Today at the Olympics: French men play for gold in basketball, handball, volleyball

August 7, 2021 9News Nigeria Latest News 0

It’s the penultimate day of action at the Tokyo Olympics and the medals will be flowing.

Up for grabs on Saturday are the gold medal for men’s basketball, men’s handball and men’s football. Plenty of hardware also ready to be doled out on the cycling tracks and in the boxing rings.

Here’s a recap of who won what on Saturday.

Women’s marathon

Peres Jepchirchir led a 1-2 Kenyan finish in the women’s marathon, withstanding the heat and humidity while running through the streets of Sapporo.

Jepchirchir finished in a time of 2 hours, 27 minutes, 20 seconds in a race moved up an hour to avoid the heat. Her teammate Brigid Kosgei was second and American Molly Seidel, a relative newcomer to the marathon stage, took home the bronze.

There were 88 runners entered in the field, with more than a dozen recording a did not finish. That included world champion Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya.

Basketball

The U.S. has won its fourth straight Olympic men’s basketball gold medal, holding off France 87-82.

Kevin Durant scored 29 points for the Americans and joined Carmelo Anthony as the only three-time gold medalists in men’s basketball.

France defeated the U.S in the teams’ opening game in this tournament, snapping the Americans’ 25-game winning streak in the Olympics.

Slovenia and Australia will play later Saturday for the bronze medal.

Kayak and canoe

Germany has won the men’s kayak four 500 metres to make Ronald Rauhe the first man to medal in canoe sprint in five Olympic Games.

The German kayak was trailing Spain at the 250-meter mark before rallying to win by 0.226 seconds. Spain won silver and Slovakia won bronze.

Hungary has won the gold medal in the women’s kayak four 500 meters.

Hungary finished 0.61 seconds clear of silver medalists Belarus and Poland won the bronze.

Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos won the men’s 1,000 metres canoe sprint and Moldova’s Serghei Tarnovschi took the bronze medal five years after his similar result in Rio de Janeiro was stripped because of a performance-enhancing drug violation.

China’s Liu Hao, the 2019 world champion, won the silver medal.

China’s Mengya Sun and Shixiao Xu have won the country’s first medal in women’s canoe sprint by winning the gold in the canoe double 500 at the Sea Forest Waterway.

The 2019 world champions finished 2 seconds clear of Ukraine’s Anastasiia Chetverikova and Liudmyla Luzan. Canada’s Laurence Vincente Lapointe and Katie Vincent took the bronze medal in third.

Boxing

Busenaz Sürmeneli of Turkey has won the women’s welterweight gold medal, persevering through a difficult final against China’s Gu Hong to win Turkey’s first-ever boxing gold.

Sürmeneli won the final 3:0 with two even scorecards after a bout filled with holding and awkward exchanges.

Oshae Jones of the United States and Lovlina Borgohain of India won bronze.

Brazil’s Hebert Sousa won the men’s middleweight boxing gold medal in shocking fashion when his bout with Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak was stopped by a third-round knockdown.

The top-seeded Khyzhniak thoroughly dominated Sousa for the first two rounds and appeared to be cruising to Ukraine’s fifth-ever boxing gold. But Sousa caught Khyzhniak with a counter left hook during an exchange in the third, and Khyzhniak went to the canvas hard.

Bakshi and Eumir Marcial of the Philippines won bronze medals in likely the most talent-stacked division in Tokyo.

Stoyka Krasteva of Bulgaria has capped her impressive run through the Tokyo Olympics with the women’s flyweight boxing gold medal. She beat top-seeded Buse Naz Cakiroglu of Turkey 5:0.

The 36-year-old Krasteva, a 2012 Olympian who returned to boxing in 2019 after a break, dominated her final four opponents to win Bulgaria’s fifth-ever boxing gold and its first since Daniel Petrov in 1996. Bulgaria had won just one bronze in boxing since 2004.

Huang Hsiao-wen of Taiwan, the 2019 world champion, and Tsukimi Namiki of Japan won bronze in the lightest women’s weight class.

Galal Yafai has won Britain’s first boxing gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, beating Carlo Paalam of the Philippines 4:1 in the flyweight final.

Yafai, the 28-year-old younger brother of two professional boxers from Birmingham, is a two-time Olympian who had an impressive run in Tokyo. He finished by knocking down Paalam in the first round of the gold medal bout and going on for a comfortable win.

Britain’s powerhouse team has won two silvers and two bronzes to go with Yafai’s gold in Tokyo. Middleweight Lauren Price fights Sunday for another gold.

Ryomei Tanaka of Japan and Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan won bronze medals. Yafai beat Bibossinov in a thrilling semifinal.

Beach Volleyball

Christian Sorum and Anders Mol beat Russia in the men’s beach volleyball gold medal match, earning Norway’s first medal in the sport.

The top-seeded Norwegians beat the reigning world champions 21-17, 21-18 in intermittent rain at the Shiokaze Park venue overlooking Tokyo Bay.

With Qatar’s victory over Latvia for the bronze earlier Saturday, all three countries on the podium — and all six players — are first-time medalists.

Diving

Cao Yuan became the first diver to win gold medals in three different Olympic events with a thrilling duel off the 10-metre platform at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Cao completed another dominating performance by the mighty Chinese team, which was nearly perfect at these games. Yang Jian took the silver, just 1.95 points behind his teammate in a scintillating capper.

Britain’s Tom Daley was the only diver who gave the Chinese a real challenge before finishing with 548.25 for the bronze. He now had four Olympics medals in his career — one gold and three bronze.

Water polo

Hungary has earned the country’s first medal in women’s water polo, beating the Russian team 11-9 for bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.

Hungary beat the U.S. in group play, handing the Americans their first loss at the Olympics since the 2008 final. It outlasted the Netherlands in the quarterfinals before losing to Spain.

Spain plays the U.S. for gold later Saturday.

Golf

Nelly Korda has given the Americans a sweep of gold medals in golf, holding on for a one-shot victory in a thrill-a-minute finish to the Olympic women’s golf competition.

Korda led by as many as three shots on the back nine. In the end, she needed two putts from just inside 30 feet on the 18th hole for par and a 2-under 69.

Mone Inami of Japan made bogey from a plugged lie in the bunker on the 18th hole and faced a playoff against Lydia Ko of New Zealand for the silver medal.

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