Tokyo 2020 Olympics: men’s gymnastics final, Dujardin’s GB medals record and more – live!

Men’s rugby sevens: Fiji retained their Olympic title earlier today in what was one of the feel-good highlights of the Games so far in the humble opinion of this reporter. Floods and covid-19 have made life extremely difficult for the South Pacific islanders in the past year and their rugby team have not seen their friends or families since Easter. They can rest assured that they haven’t been forgotten …

Kon’nichiwa everybody. Plenty of medals have been won today and there are a few more up for grabs, specifically in the men’s and women’s 3×3 basketball, men’s all-around gymnastics and men’s 73kg weightlifting. We’ll all also look back on the day’s events thus far, bringing you all the reaction and look ahead to tomorrow’s schedule.

And with that, I’m going to pass the blogging baton over to Barry Glendenning. You may email him here. Bye!

3×3 Basketball: It’s crunch time in the 3×3 basketball, with all the medals to be decided in the next couple of hours. First up is the women’s bronze medal game, and China are 14-10 up against France with just a couple of minutes to go.

Dressage: It’s a German one-two in the individual dressage! Jessica von Bredow-Werndl wins gold, Isabell Werth comes second in this event for the fifth time, and Charlotte Dujardin claims bronze to become Britain’s most decorated female Olympian!

Swimming: Erika Brown wins the swim-off! Earlier Australia’s Emma McKeon broke the Olympic record over the same distance, and was just the smidgiest smidge away from a world record. “I didn’t expect to go so fast,” McKeon said. “Obviously seeing it was that close I wish had longer fingernails.”

Dressage: Dorothee Schneider appears to be having a difficult time on her horse, Showtime. Dujardin might end up with a medal here!

Swimming: The last race of the day is the women’s 100m freestyle swim-off between Erika Brown and Wu Qinfeng, with the last place in the semi-finals at stake.

Swimming: Australia destroyed their women’s 4x200m freestyle heat, winning by nearly 7sec, and overall were the fastest team by nearly 3sec. They therefore storm into the final, where they are joined by USA, China, Canada, ROC, Germany, France and Hungary.

Dressage: Dujardin’s 88.543% is good enough to put her in third place. Two Germans in Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Isabell Werth are above her, and Dorothee Schneider is the last rider out and can seal a German clean sweep of the medals.

Dressage: There was also “a slight irregularity in the hind leg”. It’s a hopeless case.

Dressage: Dujardin’s horse was also “a bit eager to come into the trot”. I’m not sure there’s any way back from this.

Dressage: Apparently Dujardin’s horse offered too much in the piaffe.

Dressage: Isabell Werth can get no better than silver this year, and could be pushed out of the medals altogether if the last two hit the horsedancing heights, sitting as she currently does in second place. Charlotte Dujardin is out now.

Cycling: Geraint Thomas has posted his reaction to today’s time trial, where he finished 12th:

Tennis: Andy Murray has posted his reaction to today’s doubles defeat, probably his last ever Olympic action:

Dressage: Down to the last three in the horsedancing. Isabell Werth, the 52-year-old German and individual gold-medallist in Atlanta in 1996 (and team gold-medallist all the time because she’s German) is at her sixth Olympic games, has never finished below second, and is horsedancing as I type.

Swimming: The men’s 200m IM heats have finished, and Britain’s Duncan Scott is safely through with the sixth-fastest time, though he was very nearly a second behind the fastest finisher, Michael Andrew.

Cycling: Here’s a piece on Rohan Dennis, the Australian who won time trial bronze for Australia today:

Three years ago, reflecting on a career that, until that point had been defined by adversity rather than triumph, Rohan Dennis insisted: “If you keep knocking on the door, one day it will open.” It was an apt mantra for Dennis, a mercurial cyclist from South Australia. In the three years since, the door has opened – to two individual time trial world championship titles. On Wednesday, five years after a devastating mechanical ruined his medal hopes at the 2016 Olympics, the door opened again – to a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020.

Much more here:

Athletics: Action in the Olympic Stadium starts on Friday. Here’s Sean Ingle on the key British hope, Dina Asher-Smith:

When Dina Asher-Smith ran her first cross-country race in primary school she hated it so much she nearly stopped – only for her parents to bribe her with an ice cream to keep going. It worked – and then some. Asher-Smith ended up sprinting through the field to finish fifth out of 400 and a glittering athletics career was born.

Now, at the age of 25, Asher-Smith has accumulated an athletics CV to die for. It includes five world championship medals – including world 200m gold and 100m silver in Doha in 2019 – as well as a 4x100m bronze at the Rio Olympics and numerous British records. Now she is at her peak and seeking to achieve what no British female sprinter has accomplished before: win Olympic gold over 100m or 200m.

Much more here:

Dressage: The individual horsedancing competition is gradually approaching a conclusion. With five to go Denmark are in first and third, through Cathrine Dufour and Carina Kruth, but the favourites are still to come.

Fencing: It’s gold for South Korea in the men’s team sabre! It was a one-sided final, with Italy thumped 45-26. Aldo Montano went down 5-0 to Oh Sanguk and 5-1 to Kim Junghwan, which didn’t really help.

Swimming: Next up are heats for the men’s 200m individual medley, one of the great Olympic swimming events in my humble opinion. Britain’s Duncan Scott, who won gold in the 4x200m relay earlier today, is among the favourites to win it and goes in the sixth and final heat alongside one of the other favourites, Andrew Michael of the US.

Swimming: Another Olympic record falls in the pool, Tatjana Schoenmaker in the women’s 200m breaststroke – and she was only 0.05sec away from the eight-year-old world record! That’s obviously the fastest time, with the 16 semi-finalists including Molly Renshaw and Abbie Wood of Great Britain, Jenna Strauch of Australia and the Americans Lilly King and Annie Lazor. Another Australian, Abbey Harkin, came 17th and missed out on qualification by 0.14sec.

Hockey: It’s all over at the Oi Hockey Stadium, where Australia have beaten Japan 1-0. In the other women’s pool match currently ongoing Argentina lead China 2-0 in the third quarter.

Swimming: The session catchily known as “Session 9” is ongoing in the Aquatics Centre, and Australia have already broken an Olympic record, Emma McKeon with a time of 52.13 in the women’s 100m freestyle heats. Kate Campbell of Australia also won her heat, safely qualifying with the fourth fastest time. The big drama was that with the fastest 16 finishers qualifying for the semi-finals there was a tie for 16th place. France’s Marie Wattel and the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo will have to swim off at the end of the session.

Hockey: Australia are playing Japan in heir third group game. So far Australia have a 100% record, and Japan are the only team in the group yet to win a point. But this encounter has been surprisingly close, Australia leading 1-0 in the fourth quarter through Madison Mae Fitzpatrick’s third-quarter goal.

Fencing: The men’s team sabre gold final has begun, and either Italy or South Korea will win it. It’s 4-4 in the very early stages.

Here’s a bit more reading for you from around the Guardian:

Diving: Britain didn’t come last in the men’s 3m synchronised final, but it was close:

Rugby sevens: A report on Fiji’s emotional win over New Zealand in the final:

Water polo: In their 20th game of 2021 the US women’s team did something they hadn’t done all year: they lost. Hungary, who had been beaten by the US five times already this year, turned the tables:

Cycling: Geraint Thomas has spoken to PA Media about today’s time trial, and looked back on the road race (when he crashed early on and couldn’t finish) and the Tour de France (when he crashed early on but did finish):

It was tough. I tried to start at a pace to be there or thereabouts for a medal but then I heard I was already 50 seconds down on Roglic and that wasn’t great for morale. I then just had a real bad patch on the second climb and really fell off the watts, I just lost momentum and lost concentration. Then Rohan caught me and that wasn’t good for the head either. I wouldn’t say I was happy with it but I’m content.

It’s been a super hard five weeks. It just seems to be one thing after the next. You stay positive and keep putting your hat in the ring and try not to be scared of failing, but it’s been tough and I’m looking forward to getting away from the cycling world for a bit now.

Tennis: Ashleigh Barty and John Peers are through to the second round of the mixed doubles after they beat Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska and Horacio Zeballos. They stormed through the first set, winning it 6-1 in just 19 minutes, but took 50 minutes to come through the second, 7-6. It was Barty’s second match of the day – she and Storm Sanders had earlier lost to Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles.

Fencing: Bronze to Hungary! Aron Szilagyi reels off two successive points to wrap up victory to Hungary by 45-40. What an effort though from Max Hartung, against the 2012, 2016 and 2020 individual sabre champion!

Fencing: This is absolutely wild fencing. It’s 43-40 to Hungary, and Max Hartung is 14-4 up over Aron Szilagyi.

Fencing: It’s now 42-36, and the wind is in German sails. Hungary will win bronze if they get three more points, but Max Hartung is catching up fast!

Fencing: It’s the men’s team sabre bronze final, and Hungary lead Germany 40-26 with Aron Szilagyi and Max Hartung, the final pair, now on the piste. “It’ll be the greatest comeback of any Olympics and any sport,” says the Eurosport commentator of Germany’s chances.

Cycling: Here’s a report on the women’s time trial, the second gold medal at these Games that Annemiek van Vleuten thought she’d won, and the first she actually did win.

Van Vleuten threw her arms above her head, hugged a Dutch team official and burst into tears in almost the same spot at the Fuji International Speedway circuit where she had beamed to the cameras after mistakenly believing she had won Sunday’s chaotic road race. “I’m number one, right?” she joked.

Much more here:

Tennis: Earlier today Spain’s Paula Badosa, the world No29, abandoned her quarter-final against Naomi Osaka’s conqueror, Marketa Vondrousova, because of heatstroke. She has since pulled out of the mixed doubles. A number of players, including Novak Djokovic, have complained about being forced to play in the middle of the day in high heat and humidity.

The men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev complained about the heat during and after his third-round win over Fabio Fognini: “Even from the first set, I didn’t feel good enough with my breathing. I felt like my diaphragm had blocked. I think it was the most humid day we have had so far.

“Then, in the second set, I just had darkness in my eyes. Between every point I didn’t know what to do to feel better. I was bending over and I couldn’t get my breathing together. I was ready to just fall down on the court. It helped that I won the first set, so I knew there was a 10-minute break. So I went under the cold, freezing shower. When you have such a change of temperature and go out on the hot court, you can fully cramp and it finishes the match for you, or you feel better. I was lucky I felt better.”

Rowing: Barney Ronay was at the Sea Forest Waterway today to see Britain win one silver medal (and finish fourth three times) in six events. Here’s his piece:

Swerving off course, veering out of its lane at the last. Sport loves a metaphor. As Britain’s Olympic rowers reeled off a series of wholehearted but ultimately disappointing finishes at the Tokyo 2020 waterfront it was hard to avoid the sense the men’s coxless four had dished up its own slightly hammy, if unavoidably persuasive image in its final race.

By the end of Wednesday’s programme one thing did seem uncomfortably clear. The choice to allow Jürgen Gröbler to leave a year before these Games, a decision made by men who can only guess vaguely at Grobler’s depth of fine-point expertise, looks as rash and as damaging now as it did at the time.

Sometimes sport is simple. Don’t give up. Don’t argue with the referee. And don’t, whatever you do, get rid of Jürgen Gröbler while there is still a chance the greatest asset British rowing ever invested in – the man who has nurtured an entire culture of success, beloved of his athletes, obsessively committed as ever – might stick around for another Games.

Much more here:

Rugby sevens: Waisea Nacuqu converts a penalty with the last kick of the competition, and the tears are flowing again for Fiji, Olympic champions again and by the emphatic scoreline of 27-12! It’s only Fiji’s second medal in all history, and they’ve both been rugby sevens golds.

Rugby sevens: Asaeli Tuivuaka touches down, and Fiji lead 24-12 with just 90 seconds to play!

Rugby sevens: Fiji lead 19-12 at half-time. Can the 2016 gold-medallists do it again?

Dressage: The dancing horses are back! It’s the individual final, and four of the 18 competitors have, um, already horsedanced. The big fireworks are expected towards the end of the competition, with the last three to go including Isabell Werth and Dorothee Schneider of Germany, with Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin, hoping to become Britain’s all-time most-decorated female Olympian, sandwiched between them.

Portugal’s Rodrigo Torres has just finished his round, and he is absolutely jubilant. After much air-punching he’s still hugging teammates and support staff as I type. Very DeCoubertinian of him – it’s the taking part that is counting – as with 78.943% he’s third of the four horsepeople to have horsedanced so far. There’s an interview with him in Horse & Hound here, if you’re interested.

Rugby sevens: There were a lot of tears running down Fijian cheeks before the gold medal match got under way, but they are controlling their emotions superbly so far, and have just gone 12-0 up against New Zealand.

Cycling: Rohan Dennis’s bronze in the men’s time trial adds to the silver he won on the track in 2012. The world time trial champion in 2019 and 2020 finished superbly: he was fifth fastest at the final intermediate split, more than five seconds behind Filippo Ganna and nearly 4sec behind Stefan Kueng, but timed his push for the line superbly to end up just 0.4sec ahead of Kueng and nearly 2sec faster than Ganna.

Rugby sevens: It’s bronze for Argentina! The British players slump to the turf after Ignacio Mendy scores the winning points and Argentina hold on!

Rugby sevens: The medal matches are ongoing, with Britain playing Argentina for bronze as I type. After conceding an early try Argentina led 12-5 at half-time, but have now been pegged back at 12-12.

Tennis: Earlier today Daniil Medvedev was so enraged by a journalist’s question that he demanded the scribe be thrown out of the Olympic Games. Tumaini Carayol has the story:

Swimming: An interesting tale this, of how Kristof Milak’s attempt to break the world 200m butterfly record was destroyed, 10 minutes before it begun, by a ripped swimming costume. He found another swimsuit and still won the gold medal, but his record bid was over.

They split 10 minutes before I entered the pool and in that moment I knew the world record was gone. I lost my focus and knew I couldn’t do it.

It was a problem for me. I have a routine, a rhythm, a focus. This broke my focus and that problem impacted my time. I wasn’t swimming for the medal. I was swimming for the time. I said earlier I wanted a personal best. And my personal best is a world record.

The 21-year-old dominates this discipline, was overwhelming favourite for gold, and won by 2.48sec. Federico Burdisso of Italy came third and said “it was impossible to win this race because Milak is Milak”.

Cycling: These times are just astonishing. Here are the top five finishers in the time trial. Four are separated by about 4sec. The other is more than a minute ahead of them.

1. Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) 55min 4.19sec
2. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) +1min 1.39
3. Rohan Dennis (Australia) +1min 3.90
4. Stefan Kueng (Switzerland) +1min 4.30
5. Filippo Ganna (Italy) +1min 5.74

Cycling: Just scrolling through the splits, Roglic was never out of the top two, but after 15km he led by 0.04sec and after 22.1km by 8.39sec. At that stage it was still close. But then by 31.8km he was 30.94sec ahead of the second fastest rider, Rohan Dennis, by 37.1km he was 42.34sec ahead of Tom Dumoulin, and by the finish he led by 1min 1.39sec. In short, what an astonishing second lap from the Slovenian, 22km in which he absolutely destroyed the field.

Cycling: Nobody’s splits are remotely close to Roglic’s, and though Wout van Aert and Filippo Ganna are among the riders still on the road, nobody is going to catch him.

Cycing: Tom Dumoulin finishes his time trial, and is the fastest over the course so far by the massive margin of 1min 13sec. But then Primoz Roglic comes in next, another minute ahead! Can anyone better that?

Cycling: Roglic and Asgreen have both caught Joao Almeida. The Portuguese rider started three minutes of Roglic, and is now trailing him. The three of them are currently cycling together, which you don’t often see in individual time trials.