San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
1st American gold to swimmer Kalisz
Chase Kalisz led a sixmedal haul by the powerhouse American team at the Olympic pool, taking gold Sunday in the men’s 400meter individual medley.
Host Japan claimed its first swimming gold, and Tunisia got a stint atop the podium.
Kalisz was the first U.S, medal winner of the Tokyo Games, and Jay Litherland made it a 12 finish for the Americans by rallying on the freestyle leg to claim the silver. Brendon Smith of Australia earned the bronze.
“I’m happy to be here and kick the U.S. off,” said Kalisz.
Kieran Smith grabbed another medal for the U.S. men with bronze in the 400 freestyle. Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui was the surprising winner, while Australia’s Jack McLoughlin settled for silver after leading much of the race.
Japan’s Yui Ohashi won the women’s 400 IM with a dynamic breaststroke, but Americans Emma Weyant took silver and Hali Flickinger bronze.
Australia set the first swimming world record of the Tokyo Games in the women’s 4x100meter freestyle relay, touching in 3 minutes, 29.69 seconds, breaking the mark 3:30.05 that they set in 2018. Canada was second in 3:32.78, while the Americans took their sixth medal of the night with a bronze in 3:32.81.
Softball:
Amanda Chidester hit a gameending, tworun single in the eighth inning, Salinas native Monica Abbott struck out 13 and the United States beat Australia 21 to clinch a berth in the goldmedal game.
Australia scored the first run off the Americans in the tournament when Jade Wall walked on eight pitches with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth.
With pinchrunner Ally Carda on second as the automatic runner in the bottom half, leadoff hitter Haylie McCleney reached on an infield single to shortstop off Tarni Stepto (01).
Janie Reed sacrificed for the fourth time in the tournament, and Chidester singled to the back of the baseball infield dirt at Yokohama Stadium as both runners scored.
On Saturday, Cat Osterman pitched shutout ball for the second time in four days, Ali Aguilar hit a tiebreaking, tworun single and the U.S. beat No. 5 Mexico 20.
Bryson DeChambeau tested positive for the coronavirus before leaving the United States for the Olympics and will miss the Tokyo Games. He’ll be replaced by Patrick Reed. DeChambeau becomes the highestprofile athlete to test positive for the virus. He said he was “deeply disappointed not to be able to compete in the Olympics for Team USA.”
The first round is set for Thursday.
Topranked Ash Barty was upset by 48thranked Spanish opponent Sara Sorribes Tormo 64, 63 in the first round of the tournament. It was Barty’s Olympic singles debut. She won in doubles with Australian teammate Storm Sanders on Saturday.
She struggled with a whop
Golf:
Tennis:
ping 55 unforced errors to Sorribes Tormo’s 13. The defeat comes 15 days after Barty won Wimbledon for her second Grand Slam title.
French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova routed Sara Errani of Italy 60, 61, but Mona Barthel struggled with 10 doublefaults in a 62, 62 loss to Iga Swiatek as a searing sun made it nearly impossible to see the ball once she tossed it.
Novak Djokovic’s bid for a Golden Slam is alive and well following a 62, 62 win over Hugo Dellien of Bolivia.
Twotime defending champion Andy Murray pulled out of the singles competition with a quad strain ahead of his scheduled opener against ninthseeded Felix AugerAliassime on Center Court. Max Purcell of Australia played the Canadian instead. Murray remains in the doubles with partner Joe Salisbury.
Volleyball:
The U.S. women’s quest for their first gold medal is off to a fast start after they swept Argentina in their opening match, 2520, 2519, 2520.
The U.S. won silver medals in 2008 and 2012 and bronze five years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
Jordan Thompson led the way in the opener with 20 points as she dominated at the net.
After a long wait, the U.S. men made quick work of France in their opener. The men didn’t take the court until 11 p.m. local time in the final match of the opening day of pool play but set the tone early by scoring the first five points. The Americans won 2518, 2518, 2522 as they try to build on their 2016 bronzemedal performance.
Ecuador won its first cycling medal as Richard Carapaz took gold in the Olympic road race, beating a field that included twotime Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia.
Twotime Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura’s Olympic career is over. The 32yearold Japanese gymnast, considered by many the greatest of all time, fell during qualifying on high bar and did
Cycling:
Gymnastics:
not advance to the event finals.
Taekwondo:
Iranian defector Kimia Alizadeh shocked twotime Olympic gold medalist Jade Jones, beating the British champion 1612 in the round of 16. Alizadeh, a bronze medalist for Iran in Rio, won twice for the Refugee Olympic Team to advance to the quarterfinals in the women’s 57kilogram division. The refugee team has never won an Olympic medal.