RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – This is goodbye for Michael Phelps. The ending to the saga will be written Sunday night at Olympic Stadium in one of the most anticipated races of all time. The 2000 Olympic 100m champion broke the 100m world record in 1999, becoming the first man to cover the distance in less than 9.8 seconds.
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The Olympic spotlight will now switch to the final swimming battles where Phelps is expected to go out with a 23rd gold medal, in the 4×100 medley relay. Puig is ranked 34th and is the first unseeded women’s singles gold medalist since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.
Seeded second, Kerber won the Australian Open in January and was the runner-up at Wimbledon last month. Then, as now, Bolt arrived having had a season disrupted by injury and had been outshone by his chief rival Gatlin both during the season and in the preliminary rounds at the championship itself.
There were 22 golds at stake on a sun-splashed Day 8 of the Rio Games in 13 sports, including fencing, track cycling, boxing, shooting, trampoline and weightlifting. “I just wanted to make this meet count”. “She does swimming, not track and field”, Gatlin snapped.
“The only thing that’s on my mind right now is the final this evening because that’s the team that’s going to be walking away with the (gold) medal”. Schooling, who was inspired to become a top-level swimmer by a meeting with Phelps as a 13-year-old, set an Olympic record of 50.38sec. Though earlier in the week he conceded he wished he’d had more real races under his belt this year, on Saturday he said he’s in good form.
Golf: Men’s final round (6:30 a.m., Golf Channel) – Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson are among those near the top of the leaderboard ahead of the final round of the first Olympic golf tournament since 1904.
Bolt, the ultimate showman, packed the stadium, and the crowd roared during his warmup when he applauded them. He was slow out of the blocks but once his tall majestic frame reached full flow, there was no stopping him.
Bolt, 29, began with a sluggish start but picked up later in the race to win it but looked in discomfort after the run. The water at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center has been green-tinged and murky for five days. So, they’re draining the larger pool to transfer almost 1 million gallons from a nearby practice pool.
“They’re running with their heart, they’re trying for the finish line and going for that podium”. Britain won seven of 10 gold medals possible in London in 2012.
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Athletics world body, the IAAF, meanwhile, banned long jumper Darya Klishina, Russia’s only athlete allowed to take part in the Rio Olympics, the Court of Arbitration said Saturday.
