwen rode without penalties through the cross country and jumping events. Collett and Townend also completed cross country without penalty.
The Aussies narrowly edged France for second — the French had a final score of 101.50.
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Jessie Feming scored on a penalty kick in the 74th minute and Canada knocked the United States out of gold medal contention in the Olympic women’s soccer competition with a 1-0 semifinal victory.
Canada will face the winner of the late semifinal in Yokohama between Sweden and Australia. The gold medal match is set for Friday at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.
It was the second time the United States has been knocked out of medal contention at the Olympics. At the 2016 Games, it was defeated by Sweden in the quarterfinals.
Canada had not won against the United States since 2001.
The U.S. had an uncharacteristically uneven tournament, starting with a 3-0 loss to Sweden that snapped a 44-game unbeaten streak, and a scoreless draw with Australia in the group stage.
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MEDAL ALERT
American gymnast Jade Carey has won the gold medal on floor exercise.
The 21-year-old from Arizona bounced back from a frightening stumble during the vault final on Sunday to claim the top spot on floor with a score of 14.366. The medal is the fifth claimed by the U.S. women’s gymnastics team in Tokyo even with star Simone Biles sitting out four finals to focus on her mental health.
Italian Vanessa Ferrari, fourth at both the 2008 and 2016 Olympics, claimed silver. The 30-year-old’s dramatic performance drew a roar from the various federations inside the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
Angelina Melnikova of the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee and Mai Murakami of Japan tied for bronze with a score of 14.166. The gymnasts had both the same difficulty score and execution score in their routines.
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MEDAL ALERT
The Chinese women's cycling sprint team of Bao Shanju and Zhong Tianshi beat the German duo of Lea Sophie Friedrich and Emma Hinze in the finals to win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Bao and Zhong built a lead of .325 seconds by the midway point of the sprint race, but the German team came on strong at the end. The margin was just 85 thousandths of a second with China stopping the clock in 31.895.
China also won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games and was relegated to silver at the 2012 London Games.
In the race for bronze, Daria Shmeleva and Anastasiia Voinova, representing the Russia Olympic Committee, beat Laurine van Riessen and Shanne Braspennincx of the Netherlands. The Russian duo won silver in Rio.
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MEDAL ALERT
China’s Zhang Changhong set a world record in men’s 25-meter three-position rifle at the Tokyo Games, leaving Russian Sergey Kamenskiy just short of gold for the second straight Olympics.
The 21-year-old Zhang, a former race walker shooting in his first Olympics, finished with 466.0 points, breaking the record of 465.3 set by countryman Yang Hoaran in 2018.
Kamenskiy just missed gold at the 2016 Rio Games, finishing 0.3 points behind Italy’s Niccolo Campriani. The 33-year-old hit at least 10.1 on his final five shots, but Zhang had a 10.9 with three shots to go to surge ahead.
Kamenskiy finished with 464.2 points.
Serbia Milenko Sebic took bronze after finishing 11th at the Rio Olympics.
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The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says shot putter Raven Saunders’ gesture during her medals ceremony “was respectful of her competitors and did not violate our rules related to demonstration.“
After receiving her silver medal at the Olympics on Sunday, and after the Chinese national anthem played for winner Gong Lijiao, Saunders lifted her arms above her head and formed an “X” with her wrists.
Asked by The Associated Press what that meant, she explained: ”It’s the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.”
During the International Olympic Committee’s press briefing Monday morning, spokesman Mark Adams said the IOC was in contact with the USOPC regarding the episode.
The USOPC confirmed that it was “in discussion” with the IOC and World Athletics, which governs the sport. World Athletics President Seb Coe has previously said he didn’t anticipate sanctioning demonstrations if the decision were left up to the federation.
The USOPC has stated it will not sanction athletes who demonstrate on the podium. The IOC reviewed its long-standing policy but kept the rule in place that bars demonstrations on the medals stand.
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The U.S. women’s soccer team was hurt early in its semifinal game against Canada when goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher came down awkwardly trying to go up for the ball.
Naeher was attended to by trainers for some five minutes while backup Adrianna Franch warmed up.
Naeher tried to stay in the game but struggled. She was replaced by Franch, making her Olympic debut, in the 30th minute.
Naeher was key for the U.S. against the Netherands in the quarterfinals, with a penalty save during regulation and two more in a shootout. The U.S. advanced 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
The game was scoreless at the half in Kashima.
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China has taken the top two spots in the preliminaries of the men’s 3-meter springboard diving.
Wang Zongyuan totaled the highest score over six dives with 531.30 points. Teammate Xie Siyi ranked second at 520.90. The pair already teamed up to win the 3-meter synchro title in Tokyo.
The Chinese have won four of the first five Olympic diving events. They took silver in men’s 10-meter platform synchro.
Rommel Pacheco Marrufo of Mexico was third at 479.25.
Japan’s Ken Terauchi qualified in 10th. He’s competing in his sixth Olympics at age 40 and is trying to win the host country’s first diving medal.
Andrew Capobianco of the United States advanced in 17th. The other American, Tyler Downs, finished 23rd. Only the top 18 moved on to the semifinals on Tuesday.
Germany’s Patrick Hausing, a three-time Olympic medalist, was in contention after two dives, but fell out over his last four and finished 21st. He and partner Lars Rudiger had already earned bronze in 3-meter synchro.
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MEDAL ALERT
Liu Yang of China edged teammate You Hao to capture gold in men’s still rings.
The 26-year-old put together a spectacular routine to post a score of 15.500, just ahead of You’s 15.300. Liu’s 9.0 execution score from the judges was the highest of the eight men in a tight event final.
The win was an upset of sorts for Liu, who finished fourth in Rio de Janeiro five years ago. He captured gold in the event at the 2014 world championships but had never finished higher than third at any major competition until Monday.
Defending Olympic champion Elftherios Petrounias of Greece took bronze. The 30-year-old Petrounias, a five-time world champion, didn’t even secure a spot in Tokyo until winning a World Cup event in June.
Samir Ait Said of France, who broke his left leg while competing on the vault at the 2016 Olympics, finished fourth.
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MEDAL ALERT
Wang Zhouyu has won China’s sixth weightlifting gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a commanding victory in the 87-kilogram category.
Wang lifted 120 kilograms in the snatch and 150kg in the clean and jerk for a total 270kg.
Tamara Salazar won the silver for Ecuador with a total 263kg. She is Ecuador’s second ever female medalist, one day after teammate Neisi Dajomes became the first with a gold in the 76kg event.
Crismery Santana took the bronze with 256kg for the Dominican Republic.
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Simone Biles is returning to competition in Tokyo.
The 2016 Olympic champion will compete in the balance beam finals on Tuesday, a little over a week after stepping away from the meet to focus on her mental health.
“We are so excited to confirm that you will see two U.S. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow — Suni Lee AND Simone Biles!! Can’t wait to watch you both!” USA Gymnastics said in a statement.
The 24-year-old Biles won bronze on beam in Rio de Janeiro five years ago and qualified for the eight-woman final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on the first weekend of the Games.
She removed herself from the team final on July 27 after a shaky performance on vault during the first rotation. She watched from the sidelines as her three American teammates completed the meet without her; the U.S. took silver behind the team known as the Russian Olympic Committee.
Biles later said she was dealing with issues surrounding air awareness, referred to as “the twisties” in her sport.
Biles qualified for all five individual event finals but took herself out of four of them: the all-around, vault, floor exercise and uneven bars. Lee earned the gold in the all-around, becoming the fifth straight American to claim the sport’s marquee title.
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China's Zhong Tianshi and Bao Shanju broke the world record in the women's team sprint with a time of 31.804 seconds to advance to the medal match at the Tokyo Olympics.
Zhong and Bao nearly bettered the mark of 31.928 seconds set by China at the Rio Games during qualifying. But they merely had to wait about an hour before getting another crack at it in the first round.
China could have been going for three straight Olympic golds, but its team was relegated to the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Games in London.
Germany also set a record earlier in the day in the women’s team pursuit on a fast track in the Izu Velodrome.
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Germany qualified first in the women’s team pursuit at the Tokyo Olympics, shattering Britain’s five-year-old record with a time of 4:07.307 on the first day of track cycling at the Izu Velodrome.
Britain qualified second in 4:09.022, which also bettered its mark of 4:10.236 set at the Rio Games. The two-time and reigning Olympic champions were followed by the U.S. in 4:10.118 and Italy in 4:11.666.
That means the Germans will face Italy and Britain will face the U.S. in the medal rounds Tuesday. The winning teams will race for gold.
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The four-woman team from Germany has shattered the world record in qualifying at the Tokyo Olympics, stopping the clock in 4:07.307 on the first day of the track cycling program at the Izu Velodrome.
The team of Franziska Brausse, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein and Mieke Koreger was the third to post a time in the team pursuit, where riders race against the clock over 4 kilometers. Four women start but only the first three that cross the finish line count for the time.
The Germans, who didn’t even make the medal stand at the Rio Games, beat the record of 4:10.236 that the reigning gold medalists from Britain set in Brazil. But the British and the reigning world champion Americans were still to go in their qualifying rides Monday.
The top four teams will race Tuesday for the medals.
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MEDAL ALERT
Jean Quiquampoix of France has earned the gold medal that eluded him five years ago in Rio, matching an Olympic record to win men’s 25-meter rapid-fire pistol at the Tokyo Games.
Quiquampoix took silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics after Germany’s Christian Reitz hit his final five shots to claim gold.
Quiquampoix left no doubt at Asaka Shooting Range, hitting 34 of 40 shots to beat Cuba’s Leuris Pupo by five shots. The 25-year-old member of the French armed forces matches the Olympic record Pupo set while winning gold at the 2012 London Games.
Pupo earned his second medal in his sixth Olympics.
China’s Lie Yuehong won bronze for the second straight Olympics.
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UPSET ALERT
Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu of Indonesia have upset China’s Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan, 2-0, for gold in women’s doubles badminton.
The unseeded Indonesians won the first game 21-19 and the second 21-15 against an overwhelmingly favored Chinese team.
Emotions ran high in the match, with both teams screaming after won points and several times disputing their opponent’s requests to change shuttles. At one point, Polii ran off the court after breaking her racket, got a new one, and joined the point in progress. Indonesia won the point.
The match extends Chinese struggles in women’s doubles, after years of domination. The Chinese team lost at the 2016 Rio Games to a Japanese pair. Before that, China had won a remarkable five straight golds.
Earlier Monday, Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong won the bronze medal in women’s doubles, beating countrywomen Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan, 2-0.
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The U.S. women’s volleyball team has lost a second player to a rolled right ankle after setter Jordyn Poulter landed on a teammate’s foot.
Poulter went down in the third set of a pool-play match against Italy and is being treated by trainers on the sideline. The injury comes two days after star Jordan Thompson went down with the same injury against the Russian Olympic Committee.
Thompson is watching the Italy game from the stands but is hopeful of returning before the end of the Olympics.
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MEDAL ALERT
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico has won gold in the women's 100-meter hurdles, powering ahead of American Keni Harrison.
That kept the United States out of the win column at the Olympic track meet for yet another session.
Camacho-Quinn finished in 12.37 seconds for a .15 second win over the world-record holder, Harrison. Jamaica’s Megan Tapper finished third.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that competes under its own flag at the Olympics, has one more track gold medal than the deepest team at the Games, as the meet approaches its halfway point.
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MEDAL ALERT
Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece has edged Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarria for the men’s long jump gold medal with a winning jump on the last attempt.
Tentoglou’s 8.41 meters in the last round equaled Echevarria’s best mark but he won on a countback because he had the better of the next-best jumps.
Echevarria, jumping last, lost rhythm in his run-up and stopped before the board, kneeled on the ground and hit the runway with his hands.
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U.S. women’s volleyball star Jordan Thompson is sitting out the final pool play match against Italy after rolling her right ankle earlier in the tournament.
Thompson left Saturday’s match against Russia early after stepping on a teammate’s foot. She missed practice on Sunday to get treatment but USA Volleyball says she is expected to be able to return before the end of the Olympics.
The U.S. is already assured of a spot in the quarterfinals and the match against Italy is to determine seeding only.
Thompson came into the day tied for the third most points in the tournament with 66. Annie Drews started in her place.
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World champion Sifan Hassan has made an incredible recovery from a fall at the final bell to win her 1,500-meter heat at the Olympics on Monday.
Hassan picked herself up after getting in a tangle with Kenyan runner Edinah Jebitok at the start of the last lap. She sped around the outside of the pack on the back straight and ended up crossing the line first in 4 minutes, 5.17 seconds to qualify for the semifinals.
It kept alive the Dutch runner’s bid for a rare distance-running treble at the Tokyo Games.
Hassan has qualified to run in the 5,000-meter final later Monday at the Olympic Stadium, when the energy she expended on that last-lap scramble in the 1,500 heats might catch up with her.
She’s expected to battle with two-time world champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya for the 5,000 gold.
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April Ross and Alix Klineman have advanced to the quarterfinals of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.
The American “A-Team” beat Cuba 21-17, 21-15 on Monday. The win came a day after two other U.S. teams were ousted in the first knockout round.
After taking the first set, Ross and Klineman lost the first four points in the second. Cuba’s Lidy Echeverria and Leila Martinez led 9-7 when Echeverria was slow to get up after a collision at the net. The Americans took the point, and went on to win the second set as well.
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