Denmark’s Pernille Blume beat a field of world and Olympic champions to take gold in the women’s 50 freestyle and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri won the men’s 1,500 freestyle after dominating nearly from the start. Simone Manuel is in the women’s 50 free finals and likely for the women’s 4×100 medley relay.
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Earlier in the night, Manuel took silver in the 50 free.
Rio de Janeiro: Katie Ledecky obliterated the field and her own world record in winning the 800m freestyle at the Rio Olympics on Friday, uniting the 200m, 400m and 800m titles for the first time since 1968, helping United States of America extend their lead at the top of the medal tally. Gatlin’s career has been dogged by doping suspensions and controversy, but he is in good form and the fastest man in the world this year.
The fastest man in the world Usain Bolt, the two-time defending champion also appears on the Rio track for the first time Saturday for preliminary heats.
“We can not confine the Olympic spirit and the transformation that the Olympics bring to a city to a single area and when we prepared the Games we made a decision to spread. the benefits around the city”, Andrada said.
Brazil’s first medal was actually a surprise, a silver won by shooter Felipe Wu. He’s been caught using banned substances twice (the first was later ruled as taken for attention deficit disorder) but the second brought a four-year ban for excessive testosterone. But NBC will time-delay its broadcast for an hour, so it will air at 10:49 p.m. ET. With five golds and a silver in Rio, Phelps has looked remarkably sharp while swimming a heavy load this past week.
Manuel previously won the 100m freestyle gold medal in a tie with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak. The Olympic record is still held by Bob Beaman, who set it in 1968, though Mike Powell eclipsed it in 1991.
Turns out, the less-than-glittering times at the USA trials were no indication of how fast they would swim once they got to the big stage.
London gold medalist Roniel Iglesias is out of the Olympic boxing tournament.
Medals will also be awarded in the men’s discus.
With 28 medals in all, he’s 10 clear of anyone else.
The U.S. women’s eight hope to extend their winning streak after dominating the qualifiers. There’s not too much warmth between the two sides since the 2014 World Cup, where Colombia’s Juan Camillo Zuniga kneed Brazilian star striker Neymar, fracturing his back. The host nation needed a 4-0 win over Denmark on Wednesday to stave off elimination. “I’m really honoured and privileged to swim alongside some of these great names, people who changed the face of our sport”, he told Channel NewsAsia.
The Americans completed a haul of 33 medals in the pool including 16 golds, with Australia and Hungary trailing on three golds each. Keys lost 6-3, 7-5 to Kerber on Friday. The Nadal-del Potro match immediately follows Murray’s.
On the water, the smallest sculls (singles) and the largest (eights) are fighting for gold for both the men and the women.
Marcus Fraser of Australia, who led after the opening two rounds, shot 72 and was three shots out of the lead. It’s US fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad’s last chance to medal.
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The color and acrid smell of the pool have prompted jokes on the Internet and complaints from competitors and have become a symbol of the organizational problems dogging South America’s first Games, which come as Brazil struggles with deep recession and political upheaval. Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus earned the bronze in 24.11. Austria took the men’s title on Friday night. There remains a week of competition in diving events, which wrap up on the final Saturday of the Games.
