With no Bolt, Bromell looks to take over
TOKYO — There will be a new fastest man of the Olympics crowned Sunday when the 100-meter dash is run without Usain Bolt in the finals for the first time since 2008.
The favorite to claim the gold is American sprinter Trayvon Bromell, a 26-yearold from St. Petersburg, Florida. The race is the marquee event of the Olympics and closes out a busy night in Tokyo.
Bolt won three consecutive golds in the men’s 100-meter dash but he’s now moved on in his life and there’s an opening for a new star. Bromell doesn’t have the same swagger as Bolt, but he does have speed. He’ll be challenged by teammate Ronnie Baker, Andre De Grasse of Canada and Akani Simbine of South Africa.
Bromell won U.S. Olympic trials and also has the top time of 2021, at 9.77 seconds. The sports books believe Bromell will win and he’s the evenmoney favorite for the gold.
Olympic Stadium will be the centerpiece of Sunday night’s Tokyo Games coverage, with medals also set to be handed out in the women’s 100-meter hurdles and the men’s long jump. NBC’s primetime coverage begins at 7 p.m. and will also feature the women’s springboard final in diving and an elimination match in women’s beach volleyball.
New Zealand captures rugby gold: After five long years, Portia Woodman has finally been able to shake the mental image of herself in tears, standing under the goalposts.
It was like grief for something lost, but it’s been supplanted now by memories of happiness, hugs and, of course, a haka.
Woodman’s New Zealanders won a coveted Olympic title by beating France 26-12 on Saturday.
She’ll always have the memory of that 2016 final loss to Australia in Rio de Janeiro, because missing out on the first Olympic gold medal ever awarded in women’s rugby sevens was the motivating force for everything that has come since.
“Looking back on Rio, that emotion of scoring the last try but still not being able to win the game, crying underneath the posts, is definitely one that I’ve looked back on,” the 30-year-old Woodman said, before holding up her gold medal. “But now it’s gone.”
Martinez pitches Americans to win: Nick Martínez stepped onto the mound, and it felt like an old familiar place.
Because it was.
“Felt comfortable the whole game,” he said after striking out nine over five innings and pitching the United States over South Korea 4-2 for a 2-0 record at the Olympics.
A right-hander who turns 31 on Thursday, Martínez allowed one run and four hits. He was 17-30 for Texas from 201417 and signed with the Pacific League’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters after the Rangers demoted him to Triple-A 13 times. He switched to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks this season and is 7-2 with a 2.03 ERA.
Age is only a number: Lyu Xiaojun, the 37-year-old Chinese weightlifter, became the oldest man to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport on Saturday after a tense finish in the men’s 81-kilogram category.
Wearing his signature shiny gold shoes, Lyu lifted 170kg in the snatch and 204kg in the clean and jerk for a total 374kg. That was 7kg more than Zacarias Bonnat of the Dominican Republic in second and 9kg ahead of Italian rival Antonino Pizzolato, who won bronze.
“Five years is a long time for a man of this age,” Lyu said through an interpreter, looking back to his long wait since winning silver at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.