Australia’s McKeown wins seventh relay gold

[ad_1]

Tokyo (AFP) – The latest Olympic Games in Tokyo, which are being held under severe restrictions after a year-long delay due to the coronavirus pandemic:

___

Medal alert

Emma McKeown won her historic seventh swimming medal at the Tokyo Olympics by winning Australia in the women’s 4×100 medley relay.

The 27-year-old from Brisbane became the first swimmer to win seven medals in a single match. The only men who have done this are Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi.

Capped by a superb performance by the entire Australian women’s team, McKeown followed up her 50-freestyle victory earlier in the session to take the Butterfly Man on the relay. Kate Campbell closed in strong in the freestyle, setting an Olympic record of 3 minutes 51.60 seconds to outlast the two-time defending champions Americans.

Kylie McKeown and Chelsea Hodges kicked things off for the winning Australian team.

Abbey Weitzeil touched in 3:51.73 to give the United States silver. She founded a team that also included teens Reagan Smith, Lydia Jacobi, and Tori Hosky.

Bronze went to Canada with a time of 3:52.60.

___

Medal alert

Britain’s Charlotte Worthington performed at her BMX Olympics freestyle debut, landing her first 360-degree back lip in the women’s competition to take down American Hannah Roberts at the Tokyo Olympics.

Roberts, a three-time world champion at 19, set the bar for her inaugural career, landing at the back with tails flipping at 96.1.

Worthington crashed in her first run, but pulled out all the stopping points in the second. The 25-year-old added an anterior-to-rear heart of hers 360 and closed in with another posterior heart for 97.5.

Top seed Roberts had a chance to overtake the Briton, but she fell hard from an early jump and loomed over the rest of her second run.

Swiss Nikita Ducaroz won the bronze with a record of 89.2 in her second round.

___

Medal alert

American Bobby Fink wins gold in the men’s 1500m freestyle.

The American won his second gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics with another powerful final blow.

Just as he did in winning the 800m freestyle, Finke stayed locked up throughout the 30-lap race and set the pace at the end. Touchdown at 14 minutes 39.65 seconds.

Ukraine’s Mikhailo Romanchuk took the silver with a time of 14:40.66, while Germany’s Florian Willbrück won the bronze with a time of 14:40.91. Italian Gregorio Baltrinieri fell to fourth place with a time of 14: 45.01.

The top four places were close for almost the entire race, often separated by less than a second when cornering. But that was where Venky had to be. After the closing lap in the 800, he knew he finally had the speed to beat everyone else.

Finke may have been America’s biggest surprise in the pool. Relatively unknown before the American trials, he became the first American man to win the 1500 since Mike O’Brien at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

___

Medal alert

Australia’s Emma McKeown won the women’s 50m freestyle gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

This is the sixth medal in matches for the Australian star, who has another chance to reach seventh place in the 4×100 medley relay.

McKeown completed a 50- and 100-meter freestyle sweep with an Olympic record time of 23.81 seconds. The silver medal went to Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in 24.07, while the reigning Olympic champion of Denmark Pernel Bloom settled for bronze this time with a time of 24.21.

American Abby Wetzel finished last in the eight women’s field.

___

Medal alert

American Caleb Dressel won his fourth gold medal in swimming at the Tokyo Olympics by winning the 50-meter freestyle.

Dressel pulled off a relatively easy victory in the frantic lunge from one end of the pool to the other, setting an Olympic record of 21.07 seconds.

France’s Florent Manaudou repeated his Olympic silver medal with a time of 21.55 seconds, while Brazilian Bruno Fratos took bronze with a time of 21.57 times – beating American Michael Andrew to finish last on the podium.

Dressel earned another gold medal in the 4×100 medley relay, an event the United States did not lose at the Olympics. He will swim with the leg of a butterfly in a race that culminates in nine days of swimming competitions at the Tokyo Aquatic Center.

If Dressel scores a fifth win, he will join Americans Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, as well as East German Christine Otto, as the only swimmers to win five gold medals in a single Olympics. Phelps did it three times.

___

Katie Ledecky is bid farewell to the Tokyo Games with four medals, two of them gold.

The American swimming star took to Twitter to post her thanks to the people of Tokyo and everyone who gave her “enormous support this week and over the years!” Even though the stands were largely empty at the Olympic pool due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ledecky says she “could hear you all!”

Not quite as successful as she was at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Ledecky swept her three singles events and also won a gold and a silver medal in the relay.

But she won gold in her two longest races, the 800 and 1500-meter freestyle, as well as swimming in the shining leg of the anchor that nearly pulled off a gold for the United States in the 4×200 freestyle relay.

Along the way, Ledecky became the first swimmer to win six individual gold medals in her career, the first woman to win 800 freestyle medals in three consecutive Olympics, and one of only five American female swimmers to win 10 professional medals.

At 24, Lydecky has no plans to stop swimming.

___

Disturb alert

Americans Sarah Spoonsell and Kelly Claes were knocked out of the beach volleyball tournament after losing three sets to Canada in the opening match of the knockout round.

Heather Bansley and Brandi Wilkerson beat the United States 22-24, 21-18, 15-13 at Shiokazi Park. The Americans Phil Dalhauser and Nick Lucina are scheduled to meet in Qatar in the afternoon session.

Claes and Spoonsell entered the games as the world’s most popular team, winning the last two events of the extended pandemic qualifying period to finish second for the United States in Tokyo. In the process, they knocked out Olympian Kerry Walsh Jennings five times.

___

– More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

.

[ad_2]