Tokyo 2020 Olympics: more swimming gold for Australia, athletics blasts off and more – live!

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: more swimming gold for Australia, athletics blasts off and more – live!

1 McKeon (AUS) – 51.96 (OR)
2 Haughey (HKG)
3 C Campbell (AUS)

Eight Olympics medals now for McKeon and her first individual gold in Tokyo. An Olympic record to boot. Star. Led all the way.

And they’re off. McKeon in the lead straight away. Haughey in second and Cate Campbell in bronze position at the turn.

Women’s 100m freestyle final: Emma McKeon is looking to add to Australia’s gold medal haul. After smashing the Olympic record in the preliminary heats with a personal best of 52.13, McKeon starts in lane four in pursuit of her fourth medal of the Games. Hong Kong’s 200m freestyle silver medallist Siobhan Haughey could be McKeon’s closest challenger, followed by Australia’s triple Olympic relay gold medallist, Cate Campbell. The field also features Canada’s defending Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak, Sweden’s world record holder Sarah Sjostrom and 2016 medley relay gold medallist Abbey Weitzeil of the United States.

Not long now…

1 Rylov (ROC) – 1:53.27 (OR)
2 Murphy (USA)
3 Greenbank (GBR)

Murphy came hard in the final 25m but Rylov pulled out enough to secure the double.

Rylov is 0.72 ahead of Murphy at the 150m. The Russian in front. Murphy is coming.

Murphy is going for a fourth Olympics gold here and he is amongst the leaders at the first turn. Rylov showing up in the lead.

Men’s 200m backstroke final: Ryan Murphy, who took gold in both the 100m and 200m backstroke events in Rio, finished with the third fastest time in the semi-finals on Thursday, and he’s a strong medal contended in a race where Russia’s Evgeny Rylov is favoured. Murphy won bronze in the 100m event, where he holds both the world and Olympic records, finishing .21 seconds behind Rylov.

Here we go.

Upcoming medal events in the pool:

1 Schoenmaker (RSA) – 2:18.95 (WR)
2 King (USA)
3 Lazor (USA)

First woman ever under 2:19. What a swim.

But here comes Schoenmaker. She takes over from King at the 150m and is asserting.

Women’s 200m breaststroke final: this is all about Tatjana Schoenmaker, who starts well but is trailing USA’s Lilly King at the halfway mark.

Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final 2: Dressel dominates, not in world record time but the American obliterates Milak’s semi-final winning time of 50.31 to clock in with a blistering 49.71 ahead of Noe Ponti (SUI) and Jakub Majerski (POL). Milak held the Olympic record for all of three minutes. The USA’s Tom Shields touched home in last place.

Australia’s Matthew Temple qualifies for the final sixth fastest.

Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final 2: Dressel starts well in lane four and touches the wall first. Korstanje in second but this is all about Dressel. World record in the offing?

Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final 1: Hungarian Kristof Milak has taken the first semi in an Olympic record 50.31. Josif Miladinov, Andrei Minakjov and Australia’s Matthew Temple followed him home. Great swim from the 200m butterfly gold medalist but up next is the dominant American, Caeleb Dressel.

Hello all. Thanks Tom. We are now in the sweet spot of the Olympics where athletics and swimming cross. And while there is understandably much excitement at the commencement of action at the National Stadium, for the next hour or so we will be concentrating on events at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, where four medal events – the women’s 200m breaststroke, men’s 200m backstroke, women’s 100m freestyle and men’s 200m IM – will be bookended by semi-finals in the men’s 100m butterfly and women’s 200m backstroke.

Without further ado…

With the rowing over, I’ll hand the reins to Scott Heinrich. Bye!

GB cut into NZ’s lead but the Kiwis continue their superb regatta with their third gold – the best nation of the Games. GB get bronze and Germany silver. The US are fourth and Australia sixth.

The Kiwis are powering through now and have a 1.31 second lead over GB in second. Germany are in bronze with 500m to go.

Halfway and NZ pick up the pace and move into first place past GB and Germany. But it’s still anyone’s race.

At 500m it’s Germany, GB and NZ but it’s pretty close. Even Australia back in sixth are not out of this one.

The final event of the rowing regatta now (see you on a nice lake in France in three years). It’s the men’s eight. USA, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain and Australia are ready to start.

Away from the Olympics, the NBA draft has taken place. The Detroit Pistons picked Cade Cunningham with the No 1 overall pick. Our Australian readers may be interested in the No 6 overall pick: Josh Giddey from Melbourne. He was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder. The full report is below:

Related: Detroit Pistons tab Cade Cunningham with No 1 overall pick in NBA draft

China move up on the Kiwis in second as Canada maintain their big lead. But NZ fight back and get back into silver as Canada win their first gold in the women’s eight since 1992. New Zealand are second and China third. The longtime champs of the US boat are well out of the medals. Australia finish fifth.

500m to go and Canada are stretching out their lead with NZ in silver, China third and Australia in fourth.

USA have a great history in this event. It’s Canada, Australia and NZ in first, second and third through 500m but every crew is still in it.

And now the women’s rowing eight. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA, Romania and China are your crews. This is the big stuff!

The men’s steeplechase is taking place. Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia and Abraham Kibiwott of Kenya won the first two heats. USA’s Mason Ferlic and Benard Keter; GB’s Zak Seddon and Phil Norman; and Australia’s Edward Trippas all missed out on automatic qualification for the next round (which is also the final).

France are through as Group B winners in the women’s sevens. They saw off Canada in a 75% Francophone battle.

A thrilling finish with three rowers all in a shout for gold in the last 500m. But it’s Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos who pulls clear in the final stages. Norway’s Kjetil Borch gets second and Croatia’s Damir Martin is third. That’s Greece’s first-ever rowing gold.

We’ve had the women’s single sculls final so logic dictates we now have the men’s. Mindaugas Griskonis of Lithuania, Croatia’s Damir Martin, Norway’s Kjetil Borch, Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos, Sverri Nielsen of Denmark and ROC’s Alexander Vyazovkin are your gladiators. Water gladiators. With no swords. Or those trident and net things.

New Zealand’s Emma Twigg has too big a lead in the closing stages for ROC’s Prakatsen to catch her. Austria’s Logbnig wins bronze just ahead of GB’s Thornley.

500m to go and Twigg still has the lead – and it’s a big one. Prakatsen is second and is a fast finisher. Twigg’s lead is 2.5sec. Lobnig is third.

At the halfway point it’s still NZ’s Twigg with a healthy lead over Austria’s Lobnig and then Jiang Yan of China. The TV commentary team tell me Twigg has a tendency to fade late. GB’s Thornley looks well out of the medals.

It’s an experienced field: Hanna Prakhatsen is the only woman under 30 in the race. Twigg of New Zealand gets out to a quick start along with Lobnig of Austria. Twigg leads at 500m followed by Lobnig and Gmelin of Switzerland.

We have a medal race coming up in the rowing. It’s the women’s single sculls and your start list is:

1) Jiang Yan (China)

Fiji need a win against Brazil to make it the quarter-finals of the women’s rugby sevens (the men’s team won gold a few days back). And it’s safe to say they’re going to make it: they’re 41-5 up with a a minute or so left.

The final heat of the women’s 100m preliminaries. Antigua’s Joella Lloyd wins in 11.55sec , followed by Malawi’s Asimenye Simwaka and Indonesia’s Alvin Tehupeiory. Malta’s Carla Scicluna creeps in to the next round as the fastest loser by 0.01 seconds. Phew. The first round proper is in a few hours.

I’m at the pool for the third-last day of swimming competition at Tokyo 2020. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was beginning to feel a little like groundhog day: hotel – pool – hotel – repeat. But we’ve had excitement at every turn – dominant winners, unexpected medallists and the odd controversy along the way. So no complaints from me.

This morning we have four gold medals on offer, and the highlight, at least from an Australian perspective, will be the blue riband women’s 100m freestyle. Emma McKeon broke the Olympic record in qualifying and Cate Campbell will swim next to her in lane three. But over such a short distance, anything can happen – Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey has had a good meet, while Canada’s Penny Oleksiak is looking strong. A must-watch.

And the athletics has started. The first event is the women’s 100m preliminary round. The big guns will not compete in this round – they come in in the next round. Three from each heat in this preliminary round go to the first-round proper. Natacha Ngoye of Congo, Maggie Barrie of Sierra Leone and Amya Clarke of St Kitts and Nevis all make it through to the next round. The winning time was 11.47 seconds.

You may have noticed there’s not much live sport here at the moment. And that’s because there’s not much going on before the start of the athletics in around 10 minutes. But we do have some results! Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Yakovlev has just won the D final in the men’s single sculls, he beat Zimbabwe’s Peter Purcell-Gilpin by 0.48 seconds.

In men’s golf, Chile’s Guillermo Pereira is off to a hot start and is three under for the round after six holes. That’s moved him up to fifth overall. Second placed Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand is the only one of the first-round leaders in action at the moment. He’s on par through four holes and is still in second place.

Dina Asher-Smith will start her campaign today. The sprinter is attempting to do what no British woman has done before: win Olympic gold over 100m or 200m. Here’s Sean Ingle on an extraordinary athlete:

When Dina Asher-Smith ran her first cross-country race in primary school she hated it so much she nearly stopped – only for her parents to bribe her with an ice cream to keep going. It worked – and then some. Asher-Smith ended up sprinting through the field to finish fifth out of 400 and a glittering athletics career was born.

Related: After Doha double, Dina Asher-Smith has Olympic history in her sights | Sean Ingle

A big day for Australia at the Olympics. Going for gold in the pool are Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell, while the Matildas seek a place in the women’s football semi-finals and the track and field competition begins. For a full rundown of Aussies in action try our handy guide:

Related: Australia at the Olympics on Friday: day 7 schedule of who and when to watch in Tokyo today

I, for one, am very excited about the early heats of the athletics. The worst runners at the Olympics are waaaaay faster than you (unless Usain Bolt is an unexpected fan of the Guardian’s liveblog). And when you see them in the early heats? They are crushed by the top sprinters. So what would those athletes do to you, mortal? It reminds me of this clip of members of the public confidently predicting they could beat NFL players in a 40-yard dash. With predictable results:

The golfers are the first out for the day, enjoying a casual round at the Kasumigaseki Country Club. A reminder of the leaders after round one – and they’re not exactly giants of the game. Sepp Straka of Austria leads at -8; Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond is-7, while Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz are -6.

Hello! The athletics/track and field starts today as the end of the swimming looms into view (it’s not over just yet though). Here is my colleague Martin Belam with what’s hot and what’s also hot today at the Games:

All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Sydney, subtract eight hours for Glasgow, 13 hours for New York and 16 hours for San Francisco. Confused? Surely not by now.

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