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A reminder of the miserable news that broke from the Murray camp 12 hours ago. Yet another maddening late-career injury to a man who just three weeks ago was asking, “Is it worth all of the work?” Makes you wonder…
Related: Andy Murray will not defend Olympic singles title in Tokyo after quad injury
One of Common’s finest moments (if not quite the finest).
Meanwhile, speaking of the Beeb, if UK viewers have been wondering why the usual super-array of Olympic sports hasn’t been available via the national broadcaster, you’ll find your answers here:
Related: BBC Olympics coverage misses events after selling TV rights
I’m watching a replay of today’s skateboarding and BBC are using this absolute classic as a backing track, so it’s only fair I pass on the joy.
Oh man, this isn’t exactly – ok, at all – Olympics, but it’s Olympic spirit and very beautiful.
WATCH: A Brazilian man living in Singapore completed 951 burpees in an hour, setting a new Guinness World Record in a fundraising effort for his niece who was born last year with severe heart disease https://t.co/yvrDPT0vUD pic.twitter.com/eypF6Ewkls
There’s a lot going on in Toyko, never mind that the cricket season is in full swing and football is preparing to go again. Sign up for our daily briefing to make sure you can arrange your diary in the proper manner.
Related: Sign up for the Tokyo 2020 daily briefing: the best of the Olympics and Paralympics
Swimming: This was brilliant to see.
Related: Shock as Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia powers to gold in 400m freestyle
Others have raised concerns about whether results at these Games can be trusted given the lack of testing during the pandemic, but when asked McLoughlin played that down.
“We have had rigorous testing back at home, just like normal,” he said. “And I think throughout the world it has been the same. Since we have been here we have had so many tests and the Japanese have done a really good job at drug testing everybody, so I don’t think there’s anything to say about it.”
Basketball: USA aren’t out, but they can’t afford another slip.
Related: US men’s basketball team lose at Olympics for first time since 2004 as France shock
What a world.
Related: Athletes warned to stop hugging each other on Olympic podium
Golf: Poor old John Rahm.
Jon Rahm case is interesting medically (let alone another blow Olympic golf didn’t need). Tested positive for Covid in early June… has now done so again. Played two majors in between.
Related: Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm out of Olympics after positive Covid tests
Nine years ago, for London 2012, Intelligent Life’s cover star was the amazing Mary Kom (@MangteC). She did win a medal, the bronze. Today in Tokyo, aged 38, she got through to the round of 16. She has had one more child – and become a member of parliament pic.twitter.com/gMJ4mqj9fk
Volleyball: Brazil’s women have caned South Korea and look a decent bet for gold. They join Japan and Serbia at the top of Pool A.
Hockey: Netherlands men have beaten South Africa 5-3 in their Pool B match. They’re fourth favourites for gold, behind Australia, Belgium and Germany in that order.
Taekwondo: What a story this is. I watched a chunk of a doc about Jones on BBC last week – she seemed extremely nice and grounded. I hope she makes the right call about competing in Paris, whatever that is – she’ll be 32 then.
Related: ‘Absolutely gutted’: Britain’s Jade Jones laments shock Olympic taekwondo exit
Related: Refugee Team’s Kimia Alizadeh stuns GB’s double Olympic champion Jade Jones
Beach volleyball: USA’s men lead Italy 1-0 and we’re at 20-19 in set two, which means it’s match point … and Italy go long. There’ll be a challenge, but I’m sure it was long and sure there was no touch.
Related: Surfing glides gracefully into Olympics as Igarashi comes home
The headline here minds me of my song of the summer so far.
“Have you ever heard of Sky Brown?” wonders Kurt Perleberg. “She’s 13 and competing in women’s street skateboarding.”
I absolutely have and, more importantly, so have various of my colleagues.
Related: Sky Brown: ‘Sometimes you fall but I wanted to show me getting up again’
Related: Skateboarder Sky Brown to become youngest British summer Olympian
That’s a very impressive effort by France, while USA are, as their warmup match suggested, a way away from the Dream Team says of 1992.
Basketball: Two more free throws give France a seven-point margin with 10.7s to go.
Basketball: Lilliard, of USA, is penalised for a trip – after much refereeing discussion – and that should be enough! USA haven’t lost in 25 Olympics matches, but they’re going to her, all the more so when France sink a free throw!
Basketball: With 17s go, it’s still 78-74 and France are looking good.
Volleyball: Brazil’s women are two sets up on South Korea.
Basketball: Hello! France now lead USA 78-74 with 21.8s left. USA call a timeout!
Judo: But this was also a pretty nifty development. As a kid, Giles went to watch her brother train, someone asked if she fancied a go, and now look!
Related: Chelsie Giles wins Britain’s first medal of Tokyo Olympics with bronze in judo
The judo I mentioned earlier was held at Budokan, where one of the all-time great live albums was recorded in 1975. Hard, hard recommend.
Basketball: USA have found what they need and now lead France 74-67 with just over three minutes left.
Hockey: Netherlands now lead South Africa 4-3 in their men’s pool match.
Hockey: One of the best things about the Olympics is that we don’t have to trouble ourselves with VAR controversy.
Related: Britain go down in women’s hockey opener amid video referral farce
Cycling: Every time you think you’re on top of how much incredible sport is to come, you realise you’re nowhere near.
Related: Medals, debuts and the Kennys: Team GB hopes in the Olympic velodrome
Hockey: South Africa and Netherlands are locked at 3-3 in the third quarter of their pool match.
Germany have forced themselves back into the competition, but assuming Brazil avoid defeat against Saudi in their final match, they’ll have to beat Côte d’Ivoire in theirs to progress.
Basketball: Now then. France’s men exploded at the end of the third quarter and now lead USA 62-56! Kevin Durrant looks less then ecstatic.
Football: This competition is going to be a belter. I watched Netherlands last week and they were devastating in attack, while Barbra Banda of Zambia, who has two hat-tricks in two games, is going to be a superstar.
Related: Hege Riise shuffles Team GB pack and comes up with winning hand
Extremely tangential, but we’re here celebrating humanity, so: someone alerted me to this earlier.
“A couple of great moments this evening,” says Harry Sachar. “First there was Anna Kiesenhofer’s amazing effort in the women’s road race, and now I’ve just seen Uzbek gymnast Okasan Chusovitina competing in her 8th Olympics. Got to love the Games.”
Agreed, just a glorious festival of humanity.
“A big evening of heats at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre wrapped up earlier. The precursor to what is arguably the encounter of the entire meet – American superstar Katie Ledecky versus Australian prodigy Ariarne Titmus in the women’s 400m freestyle final – certainly whet the appetite. In heat three Ledecky looked comfortable to finish fastest and nab the central lane for tomorrow morning’s final, while Titmus conserved energy in heat four, finishing third overall, but will be the swimmer to beat on Monday after a flying qualifying time last month.
Elsewhere in the pool, another emerging Australian star, Kaylee McKeown, put in a strong swim to qualify first out of the women’s 100m backstroke heats. The 20-year-old faced a nervous wait for her hit-out, watching first Canada’s Kylie Masse and then American Regan Smith break the Olympic record in consecutive heats. But McKeown swam faster than both to set the new Games mark, a month after breaking the world record. The semi-finals on Monday morning will be intriguing.
There were also thrills and spills across the heats in the men’s 200m freestyle, women’s 100m breaststroke and men’s 100m backstroke. All will hold semi-finals tomorrow. The night concluded with the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay – Italy qualified fastest, behind the USA and Australia. The Brits missed out entirely. The eight finalists will race tomorrow for gold in what looks set to be a rapid relay.”
Read more about Sinden here:
Related: Britain’s Bradly Sinden edged out for gold in Olympics taekwondo final
“Tremendously dignified and eloquent interview from Bradley Sinden moments after what must have been crushing disappointment on the mat,” emails Simon McMahon. “I know nothing about taekwondo but credit to him and the gold medalist from Uzbekistan for a fantastic contest. The Olympics right there. Gotta love them.”
Every word. His mum and sister were just on BBC talking about how proud they are of him, and so they should be. What it must only take to get as good as he is, and to keep at it without the riches on offer in other sports. He really captured the perfect mix of magnanimity, pride, optimism and hard-nosed dissatisfaction.
“To finish off my obsessive Simone Biles updating,” returns Geoff Lemon, “she’s qualified on everything. All the other competitors have finished. Held onto the spots for beam and parallel bars.”
On which point, has any human ever been better at anything than she is at gymnastics?
Basketball: With six minutes remaining in the third quarter, USA men lead France 49-47.
Football: Germany now lead Saudi 3-2 with about five minutes remaining.
Japan pretty much clinch their second-round spot, top of Group A with six points. Mexico have three, likewise France, while South Africa have none.
Taekwondo: Sinden tells BBC he’s disappointed – “It was my gold medal to give away” – says he made a few mistakes, was unlucky with a few things, but made mistakes, let his opponent back in, and “that’s taekwondo”. He congratulates Rashitov, but as world champ he was there to get gold, saying silver is the first loser, but he’ll be back in Paris– which is, I guess, three rather than four years away. What a silver lining that is – sport is brutal.
Taekwondo: Ah, that was a great bout, and with just a few seconds to go it looked like Sinden was going to win GB’s first-ever men’s gold in the sport. But Rashitov turned it up and stole it from him – all credit, because he found what he needed when he needed it – but poor Sinden is gutted.
At 10am, the Tashkent Taekwondoist wasn’t in the draw, but he qualified and now look! What an effort from him!
Taekwondo: Rashitov lands but falls and loses a point, but he still leads by one, lands again, and Rashitov is going to win!
Taekwondo: With 20 seconds to go, Sinden lands two kicks and now leads 28-26!
Taekwondo: “Don’t look at the scoreboard, the scoreboard can’t kick you,” says our commentator, but then Rashitov lands a head0kick and a spinning kick to the trunk! He leads 26-24!
Taekwondo: And gets nowhere! Sinden lands a trunk-kick, then another, and with a minute to go it’s 9-1 to him in this round and 23-19 overall! Is he going to win GB’s first men’s gold in taekwondo and first gold of the Games?
Taekwondo: Sinden closes to 18-16, then lands a trunk-kick to level us up! Rashitov plays a video replay card….
Taekonwdo: But again, Ulgubeck nudges clear for 17-11 – he’s finding Sinden’s trunk too easily, and that, along with the double head-kick, is why he leads. It’s 18-11 as we enter into the final 10 seconds of round two, but then Sinden disburses a headkick, and going into the final round, Ulgubeck leads 18-14! This final round will be a jazzer!
Taekwondo: Sinden gets a trunk-kick then shoves Rashitov out of the ring for three points total; he’d conceded eight straight prior to then, and at 15-11 this is still close.
Taekwondo: Rashitov has settled now, and he stamps on the gas at the round ends to lead 13-8! He trailed pretty much all the way through but a fine last minute puts him in a decent spot. What does Sinden have for him?
Taekwondo: Sinden is looking good here, but at 6-4 he wears consecutive kicks to the swede and trails 8-6 … then quickly levels the match at 8-8! We cookin’!
Taekwondo: Sinden gets two points with a trunk-kick for 2-1 and as I type that, he lands again for 4-2.
Football: Mexico’s men have pulled a goal back against Japan and now trail 2-1 with a few minutes left.
Taekwondo: Sinden and Rashitov are out! No British man has yet won gold in the sport, but here we go!
That’s the title Jade Jones has held since London 2012.
“What about a mention for Charlotte Dujardin and her steed in the dressage,” tweets @hcertainly. “A stupendous 80.963 scored in the heats. With only a few to go she has put the team in a great position as well.”
Djuardin won double gold in 2012 and gold and silver in 2016.
Taekwondo: Coming up in six or seven minutes, we’ve got Bradly Sinden of Great Britain against Ulugbek Rashitov of Uzbekistan in the gold medal match of the men’s 68kg division.
Football: that Kubo goal I mentioned earlier is here. Japan still lead Mexico 2-0 in their second group match.
That’s a huge shock! Cannone was behind, but came storming back to take it off the set!
Tennis: Ash Barty, the Wimbledon champ, was beaten by Sara Sorribes Tormo. I said in these pages on Thursday that it stood out among the first-round matches, as Sorribes Tormo was brilliant against Kerber at Wimbledon. But though I thought she’d give Barty a game, I didn’t think she’d see her away.
Related: Ash Barty knocked out of Tokyo Olympics in shock round-one loss
Imagine if she takes this.
Related: Naomi Osaka eases into second round in return to tennis at Tokyo Olympics
Don’t we all?
[emerging from Olympic swimming research laboratory]slightly off topic, but Gary Hall Jnr owns a painting that William S. Burroughs created with his own blood. pic.twitter.com/mfqdPKi1jJ
Fencing: I’m watching Canonne of France take on Siklosi of Hungary in the men’s epee final; Siklosi leads 6-5 with two minutes left of round two.
Oh my absolute days:
Related: Don’t try this at home: China’s Li Fabin wins weightlifting gold with one-legged lift
Oyarzabal’s late header snaffles the points for Spain. Spain go top of Group C with four points; Australia and Argentina have three each and Egypt one.
Basketball: USA men lead France 22-15 in the first quarter. I’m looking forward to seeing how that all unfolds, but for now things are going as you’d expect.
More football: Japan, who beat South Africa in their first game thanks to Takefusa Kubo’s brilliant goal, lead Mexico 2-0, but there’s half an hour left there; likewise in the Romania v South Korea game, where Korea lead 2-0; and Germany, who were lucky to get away with a mere 4-2 defeat to Brazil, lead Saudi, who lost to Côte d’Ivoire earlier, 2-1, but it’s only half-time there
Football: Oyarzabal has given Spain an 81st-minute lead against Australia, and we’re now into the final minute of the 90. That sets up Group C nicely, as Spain drew their first match with Egypt so if they can hang on will have four points, while Argentina and Australia will have three each.
You can get hold of me on daniel.harris.casual@theguardian.com or @unitedrewind on Twitter.
Hello everyone and thanks Geoff. Goodness me, the Olympics. What a phenomenally brilliant to-do. In this next little section we’ve got USA men in the swish-swish, the end of various football matches, some hockey, some 3v3 swish-swish and Bradly Sinden going for gold in the men’s taekwondo – that’ll be about 1.45pm UK time.
It’s been quite the day.
Some welcome gymnastics clarification from reader Darin Westaway. “Only two gymnasts from any one country can make the finals of the all around or any of the apparatus. As ROC have four contenders ahead of Simone Biles in the uneven bars, she’s still in the top 8.”
Football: Past 70 minutes for Australia in the football against Spain. Nary a goal to be seen. Entirely being played in Australia’s defensive half, until the substitute Marco Tilio goes charging down for a brief moment forward. Then it’s back to keeping shape, keeping Spain out, and it has worked so far.
Swimming: The heats for the 4×100 men’s freestyle relay are done. Team GB have misjudged it, and they’re out. They finish fifth in the second heat and ninth overall. The finalists will be:
Italy
United States
Australia
France
Brazil
Hungary
Canada
ROC
Football: An hour gone for Spain against Australia and still no way through. Mitch Duke gets a yellow card for a push that again looked like a phantom foul. Spain getting pretty frustrated though at the lack of progress.
Swimming: Interesting times in the women’s 400m freestyle, where rivals Kathleen Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus were in different heats. Ledecky swam nearly four seconds outside her world-record time from 2016 but still topped the heats comfortably to make a statement.
No semis here, straight into the final.
Football: This is really turning into a bus-parking exercise for Australia in the second half. Ten yellow jerseys plus the goalkeeper all back in the defensive box, keeping Spain at bay, and even then Oyarzabal finds some space and fires over the bar.
Gymnastics: A 14.700 from Germany’s Elisabeth Seitz has pushed Simone Biles out of the finals for the uneven bars. She wasn’t really expecting to contest that discipline, but just if you were wondering. She’s still in seventh place on the beam rankings but plenty of contenders yet to come.
Swimming: The qualifiers for the men’s 100m backstroke.
ROC KOLESNIKOV Kliment
ITA CECCON Thomas
CHN XU Jiayu
AUS LARKIN Mitch
JPN IRIE Ryosuke
FRA NDOYE-BROUARD Yohann
ROC RYLOV Evgeny
USA MURPHY Ryan
ESP GONZALEZ Hugo
FRA TOMAC Mewen
BRA GUIDO Guilherme
ROU GLINTA Robert
AUS COOPER Isaac
GER ULRICH Marek
USA ARMSTRONG Joseph
GRE CHRISTOU Apostolos
Swimming: Here are the top 16 qualifiers for the women’s 100m breaststroke.
RSA SCHOENMAKER Tatjana
USA JACOBY Lydia
USA KING Lilly
SWE HANSSON Sophie
ITA CARRARO Martina
ROC CHIKUNOVA Evgeniia
FIN HULKKO Ida
ROC EFIMOVA Yuliya
IRL Mc SHARRY Mona
CHN TANG Qianting
GBR VASEY Sarah
AUS HODGES Chelsea
SUI MAMIE Lisa
EST JEFIMOVA Eneli
LTU TETEREVKOVA Kotryna
GER ELENDT Anna Charlott Darcel
Football: Half time and 0-0 for Australia-Spain. Same score during the first half for Romania and Korea, but Japan already lead Mexico 2-0. The home team is having a belter of a Games already. Germany and Saudi Arabia will start in five minutes, at 8:30pm local time.
Hockey: Australia finish at 7-1 over India. That leaves the Kookaburras top of Pool A with a 12-4 goal difference.
Football: Lachie Wales, who scored a memorable goal in Australia’s first match, has just been given a yellow for a challenge on the sideline. Replay doesn’t suggest there was any contact there against his Spanish opponent who naturally went down clutching both shins. It’s still 0-0 approaching half time. Spain have been taking a few forward forays but haven’t got through.
Swimming: Not sure what the semi-final order will be for the men’s 200m freestyle, but these are the 16 qualifiers from the five heats.
Sunwoo Hwang KOR
Fernando Scheffer BRA
Tom Dean GBR
David Popovici ROU
Duncan Scott GBR
Martin Malyutin ROC
Stefano Ballo ITA
Thomas Neill AUS
Danas Rapsys LTU
Townley Haas USA
Kregor Zirk EST
Nandor Nemeth HUN
Kieran Smith USA
Velimir Stjepanovic SRB
Antonio Djakovic SUI
Stefano di Cola ITA
Football: Australia and Spain is the contest from Group C, and the Australians after their huge upset of Argentina are holding their own so far here. The clock reads 31 minutes and the score is still 0-0. A couple of marauding runs down the wings from gold shirts after that half hour, and some equally confident work from Nathaniel Atkinson in defence.
Gymnastics: For those keeping an eye on the women’s qualifications and especially the path through for Simone Biles, there will be one more subdivision of teams to go through starting in about 20 minutes (that’s 8:20pm local time). She’s currently in the top eight for all four apparatus, but could easily be pushed out of the beam and parallel bars finals with a decent score or two from anyone in this final rotation.
Swimming: Based on the five heats, these will be the two semi-finals for the women’s 100 backstroke tomorrow. Kaylee McKeown set an Olympic record today.
Two each for Australia, Great Britain, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Russia.
Just getting the swimming heat results together for you, in the meantime why not read about some diving?
Related: Tom Daley: last Olympic chance for teenage sensation turned crocheter
Hockey: Australia’s men get up to 6-1 over India, this is a huge result against a quality opponent. Still only the third quarter.
Football: Looks like Brazil and Cote d’Ivoire have finished 0-0 in the men’s draw. That won’t hurt them as yet, as they’re first and second in Group D with one win apiece.
Judo: Hifumi Abe lands the waza-ari against Vazha Margvelashvili, turning him but not landing him for the full ippon that would mean the bout is over. So Japan lead by one point in the gold bout. Abe locks around his opponent’s waist and hangs on like a petrol-station koala to run down the clock. He does, he does, and he wins!
The Abe family has TWO Olympic champions in the space of one hour. The men’s 66kg judo and the women’s 52kg. Japan’s fourth and fifth gold medals of these Games go to the sister and brother duo.
Hockey: I meant to cover this, but we’ve been run off our feet. The Kookaburras – not a type of kangaroo – have been bossing India thus far, but India have just scored their first goal through Dilpreet Singh. The score is 4-1 in the third quarter.
Judo: Daniel Cargnin of Brazil scores one waza-ari early in his match against Baruch Shmailov of Israel and then spends the rest of the bout running away around the ring. Shmailov looks much stronger and keeps attacking, looking to draw level. Cargnin gets lucky (apparently) to not be disqualified after attacking his opponent’s arm, but he gets away with that and manages to keep playing early-rounds Ali in the Rumble, skipping away from his opponent wherever possible to protect his lead. And holds it for bronze.
The other bronze in the men’s 66kg goes to Korea’s Baul An over Italy’s Manuel Lombardo. And now it’s time for the gold.
Basketball: Australia get on the board for these Olympic Games with a comfortable win in the end, 84-65 over Nigeria who rather gave up in the last five minutes. They’ve got Italy and Germany to come in Group B.
An update from our man at the pool, Kieran Pender.
I’m at the Aquatics Centre for the second night of heats at Tokyo 2020. The scheduling is unusual – typically swim meets hold heats in the morning and medals races at night – but American broadcasters insisted that the finals in Tokyo be raced in the morning during US primetime (to the annoyance of many, including US swimmers, who were complaining earlier today).
First up we have the women’s 100m backstroke heats. Australia’s Kaylee McKeown is the swimmer to beat. We then move to the men’s 200m freestyle, the women’s 100m breaststroke (keep an eye out for American defending champion Lilly King) and the men’s 100m backstroke.
Football: Honduras turned it around to beat New Zealand 3-2, and France got home in what looks like it was a stunning match 4-3. Looks like South Africa got the lead and then France equalised on three occasions, before scoring the winner in injury time.
Basketball: The Boomers are out to 70-58 against Nigeria with just over six minutes to play.
What a piece of craft. The two have gone toe to toe, for the full four minutes of the golden score round. It means that when they finish their current hold, they are supposed to start a new round. But just as Buchard is expecting things to end, Abe flips her around into an arm bar and holds the osaekomi for the required 20 seconds.
She rolls away and punches the mat in celebration. The women’s 52kg gold is hers. And her brother, Hifumi Abe, will contest the men’s 66kg gold a little later in the day.
Judo: Buchard is starting to look fatigued, hanging back and waiting for contact as the golden score round goes past 3 minutes.
Judo: Golden score period ticks up past 1:20. Buchard goes to ground and tries to pull down Abe by her collar, but Abe hold strong above the French fighter. More wrestling, more tussling, and 2:00 comes up.
Judo: Buchard has the sleeve and tries to drag Abe down, but Abe turns Buchard twice, nearly spinning her onto her back, and twice Buchard manages to twist onto her side at the very last moment and avoid giving away a score.
Judo: Time is up, and it will be golden score for a golden medal.
Judo: Buchard is doing the attacking, for the most part, trying to throw her opponent’s poise. Abe has a shido on the board – a yellow card that means she’s in trouble if she gets a second.
Judo: Another Japanese contender for gold via Abe Uta, up against Amandine Buchard of France. Japanese athletes have been in everything so far, not least the street skating gold earlier today which was such a thrilling spectacle. This is the women’s 52kg. They’re quickly into the contest.
Chelsie had better be careful not to get too friendly with anyone at the ceremony.
Related: Athletes warned to stop hugging each other on Olympic podium
Judo: In the other women’s 52kg bronze match, Giles scores against Fabienne Kocher of Switzerland. A second waza-ari for Giles ends the bout and gives her the bronze. A strong grapple on the edge of the square, then Kocher attacks and Giles sweeps the leg (hello, Johnny Lawrence) to counter and drop her opponent to her back.
Basketball: Nigeria forgot how to score through the first half of the third quarter, but Jordan Nwora has hit a couple to get them back flowing. It’s 55-49 to Australia.
Cycling: Here’s our report on that dramatic women’s road race earlier today.
Related: Anna Kiesenhofer claims shock road race glory as Van Vleuten mistakes silver for gold
Judo: Odette Giuffrida takes bronze for Italy against Reka Pupp of Hungary, flipping her to the match in golden point time after a stalemate in the 52kg category. Giuffrida kneels at the edge of the mat and weeps into the floor, moments after shouting in triumph to the ceiling. We go up, we go down.
If you didn’t catch our extended feature on Team GB athletics captain Dina Asher-Smith, hop in and swim about.
Related: Dina Asher-Smith: ‘You get 10 seconds to make your mark’
Basketball: Back at the start of the second half for Australia-Nigeria, and Matthew Dellavedova hits a three straightaway. The Boomers defend, take back the court, and Mills hits a three from the top of the arc. Suddenly it’s 49-40, and Nigeria need a couple of Nnamdi Vincent free-throws to stay within reach.
Football: Argentina close out their men’s match against Egypt 1-0 in Group C. France South Africa are 1-1 in Group A, and New Zealand lead Honduras 2-1 in Group B.
Taekwondo: Great Britain’s first medal at Tokyo is a surety, as Bradly Sinden goes through to the men’s 68kg final later today against Ulugbek Rashitov from Uzbekistain. I didn’t catch the end of that semifinal bout, but apparently neither did Sinden’s opponent Shuai Zhao. Sounds like it’ll be worth finding the replay.
That was liquid Takewondo from Bradly Sinden. 16-9 down at the end of round 2, still losing with 15 seconds to go then wins by eight points
Basketball: First half is done and Australia lead 43-40. It was tight most of the quarter before Australia got the lead out to five points, then Nigeria had the chance to close to one point but Precious Achiuwa missed both his free throws after Joe Ingles left a knee hanging out. The Australians miss a couple of shots of their own via Patty Mills late in the piece, and in the end they run down the clock to get to half time with their lead.
Tennis: A whiparound of countries where we have Guardian outlets. The USA had Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jessica Pegula go through in the women’s doubles earlier today, and have matches yet to come in both singles and both doubles divisions.
Great Britain only had one player up today, Liam Broady who beat Argentina’s Francisco Cerndolo.
Related: Ash Barty knocked out of Tokyo Olympics in shock round-one loss
Football: Argentina go up 1-0 over Egypt in the men’s match. Facundo Medina sweeps in a cross. First tournament goal for the Argentines after they lost 2-0 to Australia.
Fancy a feature read? How about this, on a massive underdog beating one of the best in the business.
Related: Refugee Team’s Kimia Alizadeh stuns GB’s double Olympic champion Jade Jones
Eko Yuli Irawan of Indonesia has a couple of goes at 177 kilograms – bear in mind, this is being lifted by a man weighing 61 kilograms. He can’t get it, meaning that Li Fabin of China is guaranteed the gold. Before that, he has a shot at 178 kilograms to see if he can set a new world record. He doesn’t, buzzed by the umpires as his elbows touched his knees which is apparently illegal. The things you learn, hey? But he’s already done enough! He set an Olympic record for his total across his two lifts today, tallying 313 kilograms.
Irawan totalled 302. The bronze goes to Igor Son of Kazakhstan with 294.
Basketball: Australia’s Boomers have been stung right at the end of the first period against Nigeria, who have nailed a couple of three-pointers to level the game. They were trailing 14-21 not long ago but go into quarter time at 23-23.
If you’re wondering, a Boomer in this instance is not an elderly person who dominates the property market, it’s a type of kangaroo. Because every Australian team has to be named after kinds of kangaroos (Wallabies, Matildas, Joeys, Socceroos, Olyroos, you get the drift).
Gymnastics: A lot of people will be wanting to know what’s happening with Simone Biles after a couple of mistakes in qualifying today. The short version is that we’ve had three subdivisions of qualifying and the USA were in the third. There is a subdivision happening now including the teams from Canada, France, Spain and Switzerland, and there’ll be a fifth subdivision later including Korea, Germany, Brazil and Belgium.
Currently the USA team is ranked second. On the individual apparatus results, Biles is first on vault and second on floor, but liable to be knocked out from eighth spot on uneven bars and sixth on beam. So most likely she’ll contest the floor, vault, all-around, and team medals.
Cycling: This is quite the twist. Watching the scenes over the finish line, van Vleuten actually thought that she’d won. There was that breakaway of three, then the peloton caught two. At that point, van Vleuten must have thought that they’d reeled in all the attackers. They never knew that there was still one attacker way out there in front, all on her own. So instead of trying to catch her they played cat and mouse with one another. Kiesenhofer was so far ahead that they didn’t know she existed anymore, and she crossed the line so far ahead that there was no sign of her when van Vleuten pushed up towards the line herself. So van Vleuten was in tears of joy at coming first, but then had to be told that she’d come second instead. The expressions on her face alone have told a story.
She’s done it all on her own, and she’s done it on fumes. She has battled through the last 10 kilometres or so, she battled over the two final peaks, she started to see some of her lead worn away, but she had worked so hard to build it and the peloton never did enough to reel it in! Finally Kiesenhofer allows herself a smile as she comes down the last few hundred metres, and crosses first. She collapses to the ground after reaching safety, tumbling in slow motion off her bike and lying on her back on the bitumen, gasping for enough air to cry.
Silver goes to Annemiek van Vleuten of Netherlands, and bronze is Elisa Borghini of Italy. Those two split out from the pack with three kilometres to go, van Vleuten attacking and Borghini chasing. Lotte Kopecky of Belgium is fourth and there’s a bunch sprint for fifth.
Cycling: The Dutch keep attacking, van Vleuten and van der Breggen swapping on and off the front of the pack. Still two minutes in front, Kiesenhofer gets down to the final kilometre.
Cycling: Three kilometres left to go, Anna Kiesenhofer 2:22 in front, the peloton are closing but they won’t have time to catch her. Just like yesterday, they’re battling for silver and bronze. They let a leader get out in front and assumed that leader would blow up, but it hasn’t happened. The Dutch team in the peloton are pushing up hard now to position themselves for a medal push.
Cycling: She ticks over 5 kilometres left to go, Anna Kiesenhofer. Standing on her pedals working her way up a modest gradient towards the finish. The peloton catches up to Anna Plichta and Omer Shapira, the Polish and Israeli riders who have been out in front all day long but are running out of juice.
Cycling: Kiesenhofer is doing as Carapaz did yesterday. She’s under 7 kilometres from the finish with 2:43 break back to her nearest competitor. She’s all on her own and just has to keep going. She looks in real discomfort but she’s ploughing on.
Gymnastics: Simone Biles is in trouble on the beam. Does everything right while she’s up there. Flip, layout, layout. Back pike. Yes, I’m just writing down what they said on the TV. But dismounts with the full in, and doesn’t entirely stick the landing again! Doesn’t fall but has to take a few steps backwards to regain balance. Not sure what’s up today, she’s not been herself on those landings, but she just smiles. Scores 14.066 which leaves her in sixth place to qualify for the final with more beam experts to come.
San An, Minhee Jang and Chaeyoung Kang get the job done in straight sets. They take the last set 54-51. Their worst shots in the entire match were two arrows worth 8.
Archery: The gold medal match for the women’s teams. This means teams of three. The Koreans, including San An who already has a gold from the mixed archery yesterday, are up against the unofficial Russians. Each player gets two shots per set, so six shots in total, and the scores from those shots are added together to see who wins the set. Sets can be tied.
Second set, and the Koreans are on fire. They shoot 10, 9, 9, 10, 9, 9. While the Russians shoot a string of 8s. One more set for Korea to win the match.
Gymnastics: One of the floor routines was just staged to a string quartet version of Somebody to Love, by Queen. Good areas.
Weightlifting: After the snatch component of the competition, China’s Li Fabin leads with 141 kilograms lifted, Indonesia’s Eko Irawan has 137, and Japan’s Yoichi Itokazu is third with 133. They still have the clean-and-jerk component to go for the 61kg men.
Cycling: Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria is out on her own in the women’s road race, and just starting to take on the Mikuni Pass. This is the second-highest climb at 1171 metres after they already cleared Fuji Sanroku at 1451. She’s got 1:43 on two riders behind, and nearly five minutes on the peloton. A huge amount of work ahead though.
Water polo: Montenegro are going to beat Australia as time counts down. A real shame that water polo bucks the trend by saying ‘preliminary round’ instead of ‘pool match’. Did all the jokes about their horses getting wet spoil the sport’s sense of humour?
Montenegro win 15-10 after trailing 6-7 at half time.
Gymnastics: Australia’s Georgia Godwin puts a good vault together and is awarded 13.766. Simone Biles fronts up for the uneven bars, described as her least favourite apparatus, which means she nails a double-double dismount after an excellent routine that nets 14.566.
Sunisa Lee is her competition from within the US squad, and the Minnesotan assembles a more complex routine with a perfect landing to score 15.200.
Water polo: The Australian men are facing a tough match against Montenegro. Three minutes to run in the third quarter and Montenegro lead 9-7.
Cycling: 42 kilometres to go in the women’s road race. Annemiek van Vleuten of Netherlands is all alone, trying to catch the lead breakaway group of three. She’s 5:12 behind.
Hello world. I was more keenly on Simone Biles Watch while Jonathan was busy elsewhere, and can report that she did her usual miraculous array of flips and twists in her floor routine, but on one pass she had too much momentum and stepped back a metre out of bounds. The horror! So that meant a 0.8 deduction, and a score that was more like those that mere mortals return: 14.133.
It’s still the best score of the day so far.
Okey dokey, that’s enough of my wittering for one day. Time for Geoff Lemon to narrate you through the finale of the women’s road race, gymnastic magic from Simone Biles, and plenty more besides.
Iain Pearson has nominated the protests of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at Mexico 68 for consideration in our list of greatest Olympic moment. “Or for those of us of a certain generation – Olga Korbett, Munich 1972 – the floor routine,” he adds.
Excellent suggestions. Those salutes (aided by the support of Australian Peter Norman) remain as important today as they were all those years ago.
Related: The man who raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games
The Chinese team of Shi Tingmao and Wang Han entered as favourites, led after every round, executed the three highest-rated dives, and romped to gold with 326.40.
The Canadian pair of Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu saved their best for last to secure the silver with a total score of 300.78.
Diving: The commentator covering this final just made an audible “eurgh” sound when the US pair hit the water. That’s never a good sign.
With one round remaining China have the gold sewn up, Canada have a buffer in the silver medal position, while Germany and Italy are in a duel for bronze.
Gymnastics: So, Simone Biles made a couple of rudimentary errors in her floor routine. Progress may not be a foregone conclusion for the champion and Team USA.
The Australian women are racing smart, not hard, in the sweltering Tokyo heat in today’s road race. With a breakaway well up the road, the four Aussies in the peloton are foxing a bit – forcing the Dutch to do the chasing.
That’s a bit of a problem for the Netherlands, because their team is so packed full of winners, they don’t really have anyone keen to do the hard yards. But it’s also a gamble for the Australians – and other nations with medal hopes in the peloton – because the breakaway now has such a significant gap, there is a chance it might just stay away. About 70km to go.
Related: ‘Race smart’: Australia’s Olympic road cyclists target dominant Dutch | Kieran Pender
Diving: Rubbish dive from the US! (Told you I’d get like this. To tell you the truth, it looked amazing to my untrained eye, but the judges disagreed.)
After three rounds the American pair are back in the pack and China have a considerable advantage. It’s China’s gold to lose, then a scramble from the remaining medals.
Gymnastics: Simone Biles is on the floor… The expert commentary indicates it wasn’t her best routine with a couple of obvious errors, but should still be more than enough to make it through to the finals.
Diving: Two rounds into the final of the women’s synchronised 3m springboard, and China and the USA are beginning to separate themselves from the rest. Italy and GB lead the chasing pack, followed by Germany, Canada, Japan, and Mexico.
The first two rounds are restricted to a moderate difficulty. The next three rounds are dealer’s choice.
Canoe Slalom: Australia have high hopes for Jess Fox in the canoe slalom, and her campaign has begun strongly. She won silver in London and bronze in Rio. It seems only fair she gets a gold to complete the set.
Yes @jessfoxcanoe kicks off #Tokyo2020 with a strong first run in the heats and second place behind Ricarda Funk from Germany
Stay tuned for run 2 @ 17:03 | 18:03 AEST live on @7olympics #TokyoTogether #CanoeSlalom @paddle_aus pic.twitter.com/hKdyHbRVut
Gymnastics: It’s Biles time!
It is Simone Biles time as Team USA start on floor. The glitter is blinding. pic.twitter.com/e2f0PjE6OX
Diving: There are eight pairs competing in the final of the women’s synchronised 3m springboard. The event lasts five rounds. China are the favourites.
And after the opening round of dives china lead from the USA, Italy, and Germany in a competitive-looking top four. Canada, Great Britain, Japan, and Mexico make up the rest of the field.
Swimming: Here’s a statement from Australia’s Olympic Committee, presumably following questioning about the happy smiling maskless photos of the 4x100m free relay squad.
IOC indicates there’s a new policy that allows for athletes to take masks off for 30 second at the podium for photographs. Then masks go back on. Our athletes were simply following the direction of the official at the podium, who holds up a sign saying masks off briefly for the photographs. That’s what our girls did. IOC has confirmed this and there’s nothing wrong with athletes doing this. They are following the policy. This will be communicated to media and via the IOC website this afternoon.
Diving: Here we go, the final of the women’s synchronised 3m springboard is ready to go. Literally no idea what I’m watching. But in half-an-hour I’ll be leaning over and shouting in your ears like an expert.
Cycling:
85km to go | 20yo Aussie @SarahGigante is sitting front and centre in the peloton on her Olympic debut.
And I think we can hear hometown club @BrunswickCC cheering her on from Melbourne! #CyclingRoad #TokyoTogether | @AusCyclingTeam @AusCyclingAus pic.twitter.com/ndTtun8TZw
“A big thank you to you Guardian folk for live coverage in a household with no TV. Yep you are it! It’s been fun reading out the exciting commentary,” our pleasure Janet Robertson. “Shout out to friend Shannon Brooke Hughes – commentator for the women’s surfing. It’s all very exciting even read on the phone.”
@JPHowcroft Best Olympic moments? Can’t go past Torville and Dean’s ‘Bolero’… (yes, I know it’s a winter one, but so was ‘The Miracle on Ice’…).
A huge moment in the UK, that’s for sure. Any Torvill and Dean fans out there, check out this podcast interview Mr Dean did with the delightful Adam Buxton. Highly enjoyable.
Ok, deep breath, there’s been plenty going on today:
“What about the “Blood in the water” match between Hungary and the USSR in 56, just after the failed Hungarian revolution?” emails Andy Hockley under the banner of most famous Olympic moment. Excellent contender.
Ok, help me out people, where should my eyeballs be right now? The next gold medal event isn’t until the hour mark when the women’s 3m springboard synchro will pull us towards the diving. What’s the best action around the place until then?
Kurt Perleberg has emailed in a question for you all to chew over, asking “what is the most famous moment in the history of the Olympics? To me it was the Miracle On Ice.”
How about Jesse Owens in ‘36? Bob Beamon in ‘68? Ben Johnson in ‘86? Her Maj parachuting into London 2012?
An exhilarating opening morning of medal action at the Tokyo 2020 pool has now wrapped up. It was a big one for the Australians – gold for the women in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, silver for Jack McLoughlin in the men’s 400m freestyle and an historic bronze for Brendon Smith in the 400m individual medley. Elsewhere local favourite Yui Ohashi took gold in the women’s 400m IM and Britain’s Adam Peaty looked unbeatable in the men’s 100m breaststroke semis.
Here’s my full report on the Australians – and I will be sticking around at the pool for an exciting night of heats. We will be getting our first look at the Ariarne Titmus v Katie Ledecky rivalry that looks set to define this meet. Watch out!
Related: Women’s relay team smash own world record for Australia’s first Tokyo 2020 Olympics gold
Skateboarding: Here’s more on the arrival of skateboarding to the big time, and the brilliance of home star Yuto Horigome.
Related: Japan’s Yuto Horigome wins first ever Olympic gold medal in skateboarding
Tennis: Catching up on a few results following that seismic shock of Ash Barty crashing out in the opening round. Third seed Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) was untroubled in her first outing, as was fifth seed Karolina Pliskova (CZE). Disappointment for 11th seed Jennifer Brady (USA) though, she lost to Italy’s Camila Giorgi.
In the men’s singles, there was mixed news for Australia with James Duckworth (AUS) progressing, but Luke Saville (AUS) bowing out. Fourth seed Alexander Zverev (GER) won comfortably.
Cycling: We’re in the very early stages of the women’s road race, and we learned yesterday with the men’s race that in this heat and humidity it is an almighty slog. Nevertheless, five riders have broken away from a disinterested peloton. Pray for them.
Taekwondo: Second seed Bradly Sinden of Team GB is off to a good start in the 68kg category. He easily won his opening contest and is through to the quarterfinals.
Tennis: No alarms for Naomi Osaka so far in her opening match against Zheng Saisai. She cruised through the first set 6-1.
“A big hello from Costa Rica!” And a big hello back your way, Alexandra. “We are currently watching the surfing and hoping Leilani McGonagle makes it through. Then on to the cycling which should be coming on the tv in the next 10 minutes. Wonderful to watch Tunisia win a gold medal in the swimming! Thank you for the often hilarious and insightful coverage, it is much appreciated!”
McGonagle finished third in heat five of the women’s shortboard surfing, and I’m pretty sure with a score of 9.64 she’s eliminated. More on the road race to come…
Delight for the home fans as Yuto Horigome tricks his way to gold, dominating the second half of the men’s street final. He registered 9.50, 9.35, 9.30, and 9.03, with his four scoring attempts all tricks. The only skater to land more than three tricks – and all of them above 9.00 – superb performance.
Kelvin Hoefler (BRA) was on track for bronze, but a brilliant final trick sent him into the silver medal position. That put Jagger Eaton (USA) in the spotlight for his final trick, but he can’t execute, and has to settle for bronze.
Skateboarding: Ok, Yuto Horigome (JAP) now has two of the three highest-scoring tricks of the men’s street final to inch ahead of Jagger Eaton (USA) with one trick remaining. The gold looks to be between that pair.
Kelvin Hoefler (BRA) is on track for bronze, but Nyjah Huston (USA) has failed with three attempts in a row and the favourite is at risk of flaming out.
“Hi Jonathan,” hi Harry Sachar. “I know they say that there are more important issues around than sport, but I am loving the Olympics. Making full use of my 7plus app in Australia to channel surf between sports (currently watching the start of the women’s road race).
The swimming earlier was cracking entertainment, fantastic effort by the women’s relay team to break with world record but a big round of applause for all medalists and competitors. A Tunisian winning the men’s 400m freestyle final – how amazing was that!?”
It sucks you in Harry, it sucks you in…
Skateboarding: Just two rounds of trick runs remaining in the final of the men’s street, and Jagger Eaton (USA) has blasted his way into gold medal contention. Kelvin Hoefler (BRA) and Nyjah Huston (USA) both need to land one of their final two tricks to contend, and Yuto Horigome (JAP) has come from nowhere to force his way into consideration.
Tennis: Here’s more on two-time defending champion Andy Murray’s withdrawal from the men’s singles.
Related: Andy Murray will not defend Olympic singles title in Tokyo after quad injury
Skateboarding: After two of the five trick runs in the final of the men’s street, the medals still look destined to be shared between Kelvin Hoefler (BRA), Nyjah Huston (USA), and Jagger Eaton (USA).
Tennis: Following Ash Barty on court is the individual under the greatest scrutiny these games, Naomi Osaka. She’s an early break up against China’s Zheng Saisai.
Naomi Osaka’s first point in nearly two months: ace down the T. Some things don’t change. pic.twitter.com/PHpiSSBiu5
Cycling: The women’s road race is about to get underway. We’ll keep an eye on that gruelling marathon in the background over the next few hours.
Skateboarding: The men’s street final is coming to the boil nicely. Kelvin Hoefler of Brazil continues to crush it, backing up his leading opening run score of 8.98 with an 8.84. Nyjah Huston (USA) responds with a blistering 9.11, followed by compatriot Jagger Eaton (USA) smashing a 9.05.
With the trick portion to come, those three skaters look destined for medals.
Tennis: ASH BARTY IS OUT! Huge, huge upset in the women’s singles first round. The world number one and recent Wimbledon champion was miles off her game and Sara Sorribes Tormo capitalised, hustling every shot and digging in for the clutch points.
Skateboarding: The next medal to be handed out today will be in the men’s street skateboarding. Brazil’s Kelvin Hoefler has made the early running.
Tennis: Barty serving to save two match points… she’s missing wide and long, slicing into the net, shocking day at the office.
Tennis: Oh my. Ash Barty is off her game today, and she’s on the cusp of being upset by the tenacious Sara Sorribes Tormo. The unseeded Spaniard has just broken a sloppy service game from the world number one to lead by a set and 4-3. Yikes!
Swimming: More from Kieran Pender poolside on a triumphant session for Australia’s swimmers.
Related: Women’s relay team smash own world record for Australia’s first Tokyo 2020 Olympics gold
Surfing: More good news in the water for Australia with Stephanie Gilmore setting a new highest score in the women’s shortboard. She’s dominated heat three, winning with a score of 14.50. Earlier, Sally Fitzgibbons set the previous highest score with 12.50 in heat two.
Taekwondo: Huge disappointment for Team GB’s Jade Jones. The top seed was bidding for a third consecutive gold medal in the 57kg category but she lost a nail-biter to Kimia Alizadeh, who continues her incredible Games under the flag of the Refugee Olympic team.
Wow Jade Jones loses 16-12 to Refugee Olympic athlete Alizadeh. She is out. No third gold medal.
That was devastating for Jones. Five years on from Rio, with talk of making herself “a legend” with a third gold, she loses her first bout. Incredibly story for Kimia Alizadeh, an Iranian refugee in Germany
Tennis: Team GB have just released an official statement on Andy Murray, indicating the dual gold medallist has withdrawn from the men’s singles with a quad strain. He will continue to play doubles with Joe Salisbury: “I am really disappointed at having to withdraw but the medical staff have advised me against playing in both events, so I have made the difficult decision to withdraw from the singles and focus on playing doubles with Joe,” Murray said.
Softball: Victory for Team USA over Australia in an extra-inning. The US are now four from four, Australia one from four, and face a must-win clash with Mexico tomorrow to progress out of the group phase.
Extra inning, extra fun. @USASoftballWNT is 4️⃣-0️⃣ at the #TokyoOlympics. pic.twitter.com/39ICHJ2UOw
Tennis: And now Barty has dropped serve with her opening service game of the second set, Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo is the world number 47, by the way. She’s 24, has one singles title on her CV, but has yet to pass the second round of a grand slam. This would be a career-best victory.
Tennis: And despite a Barty fightback, Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo takes the opening set of their first round match 6-4.
Tennis: Gah! I wondered yesterday how Andy Murray’s bionic hip would hold up this week. It doesn’t sound good. A huge opportunity for Aussie Max Purcell though.
Andy Murray’s disappeared off the singles schedule today… Felix Auger-Aliassime now set to play Australia’s Max Purcell third on Centre Court.
Take a bow Bronte Campbell, Meg Harris, Emma McKeon, and Cate Campbell. The Aussies started as favourites and boy did they deliver. The world record marker was pushed from go to woah as the gold caps swam a race of their own, obliterating their rivals, touching under 3.30.00 for the first time in women’s swimming history. That was a monumental swim.
Canada came from nowhere to pick up silver, and Team USA took bronze. Great Britain finished fifth.
Swimming: The final medal event in the pool this session coming up with the women’s 4x100m relay. Australia hot favourites…
Swimming: The line-up for the final of the men’s 100m breaststroke has just been decided. Team GB’s Adam Peaty will start as favourite after dominating the second semi-final and setting the fastest qualifying time. Compatriot James Wilby finished third in semi-final one to also make it into tomorrow’s medal race.
Adam Peaty qualifies for the Olympic 100m breaststroke final in 57.63 sec — more than a second quicker than his rivals. 11th quickest time in history. Peaty owns the other 10 of course. James Wilby also through as sixth fastest.
Wow! Bulgaria’s Antoaneta Kostadinova led throughout this final but things got nervy towards the end and the Russian shooter Vitalina Batsarashkina came through with the final effort to pinch gold and set a new Olympic record. Jiang Ranxin takes bronze for China.
Hockey:
FT | @Hockeyroos have defeated Spain 3-1 in their opening match of the tournament at a hot and Oi Stadium. Quality first up performance!
3 1 #AUSvESP #Tokyo2020 #TokyoTogether pic.twitter.com/x1QTEph1aL
Shooting: A medal will be awarded soon in the women’s 10m air pistol shooting. Bulgaria’s Antoaneta Kostadinova is in pole position.
Surfing: Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons has started her Olympic campaign brightly, posting the highest score of the round one heats so far.
Tennis: I don’t want to alarm any Australian readers, but Ash Barty is 1-4 down in the opening set against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Taekwondo:
Mixed morning for Iranian refugee athlete Kimia Alizadeh at the Taekwondo. On the one hand she beat her Iranian opponent in a hugely poignant collision of sport and politics. On the other she walked straight through the mixed zone
She will now fight Jade Jones in the next round in 90 minutes or so, quick turnaround
The host nation celebrate gold in the pool! The Japanese swimmer went out hard and led from the front throughout. Emma Weyant (USA) pushed hard towards the end to take silver, with teammate Hali Flickinger (USA) collecting bronze. The Iron Lady Hosszu camein fifth. Great Britain’s Aimee Willmott faded back in seventh.
Swimming: Apologies, I omitted to warn you of the women’s 400m IM final. It’s underway with Katinka Hosszu the centre of attention…
Hockey: It was 0-0 at half-time between Australia’s Hockeyroos and Spain, but there’s been a flurry of goals since with Australia now up 3-1 into the fourth quarter.
The news not so good for Team GB.
#TeamGB 1 – 2 Germany
Our women’s hockey title defence ends in a close defeat at the Oi Hockey Stadium pic.twitter.com/Yoku3XH6lm
Tennis: Ash Barty is on court in her opening match in the women’s singles. She’s up against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo, and this match has begun with consecutive service breaks.
Made it out of hotel quarantine. Let’s see what this Olympics thing is all about… pic.twitter.com/1QaafTSK4k
Swimming: We’ve got the men’s 100m breaststroke semis coming up, then the final medal event of this session in the pool, the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay. Australia are strong favourites in that one.
Swimming: Kieran Pender was poolside for the men’s 400m IM. The medal ceremony for that event is taking place as I type.
Related: Australian swimming team makes strong Tokyo 2020 start as Brendon Smith wins bronze
Thanks Bryan, what a few hours we have in store. I had to restart my router before this stint because it was overwhelmed by Olympic content, splashes of excess Olympics were sloshing all over the place like a poorly executed yard of ale.
There will be more medals on offer in the swimming, shooting, and skateboarding, as well as Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka and Andy Murray in the tennis, Simone Biles in the gymnastics, Jade Jones in the taekwondo, the start of the women’s road race… and, and… phew!
Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui has won his country’s fifth all-time gold medal in a major upset in the men’s 400m freestyle (out of lane eight!). Australia’s Jack McLoughlin took silver and Kieran Smith of the United States earned the bronze.
Massive shock in the men’s 400m freestyle as 18-year-old Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui wins from lane 8. Came into the event with a PB of 3:46.16 – yet went nearly 3 seconds quicker in the final. And only second Tunisian to ever make an Olympic final.
Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland have won gold and silver for the United States, respectively, in the men’s 400m individual medley. That’s the seventh time Team USA have gone 1-2 in the event overall and first since Michael Phelps and Erik Vendt at Athens 2004, which was Phelps’s first career gold.
“This is the last thing I wanted to accomplish in my swimming career,” the 27-year-old Kalisz says in the aftermath.
It’s Great Britain 1-1 Germany at half-time after an exceedingly long VAR decision awarded the Germans a penalty stroke shortly before the break, which Viktoria Huse calmly converted. More work ahead for the reigning Olympic hockey champions.
We’re just minutes away from the opening medal race in the pool, the men’s 400m individual medley. Despite the absence of a crowd, the organisers are currently putting on a light show for the accredited media and the handful of athletes, coaches and staff that are liberally-dispersed across the 15,000-seater Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Very thoughtful of them, and yet another reminder of the tragedy of these no-crowd Olympics. Sigh.
American swimmer Simone Manuel, the reigning Olympic champion and two-time defending world champion in the 100m freestyle, made history in Rio when she became the first African American woman to win an individual swimming gold medal, then backed it up with eight more titles at the 2017 and 2019 world championships.
So it was a massive surprise when she failed to qualify for her signature event at the US trials, an outcome she later attributed to overtraining syndrome and depression.
Great Britain have got off to a good start against Germany in the women’s hockey. Sarah Jones scores after 13 minutes from a penalty corner and it’s Great Britain 1-0 Germany.
13′ – 1-0
We’ve been on the front foot right from the off & we make it count
It’s a debut Olympic goal for @sarahjones8888 who turns home a corner
BBC iPlayer/Red Button & @discoveryplusUK
https://t.co/8A0RTWPvRp#GBRvGER #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/rHdda9LU3t
USA’s April Ross and Alix Klineman have a win under their belt after beating the Chinese pair in the beach volleyball in straight sets.
USA/Hawaii’s John John Florence who won back-to-back world titles in 2016 and 2017, has had a bit of a blip in the surfing. He finished third in his heat and does not progress automatically to round three (that’s reserved for the top two in the heat). He’ll now try his luck in the second round, where he will get another chance to progress.
Emotions are running hot in the #Surfing with @RealOwenWright taking the win in his first round heat in Tokyo. Let’s go Irukandjis. @SurfingAus #TokyoTogether pic.twitter.com/FObDKjEJBu
Results from heat three of the men’s surfing. Peru’s Lucca Mesinas and USA’s Kolohe Andino are through to round three after finishing first and second respectively. Rio Waida of Indonesia and Australia’s Julian Wilson will have to make do with the second round after finishing third and fourth.
Tom Dart is at the skateboarding for us and has sent a wee update:
Nosegrind, nollie, fakie and gnarly entered the Olympic vocabulary at the Ariake Urban Sports Park as skateboarding made its Games debut, with the American, Jagger Eaton, and the Frenchman, Vincent Milou, setting the initial scores to beat in the prelims in sweltering early-morning temperatures on the purpose-built course.
The temperature on the sand at the women’s beach volleyball is 45C/113F – and it’s only just past 9am. They’re watering the sand down during breaks in play but it’s going to get toasty as the day goes on. USA’s team of Ross and Klineman have just clinched the first set over China’s Xue and Wang 21-17.
Jagger Eaton goes into the lead after a superb last run in heat one. His total score of 35.07 would have got him in the top eight at the world championships and he will probably make the final today. A reminder that the best eight skaters from the four heats go into the final. The other finishers are France’s Vincent Milou (34.36), Canada’s Micky Papa (30.39), Brazil’s Felipe Gustavo (24.75) and Colombia’s Luis Jhancarlos Gonzalez Ortiz (23.57).
We are just over an hour away from the first medal races at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. The men’s 400m individual medley is up first – Australia’s Brendon Smith was an unexpected fastest qualifier last night in the heats, but he will face tough competition in lanes three and five from American Chase Kalisz, who won silver at the event in Rio, and Kiwi Lewis Clareburt.
The women’s 100m butterfly semi-finals will be enthralling – Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström, Australia’s Emma McKeon, the USA’s Torri Huske and China’s Yufei Zhang are all gold medal contenders.
USA’s Jagger Eaton pulls off a back 180 and it’s good enough for him to move into second place in his heat behind France’s Vincent Milou.
Some guy called Tony Hawk is co-commentating on the skateboarding. I guess he never made it on the big stage and had to fall back on TV work. France’s Vincent Milou nails a nice trick on the rail to take the lead – but remember it’s early days in heat one. Plenty more action to come – the top eight from the three heats go through to the final.
The skateboarding is now underway. Nyjah Huston is yet to skate but another American, Jagger Eaton, leads the pack so far.
The spectacularly talented Nyjah Huston is in action today and is favourite to become the first Olympic skateboarding champion. He’s had quite the journey to get here too. Multiple X Games titles? Check! Guest star slots alongside The Rock? Check! VERY nice clifftop mansion? Check! Waffle tattoos? Check! Growing up in a “mini cult”? CHECK! You can read more about Nyjah (and skateboarding’s debut) below:
Related: Nyjah Huston and skateboarding hit the Olympics – but is the sport selling out?
In case you missed it, South Korean TV coverage of the opening ceremony was NOT received well:
Related: Chernobyl for Ukraine, pizza for Italy: South Korean TV apologises for Olympic images
We have results in the surfing. Italo Ferreira of Brazil has won heat one and advances to round three along with Japan’s Hiroto Ohhara. Leonardo Fioravanti and Leandro Usuna of Italy and Argentina respectively came third and fourth and will duke it out in the second round. There was a Japanese win in heat two, where Kanoa Igarashi finished ahead of Miguel Tudela of Peru. Igarashi has some pedigree: he won the Corona Bali Protected Keramas 2019, beating Kelly Slater (yep, that one) along the way.
The surfing has started. There are medals on offer in archery, artistic gymnastics, road cycling, diving, fencing, judo, shooting, skateboarding, swimming, taekwondo and weightlifting.
All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Sydney, subtract eight hours for Manchester, thirteen hours for New York and seventeen hours for San Francisco. We’ll all get the hang of this eventually.
Hello and welcome to another day’s action from Tokyo*. China took an early lead in the medal table yesterday as the usual table-toppers the US – get this – failed to win a medal on day one of the Summer Games for the first time since 1972 (OK, they didn’t win one on day one in 1980 either but they weren’t there so that’s a good excuse).
Anyway, lots of great stuff coming up. Surfing makes it debut while the first ever Olympic skateboarding champion will be crowned early this afternoon (Japanese time). There are 18 gold medals in total up for grabs today and we’ll be here for all of them. Meanwhile you can check out today’s schedule, medal table and results below:
Related: Tokyo 2020 Olympics: live scores and complete event schedule
