Third day of the Olympics: Gold for Japan in skateboarding and men’s gymnastics, Canada takes first place in judo and Great Britain wins a mountain bike thriller.
Yuto Horigome of Japan retained his Olympic title in men’s street skateboarding in Paris, taking the top spot on the podium in his final trick in a tense final.
Team USA’s Jagger Eaton upgraded his Tokyo bronze to silver, while his compatriot Nyjah Huston took the final podium spot on Monday.
Horigome won gold at the last moment with a perfect descent down the 10-step round handrail and a smile, underlining Japan’s dominance in the sport a day after her compatriot Coco Yoshizawa won the women’s event.
“It was difficult to get on the podium this time,” said Horigome. “The level of skateboarding is crazy.”
Eaton brought his best stuff in the five maneuvers but was unable to catch Horigome as the American fell on his final attempt.
The competition was held under clear skies and scorching heat after rain forced the postponement of the event on Saturday as competitors remained calm in front of another packed house at the La Concorde venue.
Horigome looked the favorite as he made excellent use of the course’s 18 features in his first run in the final. But Huston led all five tricks by capping his second run with a backside 180 nollie.
Huston, one of the biggest names in US skateboarding since the retirement of the great Tony Hawk, was hungry for redemption after a surprising seventh-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and he reinforced his lead with two high-scoring tricks. .
But Eaton briefly took over the top spot in the standings with a 270 nollie drop on his fourth attempt.
Horigome looked like he might miss the podium entirely after crashing on three of his first four attempts. But he used some magic to leap over the rest of the field at the last moment as Japanese fans cheered.
Olympic skateboarding will continue with the women’s and men’s park events on August 6th and 7th.
Japan wins men’s team gold in artistic gymnastics after dramatic final
Daiki Hashimoto turned heartache into unimaginable joy as he overcame a fall from the pommel horse to lead Japan to the gymnastics gold medal, defeating China in a thrilling men’s team final.
While Hashimoto led Japan to its eighth men’s team title at the Games, Team USA celebrated its first Olympic medal since 2008 by winning bronze.
Just when it looked like China had the title in hand, as they led Japan by more than three points, with just three more performances to go before the final apparatus, the high bar, Su Weide fell twice during his routine, transforming the race for victory. title on a nail biter.
When the chips were down, Japan emerged victorious with a total of 259,594 points, less than a point ahead of China.
The North Americans performed excellently and secured bronze after landing most of their landings in the competition.
Deguchi becomes Canada’s first judo champion
Christa Deguchi won women’s 57kg (126 pounds) gold to give Canada its first Olympic judo title before Azerbaijan’s Hidayat Heydarov disappointed a partisan crowd by triumphing in the men’s 73kg (161 pounds) final.
Reigning world champion Heydarov defeated French underdog Joan-Benjamin Gaba with a golden scoring ippon in a marathon final that lasted nine minutes and 24 seconds at the Champ-de-Mars Arena.
Heydarov tried several times to catch his breath as the fight progressed and kissed his opponent’s forehead after celebrating his victory.
Gaba, ranked 35th in the world and competing in his first Olympics, surprised everyone by fighting his way to the final after defeating London 2012 66 kg (146 lb) gold medalist Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia in the round of 16.
In the women’s event, Sarah-Leonie Cysique added the bronze medal to the host country’s ranking after losing to Deguchi in the semi-final. In the final, Deguchi eliminated Huh Mi-mi after the South Korean was penalized for the third time.
Great Britain’s Pidcock wins thriller to retain mountain bike title
Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock came back from suffering a puncture to retain his men’s Olympic mountain bike title after a thrilling battle with France’s Victor Koretzky.
World champion Pidcock, who won gold in Tokyo, was left adrift for 35 seconds after a front wheel puncture on the fourth of eight laps of the 4.4km carved circuit at Elancourt Hill.
But he recovered and then faced Koretzky on the final lap, when he again had to make up ground before pulling away with the finish line in sight.
The partisan crowd booed as he crossed the line nine seconds ahead of silver medalist Koretzky, while South African Alan Hatherly finished third and won the bronze medal.
The Olympic gold medal was an early birthday present for Pidcock, who turns 25 on Tuesday.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
