More records fall as Phelps collects 19th gold
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Michael Phelps picked up his 19th gold medal on a second night of world records in the Olympic pool, with Katie Ledecky cruising to women’s 400 meters freestyle victory and Britain’s Adam Peaty running away with the men’s 100 breaststroke.
Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom extended Saturday’s record spree in winning the 100 meters butterfly, and Peaty and Ledecky followed suit in the next two finals before the US men’s team, with Phelps swimming second, took the 4x100 freestyle relay.
Six swimming world records have now fallen in two days of competition, and the United States moved level with Australia on two gold medals each.
Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, now has 19 golds, two silvers and two bronzes. For his relay team mates Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Held, it was their first Olympic medal.
London Olympics 100 freestyle champion Nathan Adrian swam the final leg for the Americans, touching first ahead of France and Australia.
“On the block I thought my heart was going to explode, I was so hyped, so excited,” said Phelps, competing in his fifth Olympics.
Ledecky, the rising US swimming sensation, shaved 1.91 seconds off her own world record on the way to the 400m gold, the first stage of a rare treble she hopes to complete along with the 200m and 800m.
“It’s pure happiness,” the 19-year-old told reporters.
“I wanted the first 200 to hurt as little as possible and I really felt like I could build into it and really explode that last 50,” she added after leading the race from start to finish.
Britain’s Peaty set his second world record in consecutive days, and seemed surprised by the margin of his victory – 1.56 seconds – over defending champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa.
“I touched the wall and looked around and thought ‘where is everybody?’ Peaty told reporters.
In the butterfly, Sjostrom became the first Swedish woman to win an Olympic gold medal, with Canada’s 16-yearold Penny Oleksiak taking silver. American Dana Vollmer, the 2012 champion, clinched bronze.
“The feeling is totally crazy. I didn’t realize it was a world record,” Sjostrom said.
Biles, Raisman lead way for sensational American gymnasts
In other action, Simone Biles showed the world why she is an Olympic champion-in-waiting as she and her American team mates blew away the opposition by almost 10 points in women’s gymnastics qualifying at the Rio Games on Sunday.
The quintet of Biles, 2012 all-around champion Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian produced the kind of command performance that has made the Americans an unbeatable force since 2011 as they racked up a total of 185.238 points.
While rivals China, Russia and Britain fell and stumbled their way through qualifying, the only blips for the Americans was when Douglas stepped out of bounds during the floor exercise and Raisman flapped her arms about to save herself falling off the beam following a big wobble.
They were such a class act with their soaring somersaults and explosive tumbles that Biles, Raisman and Douglas were the top three all around performers on Sunday.
But the quality within her own team meant that Douglas lost her chance to become the first woman since Czech Vera Caslavska in 1968 to win back-toback Olympic all around titles as competition rules state each country can field only two gymnasts in individual finals.
Her total of 60.131 was just 0.476 of a point adrift of Raisman, who along with Biles made it to the all-around final.
“I hate the two per country rule, I think it’s really hard because I think all five of us could make the all-around final,” said Raisman, who is Jewish and has traveled to Israel multiple time in the past. “It is heart-breaking.”
While a dejected Douglas was left to dwell on a missed opportunity, Biles was flying high. She became the only woman to breach the 16-point barrier on Sunday and was on target to become the first female gymnast to win five golds at a single Olympics by topping the floor, vault, beam and allaround standings.
Del Potro sends Djokovic off in tears, Venus and Serena fall in doubles
In tennis action, world No. 1 Novak Djokovic was reduced to tears after suffering a shock first round 7-6(4), 7-6(2) loss to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in the men’s tournament on Sunday.
Djokovic has dominated the men’s game in recent years and had made it a priority to win an Olympic gold medal, the only major prize that still eludes him.
“No doubt this is one of the toughest losses in my life and in my career,” a distraught Djokovic told reporters. “It’s not easy to handle, especially now, just after the wounds are still fresh.”
After winning this year’s Australian and French Open titles, Djokovic was the favorite to add Olympic gold to his 12 Grand Slam titles and Del Potro was as surprised as anyone to see the Serb go out.
Once ranked fourth highest in the world, Del Potro said the performance against Djokovic gave him hope of fully overcoming his injury nightmare.
Djokovic will be 33 by the time of the Tokyo 2020 Games meaning the Rio men’s doubles could be his best hope of achieving Olympic success.
In women’s action, three-time Olympic women’s doubles champions Serena and Venus Williams crashed out of the tournament in the first round as the American sisters’ unbeaten run dating back to Sydney 2000 came to a surprising end.
The top seeds fell 6-3, 6-4 to Czech pair Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova, ending any hopes of claiming a third successive Olympics doubles crown after they won gold in Beijing eight years ago and again at London 2012.
The sisters won their first doubles gold in Sydney, but a knee injury prevented Serena from playing at Athens in 2004. They have also won 14 doubles Grand Slam titles, to go along with a combined tally of 29 major singles crowns.
After their loss, Serena was philosophical about the result and preferred to focus on the success of one of the greatest ever doubles pairings.
“I wouldn’t stay it’s devastating... we had a chance to compete for our country, we did the best that we can. We had a blast out there,” said Serena, 34.
“We’ve had so many Olympic doubles golds, so many Grand Slam championships. It’s been unbelievable.”
Both women have also won Olympic gold medals in singles play, with Venus triumphing in Sydney and then Serena becoming champion in London.