RISING SONS
Uchimura leads Japan to gymnastics gold
RIO DE JANEIRO — Kohei Uchimura stepped off the floor, saluted the crowd inside Rio Olympic Arena and bent over. Symbolically, it looked as if the Japanese gymnast was overcome by the moment after clinching the Olympic team gold he’s pursued during his otherwise unparalleled career.
Nope. The reason the six-time world champion and defending all-around Olympic titlist found himself with his hands on his knees gasping for breath was more pragmatic than poetic. “I was just exhausted,” he said. And relieved. No more questions about whether he can beat top rival China on the biggest stage. His status as the greatest of all time is no longer in doubt. Turns out his team — Koji Yamamuro, Ryohei Kato, Yusuke Tanaka and Kenzo Shirai — is pretty good, too. Japan’s total of 274.094 was more than two points better than Russia and nearly three clear than the Chinese, who couldn’t lock down a third straight Olympic title thanks to a series of small but crucial missteps the Japanese simply didn’t make. Britain finished fourth while another slow start in the Olympic finals dropped the United States to fifth.
Djokovic done
Novak Djokovic’s Rio Olympics are over.
The 12-time major champion lost in doubles Monday, a day after he was eliminated in the first round in singles by 2009 U.S. Open winner Juan Martin del Potro. After he and Serbian teammate Nenad Zimonjic fell 6-4, 6-4 to third-seeded Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares in the second round, Djokovic confirmed that he won’t play mixed doubles.
The world’s top-ranked player is still seeking his first Olympic gold. He’ll be 33 at the 2020 Games, and he said Monday that “I really hope I will have another shot at the medal.”
Griner, U.S. women top Spain
Brittney Griner used her size
advantage inside scoring eight of the first 10 points for the United States, and the Americans turned in another perfunctory rout in beating Spain 103-63 on Monday.
The Americans, who are 2-0, came up short of another recordsetting performance like they had in their group play opener. But they were still impressive.
Top Russians stay banned
Two of Russia’s top track and field athletes have failed in a bid to have their ban from the Olympics put on hold by a Swiss court.
Sergei Shubenkov, the world 110-meter hurdles champion, tells Russian media he and twotime Olympic pole vault gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva applied to Swiss federal court to freeze the implementation of a ruling last month from the Court of Arbitration for Sport which upheld Russia’s ban from the Olympic track meet.
Isinbayeva said she’s given up on competing and is switching her attention to a bid to get elected to the International Olympic Committee.
Isinbayeva says on Instagram her “last hope to perform at the Olympic Games has disappeared” following the Swiss ruling, but she plans to travel to Rio anyway on Sunday to stand as an athletes’ representative on the IOC.
U.S. divers take silver
China is 2-for-2 in Olympic diving, winning the men’s 10meter synchronized platform title.
Chen Aisen and Lin Yue dominated the event Monday, totaling 496.98 points.
Americans David Boudia and Steele Johnson earned silver with 457.11. Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow of Britain took bronze with 445.45, rallying from fifth place after the fourth of six rounds.
The Chinese have won 10meter synchro in every Olympics since 2004 in Athens. Chen won gold in Beijing at age 17, but wasn’t selected for the event four years ago in London.
China won its first diving gold of these games a day earlier in women’s 3-meter synchro.