Tokyo Olympics LIVE updates McKeons medal quest Browning into 100m semis at the track Wearns lap for gold
1 of 3
Caeleb Dressel starts in front, ends in front.
It’s been a huge week for Caeleb Dressel.Credit:Getty Images
A familiar story and another gold for the freakish American as he takes on the 50m freestyle in a new Olympic record of 21.07s.
The heir to the throne of Phelps has not disappointed at his second Olympic Games, this a third individual gold to add to his 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly titles.
A huge first run from Natalya Diehm, who scored 86 in her first hit out at the BMX freestyle at Ariake Park.
The 23-year-old pulled off a backflip and a 360 in a fearless run.
Natalya Diehm is a strong chance of finishing on the podium after a brilliant first run.Credit:Getty
She did it all to Blue [Da Ba Dee], somehow making that 90s French banger from Eiffel 65 even cooler.
Halfway through run one of two she is on top of the leaderboard and an excellent medal chance.
Final day of what has been a wondrous meet in the Olympic pool and history beckons for Australia and Emma McKeon.
She swims for gold in the 50m freestyle and will swim the butterfly leg in the medley relay.
Emma McKeon celebrates Olympic gold.Credit:Getty
If she wins a medal in both, she will equal the record for the most decorated female athlete at a single Games in Olympic history (7), tied with Russian gymnast Russian gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya (1952). She can certainly win the 50m but it’s always a bit of a lottery.
And the Australian women can win that medley if Chelsea Hodges fires in the breaststroke leg.
They are certainly on a roll. The Australian men would be pretty happy with a medal in their medley final, I think, as well.
Another day, another Tokyo scorcher and another Australian shot at Olympic gold.
We are down here at Ariake for the finals of the BMX freestyle event. It has just gone past 10am Tokyo time and it’s already 32 degrees.
Logan Martin.Credit:Getty
Australia has two medal hopefuls in today’s event. Logan Martin and Natalya Diehm.
Diehm is up in less than 10 minutes. The Queenslander is an outside medal chance after finishing in the top six at the 2019 Urban World Championships in China.
Logan Martin, who will start his run after 12.20 AEST, is the gold medal favourite.
The 27-year-old landed in Tokyo after taking out the 2021 UCI World Championship in France.
Read Adam Pengilly’s piece about Martin here.
I’ve just arrived at Tokyo Stadium. It’s 9.45am and the track-side thermometer screen says it’s 37 degrees.
It doesn’t lie. It was reading 34 degrees at 8.30am. It’s stinking hot in here.
Rohan Browning, left, of Australia, leads the field in his heat of the men’s 100-meters at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 31, 2021, in Tokyo.Credit:AP
Thankfully for Australia’s latest track star Rohan Browning, conditions should be much milder by the time he runs in his 100m semi-final.
The semi-finals are at 8.15pm AEST.
If you’re an Olympic debutant in eventing, cross-country is the event you’re nervous about.
Travelling at 600 metres per minute your horse can trip over, or stop at a fence, and before you know it you are face down in the water while your horse gallops off to the finish line.
Kevin McNab’s ride put Australia into second.Credit:AP
Not for Aussie Kevin McNab, who is competing at his first Olympics and had a picture-perfect round to make most riders envious.
Jumping over the bullet train logs, the second last fence on course, you could see the relief on McNab’s face, his time of 7:52 meant he incurred 2.8 penalty points, putting Team Australia into second place, with their third rider Andrew Hoy left to go.
For some, the pressure was too much. Sweden’s Therese Viklund took a tumble mid-course. A fall of rider is automatic elimination and means the Swedish team incurs 200 penalties points, making it almost impossible for them to finish on the podium after tomorrow’s show jumping round.
If you weren’t planning to tune into the women’s relay events later this week; reconsider.
Yesterday, Jamaica managed an incredible clean sweep of the women’s 100m, but the big talking point was the icy reception given to gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah.
Thompson-Herah ran the fastest time in Games history with a 10.61.
There’s no love lost between the Jamaican sprinters.Credit:Getty
But not everyone was overjoyed by the achievement, with Jamaican counterparts Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson failing to mask their disappointment.
The pair went over to Thompson-Herah and gave her a gentle tap on the back before walking away.
“I think it’s pretty obvious [there’s tension],†Aussie athletics great Tamsyn Manou said on Seven’s broadcast.
“Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce left their coach after she won a gold medal at the world champs. She wanted to be in a different training group for a reason.“
It will be very interesting to see how they all work together for the relay - which starts on Thursday.
Before the Tokyo Games, the dynamic between Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus was portrayed as distant, icy even, as they carefully circled each other from afar before their inevitable confrontation in the Olympic waters.
Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky after their 400m freestyle final.Credit:Getty Images
Through the American lens, Titmus’ overt reverence for Ledecky was decoded as a clumsy tactic to decrease the pressure bearing down on a nervous Olympic rookie. From the Australian perspective, Ledecky’s tendency to sparsely acknowledge Titmus was construed to be dismissive, bordering on disparaging.
Now we know better, because we have come to know both of them better over the past week.
Read more here.
1 of 3
0 Response to "Tokyo Olympics LIVE updates McKeons medal quest Browning into 100m semis at the track Wearns lap for gold"
Post a Comment