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Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt mentioned he by no means had a doubt he would win the triathlon, and his confidence by no means wavered as he pulled away late to take the gold.
The highest contenders spent a lot of Monday’s race biding their time, with all of the favourites within the combine following the swim and bike legs, however Blummenfelt drove the tempo on the ultimate leg.
When the lead group winnowed all the way down to himself, Nice Britain’s Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde of New Zealand, Blummenfelt urged the 23-year-olds to maintain the hammer down – then ran away from them in the long run.
One final kick over the ultimate kilometre put Blummenfelt atop the rostrum, with Yee taking silver and Wilde bronze.
“We have been like 10 guys within the operating lead and when he picked up the tempo I noticed that we have been all the way down to 4 and I attempted to get [Yee] motivated to maintain the tempo,” Blummenfelt informed reporters.
“I mentioned, ‘Guys, we have now a medal now, hold the fuel on,’ and I believe that for Alex and Hayden it is a nice second to get an Olympic medal, too.”
Yee’s compatriot Jonathan Brownlee, who gained silver within the occasion in Rio and bronze in London as his brother Alistair took gold in each races, completed fifth on Monday.
“I informed myself final evening that each one I can do is attempt my hardest and earlier than that, put together,” Brownlee mentioned. “I did all the pieces I may, I obtained prepared for the warmth, I educated as arduous as I may, had an important workforce round me and that is all you’ll be able to ask.
“I believe I have been very, very lucky in my two Olympic Video games, I’ve had two medals. It is arduous to carry out and I’ve carried out effectively in three.”
‘NERVOUS’ OSAKA KEEPS ROLLING
Taking part in for the second consecutive day, second-seed Naomi Osaka confirmed no indicators of fatigue as she cruised to a 6-3 6-2 second-round victory over Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic on Sunday.
Japan’s large hope Osaka needed to play back-to-back after having her schedule altered following the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron Friday, and the opposite prime girls in motion regarded simply as sturdy after a break day Sunday.
“Truthfully, I really feel like I used to be a bit extra nervous earlier than the match,” Osaka informed reporters. “I felt a whole lot of butterflies, however I believe as I began taking part in and feeling extra snug, I knew that it doesn’t matter what it might be an important match.”
After pulling out of the French Open earlier than the second spherical and skipping Wimbledon, the four-time grand slam winner has not had a lot match time over the final two months, however her purpose in Tokyo stays the identical.
“It will imply loads to win gold right here, however I do know it is a course of,” she mentioned. “I do know these are the perfect gamers on the earth, and truthfully I have never performed shortly, so I am making an attempt to take it one notch at a time.
“All in all, I am simply actually pleased to be right here. I have never been in Tokyo for a few years.”
In different early matches, seventh-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain rolled previous China’s Wang Qiang 6-3 6-0, whereas eighth seed Barbora Krejcikova had a more durable time with Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez earlier than shifting on 6-2 6-4 and eleventh seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-1 6-1.
MACNEIL EARNS CANADA’S FIRST GOLD
It took Margaret MacNeil a couple of moments to understand she had gained Canada’s first gold medal of the Tokyo Video games.
The 21-year-old normally wears contact lenses however doesn’t put them on when she is within the pool, so she needed to focus to see her title atop the scoreboard after the 100m butterfly on the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
“I prefer to verify the scoreboard fairly shortly, nevertheless it’s arduous simply because I haven’t got contacts,” she mentioned. “It does take me a minute to learn the scoreboard, so I used to be simply making an attempt to squint and see the place I got here.”
Her imaginative and prescient issues could have been a profit throughout the race, which noticed her edge China’s Zhang Yufei by 0.05 from lane seven.
“I may hardly see anybody on the far aspect of the pool, which I believe helped me loads, as a result of I used to be in a position to simply focus by myself race,” MacNeil mentioned. “I simply put my head down and tried to get to the wall as quick as attainable. I am actually glad all of it got here collectively.”
Whereas MacNeil took the primary gold medal within the pool Monday, her win was overshadowed by later occasions.
Nice Britain’s Adam Peaty defended his Olympic title within the 100m breaststroke, whereas Ariarne Titmus of Australia dethroned the reigning champion Katie Ledecky within the 400m freestyle.
Within the closing medal occasion of the day, Caeleb Dressel – Michael Phelps’ inheritor obvious – and the USA gained the 4x100m freestyle relay by 1.14 seconds over Italy.
UPSETS ABOUND IN FENCING
Three of the highest six girls on the earth have been eradicated early within the girls’s sabre competitors Monday.
High-ranked Olga Kharlan of Ukraine, twice a bronze medallist, fell to Yang Hengyu of China 15-12 within the spherical of 32 to finish her hopes of a 3rd straight medal.
Fourth-ranked Shao Yaqi of China and world quantity six Anne-Elizabeth Stone of the USA went out in the identical spherical.
Sofia Velikaya of Russia, who took silver in Rio, stays alive heading into the quarter-finals later Monday together with 2016 fourth-place finisher Manon Brunet of France.
REIGNING CHAMPIONS FIJI OPEN RUGBY SEVENS PLAY
Reigning gold medallists Fiji rallied within the second half to defeat Japan 24-19 in a rematch of the Rio 2016 semi-finals.
Fiji trailed 19-12 however fought again by way of a pair of tries and a conversion from substitute Waisea Nacuqu within the closing 4 minutes.
The workforce they beat for gold 5 years in the past, Nice Britain, opened play with a flourish, thrashing Canada 24-0, whereas New Zealand crushed South Korea 50-5.
Fourth-place finishers in 2016, South Africa defeated Eire 33-14 whereas Argentina beat Australia 29-19 and the USA edged Kenya 19-14.
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