The Tokyo Olympics delivered each day of high drama on Sunday with a shocking surprise within the pool, one among the good David v Goliath cycling victories and double sibling judo gold as Japan continued their golden start.
The host nation bagged skateboarding’s first trophy courtesy of Yuto Horigome, then saw Uta Abe and her brother Hifumi make history because the first siblings to win gold medals in several events on an equivalent day in any sport. With swimmer Yui Ohashi also victorious, Japan’s overall trophy tally rose to 5, one behind China and one before us .
Tunisia is unlikely to feature to their solitary gold but no medal of the Games is going to be celebrated more wildly than that earned via the astounding achievement of 18-year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui, who stunned the swimming superpowers with victory from lane eight within the men’s 400m freestyle.
“It’s a dream and it became true — it had been my best race ever,” Hafnaoui said in an Olympic-level understatement after he held off heavily-fancied Australian Jack McLoughlin and American Kieran Smith despite qualifying slowest for the ultimate.
Hafnaoui received the last word validation as American medal machine Michael Phelps, the best swimmer in history, labeled his performance as an “unbelievable swim”.
Skateboarder Horigome, who grew up within the Tokyo ward where the event is being held, took gold at the Games debut of a sport once seen as a logo of counter-culture and, ironically, still symbolized by the “no skateboarding” signs plastered on the surface walls of the venue.
“It felt significant to return to Koto ward, it meant such a lot more on behalf of me,” said Horigome, who moved to us after high school to follow his skateboarding ambitions.
The day the Abe family will always remember began when Uta triumphed within the women’s 52kg category. The 21-year-old had cruised through to the ultimate but was then taken deep into Golden Score overtime before overcoming Amandine Buchard of France.
She then cheered on as her big brother Hifumi overpowered Georgian judoka Vazha Margvelashvili within the under-66kg trophy fight.
Ohashi had got things going for Japan with victory within the 400m women’s medley and therefore the gold rush was a lift for organizers hoping to ascertain a lift in enthusiasm for the delayed Olympics among the Japanese public, who are laboring under a state of emergency within the capital.
Ohashi powered to victory, toppling Hungary’s defending champion Katinka Hosszu.
“I swam believing in myself. I actually didn’t consider winning the gold,” said Ohashi.
Five years ago in Rio, Annemiek van Vleuten suffered a horrific crash within the women’s cycling road race when she was on track to win and she or he contributed another memorable Olympic moment on Sunday — again for all the incorrect reasons.
Little-known Austrian amateur Anna Kiesenhofer made an audacious solo breakaway and somehow stayed clear to cross the road looking absolutely incredulous. She wasn’t alone, because the vastly experienced four-woman Dutch team seeking a 3rd successive title were somehow unaware she had escaped.
Cue an embarrassing air-punching celebration by Van Vleuten who crossed the road second but thinking she had won.
“Have I got that wrong?” she asked the team masseur at the finishing line. She had spectacularly — leaving full-time teacher Kiesenhofer with something very special to inform come September.
TUNISIA’S Ahmed Hafnaoui celebrates after winning the ultimate of the men’s 400m freestyle match at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Sunday.“I am happy that I used to be not too scared and that I just went for it,” said Kiesenhofer after winning Austria’s first cycling gold since the inaugural Games of 1896.
The first record of the Games came within the pool as Australia’s women romped range in the 4x100m final.
Chase Kalisz delivered Team USA its first gold within the men’s 400m medley.
GOLFERS TEST POSITIVE
A USA men’s five lost at an Olympics for the primary time since the 2004 Athens Games as a team led by 11-time NBA All-Star Kevin Durant were beaten 83-76 by France.
Durant was held to only 10 points in an upset that shows the Americans have a fight on their hands to retain their title.
NBA player Evan Fournier top-scored with 28 points for France, finding form from three-point range late within the game to assist his team claw back a 10-point deficit to stun the Americans.
Australian world favorite Ashleigh Barty crashed call at the primary round of the women’s tennis singles. The reigning Wimbledon champion lost 6-4, 6-3 to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka won her first-round match — her first since withdrawing from the French Open in May and two days after lighting the Olympic flame — as she defeated 52nd-ranked Zheng Saisai of China 6-1, 6-4.
Elsewhere on Sunday, a century-long wait to ascertain surfing at the Olympics came to an end at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach.
It marked the culmination of efforts to urge surfing added to the Olympic program dating back quite 100 years.
The spectre of Covid-19 meanwhile continued to stalk the Olympics, with the men’s golf tournament upended by two high-profile withdrawals.
World favorite Jon Rahm was ruled out after returning a positive test — his second Covid-19 positive in two months — while Bryson DeChambeau also saw his Olympic hopes end with a positive case.
The Dutch rowing coach also tested positive as Olympic organizers reported 10 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the entire disclosed to 132.
In gymnastics, Simone Biles and therefore the US women’s team trailed the Russians after qualifying within the team event, the primary time during a decade they’ve did not finish atop the standings during any portion of a serious international event.
Biles led the sector during a bid for her fifth trophy, but the US team has work to try to to to repeat as Olympic champions. The ROC had a score of 171.629 through the primary three subdivisions at the Ariake Gymnastics
Centre, before the second-place Americans’ 170.562.
