It”s the last day at the Tokyo Olympics and it’s another strong day for team sports and on the cycling tracks.
After 17 days of the world’s 11,000 best athletes battling it out, the closing ceremony will call time on the games at 13:00 CEST.
Here’s a recap of who won what on the last day.
Handball
France’s women’s team secured their first-ever Olympic title, beating the team from Russia 30-25.
Scores were level at 16-16 midway through the second half before six straight goals for France and a string of saves by goalkeeper Cleopatre Darleux took the game out of the Russians’ reach.
France’s Pauletta Foppa and Allison Pineau had seven goals each, and so did Russian player Polina Vedekhina.
France also won the men’s tournament in Saturday’s final against Denmark and becomes the first country to win both handball events at the same Olympics since Yugoslavia in 1984.
Norway matched its women’s bronze from 2016 with a commanding 36-19 win over Sweden.
Men’s marathon
Eliud Kipchoge pulled away late and no one could come close to catching him as the 36-year-old from Kenya defended his Olympic marathon title.
Kipchoge finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 38 seconds on a breezy and humid Sunday along the streets of Sapporo. It was more than 80 seconds ahead of runner-up Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands. Bashir Abdi of Belgium earned bronze to close out the track and field portion of the Tokyo Games.
Kipchoge smiled along the way and even fist-bumped a fellow racer. Kipchoge becomes the third athlete to win multiple gold medals in the men’s marathon, joining Abebe Bikila (1960, ’64) and Waldemar Cierpinski (’76, ’80).
Boxing
Andy Cruz has won Cuba’s fourth boxing gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, beating U.S. lightweight Keyshawn Davis 4:1 in the final.
Cruz beat Davis for the fourth consecutive time in their amateur careers, but he had to rally with an impressive third round after Davis swept the second on all five judges’ cards.
Armenia’s Hovhannes Bachkov and Australia’s Harry Garside won the bronze medals.
Kellie Anne Harrington of Ireland has won gold in the women’s lightweight division, beating Beatriz Ferreira of Brazil 5:0 in a close bout.
Harrington is a 31-year-old career amateur who spent the past half-decade waiting for her shot to follow in the footsteps of Katie Taylor, who won gold for Ireland at the inaugural women’s Olympic boxing tournament in London.
Finland’s Mira Potkonen and Thailand’s Sudaporn Seesondee won bronze.
Lauren Price of Britain has won gold in the women’s middleweight division, beating China’s Li Qian 5:0 in a one-sided bout.
Price claimed Britain’s second gold medal and sixth medal overall in Tokyo with a solid performance against Li. Price is the first woman to win gold at middleweight after Claressa Shields, the American two-time champion.
Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands and Zemfira Magomedalieva won bronze.
Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan has won gold at super heavyweight in the final boxing match of the Tokyo Olympics, dominating a 5:0 victory over Richard Torrez Jr. of the United States.
Torrez claimed the third silver for the U.S., which had its most successful Olympics since 2000 in terms of total medals. Frazer Clarke of Britain and Kazakh Kamshybek Kunkabayev won bronze.
Volleyball
The United States won its first Olympic gold medal ever in women’s volleyball by beating Brazil in straight sets.
The U.S. had won silver three times and bronze twice previously for the most medals by any country that hadn’t won gold. But the Americans finally completed that quest by beating the country that denied them gold in the final match in both 2008 and 2012.
Serbia beat South Korea for the bronze medal.
Water polo
Filip Filipovic and Serbia have won their second straight gold medal in men’s water polo, beating Greece 13-10 in the final event of the Tokyo Olympics.
Serbia finished third in Group B, but it raised its game to another level when the quarterfinals rolled around — just like it did when it won gold in 2016.
Serbia became the first country to repeat as Olympic champion since Hungary won three in a row from 2000 to 2008. It earned its fourth medal in its fourth appearance in the Olympics’ oldest team sport.
Greece also matched the country’s best result in a team sport at the Olympics, joining a silver medal in women’s water polo at the Athens Games.
Hungary has won the bronze medal in men’s water polo, topping Spain 9-5.
Basketball
The United States won its seventh straight gold medal in women’s basketball, beating Japan 90-75.
A’ja Wilson added 19 points and Breanna Stewart scored 14 as the Americans dominated inside again. The U.S. extended its Olympic winning streak to 55 consecutive games dating to the 1992 bronze medal game.
Japan finished with the silver in the host nation’s first appearance in the medal round. Japan finished eighth at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Track cycling
Jason Kenny has become Britain’s most decorated Olympian by defending his gold medal in the keirin. That gave Kenny seven golds to break a tie with cyclist Chris Hoy and nine overall to break a tie with Bradley Wiggins.
Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia outsprinted Dutch rider Harrie Lavreysen for the silver medal.
Kelsey Mitchell of Canada has won gold in the women’s sprint event in track cycling, sweeping past Olena Starikova of Ukraine at the Izu Velodrome.
Mitchell upset reigning world champion Emma Hinze of Germany in the semifinals before facing off with Starikova, who likewise had upset 2019 world champion Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong in her semifinal match.
Lee easily swept past Hinze to win the bronze medal.
Jennifer Valente got up from a crash in the women’s omnium-ending points race to hang on for the gold medal, capping what had been an otherwise frustrating and disappointing Olympics for American cycling.
Valente won the opening scratch race, picked up three sprints in the points race and performed well in the elimination race to take an eight-point lead into the points race, where points are awarded for sprints every 10 laps.
Yumi Kajihara took silver for Japan. Kirsten Wild earned bronze for the Netherlands.
Gymnastics
The Russian rhythmic gymnastics juggernaut collapsed in Tokyo, with the country’s team losing the gold medal to Bulgaria a day after losing the individual competition to Israel.
Russia claimed silver medals in both.
Russia has been dominant in the sport for decades. It has won gold medals in both the group and individual competitions in every Olympics since 2000, but the winning streak ended this year.
Linoy Ashram of Israel won gold in the individual competition Saturday, edging out a pair of Russian identical twins who were the favorites heading into Tokyo.
On Sunday, Bulgaria’s five-woman team won gold by beating the Russians in the group final, a two-part competition beginning with routines where performers dance with balls, followed by a set of hoops and clubs. Italy placed third.
Source: Euro News
