The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Muhammad closes in on more taekwondo glory
Lutalo Muhammad moved to the brink of delivering a second taekwondo gold medal for Great Britain after storming into the men’s -80kg final in Rio.
The 25-year-old shrugged off a nightmare draw to book his place in the final with a nerveless 12-7 win over reigning European champion Milad Beigi Harchegani from Azerbaijan.
Two crucial head kicks late in the third and final round secured victory for Muhammad, who had won a bronze medal at London 2012 after being controversially selected over Aaron Cook.
Muhammad’s win was all the more impressive because the Azeri had seen off reigning world champion Mahdi Khodabakhshi of Iran in the previous round.
Muhammad started his campaign with a convincing 14-0 win over Austria’s Hayder Shkara to set up a second round clash with veteran six-time world champion Steven Lopez of the US.
The Briton had too much for the 37-year-old, winning 9-2, before moving on to beat Harchegani and clinch a gold medal showdown against reigning African champion Cheick Salah Cisse of the Ivory Coast.
Muhammad’s efforts came the day after Jade Jones retained her Olympic title with a thrilling win over Spain’s Eva Calvo Gomez.
Liam Heath is on track to increase his Rio medal haul after qualifying fastest for the men’s kayak single 200 metres final.
The 32-year-old won silver with Jon Schofield in the kayak double 200m on Thursday, but there was little time to celebrate as his tilt at K1 glory started the following day.
Heath showed few signs of tiredness, racing to victory in both his heat and semi-final, crossing in 34.076 seconds to reach today’s final.
The women’s kayak four 500m team are also through to the final after Jess Walker, Rachel Cawthorn, Rebii Simon and Louisa Gurski finished joint second with Canada in their semi, both crossing in one minute 36.254 secs.
Great Britain’s Dom King did not get a chance to finish the men’s 50km racewalk, never mind win it.
Three ‘bent knee’ infringements saw the 33-year-old disqualified halfway through a race won by Slovakia reigning world champion Matej Toth in three hours 40 minutes 58 seconds.