TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. men continued to sputter on the Olympic athletics track, failing to qualify https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/athletics-us-fail-make-mens-4×100-relay-final-2021-08-05 in the 4×100 metres finals and suffering in an upset in the 110m hurdles https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/athletics-jamaican-parchment-wins-mens-110m-hurdles-gold-tokyo-2021-08-05, where they were odds-on favourites.
Here’s what you need to know about the Tokyo Games:
U.S. TRACK WOES
Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment upset the overwhelming favourite, Grant Holloway from the United States, in the 110 metres hurdles, leaving the Americans still without an individual running gold – a prize they have won in every Olympics they have entered since the inaugural 1896 Games.
The bedraggled U.S. 4×100 metres team failed to qualify for the final, as China and Jamaica led their heats.
Carl Lewis, the superstar sprinter of the 1980s and ’90s, called his compatriots’ performance “a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable”.
BEST KIWI
Kayaker Lisa Carrington became New Zealand’s most decorated https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/canoe-sprint-hungarys-csizmadia-briton-heath-ease-into-final-2021-08-05 Olympian, notching a sixth medal with a gold in the women’s single 500 metres.
“It’s something I never thought I’d be able to do,” she said. “It’s amazing.”
SHOT PUT RECORDS
American Ryan Crouser broke https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/athletics-crouser-united-states-wins-gold-mens-shot-put-2021-08-05 his own shot put world record three times, wearing shades and a hat with the U.S. flag on it, gabbing gold with a mark of 23.30 metres.
Crouser donned a cowboy hat and celebrated with his countryman and silver medallist Joe Kovacs, draped in the Stars and Stripes. Crouser, from a family of throwers, held up a card reading “Grandpa, we did it, 2020 Olympic champion”.
TRACK RECORDS
Sydney McLaughlin notched a huge world record https://www.reuters.com/article/olympics-2020-ath/wrapup-1-olympics-athletics-gold-for-de-grasse-another-huge-400m-hurdles-record-idUSL8N2PB49G in the women’s 400m hurdles, beating fellow American Dalilah Muhammad as the super-fast track and new shoe technology continue to make a mockery of historical comparisons.
Kenya’s Abel Kipsang smashed the Olympic men’s 1,500 metres record with a blistering 3:31.65 in the semi-finals.
(Editing by William Mallard and Toby Davis)
