Ledecky gets 6th gold in 1,500 free
Katie Ledecky bounced back from losses in her first two events in Tokyo to win the inaugural 1,500-meter freestyle for women by more than 4 seconds on Wednesday.
The victory came about after Ledecky finished fifth in the 200-meter freestyle for her worst finish ever at an Olympics. Ledecky came into the Games with five gold medals but finished second to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in the 400 free and then failed to medal in the 200 that Titmus also won.
“I think people maybe feel bad for me that I’m not winning everything and whatever, but I want people to be more concerned about other things going on in the world, people that are truly suffering,” Ledecky said.
“I’m just proud to bring home a gold medal to Team USA.”
About an hour after the 200-meter freestyle, Ledecky held off teammate
Erica Sullivan to win the metric mile in 15 minutes, 37.34 seconds.
Sullivan claimed the silver in 15:41.41, while Germany’s Sarah Kohler grabbed the bronze in 15:42.91.
More swimming: American Bobby Finke won gold in the debut of the men’s 800-meter swimming freestyle event in a close finish.
Finke’s winning time was 7 minutes, 41.87 seconds, just 0.24 ahead of Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri who led most of the race.The bronze went to
Mykhailo Romachuk of Ukraine.
GYMNASTICS
Japanese teenager Daiki Hashimoto won a gold medal in men’s allaround.
The 19-year-old Hashimoto used a thrilling high bar routine during the final rotation to edge Xiao Ruoteng of China and
reigning world champion Nikita Nagornyy.
Hashimoto’s all-around total of 88.465 points included a 14.933 on high bar. That was good enough for him to surge past Xiao and into the top spot. The gold is the third straight Olympic title for the Japanese gymnast. Kohei Uchimura won in 2012 and 2016.
TENNIS
Novak Djokovic’s pursuit of a Golden Slam bid is alive and well.
The top-ranked Serb beat training partner Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Games.
Djokovic is attempting to become the first man to achieve a Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic gold in the same calendar year.
He has already won the Australian and French Opens plus Wimbledon this year. So now he needs the Tokyo Games title and the U.S. Open trophy to complete the unique collection.
TRACK AND FIELD
Twenty athletes, including 10 from Nigeria, will not be allowed to participate in track and field because they did not meet anti-doping testing requirements in the leadup to the Games.
Each of the seven “Category A” countries had at least one athlete banned: Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and Ukraine.