TOKYO – The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:
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MEDAL ALERT
Belinda Bencic of Switzerland won the women’s tennis gold medal in singles and she could add another in doubles.
The 12th-ranked Bencic beat Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 for the first major title of her career.
Bencic will also contest the women’s doubles gold-medal match on Sunday.
Bencic and Swiss partner Viktorija Golubic face the top-seeded Czech team of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
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Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica has broken Florence Griffith Joyner’s 33-year-old Olympic record in the women’s 100 meters.
She crossed the line in 10.61 seconds to defend her title and lead a Jamaican sweep of the medals, besting Joyner's mark of 10.62 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Thompson-Herah beat rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce by .13 seconds. Shericka Jackson won bronze. This had been shaping up as a fast race for some time. Fraser-Pryce ran the fourth-fastest time in history at 10.63 seconds in June.
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MEDAL ALERT
Fares Elbakh of Qatar has won the gold medal in the men’s 96-kilogram weightlifting category with a dominant performance, earning the country's first Olympic title.
Elbakh lifted 177 kilograms in the snatch and 225 in the clean and jerk for a total of 402kg. He attempted a world record 232kg clean and jerk but couldn’t make the lift.
Keydomar Vallenilla took second for Venezuela with a total 387kg despite having his last lift ruled out for dropping the bar before he got the signal to do so.
Vallenilla lifted the same total as third-place Anton Pliesnoi of Georgia but was ranked above Pliesnoi because he made his best clean and jerk lift earlier in the competition.
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MEDAL ALERT
Poland was a surprise winner in the Olympic debut of the 4x400 mixed relay event, holding off a late charge from an American team that didn’t have Allyson Felix in the lineup.
The Dominican Republic finished with the silver medal and the Americans took bronze. There was some thought Felix might be on the track for the relay with a chance to win her record 10th Olympic medal. It will have to wait.
Both the U.S. and the Dominican Republic teams had an anxious night after being disqualified following the qualifying round the day before. They were each reinstated after appeals.
Neither could catch Poland’s team of Karol Zalewski, Natalia Kaczmarek, Justyna Swiety-Ersetic and Kajetan Duszynski. They finished in a time of 3 minutes, 9.87 seconds at Olympic Stadium.
The Dominican Republic contingent of Lidio Andres Feliz, Marileidy Paulino, Anabel Medina Ventura and Alexander Ogando wound up 0.34 seconds behind.
The American squad was made up of Trevor Stewart, Kendall Ellis, Kaylin Whitney and Vernon Norwood. They were .01 seconds behind the Dominicans.
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MEDAL ALERT
Taiwan’s Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin have swept China’s Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen for gold in the men’s doubles badminton final.
The unseeded Taiwan, after a shaky start, took the first game 21-18, with a highly aggressive style, and then dominated China in the second, 21-12.
China had been hoping to re-establish its badminton dominance at Tokyo after a spotty performance at the Rio Games. China swept all five badminton gold medals at the 2012 London Games.
Earlier Saturday, Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh won bronze in men’s doubles, beating Indonesian veterans Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, 2-1.
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MEDAL ALERT
Daniel Stahl has won gold in the men’s discus to give Sweden its first Olympic title in the event.
Simon Pettersson took silver in a Swedish 1-2. Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger claimed the bronze.
They were the first two medals Sweden has won in the men’s Olympic discus since Ricky Bruch’s bronze at the 1972 Munich Games.
Stahl adds the Olympic title to his world championships gold from 2019.
He threw 68.90 meters on his second attempt at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium to win after he was installed as the favorite.
Pettersson registered 67.39 on his second-to-last heave to edge out Weisshaidinger (67.07) in the battle for silver.
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MEDAL ALERT
The Russian Olympic Committee has won the women’s team saber fencing after beating France 45-41 in the final.
The Russian athletes were 20-14 down after four of the nine bouts in the final before Olga Nikitina turned it around by winning the fifth bout 11-3 over Charlotte Lembach.
Sofya Velikaya won her fifth career Olympic medal by retaining the title she won with the Russian team in 2016.
South Korea beat Italy 45-42 for the bronze.
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UPSET ALERT
France has beaten Japan to win gold in the first-ever Olympic judo mixed team event, surprising the powerhouse host nation with four wins in the final five bouts.
Clarisse Agbegnenou, Alex Clerget and Teddy Riner all won their bouts before Sarah Leonie Cysique clinched it with a narrow victory over fellow lightweight Tsukasa Yoshida. The 4:1 margin of victory meant pound-for-pound judo superstar Shohei Ono didn’t even get to compete in the final, since he was scheduled for the sixth bout.
Agbegnenou won France’s only individual gold medal in the 14 weight classes, while Japan won nine individual golds in the most successful judo tournament for any team in Olympic history. But when the team competition reached its finale, France’s judokas came up big at the Budokan.
Riner’s gold medal will be his third, while Agbegnenou has a second gold to go with her silver from Rio.
Germany and Israel won the bronze medals from the 12-team field.
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The International Testing Agency says it has provisionally suspended Kenyan sprinter Mark Odhiambo after he tested positive for an anabolic steroid.
Odhiambo has been removed from the men’s 100-meter heats scheduled later Saturday.
The agency says he is challenging the suspension with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. He tested positive in a sample given Wednesday in Tokyo for methasterone, according to the agency.
The positive test was reported Saturday by the Olympic testing laboratory in Tokyo hours before Odhiambo was due to compete.
The 28-year-old ran a career-best time of 10.05 seconds six weeks ago, according to his biography on the World Athletics website.
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Israel has won a bronze medal in the Olympic debut of mixed team judo, shocking the Russian team in the medal bout.
The Israeli players won four of their five bouts over the Russians to clinch bronze. The medal is just the 11th won by Israel in all sports since it began competing in the Olympics in 1952.
Israel didn’t win an individual medal during the first seven days of the Tokyo tournament, but it put on a stellar performance during the team event, which consists of six individual bouts against another nation. Israel beat Italy and narrowly lost to powerhouse France before knocking off Brazil to reach the bronze medal match.
Heavyweight Peter Paltchik pulled the upset of the medal round, beating No. 1-ranked Russian Tamerlan Bashaev.
Timna Nelson Levy, who was sporting two partial black eyes by the end, clinched the medal and set off a wild celebration on the tatami by throwing Daria Mezhetskaia for the final victory.
Germany won the other bronze.
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MEDAL ALERT
New Zealand has beaten France 26-12 to win the women’s rugby sevens title at the Tokyo Olympics.
It was a gold medal five years in the making for a New Zealand lineup that lost the 2016 final to Australia when rugby sevens made its Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro.
Top-ranked New Zealand entered the tournament as the world sevens series and World Cup sevens champions but had some close calls on the way to the final.
The Black Ferns were pushed to golden-point extra time by Fiji in the semifinals before winning 22-17.
The French, unbeaten in five games to reach the final, had to settle for silver.
Fiji beat Britain 21-12 to win bronze, with Alowesi Nakoci scoring two tries and making two try-saving tackles. It was the first Olympic medals ever for Fijian women.
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MEDAL ALERT
Mete Gazoz of Turkey has won the men’s individual archery title at the Tokyo Games.
It was the first gold medal won by a country other than South Korea, which went 4 for 5 in archery during the Tokyo Games.
Gazoz beat Mauro Nespoli of Italy in the final by a 6-4 score. He earned Turkey its first Olympic medal in archery.
Takaharu Furukawa of Japan won the bronze medal. Furukawa also earned a bronze in the men’s team event.
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Novak Djokovic is leaving the Olympics without a medal in singles.
The top-ranked Serb lost 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3 to Pablo Carreño Busta of Spain in the bronze-medal match of the tennis tournament. It was his third defeat in two days.
The loss comes less than 24 hours after Djokovic was beaten by Alexander Zverev of Germany in the semifinals to end his bid for a Golden Slam.
Djokovic also lost in the mixed doubles semifinals on Friday with partner Nina Stojanovic.
Djokovic was due back on the court later for another bronze-medal match in mixed doubles. He and Stojanovic will face the Australian pair of Ash Barty and John Peers.
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MEDAL ALERT
Lyu Xiaojun has won gold in the men’s 81-kilogram weightlifting category after Italian rival Antonino Pizzolato missed with a shot at the clean and jerk world record.
Lyu lifted 170kg in the snatch and 204 in the clean and jerk for a total 374. That was 7kg more than Zacarias Bonnat of the Dominican Republic in second and 9kg ahead of Pizzolato, who won bronze.
Lyu celebrated his second career Olympic gold by hoisting his coach into the air.
Pizzolato took a shot at a 210kg clean and jerk for gold but couldn’t complete the lift. Lyu failed his own world record attempt.
Harrison Maurus narrowly missed what would have been the first U.S. men’s weightlifting medal since 1984, placing fourth on 361kg. Maurus tried to beat Pizzolato for bronze with a 205kg clean and jerk but stumbled.
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MEDAL ALERT
Kiran Badloe won the Netherlands’ third straight gold medal in windsurfing RS:X. Thomas Goyard of France earned silver and Bi Kun of China was third, becoming the first male athlete from China to medal in sailing.
Dorian van Rijsselberghe won the previous two golds in the events. The Netherlands also won three straight golds in equestrian’s eventing (1924-1932) and dressage (2000-2008).
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MEDAL ALERT
China won its 20th gold medal of the Tokyo Summer Olympics when Lu Yunxiu edged Charline Picon of France in women’s windsurfing RS:X. Lu finished the competition with 36 points to Picon’s 38. Emma Wilson of Britain took the bronze in sailing’s first medal of these Games.
China leads all countries with the 20 golds, followed by Japan with 17 and the United States with 16. The United States has the most medals with 45. China has 42 and ROC, 34.
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MEDAL ALERT
Nina Christen of Switzerland has won women’s 50-meter three-position rifle for her second medal of the Tokyo Olympics.
Christen pumped her fist after a 10.2 on her final shot and had an Olympic-record 463.9 points to beat Russian Yulia Zykova by 2.0.
The 27-year-old member of the Swiss armed forces also took bronze in 10-meter air rifle in her second Olympics.
Russian Yulia Karimova earned bronze for her second medal in Tokyo. She also took bronze with Sergey Kamenskiy in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event.
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China had another dominating day at the diving pool, taking the top two spots in the semifinals of the women’s 3-meter springboard.
In a repeat of the preliminaries, defending Olympic champion Shi Tingmao posted the highest score over five dives and teammate Wang Han ranked second. The pair already teamed up to win the 3-meter synchronized event.
Shi led the way with 371.45 points. Wang (346.85) and Canadian Jennifer Abel (341.40) were the only ones even close to the leader, stamping China as a huge favorite to earn its fourth diving gold in five events at these games.
Americans Krysta Palmer and Hailey Hernandez also finished in the top 12 to advance to Sunday’s final, where the scores will be wiped clean and the final standings settled with another five more dives.
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Japan will compete for its 10th judo gold medal in at the Tokyo Olympics when it faces France on Saturday night in the final of the first-ever Olympic mixed team event at the Budokan.
Japan got off to a shocking start in its opening match when gold medalists Uta Abe and Shohei Ono both lost their bouts to Germany’s Theresa Stoll and Igor Wandtke, respectively. The powerhouse home team then rattled off eight consecutive victories over Germany and the Russian team to reach the final.
France barely survived its opening-round match with underdog Israel, winning only on Margaux Pinot’s golden-score victory in the tiebreaking seventh bout. France then rolled past the Netherlands in the semifinal.
Israel rebounded with a 4-2 victory over Brazil to secure a shot at a bronze medal against the Russian team in the evening. Israel has won just 10 medals in its entire Olympic history, with half of those in judo.
Germany will meet the Netherlands in the other bronze medal match.
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MEDAL ALERT
Ivan Litvinovich has given Belarus a second straight gold in men’s trampoline.
The 20-year-old Litvinovich put together a spectacular routine during the finals on Saturday, posting a score of 61.715 to edge 2012 Olympic champion Dong Dong of China.
Dylan Schmidt of New Zealand earned the bronze.
Dong earned his fourth Olympic medal in the competition in which athletes put together 10 consecutive jumps while incorporating an intricate series of flips and twists. He took silver in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and bronze in 2008 in Beijing to go along with his gold from London.
Dong qualified fifth for the eight-man final. He raised his hands after drilling his set and watched as the next three competitors failed to match his 61.235. Litvinovich, however, was just a bit better and he broke into tears when his score was flashed.
Litvinovich’s teammate, defending Olympic champion Uladzislau Hancharou, finished fourth.
Gao Lei of China, a four-time world champion and a bronze medalist in Rio de Janeiro, did not make it through his second routine during qualifying and failed to make it to the finals.
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MEDAL ALERT
Spain’s Alberto Fernandez and Fatima Galvez have won gold in mixed team trap shooting at the Tokyo Olympics.
They defeated San Marino’s Gian Marco Berti and Alessandra Perilli 41-40 in the gold medal match.
San Marino went into its final two shots with a chance to tie and send the match to a shoot-off, but Berti missed his to give the gold to the Spaniards.
The medal is San Marino’s highest in the Olympics and just its second in 61 years of competition after Perilli won bronze in women’s individual trap.
The gold was the first Olympic medal for Fernandez, a three-time world champion who’s been one of the world’s most decorated shooters.
Brian Burrows and Madelynn Ann Bernau of the United States won the bronze medal match in a shoot-off 3-2 after tying Slovakia Erik Varga and Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova with 42 targets each.
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Hannah Roberts will have the top seed when BMX freestyle makes its Olympic finals debut.
The 19-year-old from Indiana had a two-run seeding average of 87.70 to lead American teammate Perris Benegas by 1.2 heading into Sunday’s finals.
Roberts has already won three world championships.
Gold medal favorite Logan Martin of Australia led the men’s qualifying with a 90.97 average. Rim Nakamura of Japan was second at 87.67.
Riders will get two one-minute runs in the final and scoring will be the average of the two.
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American BMX racer Connor Fields has been moved out of critical care unit at St. Luke’s International hospital a day after suffering a brain hemorrhage during a horrific qualifying crash at the Tokyo Olympics.
Fields was injured during his third qualifying run when he slammed into the first turn and was hit by two other riders. The 28-year-old from Las Vegas was taken by stretcher to an ambulance.
USA Cycling says Fields spent the night in the ICU and doctors reported no additional bleeding or injuries.
USA Cycling staff have been in contact with his family to navigate his care options. Fields will remain in the hospital until cleared.
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Japanese judo gold medalist Shohei Ono has lost his first bout since 2015 in the quarterfinals of the Olympic debut of the mixed team competition.
Ono was stunned by Germany’s Igor Wandtke in the second bout of the six-match quarterfinal. Wandtke fought very defensively and incurred two penalties, but then threw Ono for a stunning waza ari with 16 seconds left.
Ono’s loss occurred immediately after fellow gold medalist Uta Abe lost her own opening bout to Theresa Stoll, putting Japan down 2-0 in the best-of-six mixed team round.
But Japan’s lineup contained five gold medalists, and the next four players won their bouts to send Japan into the semifinals. Aaron Wolf finished Johannes Frey early in golden score for the clinching fourth victory.
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MEDAL ALERT
Britain has claimed swimming gold in the new 4x100m mixed medley relay with a world record of 3 minutes, 37.58 seconds.
The silver went to China in 3:38.86, while Australia took the bronze in 3:38.95.
The relay is a new event where men and women compete together and it can be hard to tell who's winning.
The American swimmers were fifth, ending Caeleb Dressel’s bid to win six gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
His hopes were snuffed out before he even dove in the pool.
The Americans tried a different strategy than everyone else, going with Dressel on the freestyle while the other seven teams all closed with a woman.
When 18-year-old Torri Huske passed off to Dressel after the butterfly leg, the Americans were more than 7 seconds behind the leaders in last place.
Dressel turned in the fastest time, but it wasn’t nearly enough to chase down all the teams ahead of him.
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Simone Manuel’s Olympics are over.
The American swimmer failed to advance from the semifinals of the 50-meter freestyle. Her time of 24.63 seconds was 11th-fastest, eliminating her from Sunday’s final. Only the top eight advance.
At the 2016 Rio Games, Manuel became the first Black American woman to win an individual swimming gold medal in the 100 freestyle. She also claimed a silver in the 50 free.
This time, her preparations were hampered by overtraining syndrome. She failed to make the U.S. team in the 100 free, leaving the 50 as her only individual event. She did claim a bronze medal in the 4x100 free relay.
Australia’s Emma McKeon was the top qualifier, setting an Olympic record for the second day in a row with a time of 24.00.
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DRESSEL ALERT
Caeleb Dressel’s busy morning continues.
Just minutes after collecting his gold medal for a world-record victory in the 100 butterfly, Dressel returned to the deck for the semifinals of the 50 freestyle.
He posted the top qualifying time of 21.42 seconds, sending him to Sunday’s final with a chance to win another gold.
And Dressel still has one more race to go on the next-to-last day of swimming. He’ll anchor the United States in the 4x100 mixed medley relay, a new Olympic event featuring two men and two women.
He’ll be the only man to swim the anchor freestyle leg, which means he’ll surely dive into the pool with a hefty deficit to make up on the women anchoring for the other seven teams.
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MEDAL ALERT
Katie Ledecky has closed out her Tokyo Olympics with another gold medal.
Ledecky became the first female swimmer to capture six individual gold medals in her career with a victory in the 800-meter freestyle.
Ledecky led all the way in a race she hasn’t lost since 2010. But she was pushed hard by Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, who claimed the silver in 8:13.83.
The bronze went to Italy’s Simona Quadarella in 8:18.35.
Ledecky finished the Tokyo Games with two golds, two silvers and a fifth-place finish in the 200 free. She lost her first two individual matchups with Titmus, but finally beat her in the 800.
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USA Gymnastics says Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the Olympic event finals in the vault and uneven bars.
She continues to be evaluated daily to determine whether she'll compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam.
Biles said she was putting her mental health first when she withdrew from the gymnastics team event after one rotation. The U.S. women won silver there. She also decided not to compete in the all-around. American Sunisa Lee won gold in that event.
MyKayla Skinner, who had the fourth highest score in vault during qualifications, will compete in vault finals for the U.S. alongside Jade Carey, who finished with the second highest score. Biles was the defending Olympic champion in the vault.
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MEDAL ALERT
The Australian women have claimed another gold at the Olympic pool.
Kaylee McKeown completed a sweep of the backstroke events with a victory in the 200-meter butterfly. Her winning time was 2 minutes, 4.68 seconds.
The silver went to Canada’s Kylie Masse in 2:05.42, with another Australian, Emily Seebohm, claiming the bronze in 2:06.17.
Americans Rhyan White and Phoebe Bacon finished fourth and fifth.
The Australians have won six women’s swimming gold medals in Tokyo and seven golds overall.
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MEDAL ALERT
American Caeleb Dressel has won his third gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a world record in the 100-meter butterfly.
Dressel led right from the start and held off Hungary’s Kristof Milak to win in 49.45 seconds, breaking the mark of 49.50 that he set two years ago at the 2019 world championships.
Milak, winner of the 200-meter butterfly, earned the silver with a blistering 49.68. The bronze went to Switzerland’s Noe Ponti.
Dressel’s victory came in the first of three races on his morning schedule. He’ll also compete in the semifinals of the 50 freestyle before returning to the deck one more time to anchor the 4x100 mixed medley relay, a new Olympic event that features two men and two women.
He’ll likely dive into the pool with a big deficit since he’s the only man in the field to swim the freestyle leg.
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American Caeleb Dressel will be the lone male anchor on the freestyle leg in the 4x100-meter mixed medley relay final. The event is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
The U.S. team will consist of Ryan Murphy, Lydia Jacoby, Torri Huske and Dressel, with the Americans swapping out all of their swimmers who competed in the preliminaries.
As the only team with a man swimming the final leg, the Americans will be facing a deficit going into the last 100 meters. They’ll leave it to Dressel to overhaul the field in a bid for gold.
ROC, Italy and China are going with the traditional order of two men and then two women. Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and Israel are going with a woman, two men swimming the middle legs and a woman on the anchor leg.
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Great Britain has won gold in the triathlon mixed relay, making it the winningest national team in the history of the sport.
The U.S. took silver and France claimed bronze in the mixed relay at Odaiba Marine Park.
Georgia Taylor-Brown, Jessica Learmonth, Alex Yee and Jonathan Brownlee made up the team that gave Great Britain its third triathlon gold and eighth overall medal, besting Switzerland’s record.
Taylor-Brown and Yee both also medaled in the individual contests earlier in the week, bringing home silver in the women’s and men’s events, respectively.
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Hong Kong’s rising star Siobhán Haughey has withdrawn from the semifinals of the 50-meter freestyle at the Olympics because of a hip injury.
The 23-year-old swimmer earned a silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle on Friday, to go with the silver she won in the 200 free two days earlier. They are the first swimming medals won by Hong Kong.
Her coach, Rick Bishop, said the injury first bothered her during the 100 free, but she kept going. She finished 15th in the 50 free preliminaries.
Hong Kong was cheering her on, excited to see success for the first time at the Olympic pool. Her two silvers are among six medals won by the country since it first competed in the Summer Games in 1952.
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Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare has been provisionally suspended after a positive test for human growth hormone. She was due to run in the semifinals of the women’s 100 meters at the Olympics on Saturday.
The Athletics Integrity Unit said Okagbare tested positive in an out-of-competition test on July 19. The AIU says it was only informed of the finding on Friday, after Okagbare had already run in the 100-meter heats at the Tokyo Games.
The AIU informed Okagbare of the finding and her provisional suspension on Saturday morning.
Okagbare won her heat in 11.05 seconds at the Olympic Stadium to progress to the semis.
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