We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.
Judges are being very generous in the men’s walk now. Could have seen a lot of cards.
Judges watch the walkers to make sure they always have one foot in contact with the ground. If not, they get two yellow warning cards (Australia’s Declan Tingay just got a yellow), as otherwise you are jogging.
Now TV and freeze-frame photos are never kind to walkers so they get some latitude by judges assessing it with the naked eye, but they seem to be especially generous in calling out a bit of jogging.
The first round of the men’s individual golf has begun at Le Golf National in the south-west of Paris, with Aussies Jason Day and Min Woo Lee in the mix of 60 men.
They have some stiff competition, as there are plenty of big names featuring this year, including Team USA duo, world number one Scottie Scheffler and defending Olympic champion Xander Schauffele.
It’s the third time golf has been on the Olympic programme since its return at Rio 2016 - after 112 years off the schedule - with the format a 72-hole individual stroke play event, where all 60 men play all four rounds.
Min Woo Lee plays in Louisville, Kentucky in May.Credit: Getty
Australian Olympic medal record holder Jessica Fox has not ruled out competing at a fifth Games.
After clinching an emphatic victory in the C1, which followed her K1 gold medal in Paris, Fox collected her third gold among a six-medal Olympic haul – the most individual medals won by an Australian athlete.
Jess Fox says she could make it to a fifth Olympics.Credit: Getty
She also became the most successful athlete in Olympic canoe slalom history, moving ahead of Slovakian legend Michal Martikan.
But the 30-year-old Sydneysider isn’t planning to swap the rapids for a retirement cruise anytime soon.
“I still feel good, I still love the sport, I still feel like I’m enjoying it,” Fox said after her second Paris win.
“We have the world championships at home in Penrith in 2025, so I expect the same crowd that was here today to be there. I’m definitely not retiring today.”
AAP
Australia’s women’s 3x3 team continue their campaign with a clash against old rivals China to open today’s games.
3x3 is the short form of basketball, in which teams play first to 21 or whoever is leading when the 10-minute game is finished.
Australia’s 3x3 team (from left): Anneli Maley, Marena Whittle, Alex Wilson and Lauren Mansfield celebrate their victory over Germany.Credit: AP
It’s fast, physical and furious. And for those who love parity in sport, all eight teams will play each other before the top teams head into the knockout rounds.
The team, known as the Gangurrus, the Indigenous name for Kangaroos, are the first Australian team to quality for 3x3 basketball, and they stunned Germany on Wednesday to keep themselves right in the race for the knockouts.
This has the feel of a must-win game for both nations as it is hard to see them both finishing among the top teams.
It’s set to start at 5pm AEST on the Basketball 3x3 channel on 9Now.
Former Olympian and leading swim coach Brett Hawke has expressed sheer disbelief after Pan Zhanle’s commanding victory in the 100-metre freestyle, saying it was “not humanly possible” for him to prevail over the rest of the field by a body length.
Pan’s time of 46.40 seconds was a staggering 0.4s improvement on his own world record, which he set at the world championships in February, and ensured that not even a ferocious final lap by Kyle Chalmers would deny him the gold medal.
Gold medallist Pan Zhanle poses with silver medallist Kyle Chalmers and bronze medallist David Popovici.Credit: AP
But Hawke, who swam for Australia at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and has spent most of his coaching career at Auburn University in the United States, said he was angered by the race.
“I’m angry for a number of reasons,” he said in an Instagram post.
“My friends are the fastest swimmers in history, from Rowdy Gaines to Aleks Popov to Gary Hall jnr, Anthony Ervin, all the way up to King Kyle Chalmers. I know these people intimately, I’ve studied them for 30 years, I’ve studied this sport. I’ve studied speed, I understand it. I’m an expert in it. That’s what I do. And I’m upset right now, because you don’t win 100 freestyle by a body length on that field – you just don’t do it. It’s not humanly possible to beat that field by a body length. It’s not.
“I don’t care what you say. This is not a race thing, it’s not against any one particular person or any nation, this is just what I see and what I know. That’s not real. You don’t beat that field: Kyle Chalmers, David Popovici, Jack Alexy, you don’t beat those guys by one full body length in 100 freestyle.
“That’s not humanly possible. So don’t sell it to me. Don’t shove it down my throat. It’s not real.”
There is no suggestion that Pan has taken performance-enhancing drugs.
Italy’s Massimo Stano is in the mix at the front of the men’s race walk, marching through the streets of Paris.
While his stride and pace is deserving of attention, arguably so is his impressive moustache, which is currently leading the way in second place. It will be interesting to see how that holds up in the heat and humidity.
Italy’s Massimo Stano during the men’s 20km race walk at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France.Credit: AP
The walkers have just passed the halfway mark and are in a big pack, with not much difference in the front half. Australia’s Declan Tingay is in sixth and Rhydian Cowley in ninth. They’re right in it.
Stano claimed the gold in the men’s 20-kilometre race walk in Tokyo, ahead of Japan’s Koki Ikeda and Toshikazu Yamanishi, who claimed the silver and bronze respectively.
Race walking would seldom be called a thing of beauty but is this the best course in world sport?
Twenty laps of a one-kilometre course across Pont D’Iena straight over to cross the front of the Eiffel Tower?
Spectacular: The race walk course in Paris.Credit: AP
Is this some sort of early French salute to Brisbane? Woke this morning to rolling thunder lightning and rain.
Walked outside and got on the train; it’s so steamy you could cook dim sims in your pocket.
Anyway, all of that rain and thunder delayed the men’s and women’s race walk which has now got underway with Brazilian Caio Bonfim haring off like it’s a 2000-metre race, not a 20-kilometre race.
He is on the lead group along with Australia’s Rhydian Cowley.
Fans cheer as athletes line up to start the men’s 20km race walk at the 2024 Summer Olympics.Credit: AP
The Matildas have parted ways with coach Tony Gustavsson after their disappointing Olympics campaign came to an end in Marseille overnight.
It was their worst Olympic result in two decades.
Tony Gustavsson’s time as Matildas coach has come to an end.Credit: nna\alyssa.bone
Gustavsson’s deal officially expired on Thursday morning (AEST), when Australia were knocked out of the Olympics with a 2-1 defeat to the United States, and the coach and the federation have wasted little time in making their intentions publicly known.