The South Koreans came out strong in fencing in the 2021 games Wednesday. South Korea retained its title from 2012, this was the country’s fourth gold medal in Tokyo. The Associated Press has the story:
The other three gold medals so far in Tokyo for South Korea were won in archery
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:
South Korea has beaten Italy 45-26 to win the men’s team saber fencing final. It’s the South Koreans’ first gold of the Tokyo Olympics in a sport other than archery.
No. 1-ranked sabre fencer Oh Sanguk carved out a big lead for South Korea with a 5-0 win over Italy’s Aldo Montano in the second bout. His teammates Gu Bongil, Kim Junghwan and Kim Junho went on to extend the advantage.
South Korea retained the title it won in 2012. Team saber was off the Olympic program for the last Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
It was South Korea’s fourth gold medal in Tokyo. The other three were won in the team archery competitions at the Olympics
Hungary took its third fencing medal in Tokyo with a 45-40 win over Germany for the bronze medal.
MEDAL ALERT
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl of Germany has unseated Charlotte Dujardin of Britain for gold in the individual dressage competition.
German teammate Isabell Werth finished second with a score of 89.657%. She trailed Von Bredow-Werndl’s 91.732% in her Olympics debut. Dujardin came in third at 88.543% after winning the title in 2012 and 2016.
Von Bredow-Werndl also helped Germany win the team competition Tuesday for the country’s ninth title in 10 Olympics. She beat Werth for the best individual score then as well.
Werth earned her equestrian-record 12th medal but again came up short of the podium’s top spot. The longtime German rider has five silver medals in the individual competition but only one gold from the the 1996 Atlanta Games.
A German cycling official has apologized for using a racist slur at the Olympics.
German cycling federation sporting director Patrick Moster was shown on TV broadcasts urging rider Nikias Arndt on to catch other riders on the course with a slur typically used for people of North African or Arab ethnicity. An Algerian rider started ahead of Arndt in the event.
Moster has apologized in comments to German news agency dpa. He says “in the heat of the moment” he had “made the wrong choice of words.”
German Olympic committee president Alfons Hörmann welcomed the apology but says he plans to hold further talks with Moster.
MEDAL ALERT
Lasha Bekauri of Georgia won an Olympic gold medal in judo in the 90-kilogram middleweight division by beating Eduard Trippel of Germany in the final.
The 21-year-old Bekauri capped his impressive rise to judo’s elite levels with a waza ari on Trippel early in the final bout at the Budokan. He held on to win the fourth-ever gold medal in judo for Georgia.
Japan failed to win a gold medal in a men’s weight category for the first time in Tokyo when Krisztián Tóth of Hungary knocked off Shoichiro Mukai by ippon 2:55 into golden score during their round of 16 bout. The powerhouse Japanese team had won the first four men’s gold medals in Tokyo.
Trippel beat Tóth in the quarterfinals and went on to secure his first Olympic medal. Tóth and Davlat Bobonov of Uzbekistan won bronze.
Tennis matches in Tokyo will have later start times beginning Thursday in a move aimed at protecting players amid extreme heat and humidity.
The International Tennis Federation says matches will start at 3 p.m. Matches had been starting at 11 a.m.
Several players struggled with heatstroke on Wednesday.
Daniil Medvedev nearly fainted during his win over Fabio Fognini while Paula Badosa left the court in a wheelchair after retiring from her quarterfinal match against Marketa Vondrousova.
The temperature rose to 88 degrees F (31 degrees C) but the heat index made it feel like 99 degrees F (37 degrees C).
MEDAL ALERT
Chizuru Arai has won Japan’s sixth gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics, beating Austria’s Michaela Polleres in the final of the women’s 70-kilogram middleweight division.
Arai reached her first Olympic final with three ippon victories, surviving a semifinal bout that lasted nearly 17 minutes against Russian athlete Madina Taimazova. The two-time world champion then claimed gold over Polleres with an early waza ari at the Budokan.
Arai is just the second Japanese woman to win gold out of five weight categories in Tokyo. The men swept the first four gold medals in Tokyo, but they won’t win a fifth after Shoichiro Mukai fell short before the medal rounds.
Japan is still coming away from the first five days in its homegrown martial art with eight medals from 10 weight classes. The final three days of the Olympic tournament include five more opportunities for gold, including the first-ever mixed team competition Saturday.
Taimazova and the Netherlands’ Sanne van Dijke won bronze for their first Olympic medals.
Canadian gymnast Ellie Black has withdrawn from the all-around finals.
The International Gymnastics Federation made the announcement on Wednesday. No reason was given for Black’s withdrawal.
The 25-year-old Black is competing in her third Olympics. A silver medalist at the 2017 world championships, Black came in 24th during qualifying at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
Black will be replaced by Lieke Wevers of The Netherlands in the finals. The decision came hours after reigning Olympic champion Simone Biles took herself out of the all-around competition to focus on her mental health.
The U.S. women will play the Russian athletes for the first gold medal in the new Olympic sport of 3-on-3 hoops.
Kelsey Plum and Allisha Gray each made free throws to give the United States the winning margin in its 18-16 win over France.
Then Russia’s Olga Frolkina made a 2-pointer to seal a 21-14 win over China.
The U.S. and teams from the Soviet Union have won every women’s 5-on-5 medal since the sport was introduced to the Olympic program in 1976.
Russia’s men’s team upset top-ranked Serbia 21-10 to earn its spot in the gold-medal game. The team officially known as “ROC” – Russian Olympic Committee – will play Latvia in the final. Latvia beat Belgium 21-8.
Olympics organizers say an additional 16 people accredited for the Tokyo Games have tested positive for COVID, bringing the total to 174 since July 1.
The total includes 20 athletes, though there were no new positive tests among athletes in the cases announced Wednesday. Tens of thousands of people are accredited for the Games.
Tokyo also recorded a record daily high of 3,177 COVID-19 cases Wednesday, up from a previous high of 2,848 on Tuesday.
Judo’s governing body has formally warned a coach who slapped a female athlete hard in the face twice to prepare her for an Olympic bout.
German judoka Martyna Trajdos later defended coach Claudiu Pusa from criticism, saying it was her request “to fire me up” before stepping on the mat.
That did not satisfy the International Judo Federation, who issued the warning a day after the incident shocked Olympic viewers.
The IJF said it issued “a serious official warning” for the Germany team coach for “the bad behavior he showed.”
Judo “is an educational sport and as such cannot tolerate such behavior,” the governing body says.
Trajdos, who lost the bout, later wrote on Instagram that “Looks like this was not hard enough” in reference to the slaps.
Fiji has beaten New Zealand 27-12 to successfully defend the title it won when rugby sevens made its Olympic debut at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The gold in Rio was Fiji’s first Olympic medal in any sport. Now the Pacific island nation has two.
Jerry Tuwai was in the squad five years ago and he led Fiji in its title defense in Tokyo, where they continued their unbeaten streak in Olympic games.
The silver medal was a vast improvement for New Zealand, which missed the podium in 2016 after an upset loss to Japan in its opening game and a quarterfinal loss to Fiji.
All the medals went to the southern hemisphere, with Argentina beating 2016 finalist Britain 17-12 for the bronze.
South Africa, the bronze medalist in Rio, beat the United States 28-7 in the playoff for fifth place.
Tennis player Novak Djokovic’s Golden Slam bid is alive and well.
The top-ranked Serb beat training partner Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Games.
Djokovic is attempting to become the first man to achieve a Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic gold in the same calendar year.
He has already won the Australian and French Opens plus Wimbledon this year. So now he needs the Tokyo Games title and the U.S. Open trophy to complete the unique collection.
Djokovic is scheduled to play again later with Serbian partner Nina Stojanovic against Marcelo Melo and Luisa Stefani of Brazil in the opening round of the mixed doubles competition.
Djokovic’s quarterfinal opponent in singles will be Kei Nishikori of Japan.
Nishikori reached his third straight Olympic quarterfinal by beating Ilya Ivashka of Belarus.
MEDAL ALERT
Primoz Roglic has capped an incredible month for Slovenian cycling by winning the Olympic time trial.
He added a gold medal to the bronze won by Tour de France champion Tadej Pogecar in the road race.
Roglic’s closest rival was Dutch time trial specialist Tom Dumoulin, who finished more than a minute behind to win his second consecutive Olympic silver medal. Rohan Dennis of Australia claimed the bronze medal.
The prerace favorite, Italian time trial champ Filippo Ganna, faded over the final kilometers and finished fifth.
Tennis player Daniil Medvedev has taken exception to a question from a reporter who asked if “Russian athletes are carrying a stigma of cheaters in this Games.”
The second-seeded Russian Olympic Committee player responded that for “the first time in my life, I’m not going to answer a question and you should be embarrassed of yourself.”
Medvedev then nodded to a Tokyo 2020 staff member to say, “I think you should (ban) him from the Olympic Games or the tennis tournament. I don’t want to see him again on my interview.”
The fallout from a state-backed doping scandal led to a ban on Russia competing under the country’s name at the Tokyo Games and at next year’s Beijing Winter Games.
The 335 athletes accredited for Tokyo are officially competing for the Russian Olympic Committee, known as ROC. The word “Russia” is banned from their uniforms.
Medvedev had just played through extreme heat to reach the quarterfinals.
A second Swiss track team member who was supposed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics has been suspended in a doping case.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport says it reinstated a provisional suspension for Alex Wilson, who was due to compete in the men’s 100 and 200 meters.
Wilson tested positive for the anabolic steroid trenbolone in March. The court says he says it was caused by eating contaminated beef in the United States.
World Athletics and the World Anti-Doping Agency intervened with the court to ensure Wilson could not compete in Tokyo after a Swiss tribunal lifted his provisional ban.
Switzerland’s Kariem Hussein, a former European 400-meter hurdles champion, is now serving a nine-month ban after testing positive for a stimulant in a case revealed last week.
MEDAL ALERT
China has won its third gold medal in diving at the Tokyo Olympics.
Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi won men’s 3-meter synchronized springboard. They finished with 467.82 points after leading throughout the six-dive contest.
Andrew Capobianco and Michael Hixon of the U.S. earned silver at 444.36. It’s the same color medal that Hixon won five years ago in Rio with a different partner.
Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Lars Rudiger rallied from sixth to take bronze at 404.73.
China earlier won gold in women’s 10-meter synchro and women’s 3-meter synchro. The Chinese took silver in men’s 10-meter synchro.
The U.S. women’s water polo team lost at the Olympics for the first time since 2008, falling 10-9 to Rebecca Parkes and Hungary in group play.
The U.S. was a big favorite to win its third straight gold medal coming into Tokyo, but it was pushed hard by China during a rugged 12-7 victory Monday and then it struggled against Hungary. Even with the loss, it still should be able to advance to the knockout round.
Hungary trailed 9-8 with 2:28 left, but captain Rita Keszthelyi scored from deep and Parkes got the game-winner when she connected on a no-look goal with 45 seconds left. Parkes finished with a team-high three goals.
The U.S. had the ball in the final seconds but turned it over.
It was the United States’ first loss at the Olympics since the 2008 final against the Netherlands. It had a draw in London, but it went 6-0 on the way to the title in Rio.
Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic title.
The American gymnastics superstar withdrew from Thursday’s all-around competition to focus on her mental well-being.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement that the 24-year-old is opting to not compete. The decision comes a day after Biles removed herself from the team final following one rotation because she felt she wasn’t mentally ready.
Jade Carey, who finished ninth in qualifying, will take Biles’ place in the all-around. Carey initially did not qualify because she was the third-ranking American behind Biles and Sunisa Lee. International Gymnastics Federation rules limit countries to two athletes per event in the finals.
The organization said Biles will be evaluated daily before deciding if she will participate in next week’s individual events. Biles qualified for the finals on all four apparatuses.
Quarantined Olympic skateboarder Candy Jacobs says she’s had to take action to be allowed to get fresh air in an isolation hotel in Japan.
The Dutch athlete was removed from the Olympic Village after testing positive for COVID-19 a week ago.
Jacobs says in a video message posted on Instagram that “not having any outside air is so inhuman.”
She says she refused to move on her seventh day of quarantine in a room where the window doesn’t open.
After more than seven hours, she says, officials agreed she could stand at an open window under supervision for 15 minutes a day.
Jacobs says “having that first breath of outside air was the saddest and best moment in my life.”
The 31-year-old skateboarder missed the street event in the sport’s Olympic debut.
Jacobs says watching the event on television was “a super-cool distraction” from quarantine.
Two world champions have been knocked out of the Tokyo Olympic boxing tournament in the round of 16. That blows open the brackets at men’s featherweight and men’s light heavyweight.
Irish featherweight Kurt Walker pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament with a 4:1 win over Uzbek world champion Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov.
Two hours later, Russian light heavyweight Imam Khataev surprised Kazakh world champ Bekzad Nurdauletov with a 4:1 victory. The 26-year-old Khataev has nearly a decade of high-level amateur experience, but no victories to compare to this upset.
Walker controlled the first round and hung on at the end to get a 29-28 decision on four of the five judges’ cards. Walker wouldn’t have been at the Olympics if they had been held on time: His daughter, Layla, was born three months prematurely in May 2020 and required months of hospital care before she emerged healthy.
Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines and Italy’s Irma Testa also clinched their nations’ first Olympic women’s boxing medals by advancing to the semifinals at featherweight.
The U.S. men’s volleyball team has improved to 2-1 in pool play at the Olympics by beating Tunisia 3-1.
The Americans bounced back from a loss to the Russians on Wednesday. They knocked off the lowest-ranked team in their group 25-14, 23-25, 25-14, 25-23.
The victory keeps the U.S. in good position to advance to the quarterfinals as one of the top four teams in Pool B. Tunisia has lost all three matches so far in Tokyo.
MEDAL ALERT
Annemiek van Vleuten has roared to an emphatic victory in the women’s time trial at the Tokyo Olympics. That gave her a measure of revenge for some miscommunication that may have cost her gold in the road race last weekend.
The Dutch rider led by more than six seconds at the first time check, then pushed it to an astonishing 28 seconds before she put the hammer down to finish in 30 minutes, 13.49 seconds at Fuji International Speedway.
The sixth-from-last rider on the course, van Vleuten was forced to sit on the hot seat for several minutes while those who started after her finished. None of them really had a chance. Marlen Reusser of Switzerland finished more than 56 seconds back to earn the silver medal and van Vleuten’s teammate Anna van der Breggen earned bronze.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Japanese baseball great Sadaharu Oh are attending the opener of the Olympic baseball tournament and were on the field for the ceremonial first pitch in Fukushima.
They were joined by Tokyo Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto and World Baseball Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari as a high school baseball player from the region threw out the first pitch — a full windup from atop the rubber.
Bach, wearing bright white gloves on both hands, fist bumped the 14-year-old before Team Japan took the field for its game against the Dominican Republic.
It’s the only Olympic baseball game being held in Fukushima, which was devastated by an earthquake and an ensuing tsunami and nuclear accident in 2011. The rest of the tournament will be held at Yokohama Baseball Stadium in Tokyo.
Baseball was restored to the Olympic slate this year for the first time since 2008. The sport will be dropped again for the 2024 Games in Paris but is expected to again be played in Los Angeles in 2028.
MEDAL ALERT
Britain has won the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay at the Olympics for the first time since 1908, but just missed a world record.
With a powerhouse group that included the 1-2 finishers in the 200 freestyle, Britain blew away the field in 6 minutes, 58.58 seconds. That was just off the world record set by the Americans (6:58.55) at the 2009 world championships.
The 200-meter gold medalist, Tom Dean, led off for the British. James Guy and Matthew Richards took the middle legs before 200-meter silver medalist Duncan Scott swam the anchor leg. It was the first British gold in the event since it made its debut at the first London Games.
Russia claimed the silver in 7:01.81, while Australia took the bronze in 7:01.84.
The four-time defending champion Americans finished fourth — the first time they’ve failed to win a medal in the event other than the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.
MEDAL ALERT
Katie Ledecky has finally collected her first gold medal of the Tokyo Games.
Ledecky has won the 1,500-meter freestyle, which made its Olympic debut for women this year. That helped the American star make up for what has so far been the worst showing of her Olympic career.
About an hour after finishing fifth in the 200-meter freestyle, Ledecky held off teammate Erica Sullivan to win the metric mile in 15 minutes, 37.34 seconds.
Sullivan claimed the silver in 15:41.41, while Germany’s Sarah Kohler grabbed the bronze in 15:42.91.
MEDAL ALERT
Japanese swimmer Yui Ohashi has swept the women’s individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics.
Ohashi rallied to win the 200-meter medley, beating Americans Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass. Ohashi had previously won the 400-meter individual medley.
The winning time was 2 minutes, 8.52 seconds. Walsh took the silver in 2:08.65, while the bronze went to Douglass in 2:09.04.
Defending Olympic champion and world record-holder Katinka Hosszu of Hungary finished seventh. She was the oldest swimmer in the final at age 32.
MEDAL ALERT
China has wrapped a record-setting first day of rowing finals by smashing the world record in women’s quadruple sculls and winning gold.
The Chinese boat finished in 6 minutes, 0.13 seconds and shaved nearly two seconds off the previous mark set by the Netherlands in 2014. The race was never close. Poland won silver more than 6 seconds behind the Chinese. Australia won bronze for that country’s fourth medal of the day.
Windy conditions produced a strong tailwind for the rowers at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway, and new world or Olympic records were set in each of Wednesday’s six medal races.
MEDAL ALERT
Kristof Milak of Hungary has romped to a dominating victory in the men’s 200-meter butterfly at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Milak won the the gold by about two body lengths, backing up his status as one of the biggest favorites at the Olympic pool. He touched in 1 minute, 51.25 seconds — some 2 1/2 seconds ahead of the silver medalist, Japan’s Tomoru Honda, who finished in 1:53.73.
The bronze went to Italy’s Federico Burdisso in 1:54.45.
South African star Chad le Clos finished fifth. He won the 200 fly at the 2012 London Olympics, upsetting Michael Phelps, but was no match for the Hungarian star.
MEDAL ALERT
The Netherlands have set a new world record in men’s quadruple sculls with a sprint over the final 500 meters to win the gold medal.
Their time of 5 minutes, 32.03 seconds beat the previous mark of 5:32.26 set by Ukraine at the 2014 world championships.
The Dutch boat was fourth after the first 500 meters but had closed to second by the next marker. A late push overtook Great Britain for the lead.
Great Britain then held off a late charge by Australia to win silver. Australia’s bronze was the country’s third medal of the day after winning gold in men’s and women’s four.
MEDAL ALERT
Ariarne Titmus has beaten Katie Ledecky again at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Ledecky didn’t even win a medal — the first time that’s ever happened to her at the Olympics.
Titmus gave the Australian women their third individual swimming gold with a victory in the 200-meter freestyle. Titmus set an Olympic record of 1 minute, 53.50 seconds to make it 2-for-2 against the American star, following up a thrilling victory in the 400m freestyle.
In the longer race, Titmus conserved her energy over the first half of the race, then rallied to pass Ledecky with the second-fastest performance in history. Ledecky wasn’t even close in the 200, making the first flip in seventh place and never getting higher than her fifth-place showing at the end. She finished in 1:55.21 — nearly 2 seconds behind the winner.
Ledecky is facing a grueling morning that also includes the final of the 1,500 free. She’s a big favorite for gold in that race, which is new to the women’s program this year.
Italy’s Federica Pellegrini of Italy finished seventh in her fifth and final Olympics. She won the gold in 2008 and is still the world-record holder.
MEDAL ALERT
Australia has doubled its haul of Olympic rowing gold medals as the men’s four charged to victory moments after the Aussie women claimed their gold.
Australia had bolted to the front by the 500-meter mark and never were challenged for the lead to reach in the finish line as Romania fought a late surge by Italy to claim the silver medal. Australia’s time of 5 minutes, 42.76 set a new Olympic record.
Italy won bronze.
MEDAL ALERT
Australia’s women’s four set a new Olympic’s-best time to win the gold medal in windy conditions at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway.
The Australian boat led at each marker but had to fight off the Netherlands over the last 50 meters to win in 6 minutes, 15.37 seconds, just .34 seconds ahead of the Dutch boat.
Ireland took bronze more than 5 seconds back.
The windy conditions pushing rowers at the waterpark saw Olympic best times quickly fall as the first three races all saw new standards set.
MEDAL ALERT
The French team of Hugo Boucheron and Matthieu Androdias has held off a late charge from the Netherlands over the final 50 meters to win the men’s double sculls by 0.2 seconds in Olympic record time of 6 minutes, 33 seconds.
China made a strong move out of the start before falling back even with the French and the Netherlands. The Dutch boat of Melvin Twellarr and Stef Broenink briefly held the lead at 1,500 meters.
Boucheron and Androdias quickly reeled in the Dutch with a powerful push that was good enough to hold off a late charge at the finish line.
China Zhiyu Liu and Liang Zhang finished third for bronze.
New U.S. beach volleyball partners Jake Gibb and Tri Bourne will have some more time at the Olympics to get to know one another.
The Americans had never played together before their first match in Tokyo on Sunday. They beat Switzerland 21-19, 23-21 on Wednesday to improve to 2-0 in the round-robin. They have one more match remaining, against Qatar on Friday night.
Gibb qualified for the Tokyo Games with Taylor Crabb as his partner. But Crabb tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew, allowing Gibb to replace him. Bourne was on the third-place U.S. team in the qualifying race; each country is limited to a maximum of two spots.
Two wins should be enough to put the Americans in the knockout round. At worst, it would put leave them in a three-way tie for first and give them a tiebreaker match.
MEDAL ALERT
Romania’s Ancuta Bodnar and Simona Radis have won the first rowing gold medal of the Tokyo Games, in women’s double sculls.
They bolted from the start and never let up in a dominating performance.
The rowing medal events had been delayed for a day because of bad weather forecasts amid a tropical storm.
Once back on the water, the Romanians were never challenged and led by two boat lengths with just 500 meters to go. Bodnar and Radis are both just 22. Their sprint to victory left the only fight for the silver medal, where New Zealand’s Brooke Donohue and Hannah Osborne edged the Dutch boat of Roos de Jong and Lisa Scheenaard.
Source AP
