- Sky Brown becomes GB’s youngest medallist with bronze
- Track designer reveals boost from surface as records fall
- Games schedule | Results | Medal table | Full coverage
- Email Geoff, tweet him or comment below the line
Third gold in two days for GB on the water. Britannia rules the waves? Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre win the women’s 470, making Mills the most decorated woman in Olympic sailing history… as long as she gets to keep the medal. The French have lodged a protest, and that will have to be heard by the race jury and will take some time.
As it stands – GB gold, France bronze.
What ho, hounds and foxes. Thanks Scott for the last five hours. I’m yours for the next five. Please do email me when I’ve drastically misunderstood the height of the sports climbing course / insulted the nation of your preoccupation / not had time to look up the UCI race regulations in sufficiently granular detail. We’ll get through this together.
I am not long for this liveblog. As I prepare to hand over to Geoff Lemon, Team GB’s Jack Carlin is showing the way in qualifying for the men’s sprint – with an Olympic record of 9.306 if you don’t mind – at the Izu Velodrome.
Big night of cycling, athletics and plenty more ahead. Thanks for your company. Let’s do it again tomorrow.
Apart from damaging their rooms – naughty, naughty, Australia, very naughty – it might not surprise you to know athletes are getting up to some other things in the Olympic village.
Once you’ve extricated your mind from the gutter, have a read of this yarn.
Related: Athletes go viral with TikTok videos providing a peek into life inside Olympic village
Australia are still searching for their first track cycling medal at Tokyo 2020 as the third day of action gets underway. The Australian men finished fourth in the team sprint on Tuesday, narrowly missing out on a bronze medal.
That loss came about following an unexpectedly slow final lap from former world champion Matthew Glaetzer – it has emerged today that the Australian is unwell (not Covid-related) and has been withdrawn from the individual sprint qualifying, which is currently taking place. That is a big blow for the Australia track team.
A couple of emails to get through. First up, here’s Jonathan Perry:
I’ve just walked from my house in Tokyo to my favourite cafe, and I’m pouring with sweat. Was going to ride my bike but the saddle was so hot threatened to burn a hole in an embarrassing part of my trousers.
According to the thermometer, it’s a cool 36.5 degrees. Frankly any athlete doing any kind of running around today deserves three or four gold medals, in my book. Many thanks for the coverage, doing a grand job of distracting me from work!
Diana Taurasi deserves special mention. She is going for her fifth Gold for the US women’s team. Kobe Bryant gave her the title White Mamba and just shy of age forty she is still one of the best basketball player in the world. Remarkable athlete.
Sports climbing. Tell me more, I hear you say.
Related: Sport climbing’s Olympics debut sends viewers scrambling for more
Women’s basketball: USA are through to the semi-finals after a clinical 79-55 win over Australia. The all-powerful Americans will now face Serbia for a place in the gold-medal match. As ever, they will be hard to beat as they stride on in pursuit of a seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal. Sends shivers down your spine just typing that.
Though the Opals will be disappointed, you can only do what you can do against a team head and shoulders above the rest. They are just too good. Breanna Stewart led all scorers with 23 points, going at 80% from the floor, while Leilani Mitchell chimed in with 14 points for Australia.
All Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan had to do in today’s medal race to win gold was not get disqualified – but for good measure they won that, too, putting some sweet icing on an already tasty cake. The Australians dominated this 470 event, winning gold from Sweden and Spain, and went one better than five years ago in Rio when Belcher and Ryan claimed silver.
It is Australia’s 15th gold medal at Tokyo 2020 and Belcher’s second after he teamed with Malcolm Page to win in London.
Women’s basketball: USA are putting Australia to the sword in this quarter-final match, leading 68-39 at three-quarter-time and marching inexorably towards a semi-final meeting with Serbia. Breanna Stewart has 23 points and Brittney Griner can seemingly not miss but the champs could, and are, just tossing it around. They just have too much quality for the Opals.
Fancy a recap of today’s notable events? Good, I’d hoped you would say yes.
.@GoSydGo‘s game face – she was ready to go ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/rnAV4ZnkOS
Some cycling news:
Update from Izu Velodrome: Matthew Glaetzer will not ride the Men’s Sprint as he is unwell. Matthew Richardson will now ride for @AusCyclingAus @NathanHart4 remains the other rider.
Wishing @MatthewGlaetzer a speedy recovery! #TrackCycling #TokyoTogether pic.twitter.com/mLa0Ia3ckI
Women’s basketball: it’s half-time and Australia have it all to do in their quarter-final against USA, trailing the defending, defending, defending etc champs 48-27. The winner of this encounter will advanced to a semi-final meeting with Serbia, who earlier today accounted for China 77-70.
Canoe sprint: plenty of qualifying action at the Sea Forest Waterway today but huge pats on the back to Australia’s Thomas Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen, who knocked off the mighty Germans in an Olympic-best time of 3:08.773 in a heat of the men’s K2 1000m.
It’s that time when readers in Britain are awaking, so let’s have a quick recap of what they might have missed while in the land of nod:
Women’s golf: just dipping away from the basketball court for a moment. In the first round of the individual stroke play event, India’s Aditi Ashok and Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom are sitting atop the leaderboard at five under. Both women are just a hole or two from completion. The best score in the bank goes to USA’s Nelly Korda, who carded a four-under 67 earlier in the day.
Australia’s Minjee Lee is the best-placed Australian at one under through 14 while Team GB’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff is one over after 17 holes.
Smith and Chelsea Gray have hit the deck and the tension builds The Opals returned from quarter-time with renewed intent and discovered some momentum after what was a below-par first term indeed. But the USA are turning the screw again and pouncing on too many turnovers.
The first quarter has finished 26-12 in the USA’s favour. A couple of late and sorely needed baskets for the Aussies courtesy of Alanna Smith and Leilani Mitchell shaves the deficit slightly but American star Breanna Stewart is asking a lot of questions the Opals aren’t adequately answering. Australia forward Cayla George is also on the bench with two fouls.
The USA aren’t used to losing at the Olympics. In fact, they haven’t lost once since Barcelona 1992. Do the maths.
If you aren’t watching the basketball now is probably a good time to tune in. The USA have rushed to a 15-point lead over Australia early in their women’s quarter-final and the Americans are moving at a pace their counterparts are struggling to keep up with.
In case you missed it earlier – it happened so early that most people would have – Australia’s Kareena Lee did a sterling job to grab bronze in the women’s 10km marathon swim.
Here’s a nice read by Tom Dart on this unique event.
Related: Water like hot soup and 3.45am alarms: just another day for the marathon swimmers
Congratulations to Sky Brown, now Team GB’s youngest ever Olympic medalist. It might not have been the colour she wanted but the two Japanese girls in front of her were all class. It was a hot event.
Sky Brown, #GBR‘s youngest ever Summer Olympian, wins bronze at her debut Olympic Games!
She places third after an exciting final in the inaugural Olympic #Skateboarding park competition.@worldskatesb @TeamGB @skyandocean_ pic.twitter.com/PEb8NMW1Ou
An incredible performance from Sakura Yosozumi (60.09) to take gold with her first run in the final, winning from Kokona Hiraki (59.04) in a stunning 1-2 for Japan.
A big final run from Team GB’s Sky Brown (56.47) to jump from fourth spot and take the bronze medal, relegating Misugu Okamoto and in the process denying Japan an amazing clean sweep in this event.
As Sean Ingle points out below, today’s women’s 400m hurdles final was probably the greatest Olympic track and field race since, well, yesterday.
Related: The greatest race ever part II: Sydney McLaughlin wins 400m hurdles gold in world record time
Women’s park skateboarding final: Australia’s Poppy Olsen improved on her first run, scoring 46.04 second time around, but it’s not enough to move in to medal contention.
Olsen presently sits in fifth position behind Japanese trio Sakura Yosozumi (60.09), Kokona Hiraki (59.04) and top qualifier Misugu Okamoto (53.58), and Team GB’s Sky Brown, who came down nearing the end of her second run and is in fourth position after her first run of 47.53.
Women’s park skateboarding final: each of the eight competitors have had their first of three runs … but it hasn’t gone to plan just yet for Team GB’s Sky Brown, who came down at one point but still scored 47.53 to sit in bronze medal position.
The Japanese have a very strong hand in the decider at Ariake Park, and Sakura Yosozumi (60.09) is leading the way from Kokona Hiraki (58.05). The first run of Australia’s Poppy Olsen wasn’t her best effort, scoring 35.20, but there are two runs to go. USA’s Bryce Wettstein is currently sitting in fourth spot.
These #skateboarding outfits are pic.twitter.com/wzDUH2Jb0n
Men’s decathlon: Canadian Damian Warner is showing the way at the completion of the shot put leg. Warner (2,966 points) leads the way from countryman Pierce Lepage (2,773) and Australian Ashley Moloney (2,741). Reigning world champion and world record holder, Kevin Mayer, is breathing down the necks of the leaders in fourth, just in front of USA’s Garrett Scantling. Australia’s Cedric Dubler has work to do way down in 17th place.
Women’s hockey semi-finals: the Netherlands, quite likely still smarting from their defeat to Team GB in the gold medal match in Rio, were resounding 5-1 winners over the Brits to progress to the Tokyo 2020 decider.
More here from Stephen McMillan.
Related: Britain’s reign as Olympic hockey champions ends in brutal loss to Netherlands
A hearty hello to Alexandra Fullerton:
Hi Scott, I cannot begin to tell you the excitement at seeing Sergey Bubka handing out flowers and medals! So so wonderful to see him, its brought a tear to the eye!
Women’s hockey: the Netherlands are putting on a masterclass at Oi Hockey Stadium, leading Team GB 5-1 in the shadows of the fourth quarter of their semi-final. More to come on this.
Women’s park skateboarding: a big final run in the final heat from Japan’s Misugu Okamoto (58.51) to take the top qualifying spot from Team GB’s Sky Brown (57.40).
Japan occupied three of the top four spots, with Kokona Hiraki, who at 12 years of age is a babe in arms compared to 13-year-old Brown, and Sakura Yosozumi filling the next two spots.
It’s a 1-2 for the USA with Sydney McLaughlin outsprinting Dalilah Muhammad in the run to the line in a world record 51.46 – bettering her own mark of 51.90 set in June.
Muhammad, the Rio gold medalist, ran a PB 51.58 and was excellent over the jumps, but could not match the flat speed of the winner. Young Dutch hurdler, Femke Bol, ran out of her skin to claim bronze in an AR 52.03 and will be one to watch in the future. Disappointment for USA’s Anna Cockrell, who was disqualified for lane violation.
Men’s 110m hurdles: easy does it for USA’s Grant Holloway, who is untroubled to win his semi-final in a time of 13.13 from Jamaican Hansle Parchment. One of the fastest men over over the sprint sticks, Holloway went quicker than anyone in the semis and will be awfully hard to beat in the final.
And I take it all back regarding Team GB’s Andrew Pozzi, who has indeed qualified for the final despite finishing fourth in the first semi. Obviously, both “lucky losers” came from that heat, with third placegetter, Spaniard Asier Martinez, also through to the final.
Women’s park skateboarding: Japan’s Misugu Okamoto is the big mover in the fourth heat, scoring 54.31 with her first run to move into second place behind qualifying leader Sky Brown of Team GB. Behind Brown, Japan now occupy three spots in the top four.
Australia’s Poppy Olsen scored 44.03 with her first run to leap into sixth place – at present that is good enough to progress to the final – but she was unable to better that with her second run, coming down at one stage to register a score of 38.04.
Men’s 110m hurdles: Jamaica’s Ronald Levy has won the first semi-final in a time of 13.23, with Pascal Martinot-Lagarde of France running second and also automatically through to the final. Team GB’s Andrew Pozzi finished fourth in 13.32 and likely won’t be running in the final with only the two fastest “losers” from the three heats progressing.
The second semi was taken out by USA’s Devon Allen in a time of 13.18. France’s Aurel Manga ran second. The third semi is to come, featuring gold medal fancy Grant Holloway of the USA.
Men’s decathlon – long jump: a new Olympic decathlon record has been set by Canadian Damian Warner, who jumped a mammoth 8.24m to rack up a very handy 1,123 points. Australians Ashley Moloney (7.64m) and Cedric Dubler (7.36m) also showed up prominently in Group B, where USA’s Garrett Scantling jumped 7.30m to finish in seventh.
In Group A, another Canadian, Pierce Lepage, was the leading jumper with an effort of 7.65m. The top seven in that group all recorded seasonal-best leaps.
Here’s the latest on the mysterious case of Belarusian sprinter, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya.
Related: Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya due to leave Tokyo for Poland
Women’s park skateboarding: Team GB’s Sky Brown takes it nice and easy on her third run, boarding well within herself to finish with a run of 40.03. The tricks stayed in the bag on that run but as well they might have. The 13-year-old is the leading qualifier with a score of 57.40 but to underline her brilliance, that third run alone would have put her into sixth place and in with a shot of qualifying for the final. And she wasn’t even trying.
I feel old and envious.
Skateboarding sensation Sky Brown could not stop smiling ahead of the Olympic debut of her sport and is having the time of her life, as she calls it, “skating with friends”. #StrongerTogether #Skateboarding@skyandocean_ | @TeamGB | @worldskatesb
Women’s park skateboarding: Team GB’s Sky Brown has got some game. That was some run from the 13-year-old, whose score of 55.26 at Ariake Park with her first go in the third heat has rocketed her into first place. So effortless, so stylish. It’s almost a surprise to see the board become detached from her feet once she’s done. And then she betters that with a score of 57.40 with her second run!
Japanese duo Kokona Hiraki, who at 12 years of age is a babe in arms compared to Brown, and Sakura Yosozumi round out the top three qualifiers. Brazilian Yndiara Asp, competing in the same heat as Brown, moved into fourth with a score of 43.23 in her first run.
To be fair, officials did ask all the horses competing at the Games if they wanted the statue removed or at least covered with sheet or seven. But all of them just said: “Neigh.”
horses on the equestrian course are getting scared by a statue of a sumo wrestler and his huge ass pic.twitter.com/JpTcWwra3d
Women’s park skateboarding: heat No 2 at Ariake Park is done and dusted and Japan’s Kokona Hiraki, a veteran of 12 years of existence – meaning she was born in 2008!!!!! – has moved into the overall lead with a big score of 52.46.
Hiraki is almost seven points clear of countrywoman (countrygirl?) Sakura Yosozumi in second place. Notable movers and shakers from the second heat were USA pair Jordyn Barratt and Brighton Zeuner, both of whom have moved into the all-important top eight.
Related: From Newcastle to Tokyo: skateboarder Poppy Starr Olsen set for 2020 Olympics
Women’s heptathlon: Well, there’s a pleasant surprise to British eyes. Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who ruptured her hamstring in December and has only just started her comeback, runs 13.27 sec in the opening event of the heptathlon.
That’s her second fastest ever, only behind her run in Doha in 2019 when she won the world championships so no wonder she is smiling afterwards. That scores her 1084 points. Meanwhile Nafi Thiam, the big favourite, runs 13:54 to score 1044 but this isn’t one of her strongest events.
Thanks Tom. Onto day 12 we go. The Olympics is like a Groundhog Day of clusterfun, a wall-to-wall array of sports that we can treat more or less like a lolly shop. Or a sweets shop, depending on your locale. How good is it (note the absence of question mark). Before we carry on with the day’s events, a quick word on Australia’s men’s basketballers – speaking as a basketball fan as much as an Aussie, that last quarter against Argentina last night was as close to sporting eroticism as it gets. Dead set counting the seconds to tomorrow’s semi-final against the Americans.
Related: Boomers beat Argentina to set up Olympic basketball clash with USA
And that’s it from me for the day. Enjoy the rest of the action. Scott Heinrich will be your host next.
It’s always interesting to think about what sports could be next to make it to the Olympics. But Wales, Argentina, NZ, Argentina and Australia will be rubbing their shears at this one. Sheep shearing for Brisbane 2032 anyone?
Considering it has a population of 1.3bn, India has not had a huge amount of Olympic success. It’s won nine gold medals in Games history, the last one coming in 2008 in shooting. But we have a contender in the men’s javelin: Neeraj Chopra. The Asian and Commonwealth Games champion put in a huge throw of 86.65 to qualify for the final. Lassi Etelätalo of Finland was the only other man from Group A of qualifying to guarantee his place in the final. USA’s Michael Shuey fouled on all three of his attempts.
Given Australia’s historic success in the Olympic swimming pool, the nation’s lack of a medal in the marathon swimming was an anomaly. Since the 10km discipline was introduced at the 2008 Olympics, not a single Australian has finished on the podium in the open water event.
But after Australia’s best-ever medal haul at an Olympic swim meet last week, Kareena Lee continued her nation’s success in the water with a bronze medal in the marathon swim on Wednesday. It was a remarkable swim by Lee, moving up through the field in a gritty effort in the latter stages to finish on the podium.
With a finishing time of 1:59:32 at the Odaiba Marine Park, Lee was barely two seconds off the winner, Ana Marcela Cunha.
Women’s park skateboarding: To the skate park! The first heat is done and Japan’s Yosozumi Sakura won with a score of 45.98, followed by Brazil’s Dora Varella (41.59) and Germany’s Lilly Stoephasius (38.37). There are four heats with five skaters in each heat. The top eight overall scores go through to the final – so you could win your heat and still not get to the final. Britain’s Bombette Martin (16.21) finished fourth and is unlikely to progress with 15 more skaters to come.
GB’s big hope, 13-year-old Sky Brown will compete in heat three. Here’s more on her story:
Related: Sky Brown ready to wow the world as 13-year-old skateboarder makes Olympic bow
Men’s decathlon 100m: Spain’s Jorge Ureña wins heat two in 10.66, the fastest time of the day so far. Norway’s Martin Roe is second and Australia’s Cedric Dubler is third in 10.89, the fifth best time of the day so far. In heat three, Canada’s Damian Warner sets a lightning fast time of 10.12 – that equals the best-ever 100m in the decathlon, which was set in 2019 by … Damian Warner. Australia’s Ashley Moloney also has a good run with 10.34. After the first heat, it’s Warner in first place, Ashley Moloney is second and another Canadian, Pierce Lepage, in third. But it’s very early days. Obviously. About 10% done by my estimation.
The men’s decathlon has started with the 100m. The 2016 silver medalist, reigning world champion and world record holder (yeah, but what’s he ever done with his life?) Kevin Mayer goes in the first heat. The Frenchman finishes second behind Grenada’s Lindon Victor. Mayer’s time of 10.68 is short of his personal best of 10.55 but it’s a solid start.
And now we’ve looked at the Aussie chances, here’s where Team USA can go big today.
10.30pm EDT: women’s 400m hurdles final
It’s that time of day where we look at Australian chances over the 15 hours or so. Peter Bol and Genevieve Gregson go for gold in the men’s 800m and women’s steeplchase finals, while Mat Belcher and Will Ryan are poised for sailing glory and the Opals play the US in a basketball quarter-final.
For the full rundown click here:
Related: Australia at the Olympics on Wednesday: day 12 schedule of who and when to watch in Tokyo today
Ivor Leonard writes in with a good question: “Having watched the 1500m swim and how close the swimmers are after swimming for what seemed forever,” he says. “I can’t believe that after a 10k swim taking nearly two hours the winner won by only 0.9 seconds. Surely in percentage terms (0.0125% I think) this is the closest finish of any sport. In some of the pool events the winner was further ahead! Hopefully someone out there can confirm!
Well, the golf takes four days, and Xander Schauffele only won the men’s tournament by one stroke. Which takes around a second. But maybe that doesn’t count.
Women’s golf: Very early days here. The first round has just started and only a few of the athletes are out on the course. Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines is -2 after three holes, Ko Jin Young of South Korea is -1 and everyone else who is out is on par. But the majority of the field are in the clubhouse.
Women’s marathon swim: The end is amusingly confusing as most of the athletes have white caps. Only the Aussie Lee is easy to pick out in her yellow cap. And she touches home for bronze! Brazil’s Cunha sprints home for gold and the Netherlands’ Van Rouwendaal gets silver.
Women’s marathon swim: Cunha tries to break from the pack in the closing stages but Lee, Beck and Van Rouwendaal have her in their sights…
Women’s marathon swim: The final turn and 500m to go. Cunha of Brazil leads then Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands, Germany’s Beck and Australia’s Lee. It’s very close though.
Women’s marathon swim: Brazil’s Cunha has the lead with 650m to go. But only just…
Women’s marathon swim: The group of eight – who sounds like a spy ring – soldier on to the finish. They are Leonie Beck of Germany, Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha, USA’s Ashley Twichell and Haley Anderson, China’s Xin Xin, Australia’s Kareena Lee, Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal and Hungary’s Anna Olasz. All have a chance with five minutes or so to go.
Women’s marathon swim: About 10 minutes to go in the race, which is more than most of have ever done the front crawl without stopping. These women though? They laugh at your 15 minutes of front crawl [NB: other strokes are available]. By my estimation any of nine swimmers could take the gold, they’re all bunched up as we reach the final lap, including USA Haley Anderson and Ashley Twichell, and Australia’s Kareena Lee. GB’s Alice Dearing is too far back to threaten the leaders though. Germany’s Leonie Beck leads by two seconds.
Hello. A few early starts today at the women’s marathon swim (does the water get hot later on in the day?) and the start of the women’s golf tournament – they’re out and about already. As for the rest of the day? Here’s Martin Belam with a rundown of the upcoming action.
Day 12 at a glance
