Olympics Day 12 round up: Thompson doubles up, Bolt cruises
August 18, 2016
Jamaica enjoyed another dominant day on the track in Rio on Wednesday. First, Usain Bolt qualified easily for the men's 200m final as he continued his hunt for three golds in Rio to add to the three he won in London in 2012 and Beijing in 2008. Bolt crossed the line in 19.78 seconds alongside his main rival, Canadian Andre de Grasse.
"He was supposed to slow down," Bolt said after the race. "I said, 'What are you doing, it's a semi-final?' But I think he wanted to push me. I was a bit lazy, I don't know why, but I executed and got round."
Bolt's compatriot Elaine Thompson later offered a template for sprint success as she added the women's 200m to the 100m title she won on Saturday. Thompson flew out of the blocks and never gave Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers a chance to catch her. Schippers came in second and Tori Bowie of the United States won bronze. The Jamaican will have the chance to complete a treble of her own in the relays later this week.The news wasn't so good for one American in the men's 200m. justin Gatlin, silver medallist in the 100m in Rio and Bolt's biggest rival, was a shock casualty in the semifinals, after he came third in a time of 20.13 seconds and was eliminated.
The men's steeplechase was won by Kenya's Conseslus Kipruto, who dominated the field to win in an Olympic record time of 8 minutes 3.28sec. American Evan Jager took silver while double Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi, also of Kenya, claimed bronze but was later disqualified for stepping on the infield.
In the men's football, Germany and Brazil both won their semifinals comfortably to set up a re-match of the 2014 Word Cup semifinal, also in Brazil, which Germany won 7-1. Brazil's captain and talisman Neymar scored the fastest ever goal in the Olympics after 15 seconds of his side's 6-0 win over Honduras.
The US men's basketball team overcame a tight first quarter to cruise to a 105-78 win over Argentina and book a semi final against Spain. Kevin Durant starred for America with 27 points.
The last four fixture will be a repeat of the final at the previous two Olympics in London and Beijing. Australia will meet either Croatia or Serbia in the other semifinal.
For the third straight Olympics, China completed a clean sweep in the table tennis as the men's team beat Japan 3-1 in the last gold medal final. Germany had earlier beaten South Korea to take bronze.
Japan dominate wrestling, first gold for Indonesia
In the wrestling, Japan swept all before them to claim every gold going in the women's section. Sara Dosho rallied to beat fourth-ranked Natalia Vorobeva of Russia in the 69 kilograms on a takedown with 30 seconds remaning of the day's last match.
Dosho's teammates Icho and Eri Tosaka claimed titles earlier on Wednesday, with Icho winning a wrestling-record fourth gold medal. And India finally won a spot on a Rio podium thanks to Sakshi Malik 's in the 58kg class.
In badminton, Indonesia's Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir defeated Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia to win mixed doubles gold. It was Indonesia's first gold of the Rio Games.
Finally, there was a gold for France in the team showjumping, with the United States and Germany winning silver and bronze, while Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand became the first player to top a women's Olympic golf leaderboard in 116 years.
Away from the sporting action, Patrick Hickey, the head of the Olympic Council of Ireland, temporarily stood down from all Olympic roles after his arrest over illegal ticket sales and American swimmers Ryan Lochte and James Feigen had their passports seized as doubts over their claim to have been mugged at gunpoint in Rio emerged.