Tokyo Olympics LIVE updates Winning start for Barty in doubles Typhoon concern

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Australia’s women are playing Canada. The third quarter has just started and the Aussies lead 5-3.

He’s the old man of the Olyroos party, but striker Mitch Duke believes the high energy and youthful enthusiasm of his team-mates allied to the sense of destiny instilled by coach Graham Arnold can propel Australia towards an unlikely football gold medal.

Thirty-year-old Duke, who played for Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League last season, says that the togetherness in the Olyroos camp is the secret weapon which can help Arnold’s team build on their stunning opening 2-0 win over a ten man Argentina, a result that sent shockwaves through the soccer world.

More here from Michael Lynch.

Lachlan Wales throws himself forward to score for the Olyroos against Argentina. Credit:AP

There are multiple ways to piece together a winning a 400m freestyle race. The event is long enough for frontrunners to force the pace and break the hearts of those in the chasing pack, or for others to sit off the lead, conserve pockets of energy and rattle home like a runaway train over the final two laps.

There are just as many ways to lose. Contract white-line fever and you can spend valuable physical and emotional capital at the wrong end of the contest. If you mistime your final surge, or fail to bound off the wall at the ultimate turn, all the back-end speed in the world won’t help if someone else clings on to touch the wall first.

More here from Phil Lutton in Tokyo.

Katie Ledecky and Ariarne TitmusCredit:Getty

The bullseye of an air rifle target is like a Texta dot on a wall 10 metres away. Amid the riotous noise and colour of an Olympic Games, this half millimetre space is all that matters; the tiniest of eyes in sport’s biggest storm.

The first time Katarina Kowplos trained her rifle on it in Saturday morning’s competition at Asaka Shooting Range and felt the familiar, mechanical snap, a comforting thought occurred to her. “Taking the first shot made me realise that I’m now officially an Olympian,” she later explained.

More from Chip Le Grand in Tokyo.

Katarina Kowplos takes time out to speak with her coach.Credit:AP

China criticised NBC Universal for showing an “incomplete map” of the country in its broadcast of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, after a map displayed during the arrival of Chinese athletes included neither Taiwan nor the South China Sea.

The Chinese consulate in New York said the display “hurt the dignity and emotions of the Chinese people”, in a post on its official Weibo social media platform on Saturday.

Comcast-owned NBC, which holds U.S. broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games, did not immediately reply to a request for comment sent through its official contacts page.

The Chinese consulate did not specify why it objected to the map but said: “We urge NBC to recognise the serious nature of this problem and take measures to correct the error.”

China’s state-controlled Global Times newspaper also criticised the Olympics broadcast and the display of the map.

Maps’ references to self-ruled Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea have stirred controversy in recent years, with Johns Hopkins University last year reversing a decision to show Taiwan as part of China on a map indicating the spread of the coronavirus.

Two years ago, U.S. retailer Gap Inc apologised for selling a T-shirt that it said had an incorrect map of China. A picture posted to social media showed that the T-shirt did not include the island of Taiwan or the South China Sea.

-Reuters

Why the long face?

Simple. A pus-filled horse tooth has spelled the end of Victoria Max-Theurer’s Olympic dressage dreams.

The Austrian’s 11-year-old horse, Abegglen NRW, had been behaving strangely in training and, while the Olympic opening ceremony was underway on Friday night, a health check and x-Ray revealed a tooth infection. It would have been her fifth Olympic start.

“This news is a heavy setback for Victoria. We hope that Abegglen will feel better soon and that Victoria will continue on her path,” said Peter Mennel, of the Austrian Olympic Committee.

Max-Theurer’s team mates Christian Schumach and Florian Bacher will now compete only as individuals.

On Saturday and Sunday the world’s best riders and horses in dressage, also known as “horse ballet”, will compete in qualifiers for a chance to win team and individual medals on July 27 and 28.

Germany’s Isabell Werth, the most decorated Olympian of her sport, and Britain’s dressage world number one Charlotte Dujardin, are hot medal contenders.

-Reuters

And that’s it. World no.1 Ash Barty’s Olympic Games is off to a winning start, combining for an easy victory with Storm Sanders in their women’s doubles first round match in Tokyo.

Storm Sanders and Ash BartyCredit:Getty

If there were any nerves or heavy legs after her recent Wimbledon title, there was nothing on show from Barty as she sported a big smile with her childhood friend after a 6-1 6-2 win over Japan’s Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya in less than an hour.

It’s been a good day on the courts for the Australians, with John Millman edging into the second round of the men’s singles. But Sam Stosur, playing in a fifth Olympic Games, was eliminated.

Tokyo Olympics organisers said on Saturday they have tried to find solutions to encourage athletes with young children after a Spanish swimmer earlier this week said she had to leave her breastfeeding infant at home.

Anti-coronavirus restrictions are being enforced in the Japanese capital as it battles a rise in new cases, and Games participants are subject to stringent measures to minimise the risk of infection and its spread beyond.

“As soon as we heard about this (mothers not being able to travel with their children) we said let’s find solutions,” Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi told a news conference.

Organisers have said an area in the Olympic village was available for athletes to safely spend time with and breastfeed their children, but that the latter must stay in private accommodation.

The issue came to prominence after Spanish synchronised swimmer Ona Carbonell expressed anguish in an Instagram post at having to travel to Tokyo without her husband and son, Kai, who is nearly one, because under pre-Games travel rules they would have had to stay in quarantine in a separate hotel.

“For me to go and breastfeed Kai whenever he needs it during the day I would have to leave the Olympic village, the team’s bubble, and go to the hotel, risking my team’s health,” she said.

While only Games-related foreigners were initially allowed to enter Japan, organisers have now given the opportunity to athletes to have their children in Japan. They would not, however, be able to live in the athletes’ village, organisers said, in order to protect other competitors from the risk of infections.

“We were discussing how we could have a good balance between delivering the safest, secure environment and meeting the special requests by the National Olympic Committees,” said Tokyo Games spokesman Masa Takaya on Saturday.

“We do have certain guidance to enable athletes to travel with their children to Japan. Given the situation they cannot have access inside the village.”

So far the Games, which officially opened yesterday, have had 123 disclosed COVID-19 cases, a number of them athletes who will now miss their competitions.

-Reuters

Wimbledon champion Ash Barty is off to a flying start in her Olympic Games campaign, teaming up with Storm Sanders to coast through the first set of their women’s doubles first round match.

Barty and fellow Queenslander Sanders needed just 23 minutes to blow past their Japanese rivals Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya 6-1. The Australians are the sixth seeds in the draw.

Barty will start her tilt at a singles gold medal on Sunday.

Russian gymnast Artur Dalaloyan prevailed over a recent Achilles injury to clinch an unlikely spot in the all-around final at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, competing on the vault and floor despite having planned to sit out the events to spare his leg.

The 25-year-old severed his Achilles in training before the European Championships and had surgery in April. He recovered partially and was named to the Russian men’s Olympic team.

Artur Dalaloyan performs on the pommel horse.Credit:AP

Dalaloyan finished fourth all-around in the first subdivision of qualifications, behind compatriot Nikita Nagornyy and China’s Xiao Ruoteng and Sun Wei. The top 24 gymnasts - a maximum of two per country - will qualify for the all-around final on July 28.

Dalaloyan, who hadn’t been sure he would compete at all given his health, was in tears on the sidelines, bending over on a chair after the floor exercise.

“I was filled with joy that I found the strength to compete on the vault and floor,” said Dalaloyan, the 2018 world all-around champion. “But I also had feelings of frustration because I expected more of myself.”

The Russian men’s team took silver at the 2016 Rio Games and have not won gold in the event since 1996. They are looking to improve on their result from the last Olympics. Russian athletes are competing in Tokyo as representatives of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

Reuters

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