Key events
Athletics: Everyone loves saying the word “repechage” but it’s generally one we only get to use every four years. Team GB’s Revee Walcott-Nolan has come second in repechage to qualify for the women’s 1,500m semi-finals. Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy will not be joining her after finishing fourth in their respective heats.
Cycling: The Olympic swimming pool and running track have been decried as being too “slow” in some quarters but there are no such conerns over the boards in the velodrome.
Not long after Mikhail Yakolev set an Olympic record for the men’s individual sprint, Australia’s Matt Richardson came out and set a world record of 9.091sec for his flying 200m. He didn’t have it for much longer than a minute before Dutch cyclist Harrie Lavreysen beat it by posting a time of 9.088sec.
Cycling: Hamish Turnball has been bumped down to third in the men’s sprint qualifying. Israel’s Mikhail Yakovlev has just set an Olympic record of 9.152sec for his flying 200m, while Australia’s Leigh Hoffman is in second place.
Cycling: To the velodrome, where Team GB’s Hamish Turnball leads the men’s team sprint qualifying with a time of 9.346sec for his flying 200m and will definitely be among the top 24 riders (out of 30) who make it through to the next round.
The 25-year-old from Northumberland has already won a silver medal at these games as part of the Team GB men’s team sprint trio that finished second behind the Netherlands last night.
Rachel Savage
Sport Climbing – Boulder & Lead: “The men’s semi-final lead round was incredibly dramatic and emotional,” writes the Guardian’s South Africa correspondent Rachel Savage, who into this particular sport and watching the event so that I don’t have to pretend I have a clue what’s going on. “As well as Team GB medal favourite Toby Roberts, Hamish McArthur also made it through, so GB is the only country to have two athletes through to the men’s final.
“The top qualifier was 17-year-old wunderkid Sorata Anraku (Japan), who made it through even before having climbed the lead route, thanks to an amazing boulder round. His teammate Tomoa Narasaki, who was second in bouldering, fell early on the lead route – as did many other top athletes – putting him out of the final. It was heartbreaking for him, as he came fourth in Tokyo Olympics and his wife, Tokyo bronze medallist Akiyo Noguchi, was in the crowd”
Kieran Pender
Women’s basketball: The Australian team, the Opals, are through to the Olympic semi-finals after downing Serbia 85-67 in the first quarter-final of Wednesday. It is revenge for Australia after the Serbian men’s team defeated the Australian Boomers in quarter-finals yesterday. Alanna Smith led the scoring for Australia with 22 points. The Opals will now await the outcome of the United States’ meeting with Nigeria tonight to see who they will face in the semi-finals on Friday.
Women’s golf: While some of us have been off the smokes for nearly three months, Charley Hull remains a martyr to the coffin nails and earlier this week bemoaned the fact that she is not allowed to light up while competing at the OIympics. The Team GB golfer could clearly do with a cigarette, as her first round has started very badly. She’s five shots over par through nine.
Athletics: A late call-up to the British team following the injury suffered by Jake Wightman, Elliot Giles advances from the his heat of the men’s 800m, finishing second behind gold medal favourite Djamel Sedjati (Algeria), who has said he is targeting the world record of 1min 40.91sec set by Kenya’s David Rudisha at London 2012.
Athletics: Good news for George Mills! The Team GB athlete and the three other athletes who fell in the home straight of their heat of the 5,000m have been advanced to the final by the race officials. Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu (Refugee Olympic Team), Mike Foppen (Netherlands) and Thierry Ndikumwenayo (Spain) are the other “lucky” fallers. This largesse on the part of the judges means there will be a field of 20 men in the final, which could lead to more carnage.
Athletics: There was further drama in the second heat of the men’s 5,000m, when a TV cameraman wandered across the track to the infield, apparently oblivious to the fact that the field of runners were heading his way.
He ended up getting in their way and the competitors had to dodge him, a state of affairs that prompted Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen to gesture angrily at the rogue technician. Ingrebrigsten, who surprised many including himself by finishing out of the medals in last night’s thrilling 1,500m race, did go on to qualify for the final.
Good day everybody. Everyone loves a row and arguably the most entertaining thing to happen from a British perspective so far this morning was George Mills finding his progress impeded in the home straight of the first heat of the men’s 5,000m and taking a tumble along with three other athletes.
Mills got back to his feet, finished the race well out of the qualification places and angrily confronted France’s Hugo Hay, who he felt had brought him down. Hay was in more conciliatory mood and tried to calm down Mills, who is the son of former England footballer Danny, but the English runner was in no mood for a pacifying arm around the shoulder.
In a post race interview with the BBC, a considerably more calm Mills said “I think it’s pretty clear, I got stepped out on. I was about to kick into the straight and boom: the French lad took me down.”
Interestingly, on the BBC coverage, I think it was Paula Radcliffe who said the pace the race was run at was far too slow which meant that a pile-up was almost inevitable as the athletes jockleyed for position in the home straight. She felt Mills had got himself in a bad position and had nobody to blame but himself for coming a cropper. Anyway, he won’t be in the final unless the race officials see fit to reinstate him, which seems extremely unlikely.
Sport is happening all over the place in Paris. Not to mention Lille and other locations. And Barry Glendenning is now here to take you through the next bit … over to you, Barry.
Men’s climbing: boulder & lead: Thanks to Ivana for the heads up on email:
“Toby Roberts (GB) just qualified for the final in sport climbing (boulder&lead).”
He did! Alberto Lopez of Spain was first in the semi-final, with 72 points, GB’s Roberts second with 68.1, Adam Ondra of Czech Republic third, also 68.1.
Women’s golf: Celine Borge continues to lead the way at Le Golf National. The Norwegian is three under par after eight holes.
Aditi Ashok (India) is one under through nine holes, Yin Ruoning of China is one under after six.
But … Nelly Korda is three over after seven!
Women’s 50kg wrestling update from Beau Dure:
The Indian wrestler, Vinesh Phogat, didn’t make weight for today’s gold medal match at 50kg and has been disqualified.
Contrary to some reports, Phogat’s disqualification does not mean the USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt wins gold. The wrestler Phogat beat in the semifinals, Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba, has been put through to the final.
In her first match, Phogat pulled off one of the shocks of the Games, beating Yui Susaki, who hadn’t conceded a point in Olympic or world championship matches in five years.
Even though Phogat’s results have been scrubbed from the competition, the wrestlers she defeated, including Susaki, are still in the repechage and can get bronze.
Phogat was a nominee for the Laureus Sports Awards comeback of the year honour a few years ago.
Kieran Pender
Women’s basketball: The Australians have extended their advantage through the second quarter at the basketball, with the Opals leading by 16 at the half-time break, 48-32. Jade Melbourne has led the scoring for Australia, knocking down 14 points with only one missed three detracting from an otherwise perfect streak. Ivana Raca has been Serbia’s most effective scorer, with 57% accuracy.
Final handball score AET: Spain 29-28 Egypt
Egypt led the men’s handball quarter-final by four goals in the second half. Spain fought back and their goalkeeper, Gonzalo Vargas, made no fewer than 17 saves to keep their opponents out! It’s over!
Men’s handball: Under a minute left … Spain 28-28 Egypt … penalty Spain!
Men’s diving: Wang Zongyuan (China) currently tops the charts in the 3m springboard with a total of 435.25.
Men’s handball: Spain 27-27 Egypt with about three minutes to go in extra time … but Ali Zein has just been sent to the sin bin for Egypt after making contact with an opponent’s face!
Men’s high jump: Mutaz Barshim (Qatar), Shelby McEwen (USA) and Stefano Sottile (Italy) currently top the standings in qualifying. Tamberi is fourth.
Men’s high jump: JuVaughn Harrison (USA) has crashed out in qualifying after three failed jumps. He appears to have injured himself on the third and final effort, too.
Men’s 5000m: George Mills of Team GB is very unhappy with Hugo Hay of France after the 5,000m heat at the Stade de France, for some reason. I did not see the race so not sure what occurred but will try and bring you more on that when I get it …
Narve Gilje Nordas of Norway won the first heat in a time of 14min 08.16sec. Hagos Gebrhiwet (Ethiopa) second, John Heymans (Belgium) third.
Marathon swimming training session goes ahead in River Seine
The athlete training session for the Olympic marathon swimming in the River Seine went ahead on Wednesday morning. World Aquatics cancelled a familiarisation session 24 hours earlier before the women’s race on Thursday and men’s event on Friday as water quality assessments found that levels of Enterococci – an indicator of faecal pollution – were too high in the river.
But a Paris 2024 statement said: “During a meeting on water quality held on 7 August at 4am attended by representatives from World Aquatics, including their technical delegates and medical delegates, Paris 2024, Meteo France, DRIEAT, the City of Paris and the Prefecture of the Ile-de-France Region involved in carrying out water quality tests, World Aquatics have confirmed that the familiarisation session for the marathon swimming (athlete training) will go ahead as planned on 7 August from 7.30-9.30am.
“The results of the latest water quality tests, reviewed during the meeting at 4am, have been assessed as compliant by World Aquatics, allowing for the familiarisation session for the marathon swimming to take place.”
The issue of water quality had dominated the build-up to all three triathlons in the first week of the Games. Several familiarisation sessions were cancelled and the men’s race delayed by one day to allow conditions to improve.
Monday’s mixed relay went ahead without the Belgian team, who withdrew after athlete Claire Michel fell ill having competed in the women’s race, finishing 38th, the previous Wednesday. In the build-up to the Olympics, Paris invested 1.4billion euros trying to clean up the Seine, but water quality levels have dipped during the Games after a number of storms. PA Media
Kieran Pender
The Australian Opals are up by seven points after the first quarter of the women’s basketball quarter-finals, leading Serbia 26-19. It has been a physical opening contest – Yvonne Anderson looking dangerous for the Serbians, but the Opals doing well to control the contest. The winner of this match will face the United States or Nigeria in the semi-final.
Men’s handball: You could tell a classic was brewing … Spain 25-25 Egypt is a final score in the quarter-final in Lille. The match goes to extra time: two five-minute periods.
Egypt had a chance to win it in the final seconds, but the Spain goalie, Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, pulled off a stunning save.
Jakob Ingebritsen has taken to Instagram, reacting to last night’s shock result in the 1500m:
”My team always say that “because you have a big mouth and is the one to beat, you have everything to lose in competitions”. Today, Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Josh Kerr outsmarted me. They were “the best guys” when it really mattered. And I want to congratulate them all on a great performance! … Of course, I am disappointed!
“Running is the ultimate sport. Everyone can participate. Everyone can set their own goals and achieve them. All you need is to show up … Thank you to all my competitors for putting on a great show today. Congratulations to the guys bringing home the medals! Luckily for me, I get to do it all again tomorrow morning.”
Who is leading the medal table? You can find out here:
Thanks to Fabiana Scarazzato for the following email regarding the high-jumper Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, he who lost his wedding ring:
“Three days ago Tamberi was rushed to hospital where it was discovered he had kidney stones, so the fact that he managed to be in Paris today for the qualifier is quite the miracle.”
Sean Ingle
Over the hardest three laps of his life, Cole Hocker clung on with the stubbornness of a mule. Then, in an Olympic 1500m final for the ages, he kicked like one.
It took the 23-year-old American past the fading Tokyo gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway. Then, in an extraordinary last few yards, Britain’s world champion Josh Kerr. And suddenly, and without warning, a 37-1 underdog from Indianapolis had shaken up the world.
Women’s golf: All, or certainly many, eyes are on Nelly Korda at Le Golf National. She has dropped a shot early doors, though, and is one over par through three holes.
Borge of Norway leads on two under par after five.
Men’s handball: Spain 17-20 Egypt after 48min.
Josh Kerr speaks to the BBC after last night’s silver medal in the men’s 1500m: “I was just trying to stay as close as possible … I could feel like we were really rolling, it was unrelenting pace.
“He [Cole Hocker] is a fantastic athlete … we could feel there were some guys still there and it wasn’t just us [Kerr and Jakob Ingebritsen].
“It was a great move for him, but it took the sting out of my legs a little bit, I was just trying to get to the finish line as fast as I could.
“You shake everyone’s hand, you move on, and you try and get better from it.”
