VOLLEYBALL
One of the medal favorites lost their first match of pool play in the men’s volleyball. Poland came into the Tokyo Games as one of the top contenders in the men’s bracket led by Wilfredo Leon but fell in the first match to Iran in five sets. The Iranians made their Olympic debut in 2016 when they made it to the quarter-finals and now have a big win to start this year’s tournament after pulling out the final set 23-21.
TAEKWONDO
Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand and Vito Dell’Aquila of Italy have won the first two gold medals of the Olympic taekwondo competition in Tokyo. Wongpattanakit won her first gold in dramatic fashion in the women’s 49-kilogram final, scoring two points on a body kick inside the final 10 seconds for an 11-10 victory over 17-year-old Adriana Cerezo of Spain. Wongpattanakit’s gold is only the 10th in Thailand’s entire Olympic history. Dell’Aquila defeated Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi of Tunisia 16-12 in the men’s 58-kilogram final to claim his first Olympic medal. The final was another thriller that was tied 10-10 with about 15 seconds left before Dell’Aquila won with a flurry of scoring strikes.
JUDO
Naohisa Takato has won Japan's first gold medal at its home Olympics, beating Taiwan's Yang Yung-wei in the men's 60kg judo final. Kosovo's Distria Krasniqi beat Japan's Funa Tonaki in the women's 48kg final less than an hour before Takato made sure his team wouldn't have a double heartbreak on the opening day of competition in its beloved homegrown martial art.
BASKETBALL
French President Emmanuel Macron and US First Lady Jill Biden attended a 3-on-3 Olympic basketball game in Tokyo. The two sat near one another as the French women's team played the US, who won 17-10. The 3-on-3 tournament is making its debut at this Olympics. Macron and Biden both attended the opening ceremony for the Games on Friday night.
CYCLING
Ecuador won its second ever Olympic gold medal when Richard Carapaz took gold in the Olympic road race. Embracing his nickname of ‘The Locomotive’, Carapaz rode away from American Brandon McNulty as they approached the finish at Fuji International Speedway. He slapped his handlebars in celebration as he crossed the line, where he was greeted by one of the few crowds allowed at the Olympics. Belgian star Wout van Aert wound up edged UAE Team Emirates’ Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia in the race for silver and bronze.
ARCHERY
An San and teenager Kim Je Deok paired up to lead South Korea to gold in the archery’s mixed team event. On a sizzling Saturday at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field, they held off Gabriela Schloesser and Steve Wijler of the Netherlands by a tally of 5-3 to bring home gold for South Korea. The country has now captured 14 of 17 gold medals in archery team competitions since the current format was introduced to the Olympics in 1988.
TABLE TENNIS
The youngest table tennis player in Olympics history is out. Hend Zaza of Syria lost in straight sets to Liu Jia, a 39-year-old from Austria, in a preliminary match on Saturday. The 12-year-old said she was pleased with her performance and learnt from the loss — and the youngest competition at Tokyo 2020 is hoping for another shot at the next Olympics, in Paris.
TENNIS
Novak Djokovic’s bid for a Golden Slam is alive and well following a routine 6-2, 6-2 win over 139th-ranked Hugo Dellien of Bolivia in the opening round of the Tokyo tennis tournament. The top-ranked Serb is attempting to become the first man to win all four major tennis tournaments and an Olympic singles gold medal in the same year.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Hou Zhihui won China’s second gold medal with a commanding showing in the women’s 49kg weightlifting category. Hou lifted a total 210kg, 3kg short of her world record, to take gold ahead of Indian lifter Mirabai Chanu on 202kg. It was India’s first Olympic silver in weightlifting.
GYMNASTICS
Two-time Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura’s Olympic career is over. The 32-year-old Japanese gymnast, considered by many the greatest of all time, fell during qualifying on the high bar and will not advance to the event finals. Uchimura, the 2012 and 2016 all-around gold medallist, was midway through his set when he peeled off while doing a complicated connection. He picked himself up and finished his routine, drilling his dismount.
ROWING
Dutch team officials say rower Finn Florijn has tested positive for COVID-19 and is out of the Games. The other members of the team who are considered close contacts can stay, but will need to adjust to separate transportation and eating and sleeping arrangements. The 21-year-old son of former Olympic gold medallist rower Ronald Florijn was competing in single sculls and had finished fourth in his heat on Friday. He was scheduled to row again Saturday in the repechage before positive test results late Friday ended his Games.
SHOOTING
China’s Yang Qian won the first gold medal of the Olympics in women’s 10m air rifle. Yang overtook Anastasiia Galashina when the Russian missed the Centre two rings for an 8.9 on her final shot. Yang had a 9.8 on her final shot and finished with an Olympic record 251.8. Galashina finished at 251.1. Switzerland’s Nina Christen took bronze.
TENNIS
Two Georgian tennis players have been barred from the Tokyo Olympics after officials in their home country told them they were entered for the Games but never actually sent the paperwork. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that it had to turn away doubles players Oksana Kalashnikova and Ekaterine Gorgodze because they were never formally entered for the games, even though Georgia’s Olympic committee “informed the applicants that their application had been submitted”. Without a formal entry for the Olympics, the court ruled that the “consequence, however unfortunate for the two athletes, can only be the dismissal of their petition”.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
The very first match of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament has been cancelled because a Czech player tested positive for COVID-19. Marketa Slukova tested positive earlier this week, knocking her and partner Barbora Hermannova out of the Tokyo Games. The Czechs were supposed to be playing a team from the host country that would have been making its Olympic debut. Instead, the Japanese pair of Megumi Murakami and Miki Ishii earned the victory by default. Slukova is one of at least three members of the Czech team who have tested positive since their arrival in Japan, including men’s beach volleyball player Ondrej Perusic. The team has said it’s investigating if the outbreak of COVID-19 is linked to its charter flight to Tokyo.
CYCLING
German cyclist Simon Geschke was ruled out of the men’s road race after testing positive for the coronavirus. The German team says Geschke initially tested positive on Friday and his result was confirmed by another test later in the day. Germany says fellow riders Nikias Arndt and Maximilian Schachmann were cleared to race ion Saturday.
