Rudisha wins 2nd 800m, Braz scores shock gold

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 16, (Agencies): Kenya’s David Rudisha claimed a majestic Olympic double in the 800m as an unknown Brazilian pole vaulter scored a shock gold medal on a night of upsets. Rudisha became the first man in 52 years to clinch back-to-back 800m titles after producing a phenomenal last lap kick to win in 1min 42.15. Algeria’s reigning Olympic 1500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi took silver in 1:42.61, with American Clayton Murphy claiming bronze in 1:42.93. The biggest shock was scored by unheralded Brazilian Thiago Braz in the pole vault who conjured the performance of his life to dethrone France’s defending Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie and spark bedlam amongst the fiercely partisan Rio crowd.

As a thrilling duel reached its climax, Lavillenie was visibly upset by the crowd’s relentless booing as he prepared for his run-up, at one point wagging his figure in disgust at the catcalls. American Sam Hendricks took bronze with a vault of 5.85. Another stunning upset marked the conclusion of the women’s 400m, where world champion Allyson Felix was beaten by a spectacular head-first dive for the line by Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas. Shericka Jackson of Jamaica claimed bronze in 49.85. Meanwhile, Christian Taylor of the United States retained his Olympic men’s triple jump title on Tuesday, recording the longest jump of the year to claim the podium top spot. His American team mate Will Claye took silver and China’s Dong Bin went home with bronze after they recorded 17.76 and 17.58 respectively, also at their first attempts.

Usain Bolt roused a quiet morning at the Olympic stadium as only he can on Tuesday, remaining firmly on course for his historic ‘triple triple’ by coasting through the 200 metres heats in 20.28 seconds. Racing in the ninth heat and cheered every step of the way by the sparse but vocal crowd, the Jamaican led coming off the bend and was able to take his foot off the gas to progress comfortably to Wednesday’s semi-finals. Bolt secured the 100 metres title on Sunday to take another step on the path to an unprecedented third successive sweep of all three Olympic sprint titles — 100, 200 and 4×100 metres. Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic flirted with disaster before snatching gold in women’s discus on Tuesday, successfully defending her London Games title despite fouling five of her six throws in the final. The 26-year-old Croatian was the hot favourite heading into the final but was on the brink of early elimination after fumbling her first two throws. France’s 37-year-old Melina Robert- Michon set a national record of 66.73 metres to take silver, becoming the European country’s oldest ever Olympic medal winner in athletics. Cuba’s Denia Caballero, who won a surprise victory at last year’s world championships, had to settle for bronze.

Meanwhile, Ferry Weertman won a ferocious battle for the men’s 10km open water swimming gold at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday, edging Spiros Gianniotis in a frantic photo finish to cap a Dutch open water double. Weertman’s triumph by the narrowest of margins — both he and Gianniotis were credited with a time of 1hr 52min 59.8sec — followed teammate Sharon van Rousendaal’s victory in the women’s race off Copacabana beach on Monday. But his win bore little resemblance to van Rouwendaal’s victory by a margin of more than 17 seconds. Gianniotis, 36, said he couldn’t have wished for a better finale to his career, even if it ended in silver. Seconds behind them there was an equally tight call for bronze with France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier just beating China’s Zu Lijun — both being timed in 1:53:02.0sec. Germany’s Sebastien Brendel in the single canoe 1,000m and New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington in the single kayak 200m retained the Olympic titles they won in London with victories in Rio on Tuesday. Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos earned silver to give Brazil it’s first Olympic medal in canoe sprint and Serghei Tarnovschi won bronze to put Moldova in the Rio medals table.

Carrington, who won the first women’s single kayak 200 gold ever awarded in London, continued the dominance she has shown since thine. Undefeated in 13 major races since 2012, she won in an Olympic best of 39.864sec. Poland’s Marta Walczykiewicz was second and Azerbaijan’s Inna Osipenko- Rodomska earned bronze — four years after capturing silver when competing for Ukraine. In other sprint canoe finals on Tuesday, Danuta Kozak and Gabriella Szabo grabbed women’s double kayak 500m gold for Hungary ahead of Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze of Germany. Beata Mikolajczyk and Karolina Naga earned bronze for Poland. Surprise Spaniard Marcus Walz won men’s single kayak 1,000m gold ahead of Czech Josef Dostal and Russian Roman Anoshkin. Ana Dabovic scored 24 points and Serbia shocked unbeaten Australia 73-71 Tuesday to reach the Rio Olympic women’s basketball semifinals. The Serbians, who also had 17 points from Jelena Milovanovic, will face the winner of a later quarter-final between Spain and Turkey on Thursday to decide a berth in Saturday’s gold-medal game.

Five-time defending champion United States will face Japan and France will meet Canada in other quarter-final matchups Tuesday. Hungary snatched gold from returning Olympic champions Tina Dietze and Franziska Weber of Germany by a breathtakingly slim margin on Tuesday in the women’s K-2 500-metre sprint. Danuta Kozak and Gabriella Szabo won in 1:43.687 as Germany nipped at their heels, claiming silver less than a 10th of a second behind. Poland took bronze, as they did at London 2012.

Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands won the laser radial women’s dinghy gold at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday. Ireland’s Annalise Murphy took silver while Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom earned bronze in a final postponed because of high winds on Monday. Ukrainian gymnast Oleg Verniaiev won Olympic gold on the parallel bars on Tuesday. Verniaiev, 22, the all-around silver medallist in Rio, took gold with 16.041. American Danell Leyva took silver (15.900) with Russia’s David Belyavskiy taking bronze (15.783). It is the first time a Chinese gymnast has not won the title since 2004. Deng Shudi finished fourth after a wobble and You Hao last in the eight-man final after falling on his dismount. It means the Chinese men will return from Rio without a gold. Meanwhile, Japan’s 15-year-old Mima Ito won the game that secured her country a women’s team bronze medal, triggering an emotional reaction from her team mate on Tuesday. The world number nine defeated Feng Tianwei in the fourth singles to complete the 3-1 win.

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