Today at the Olympics: Europeans take gold in BMX

Bethany Shriever of Britain won gold in the women's BMX race while Kye Whyte won silver in the men's
Bethany Shriever of Britain won gold in the women's BMX race while Kye Whyte won silver in the men's Copyright Ben Curtis/AP
By Euronews with AP
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Friday sees the start of track and field events at the Tokyo Olympics, with one medal up for grabs today in the men’s 10,000 meters.

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Friday sees the start of track and field events at the Tokyo Olympics, with one medal up for grabs today in the men’s 10,000 metres.

It’s the last event of the evening session.

Meanwhile there was more water-based action with rowing and swimming, which saw the first individual swimming world record at these games, in the women’s 200-metre breaststroke.

Here's a recap of who won what today:

BMX

Great Britain’s Bethany Shriever has spoiled Colombian Mariana Pajon’s bid for a third straight gold medal in BMX racing.

Shriever jumped out to an early lead and held off Pajon at the finish in her first Olympics. Dutch rider Merel Smulders took bronze.

Pajon became the first rider to win two BMX racing gold medals with her victory at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands won the men’s race, edging Great Britain’s Kye Whyte at the finish line. Carlos Ramirez Yepes of Colombia took bronze.

Reigning men’s gold medalist Connor Fields of the United States did not make it to the finals after a violent crash in the third semifinal heat.

He was taken off on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance after crashing on the first turn. A doctor said he is “awake and awaiting further medical evaluation”.

Shooting

Russian shooter Vitalina Batsarashkina won her second gold and third medal of the Tokyo Olympics, beating Korea’s Kim Minjung in a shootoff in women’s 25-metre pistol.

Alex Brandon/AP
Vitalina Batsarashkina, of the Russian Olympic Committee, competes in the women's 25-meter pistolAlex Brandon/AP

Batsarashkina tied Kim with 38 points and won the shootoff 4-1. China’s Xiao Jiaruxuan took bronze.

Batsarashkina also won gold in 10-meter air pistol and teamed with Artem Chernousov to take silver in 10-meter mixed team air pistol. She also took silver in 10-meter air pistol at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Meanwhile, San Marino became the smallest ever country to win an Olympic medal, after Alessandra Perilli won bronze in the women's trap.

Swimming

South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker has set the first individual swimming world record at the Tokyo Olympics.

She won the women’s 200-metre breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona.

The United States claimed the other two medals.

It was the third world record at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with the first two coming in women’s relays.

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China’s Wang Shun has captured gold in the men’s 200-metre individual medley at the Tokyo Olympics.

Wang edged Britain’s Duncan Scott with a time of 1 minute, 55.00 seconds. Scott took the silver in 1:55.28, while the bronze went to Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches in 1:56.17.

Emma McKeon has earned another gold medal for the Australian women at the Olympic pool.

McKeon touched first in the 100-metre freestyle with an Olympic-record time of 51.96 seconds, becoming only the second woman to break 52 seconds in the sprint.

Jae C. Hong/AP
Emma Mckeon, of Australia, right, celebrates with teammate Cate Campbell after winning the women's 100-meter freestyle finalJae C. Hong/AP

Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey claimed the silver in 52.27, while Aussie Cate Campbell took the bronze in 52.52.

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Russia’s Evgeny Rylov has completed a backstroke sweep at the Tokyo Olympics.

Rylov added the 200-metre backstroke title to his victory in the 100 back, winning with an Olympic-record time of 1 minute, 53.29 seconds.

The silver went to American Ryan Murphy in 1:54.15, while Britain’s Luke Greenbank grabbed the bronze in 1:54.72.

Murphy was a double-gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Games, extending America’s dominance of the backstroke events that went back to 1992.

Rylov ended the US winning streak with his two golds in Tokyo. Murphy settled for a bronze and silver this time.

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American backstroke star Ryan Murphy, who claimed silver, suggested that his Olympic races were “probably not clean,” seeming to take aim at the Russian swimmers who beat him in two events.

At a news conference with the other medalists, Murphy said he wasn’t making any allegations and congratulated Rylov.

Rowing

New Zealand held off a late charge from Germany over the final 250 meters to win the men’s eight in the final rowing event of the Tokyo Games.

Great Britain rallied late to take bronze.

Canada has won the rowing women's eight gold medal. They stormed to an early lead, then held off New Zealand over the final 200 metres to win.

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China finished third for the bronze medal.

Greece’s Stefanos Ntouskos made a strong closing burst over the the final 250 meters to win the men’s single sculls at the Sea Forest Waterway.

AP Photo/Darron Cummings
Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece competes in the men's rowing single sculls finalAP Photo/Darron Cummings

Norway’s Kjetil Borch won silver. Croatia’s Damir Martin rallied late to take the bronze.

New Zealand’s Emma Twigg won gold in the women's single sculls. She bolted to an early lead, then finished with a surge over the final 500 metres to dominate.

Twigg had finished fourth in the previous two Olympics but easily shrugged off Russia’s Hanna Prakatsen, who won silver at the Sea Forest Waterway.

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Magdalena Lobnig of Austria won bronze.

Judo

Lukáš Krpálek has claimed his second Olympic gold medal in judo for the Czech Republic, winning the talent-stacked men’s heavyweight division with an ippon victory over Georgia’s Guram Tushishvili in the final at the Budokan.

AP Photo/Vincent Thian
Gold medalist Lukas Krpalek of the Czech Republic poses during the medal ceremony for men's +100kg judo competition at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, July 30, 2021.AP Photo/Vincent Thian

French star Teddy Riner’s quest for a record-tying third consecutive Olympic gold medal ended in the quarterfinals with a narrow loss to Russian athlete Tamerlan Bashaev, who then lost a spectacularly well-fought semifinal to Krpálek. Riner still won his fourth Olympic medal. He claimed bronze with a victory over Hisayoshi Hasagawa.

The women’s heavyweight gold medal was claimed by Akira Sone — giving Japan its ninth gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics — who beat Cuba's Idalys Ortiz.

Iryna Kindzerska of Azerbaijan and France’s Romane Dicko won bronze for their first Olympic medals.

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Tennis

The top-seeded pair of Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic won Olympic gold in men’s doubles tennis.

Mektic and Pavic beat Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 in an all-Croatian final.

The New Zealand team of Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus took bronze by beating Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren of the United States 7-6 (3), 6-2.

Badminton

The mixed double gold medal was won by China's Wang Yi Lyu and Huang Dong Ping who played against teammates Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya.

The match, which lasted a little over an hour Friday, was tight throughout, with both teams exchanging long rallies filled with smashes and lunging, rapid-fire returns.

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Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino took bronze.

Fencing

Japan became the first Asian nation to win Olympic gold in men’s épée team fencing by beating the Russian team 45-36.

No team from outside Europe had made the podium since Cuba at the 2000 Sydney Games.

South Korea beat China 45-42 for the bronze medal.

Track and field

Ethiopia's Selemon Barega won the first track and field gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with victory in the men’s 10,000 metres.

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Barega won in 27 minutes, 43.22 seconds to upset world champion and world-record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda. Cheptegei took the silver medal and Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda was third.

AP Photo/Petr David Josek
Selemon Barega, of Ethiopia, celebrates after winning the men's 10,000-meter run at the 2020 Summer Olympics, July 30, 2021, in Tokyo.AP Photo/Petr David Josek

Archery

An San of South Korea has won her third straight archery gold medal at the Tokyo Games after coming on top in a shoot-off in the finalof the women’s individual event against Russia'sElena Osipova.

Lucilla Boari of Italy beat Mackenzie Brown of the United States by a 7-1 score for bronze. Brown nearly knocked off An in the semifinals, losing 6-5 in a shoot-off.

Table tennis

Ma Long defended his Olympic title in men’s table tennis by beating Chinese teammate Fan Zhendong 11-4, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-7.

Ma’s win marks the fourth straight Olympics that Chinese men have swept the gold and silver medals in singles.

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German veteran Dimitrij Ovtcharov won his second bronze medal by beating 19-year-old Lin Yun Ju of Taiwan.

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