Paris Olympics day 5 highlights: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy made the pre-quarterfinals

France’s Leon Marchand won his third Olympic gold medal and second of the night with a sensational victory in the men’s 200m breaststroke on Wednesday.

Marchand had already won gold in the 200m butterfly earlier in the evening and he becomes the first swimmer to win those two events in the same Olympic Games.

The 22-year-old touched the wall in a time of 2min 5.85sec, a new Olympic record and the second fastest time of all-time. - AFP

China’s Pan Zhanle smashed the world record time as he stormed to victory in the men’s 100m freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.

Pan powered to the finish in 46.40, beating the world record time of 46.80 he had set in February in Doha.

Australia’s Kyle Chalmers, gold medal winner in Rio, finished 1.08 seconds behind to take silver with Romanian David Popovici claiming bronze. - AFP

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz overcame crushing humidity on Wednesday to stay on course for an Olympic final showdown as Rafael Nadal played possibly his final match at Roland Garros.

Djokovic, seeking a first Olympic title to add to his record-breaking collection, defeated German left-hander Dominik Koepfer 7-5, 6-3, becoming the first man to reach four singles quarter-finals at the Games.

Alcaraz brushed aside Roman Safiullin, the Russian playing in Paris as a neutral, 6-4, 6-2.

Nadal, who has won 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros, exited Paris after he and Alcaraz were defeated in the men’s doubles, going down 6-2, 6-4 to US pair Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram. - AFP

Katie Ledecky blitzed the field to retain her 1,500 metres freestyle title at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, the American iron-woman securing a record-equalling eighth gold medal in the sport.

World record holder Ledecky blew away the field in the gruelling, 30-lap race at La Defense Arena, touching the wall in an Olympic record 15.30.02, more than 10 seconds ahead of France’s silver medallist Anastasiia Kirpichnikova.

Australia’s Jessica Fox etched her name into Olympic history on Wednesday, completing an unprecedented double after powering to victory in the women’s canoe single final to clinch her second gold of the games.

The win means the 30-year-old from Sydney -- the daughter of British and French Olympians -- is the first ever athlete to win golds in both Olympic canoe and kayak. - AFP

Veteran Indian archer Tarundeep Rai crashed out of the Paris Olympics after losing his individual men’s recurve round of 32 clash to Tom Hall of Great Britain in Paris today. Rai lost 4-6.

It was a close battle between the two as the first set was tied on 27 points apiece.

The second set, however, went to Hall who clinched it by just a point.

The Indian made a strong comeback in the third set, securing it with a scoreline of 28-25.

But the British archer won the next set, clinching 29-28.

Manika Batra loses the last game 6-11 and is out of the women’s singles event. Miu Hirano wins the game 4-1. 

Miu Hirano wins the fourth game even as Batra tries to fight her way back into the contest. The Indian paddler loses the game 8-11.

Manika Batra bounces back after winning 14-12 in the hard-fought third game.

In the round of 16 Table Tennis clash, Manika Batra is trailing 0-2 against Japan’s Miu Hirano. She lost the first game 6-11 and the second game 9-11.

North Korea won the silver in the women’s synchronized 10-meter platform event to capture the nation’s first ever Olympic diving medal, while China continued its dominance of the sport with another gold.

Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan took a commanding lead from the start Wednesday to secure China’s 50th Olympic diving gold medal all time.

The women led by nearly 14 points after two of their five dives, making it a competition for silver and bronze behind them. Chen won the same event in Tokyo, partnering with Zhang Jiaqi.

- AP

Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson said today she will not compete in the women’s 100m at the Paris Olympics.

“I’m only running the 200m here,” said Jackson, the double world 200-metre champion, who has won silvers in the 100m in the last two world champs and Olympic 100m bronze at the Tokyo Games.

“I think it was a good decision,” the 30-year-old said of her desire to focus on the 200m.

“Coach and I made a decision, and it was in the best interests for both of us.”

- AFP

Covered with pins and adornments, Vivianne Robinson is hard to miss in the streets of Paris.

The Olympics superfan has attended seven Summer Games for 40 years. But, this trip to Paris came at a hefty price.

Robinson, 66 and from Los Angeles, maxed out her credit cards and worked two jobs to afford the trip and the 38 event tickets she purchased. She worked on Venice Beach during the day, putting names on rice necklaces, and bagged groceries at night.

She said she has to work two more years to make up for the money she spent following her passion for the Summer Olympics in Paris.

- AP

Olympic triathletes dived into the Seine River today after organisers declared the water in Paris safe for swimming following days of concerns about elevated bacteria levels caused by heavy rains last week.

The women jumped into the river near the majestic Pont Alexandre III, with steady rain tapering off just as the athletes splashed into the water. Some dunked their swim goggles in the Seine before putting them on and heading into the river with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The men followed just under three hours later.

- AP

India’s schedule on Day 6 of the Paris Olympics tomorrow:

Golf

Men’s Individual Finals: Gaganjeet Bhullar and Shubhankar Sharma - 12.30 p.m. 

Shooting

Men’s 50m Rifle Three Positions (Medal round): Swapnil Kusale - 1.00 p.m.

Women’s 50m Rifle Three Positions (Qualification): Sift Kaur Samra and Anjum Moudgil -- 3.30 p.m. 

Hockey

India vs Belgium (Group stage): 1.30 p.m. 

Boxing

Women’s Flyweight (Pre-quarterfinal): Nikhat Zareen vs Yu Wu (China) -- 2.30 p.m.

Archery

Men’s Individual (1/32 eliminations): Pravin Jadhav vs Kao Wenchao (China) - 2.31 p.m.

Men’s Individual (1/16 Eliminations): 3.10 p.m. onwards 

Table tennis

Women’s Singles (Quarterfinals): 1.30 p.m. onwards 

Sailing

Men’s Dinghy Race 1: Vishnu Saravanan -- 3.45

Men’s Dinghy Race 2 : Vishnu Saravanan -- After Race 1

Women’s Dinghy Race 1: Nethra Kumanan -- 7.05

Women’s Dinghy Race 2: Nethra Kumanan -- After Race 1.

- PTI

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic reached the Olympic singles quarter-finals for a record fourth time by beating Germany’s Dominic Koepfer 7-5 6-3 today but looked in the mood to go much deeper in the tournament.

For all his 24 Grand Slam titles and countless other accolades, the Olympics has never been especially kind to the 37-year-old for whom a bronze medal remains his only souvenir.

Paris is most likely his last opportunity to fill the only unoccupied space in his bulging trophy cabinet and so far everything is going entirely to plan at Roland Garros as he is yet to drop a set in three rounds.

- Reuters

Indian archer Deepika Kumari defeated Quinty Roeffen of Netherlands 6-2 to enter the Round of 16 in the women’s individual recurve event.

She joins compatriot Bhajan Kaur in the next round. She will face Michelle Kroppen on August 3.

Britain’s Alex Yee ran a perfectly-paced 10km to snatch a dramatic Olympic triathlon gold on Wednesday, overhauling a fading Hayden Wilde of New Zealand in brutal conditions.

The race was originally due to be held on Tuesday but postponed due to poor water quality in the river Seine and, after the swim and bike leg, a huge group of 32 hit the transition to the run together.

Yee and Wilde immediately forged clear but the New Zealander, bronze medallist in Tokyo, surprisingly made an early move, with Yee, widely regarded as the fastest runner in the field and silver medallist three years ago, declining to respond.

-Reuters

Deepika Kumari defeats Estonian Reena Parnat 6-5 in a shoot-off in the Women’s Individual Recurve 1/32 Elimination Round.

She qualifies for the 1/16 Elimination Round, which will be held shortly.

Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain defeated Sunniva Hofstad in the women’s 75kg class to advance to the quarterfinals.

The clean-sweep 5-0 win opens Borgohain’s campaign in style and she is just one win away from assuring herself of another Olympic medal.

She will next take on World No. 1. Li Qian in the QFs on August 4.

China’s Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi won gold in the women’s synchronised 10-metre platform event, extending the country’s winning streak in diving.

The pair established their lead in the first round and finished with 359.10 points.

North Korea’s Jo Jin Mi and Kim Mi Rae took silver and Britain’s Andrea Spendolini Sirieix and Lois Toulson ended up with bronze.

Quan and Chen, both second-time Olympians, won the synchronised gold medal for the first time as a pair. Their victory came as little surprise given 17-year-old Quan and Chen, 18, have won nine world titles since teaming up in 2022.

-Reuters

India’s Sreeja Akula reached the round of 16 of the women’s table tennis singles event after defeating Singapore’s Jian Zeng 4-2.

Zeng won the first game, but Akula won the next three before sealing the match in Game 6.

Akula, who turns 26 today, becomes the second Indian to advance to the round of 16 in singles at the Olympic Games, after Manika Batra.

Hong Kong fencer Cheung Ka-long’s victory over Italy’s Filippo Macchi at the Paris Olympics has sparked an exchange of insults on social media, with Cheung’s supporters celebrating his win with posts about pineapple pizzas—widely considered a culinary blunder in Italian cooking. 

Cheung made Hong Kong history on Tuesday by beating Macchi 15-14 in the men’s foil. That triumph made Cheung, who had won in the Tokyo Games in 2021, the first Hong Konger to bag two gold medals.

The bout required three stoppages for video reviews to determine the deciding point as the fencing machine registered scores from both fencers at about the same time. The final point was eventually awarded to Cheung, sparking protests from the Italian side.

Italy’s Olympic Committee President Giovanni Malagò suggested the selection of referees was problematic, saying “the two judges were from Taipei and Korea in a final between Italy and Hong Kong.”

In a mockery response, Hong Kongers replied with comments on Instagram about their love for pineapple pizza to defend Cheung and said they would have a lot of pineapple pizzas to celebrate the win.

-AP

Olympics debutant Lakshya Sen, who handed World No. 3 Jonatan Christie a stunning defeat, could play compatriot H.S. Prannoy in the round of 16 clash, if the latter wins his game tonight.

22-year Lakshya Sen is into the Round of 16 of the men’s singles event, stunning World No. 3 and tournament favourite Jonatan Christie in straight games.

The 21-18, 21-12 result makes it Sen’s only second win over the Indonesian in their 5 meetings.

The match, though in the group stage, was a virtual knockout clash in the three-player group.

Read the story here.

India’s Lakshya Sen put on a fight to make a strong comeback to take the first game 21-18 in the group stage match against Indonesia Jonatan Christie. Sen was 8-2 down before winning seven points on the trot and march to a game win.

Sen, ranked 19 in the world, has defeated Christie only once in 5 previous meetings.

India’s Swapnil Kusale qualified for the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions in 7th place. The top eight shooters go through to the final, and so Aishwary Tomar, who finished 11th missed the cut.

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Cassandre Beaugrand of France won the women’s Olympic triathlon on Wednesday, making her way through a Seine River that was under scrutiny for its water quality and navigating slick roads that turned the cycling portion into a series of spills.

Beaugrand finished the run on top of the Pont Alexandre III bridge and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and exhilaration. It was on top of the “Paris 2024” logo, with a home crowd cheering her on. Her time of 1 hour, 54 minutes, 55 seconds edged Julie Derron of Switzerland by six seconds. Britain’s Beth Potter captured bronze.

The men’s race was slated to start about an hour after the women finished.

-AP

P.V. Sindhu completes another straight games win in the group stage of the badminton singles event, with a 21-5, 21-10 defeat of Kristin Kuuba.

The victory ensures Sindhu of a place in the round of 16.

Read the story here.

P.V. Sindhu took a dominating first-game lead in her match against Kristin Kuuba, winning the game 21-5. The Indian star was 11-2 at the break, and will look to seal another straight-games win.

In the men’s event, Lakshya Sen is up against Indonesian World No. 3 Jonatan Christie shortly.

Indian shooters Aishwary Tomar and Swapnil are in 8th and 10th place respectively after the kneeling and prone rounds of the 50m rifle 3 positions qualification event.

The standing round remains and the top eight shooters advance to the final.

P.V. Sindhu is playing Kristin Kuuba of Estonia in the second Group M match of the women’s badminton singles event. The Indian star raced to a 8-0 lead in the first game before dropping a point.

Sindhu had defeated Abdul Razzaq of Maldives on July 28 in straight games. 

Everyone knows the iceberg analogy – you know, the one where what you see is just 10 per cent and the rest is under water, hidden in plain sight, unknown and unappreciated? Abhishek’s career that has rocketed with the Indian men’s hockey team in the last two years has been something similar. 

The 24-year old has been one of the fastest growing stars in a team in transition post Tokyo Olympics but if he seems indispensable to India’s goalscoring hopes and, by extension, medal fortunes in Paris, it’s got a lot to do with 16 years of grind before the youngster finally broke through.

Read the profile of Indian hockey’s rising star Abhishek.

Paris has turned into a world city for a little more than two weeks of the Olympics. Walk around the city, take a public transport or a taxi ride, it’s not uncommon to spot people proudly wearing the colours and traditional dresses of their respective countries. A family, sporting Australia’s famous green and gold and holding inflatable plastic Kangaroos on the footpath was a pleasant sight. So was a group wearing conventional red Chinese costumes on the Paris metro. A man dressed up like a Spanish bull-fighter or some women in traditional African attire on the streets tells one the important role the Olympic Games plays in uniting the world.

​Read Y.B. Sarangi’s Paris diary entry on July 30​

Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz made it 2-0 as a team at the Paris Olympics and moved into the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-7 (2), 10-2 match tiebreaker victory over Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands.

Playing a day after Nadal’s singles loss to rival Novak Djokovic and Alcaraz’s win against Griekspoor, the old-and-young Spanish duo didn’t look like a pairing that never had played together until this event.

Nadal and Alcaraz will face the fourth-seeded American team of Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram for a semifinal berth. Krajicek and Ram beat Thiago Monteiro and Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Tuesday.

-AP

Olympic women triathletes have dived into Paris’ Seine River to start the competition after days of concerns about water quality.

Organisers had to cancel training this week in the river and postponed the men’s race on Tuesday after the Seine was found to be too dirty for athletes.

For Sarabjot Singh, the moment hasn’t really sunk in yet. He also has no idea how his life is about to change. For now, his mind is still in the Olympic shooting Centre in the provincial French town of Chateauroux, some 300km from Paris and a world away from his usual life in India.

Read Jonathan Selvaraj’s interaction with the shooter after his bronze medal win.

After days of delays and uncertainty over water quality in the Seine River, the women’s and men’s Olympic triathlon races will go forward Wednesday with a swim in the famed Paris waterway.

The organisers said early Wednesday the latest tests of the water showed compliance with quality standards.

Elevated levels of bacteria in the river pushed the men’s race originally planned for Tuesday to Wednesday, when the women’s competition had been scheduled. Test events meant to allow the athletes to familiarize themselves with the course had already been canceled for the same reason on Sunday and Monday.

-AP

Simone Biles reached the top of the podium yet again, cementing her legacy as the greatest American gymnast and one of the best athletes in the history of the Olympics.

Biles helped the United States win the women’s team event Tuesday to secure her fifth Olympic gold medal and put the U.S. back on top of the sport after a second-place finish three years ago in Tokyo.

Biles became the most decorated American gymnast in front of a crowd that included Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Serena Williams, Spike Lee, Michael Phelps and Nadia Comaneci at a raucous Bercy Arena.

It was the eighth Olympic medal for the 27-year-old Biles, who was previously tied with Shannon Miller at seven. Italy won the silver medal, and Brazil got the bronze.

There were no such triumphs in swimming for the Americans, who couldn’t manage more than silver and bronze medals. In tennis, it was Coco Gauff left fuming over an officiating decision in a loss to Donna Vekic of Croatia.

AP

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Indian badminton star Ashwini Ponnappa announces retirement after playing her ‘last Olympics‘

Indian badminton star Ashwini Ponnappa announces her retirement after playing her last Olympics with partner Tanisha Crasto.