Olympics Latest: Japan upsets China in table tennis
A crow perches on a light pole near the statue of the Olympics rings in Tokyo on Thursday, July 1, 2021.[AP Photo/Hiro Komae]
The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:
MEDAL ALERT
Japan ended China’s overwhelming dominance in table tennis by winning Olympic gold in mixed doubles in a major upset.
Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito beat a Chinese team that has often seemed unbeatable. China won all four gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the team of Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen was a heavy favorite this time.
Mizutani won bronze in singles in Rio and Ito is considered by some to be China’s biggest threat in the female ranks.
China won the first two games 11-5 and 11-7 but Japan took the next three 11-8, 11-9 and 11-9. China then won the sixth game 11-6 to set up a deciding seventh game which Japan dominated. The host country took an 8-0 lead and held on for an 11-6 victory.
China’s table tennis team is so strong that world champion Liu didn’t even make the women’s singles’ team and is only playing team events.
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Maksim Khramtcov has won the gold medal in men’s 80-kilogram taekwondo at the Tokyo Olympics by beating Saleh El-Sharabaty of Jordan 20-9 in the final despite what the Russian Olympic Committee said was a broken bone in his right arm or wrist.
Khramtcov is among the sport’s top athletes as a two-time European champion and he cemented his reputation with a dominant run at Makuhari Messe convention center despite his injury.
Khramtcov still won his four bouts by a combined 68-16.
El-Sharabaty’s silver was the second medal in Jordan’s Olympic history. Ahmad Abughaush won gold in taekwondo in Rio de Janeiro for Jordan’s first medal.
Seif Eissa of Egypt and Toni Kanaet of Croatia won bronze.
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Matea Jeli? has won Croatia’s first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics by beating Lauren Williams of Britain 25-21 in the women’s taekwondo 67-kilogram final.
Jeli? trailed by six points with less than 20 seconds remaining at the Makuhari Messe convention center but she incredibly landed three head kicks in the waning moments to charge back in front. The 23-year-old Jeli? is the current European champion and she reached final with a 15-4 semifinal victory over former U.S. bronze medalist Paige McPherson.
Williams’ last-minute loss followed teammate Bradly Sinden’s painfully similar defeat to Ulugbek Rashitov of Uzbekistan on Sunday in a gold medal bout.
Hedaya Malak of Egypt and Ruth Gbagbi of Ivory Coast won bronze.
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The team representing the Russian Olympic Committee rode remarkable performances by Artur Dalaloyan and Nikita Nagornyy to edge Japan and China in a taut men’s team gymnastics final.
The victory marked the first Olympic title for the Russians since the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Russia’s total of 262.500 points was just good enough to hold off the sport’s other two superpowers. Japan used a brilliant high bar routine by Daiki Hashimoto in the final rotation to surge past China for second with a score of 262.397.
The Chinese were undone by a fall from Lin Chaopan on floor exercise during the first rotation.
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Hidilyn Diaz has become the first Olympic gold medalist from the Philippines after winning the women’s 55-kilogram weightlifting category.
Diaz overtook Liao Qiuyun of China on her last lift in the clean and jerk to win with a total 224 kilograms. That was one more than Liao.
China had won all three events so far and was hoping to sweep the gold medals in the eight competitions its athletes have entered. Liao came into the competition as the world record holder with a total 227kg.
Zulfiya Chinshanlo of Kazakhstan took bronze with 213kg. Chinshanlo won what was then the 53-kilogram class at the 2012 London Olympics but was stripped of her gold medal after a positive test for two banned steroids.
The U.S. women have won all six of their games through the first three days of 3-on-3 basketball’s debut at the Olympics.
Kelsey Plum spotted up behind the arc for the game-winning 2-pointer in a 21-19 victory over China to close out the day’s action for the Americans.
They play one more pool game Tuesday against Japan. The U.S. will be the top seed for Wednesday’s semifinals and medal games.
Serbia is the lone undefeated team on the men’s side.
Shots from inside the arc are worth one point and shots from outside the arc are worth two in 3-on-3. First team to 21 wins unless 10 minutes have gone by. The team that’s ahead gets the victory in that case.
The U.S. men did not qualify for the eight-team tournament.
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Cheung Ka Long won Hong Kong’s second Olympic gold medal in its history by beating defending champion Daniele Garozzo 15-11 in the men’s foil fencing final.
Cheung secured the win with a video review for the last point and then ran to celebrate with his coach. Garozzo earlier needed medical treatment after straining a thigh muscle when Cheung led 6-5.
Hong Kong’s only previous Olympic win was gold for Lee Lai Shan in women’s windsurfing in 1996.
Alexander Choupenitch won bronze for the Czech Republic after beating Takahiro Shikine of Japan 15-8.
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Sofia Pozdniakova won an all-Russian fencing final 15-11 to take goal in women’s saber and consign teammate Sofya Velikaya to a third consecutive silver medal in the event.
Pozdniakova is the daughter of Russian Olympic Committee president and four-time gold medalist Stanislav Pozdnyakov. He was watching in the arena. Russia is competing under the guise of the ROC at the Tokyo Games in the latest doping-related sanctions from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Velikaya was individual saber runner-up at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. She also has a team gold from 2016.
Manon Brunet of France won the bronze medal after beating Anna Marton of Hungary 15-6.
The women’s 1,500-meter freestyle has made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
The men have long raced the metric mile, but it wasn’t until Tokyo that a women’s event was added. That gives long-distance swimmers such as Katie Ledecky another chance to claim a medal.
The first heat of the evening preliminaries featured only three swimmers. Sixteen-year-old Canadian Katrina Bellio touched first in 16 minutes, 24.37 seconds, prompting the arena announcer to declare she held a unique place in history — the first Olympic record holder.
When Bellio was asked if she heard the announcement, she gushed in disbelief and declared, "Oh my gosh. I didn’t know that. Wow."
Later, world governing body FINA clarified that the Olympic record would not be officially recognized until after the last of five heats. Still, no one can take away that Bellio touched before anyone else in the first 1,500 race in Olympic history.
Russian athletes are in the lead halfway through the men’s gymnastics team final.
The Russian athletes led host Japan and China by just over 2.6 points with three rotations remaining. Russia is searching for its first Olympic gold since Sydney in 2000. Artur Dalaloyan has led the way for his team despite competing on a surgically repaired Achilles tendon in his left leg.
Japan topped qualifying, with China second. The Chinese were nicked by an early fall on floor by Lin Chaopan during the first rotation of the finals.
MEDAL ALERT
Judo superstar Shohei Ono has won his second Olympic gold medal after an epic lightweight final against Georgia’s Lasha Shavdatuashvili.
Ono and Shavdatuashvili went 5:26 into golden score before the Japanese champion finally threw Shavdatuashvili for a waza ari. He used both legs to get Shavdatuashvili airborne and put him harshly onto his left side.
Shavdatuashvili showed no fear against Ono, who hasn’t lost a judo match since 2015. Ono was called for two penalties in golden score against the Georgian contender, who fought more aggressively and dramatically avoided being caught in a match-ending throw one minute before Ono ended it.
Ono is Japan’s fourth gold medalist in six weight classes so far in Tokyo in judo, the nation’s homegrown martial art. Japanese judokas have also won one silver and one bronze.
South Korea’s An Changrim claimed one bronze medal after a thrilling bout with Azeri No. 1 seed Rustam Orujov, and Mongolia’s Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir claimed the other bronze.
World Rowing officials say the remaining members of the Dutch team have tested negative for COVID-19 but will continue to stay away from other teams when not competing in Tokyo.
Dutch rower Finn Florijin tested positive after making his Olympic debut in men’s single sculls on Friday. He was removed from competition. Coach Josy Verdonkschot, who oversees several Dutch women’s teams, then tested positive on Sunday. Both are in isolation.
Team officials say the rest of the team has since tested negative and none of the remaining rowers and coaches are still considered close contacts of Florjin and Verdonkschot.
The decision to keep the team away from other rowers is being done "out of respect for the other stakeholders."
MEDAL ALERT
Nora Gjakova has won Kosovo’s second gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics with an ippon victory over France’s Sarah Leonie Cysique in the women’s 57-kilogram division.
Gjakova joined Distria Krasniqi, who won gold at 48kg on Saturday, as the second and third gold medalists in Kosovo’s entire Olympic history. Majlinda Kelmendi won Kosovo’s first at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, also in judo.
Gjakova was declared the winner 2:45 into the bout when Cysique was given a hansuko make penalty for what officials claimed was a deliberate dive onto her head in an attempt to escape a hold. Cysique seemed baffled by the decision, but Gjakova celebrated the biggest victory of her career.
Gjakova reached the final with a shocking semifinal victory over Japan’s Tsukasa Yoshida, becoming the first judoka to beat the home nation’s entrant before the final. Yoshida rallied to claim a bronze medal. Canada’s Jessica Klimkait won the other bronze.
The team final in men’s gymnastics is underway, with Japan, China and the team of Russian athletes expected to fight for the top spot.
The three teams have spent the last five years battling for supremacy. The Japanese are looking to defend the Olympic title they won in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. China captured the world championship in 2018, with Russia rising to the top in 2019.
The Japanese posted the top score in qualifying. The scores reset in the final and the format adjusts to one that requires each team to count each score. The teams were allowed to drop their lowest score during qualifying.
The U.S. and Great Britain have the best chance at reaching the podium if one of the top three falters, though both programs were well off the pace in qualifying.
Top-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic remains on course for a Golden Slam after a 6-4, 6-3 win over Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany at the Tokyo Games.
Djokovic is attempting to become the first man to win all four Grand Slam titles and Olympic gold in the same calendar year.
The Serb already won the Australian and French Opens as well as Wimbledon this year. He now needs the Tokyo title and the U.S. Open trophy to complete the unique collection.
Steffi Graf was the only tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam in 1988.
Djokovic will next face 16th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain. Davidovich Fokina edged John Millman of Australia 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3.
MEDAL ALERT
South Korea has defended its Olympic men’s archery team title at the Tokyo Games.
Energetic 17-year-old Kim Je-deok came up clutch in the semifinals to hold off host nation Japan and then again in a 6-0 win over Chinese Taipei during the gold-medal match at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field.
One of the tricky things was trying to figure out an inconsistent wind on the eve of a possible typhoon moving into the region. The impending high wind and rain has already led to moving some of the following day’s matches to a different time.
In the bronze medal match, Hiroki Muto helped Japan beat the Netherlands in a shoot-off with a walk-off arrow that nearly landed in the heart of the target.
The U.S. has rallied to beat Japan 2-1 to win their Olympic softball group stage, and the right to bat last in the gold medal game.
Kelsey Stewart hit a game-ending home run leading off the seventh inning, and the United States rallied late to beat Japan 2-1 Monday and win the Olympic softball group stage.
"It’s like you dream about when you’re a little kid, about hitting a home run at the Olympics, let alone a walk-off," Stewart said.
In August 2018, Stewart’s single capped a three-run 10th inning off Japan ace Yukiko Ueno that gave the U.S. a 7-6 win at the Women’s Softball World Championship in Chiba, earning the Olympic berth.
She had been 1 for 12 with no RBIs at the Olympics before she drove the 98th pitch from Yamato Fujita (0-1) just over the glove of leaping right fielder Yuka Ichiguchi for the first U.S. home run of the tournament.
American players ran onto the field to celebrate their second straight walk-off win.
MEDAL ALERT
Tom Pidcock has won the Olympic men’s mountain bike race, extending Britain’s dominance from the road and track to the dirt.
Leaving reigning champion Nino Schurter and his Swiss teammate Mathias Flueckiger behind on the fourth of seven laps, the 21-year-old multidiscipline prodigy proceeded to dominate the toughest course in Olympic history.
Flueckiger gave chase in vain and was left with a silver medal. David Valero Serrano of Spain won a surprise bronze.
Pidcock, who splits time between the road and mountain biking, won the World Cup race at Nove Mesto earlier this year to become an Olympic favorite. But then he was hit by a car and broke his collarbone on a training ride, keeping him off a bike for about a week in June, and some wondered whether he’d have the same legs for the Tokyo Games.
Turns out they were even better.
Imagine if gymnast Simone Biles didn’t make the cut for the Olympic all-around.
That’s how Brady Ellison viewed his squad’s early exit from the team archery competition. He and his U.S. teammates were knocked out in the quarterfinals of the men’s team competition at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field. On a windy afternoon, the combination of Ellison, Jack Williams and Jacob Wukie lost 5-1 to Japan.
The U.S. men’s team earned silver medals in each of the last two versions of the Olympics.
"I mean, walking away here without a medal wasn’t even a reality for this team," Ellison said. "It would be like Simone Biles not making the cut in the all-around. I don’t know what else to say."
MEDAL ALERT
Vincent Hancock has become the first skeet shooter to win three Olympic gold medals, giving the Americans a sweep after Amber English won the women’s event.
Hancock repeated as gold medalist in 2008 and 2012, but had a disappointing finish at the 2016 Rio Games.
The 38-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas, hit his first 26 targets in the Tokyo final and set an Olympic record with 59 of 60 overall. He beat Denmark’s Jesper Hanen by four.
Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Rashidi won bronze after taking bronze at the Rio Games as an Independent Olympic Athlete.
MEDAL ALERT
Slovenia’s Benjamin Savsek has won the men’s canoe slalom ahead of the Czech Republic’s Lukas Rohan and Germany’s Sideris Tasiadis.
Savsek is ranked No. 7 in the world. He knew he had the time to beat after a clean run with no time penalties, and pumped his first as he crossed the finish line. He didn’t have long to wait to see his time of 98.25 seconds hold up as the winner.
Rohan’s run included a gate touch and 2-second penalty and he finished 3.71 seconds off the lead. Tasiadis, who came in ranked No. 1 in the world and won silver in 2012, was a distant 5.45 seconds slower than Savsek.
MEDAL ALERT
Britain’s Tom Daley and Matty Lee have won gold in men’s 10-meter synchronized diving, ending any chance of a sweep by China at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Daley and Lee sealed their victory with a brilliant final dive and received one perfect 10 from the judges. Every other mark but one was a 9.0 or 9.5.
Daley and Lee finished with a total score of 471.81 points, edging China’s Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen by a mere 1.23. It was the first Olympic gold for Daley, long the star of British diving. He had previously claimed a pair of bronze medals.
The Chinese team had a strong final dive, waiting at the edge of the pool for their scores to be posted. When the marks went up, the British contingent in the mostly empty stands erupted in cheers. Daley and Lee, watching nervously from the pool deck, pumped their fists and embraced when they realized the gold was theirs.
The bronze went to Russia’s Aleksandr Bondar and Viktor Minibaev with 439.92.
MEDAL ALERT
American shooter Amber English has set an Olympic record to knock off reigning women’s skeet champion Diana Bacosi of Italy.
English, ranked No. 1 in the world, hit 56 of 60 targets to bounce back from just missing the U.S. Olympic team for the 2012 and 2016 Games.
Bacosi matched English by hitting 47 of 50 shots to reach the final, but missed on her third attempt and a chance to repeat as Olympic champion.
China’s Wei Meng took bronze after tying a world record in qualifying.
Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics say 153 people accredited for the Games have tested positive for COVID-19 in Japan since July 1.
The total includes 19 athletes who tested positive in Japan from July 1 through Sunday. Some of those athletes are residents of the Olympic Village, where 16 people have tested positive.
Those people left the apartment blocks overlooking Tokyo Bay to stay in quarantine hotels.
The International Tennis Federation says Dutch player Jean-Julien Rojer has tested positive for COVID-19 and been withdrawn from the doubles tournament with partner Wesley Koolhof.
The eighth-seeded pair were scheduled to play Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus of New Zealand. Daniell and Venus received a walkover into the quarterfinals.
Rojer has been placed in isolation.
A second judo athlete has dropped out of the Olympics before facing Israel’s Tohar Butbul in the 73-kilogram division.
Olympic officials say Sudan’s Mohamed Abdalrasool didn’t show up to face Butbul in their round of 32 bout Monday despite weighing in for the bout earlier.
The International Judo Foundation didn’t immediately announce a reason why Abdalrasool didn’t compete, and the governing body didn’t respond to requests for comment. Sudanese Olympic officials also didn’t immediately comment.
Algeria’s Fethi Nourine was sent home from the Tokyo Games and suspended by the IJF on Saturday after he withdrew to avoid a potential round of 32 matchup with Butbul. Nourine was supposed to face Abdalrasool for the right to meet Butbul.
Abdalrasool is the world’s 469th-ranked judoka in his weight class, while the accomplished Butbul is seventh.
Nourine also quit the World Judo Championships in 2019 right before he was scheduled to face Butbul.
Momiji Nishiya of Japan has won the first ever Olympic skateboard competition for women.
The 13-year-old gave the host nation a sweep of golds in the street event a day after after Yuto Horigome won the men’s event.
Rayssa Leal, a 13-year-old from Brazil, won the silver. That’s her country’s second in skateboarding after Brazilian Kelvin Hoefler took silver on Sunday in the men’s event.
The women’s bronze went to Funa Nakayama, also from Japan.
The men’s volleyball team from Russia has beaten the United States in pool-play action.
The Russians took control when they held off two match points before taking the second set 27-25 to go up 2-0. The Americans rallied to win the third set before falling 25-23 in the final set for their first loss of the tournament.
The U.S. had swept France in its opening pool play match. The ROC team is now 2-0 after beating Argentina in their first match.
In an earlier pool play match Monday, Iran beat Venezuela 3-0 for its second straight win.
Naomi Osaka is into the third round of the Tokyo tennis tournament.
The host country’s superstar stepped up her game when she needed to in a 6-3, 6-2 win over 49th-ranked Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland to reach the last 16 at Ariake Tennis Park.
The second-ranked Osaka will next face either 2019 French Open runner-up Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic or Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania.
The men’s surfing contest at the Olympics has been delayed 90 minutes due to low tide at Tsurigasaki beach, about 90 miles east of Tokyo.
The International Surfing Association, the sport’s Olympic governing body, said low tide combined with the shifting weather has destabilized the quality of the surf conditions for the sport’s big debut.
The call came at the end of the eight 1-on-1 heats for the women’s competition, and now the men’s game is pushed back to start at 1:18 p.m. local time.
Such delays are not unusual in competitive surfing, as it is perhaps the only organized sport that is both dependent on an uncontrollable variable — the weather — and defined by a literal uneven playing field — the ocean.
MEDAL ALERT
Caeleb Dressel is off on his quest for six swimming gold medals at the Tokyo Games, leading off an American victory in the men’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Dressel gave the U.S. a lead it never relinquished, swimming the first leg in a blistering 47.26 seconds.
Blake Pieroni and Bowe Becker kept the Americans out front before Zach Apple turned in an anchor leg of 46.69 to leave no doubt at the end.
The U.S. won in 3 minutes, 08.97 seconds, the third-fastest relay in history. Italy took the silver in 3:10.11, with the bronze going to Australia in 3:10.22.
MEDAL ALERT
Australia’s Ariarne Titmus has defeated American Katie Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.
Titmus won one of the most anticipated races of the games, capturing the gold medal with the second-fastest time in history.
Titmus, who trailed by nearly a full body-length at the halfway mark of the eight-lap race, turned on the speed to touch in 3 minutes, 56.69 seconds.
Defending Olympic champion and world-record holder Ledecky settled for the silver this time in 3:57.36 — the fourth-fastest time ever recorded.
No one else was even close. The bronze went to China’s Li Bingjie in 4:01.08.
MEDAL ALERT
Britain’s Adam Peaty has repeated as Olympic champion in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Peaty was perhaps the surest best at the Olympic pool, being the first man to break both 58 and 57 seconds in his signature event. He posted the fifth-fastest time in history (57.37 seconds) to blow away the field.
Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands claimed the silver in 58.00, while the bronze went to Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi in 58.33. American Michael Andrew was next in 58.84 — the second straight final in which a U.S. swimmer finished fourth and was denied a medal.
The Olympic archery schedule has been altered for Tuesday due to expected high wind and rain from a forecasted typhoon.
The morning sessions involving first- and second-round matches are officially delayed until noon local time at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field. But the afternoon session has been postponed.
The plan is to make up the matches Wednesday and Thursday. The individual finals for the men and women at the Tokyo Games are still scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
It’s the first time the Olympic archery scheduled has been majorly influenced by weather, according to World Archery. At the 2008 Beijing Games, there was an hour delay.
MEDAL ALERT
Maggie MacNeil has captured Canada’s first gold medal at the pool with a victory in the women’s 100-meter butterfly.
The reigning world champion touched first in 55.59 seconds, edging out China’s Zhang Yufei (55.64) for the top spot. Australia’s Emma McKeon took the bronze in 55.72, beating American teenager Torri Huske by one-hundredth of a second.
Huske went out fast, as is her style, and appeared to be close to the front with about 10 meters to go. But she faded on her final strokes and just missed a spot on the podium.
The U.S. team was denied a medal for the first time in the swimming competition.
Defending champion and world-record holder Sarah Sjöström of Sweden was seventh.