TOKYO (Reuters) – Scorching Italian men and dominant Jamaican women continued their country’s golden storylines at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday as two Belarusian coaches exited in disgrace.
Here’s what you need to know about the Tokyo Games:
BLISTERING ITALIANS
A scorching Italian 4×100 metres relay team pipped Britain over the finish line, delivering Lamont Marcell Jacobs his second gold and the country’s 10th at Tokyo.
Italy’s decision to exempt elite athletes https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/italys-covid-19-exemption-elite-athletes-pays-off-tokyo-2021-08-03 from strict COVID-19 curbs in the past 18 months and allow them to train has paid off.
ATHLETICS WRAP
The Jamaican women underlined their sprinting dominance with a gold in the 4×100 metres relay.
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon retained her Olympic title in the women’s 1,500 metres at the Olympic Stadium on Friday, breaking the Olympic record as she denied Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan her dream of winning an unprecedented Olympic treble.
Men’s 5,000 metres world record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda added gold https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL4N2PD1A9 in that event to last week’s 10,000m silver, while Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas snatched the women’s 400 metres gold.
BELARUS DEPARTURES
Two Belarus coaches who cut short sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya’s Tokyo Olympics are out of the Games https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/two-belarus-team-members-stripped-games-accreditation-removed-olympic-village-2021-08-05 themselves.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-belarusian-sprinter-decided-defect-way-airport-family-fears-about-2021-08-05 in Warsaw on Thursday, Tsimanouskaya said the two officials had told her the order to send her home came from “high up” in Belarus.
DECORATED WOMEN
Laura Kenny became the most decorated female Olympic cyclist in history with a fifth gold, destroying the field in the first women’s madison event https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/cycling-kenny-wins-fifth-gold-britain-win-womens-madison-2021-08-06 at a Games.
American Allyson Felix’s bronze in the 400 metres made her the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history, edging ahead of Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey.
KEIRAN AT HOME
The bizarre cycling race that perplexes many sports spectators in the world is no stranger to local fans at the Tokyo Games. In Japan, keirin racing, which developed after the Second World War, is a $10 billion gambling industry https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/cycling-a-national-passion-japan-still-seeks-golden-moment-keirin-2021-08-06, one of five sports it is legal to bet on – the others being motorbike racing, horse racing, powerboats and football.
MULTICULTURAL GROWING PAINS
The Tokyo Olympics were supposed to showcase Japan’s growing ethnic diversity, but the Games have also dragged into the international spotlight https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/olympics-multicultural-olympic-team-shows-japans-diversity-growing-pains-2021-08-06 a domestic debate about whether the country can be both multicultural and Japanese.
(Editing by William Mallard and Toby Davis)
