Milpitas’ Jha loses in first round in table tennis
Vietnam shooter wins country’s first gold medal on final shot
Kanak Jha, the Milpitas 16-year-old who was the youngest male ever to qualify for table tennis in Olympic history, lost in the preliminary round of the games.
Jha lost Saturday to Iranian Nima Alamian 4-1 in the best-of-seven match. Jha struggled with nerves in the first game, losing it decisively to Alamian, 24, but he bounced back to win the second.
Jha couldn’t build momentum after that, losing the next three games. After hitting long on match point, Jha flipped his racket into the air and caught it.
He will return for the team event.
American Lily Zhang fared much better to advance to the round of 32.
Zhang, a Cal student from Palo Alto, demolished Venezuela’s Gremlis Arvelo 4-0, a huge improvement on Zhang’s Olympic debut four years ago in London, when she lost as a 16-yearold in the first round. The 20-year-old Californian also swept Portugal’s Jieni Shao 11-4, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6.
“I felt like I had the advantage in the rallies,” Zhang said. “Beforehand, I knew how to play her since she’s a lefty and I had strategy.”
Zhang faces Korea’s Hyowon Suh on Monday morning.
American shooter Virginia Thrasher won the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics, capturing the women’s 10-meter air rifle.
The 19-year-old capped a strong year. She became the first freshman to win both individual NCAA rifle titles and helped West Virginia win the team title. She followed that by winning the U.S. Olympic trials less than a month later, earning a trip to Rio.
Hoang Xuan Vihn won Vietnam’s first Olympic gold medal, rallying to beat Brazilian favorite Felipe Almeida Wu on the final shot of men’s 10-meter air pistol.
Wu led early in the elimination finals, but Hoang was more consistent, building a 2.3-point by the time defending gold medalist Jin Jongoh of South Korea went out in fifth place.
The crowd became raucous as Wu rallied, roaring after he hit 10.2 to Hoang’s 9.2 to take a 0.2-point lead on the penultimate shot.
Wu, the top-ranked shooter heading into the Olympics, hit a solid 10.1 on his final shot, but Hoang shot 10.7 to earn gold.
Vietnam had previously won two Olympic medals: silvers in weightlifting in 2008 and taekwondo in 2000.
Defending champion Kerri Walsh Jennings and new partner April Ross easily won their opening beach volleyball match with a 21-14, 21-13 victory over Australia that took only 35 minutes. Fellow Americans Casey Patterson and Jake Gibb also won their opener, beating Qatar 21-16, 21-16.
Venus Williams, 36, faded as her opening match at her record fifth Olympics dragged past 3 hours and she lost 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) to Kristen Flipkens of Belgium.
Williams, owner of four gold medals and seven Grand Slam titles, labored at times and even showed frustration by shouting “Ridiculous!” after dropping one point.
The U.S. men advanced to the gymnastics team finals by finishing second to China in the qualification round.
China had 270.461 points, the United States 270.405 and Russia was third with 269.612.
Americans Sam Mikulak and Chris Brooks also qualified for the all-around final. Qualifiers for the individual event finals were Mikulak and Jacob Dalton in floor exercise, Alex Naddour in pommel horse, Danell Leyva in parallel bars and Mikulak and Leyva in the horizontal bar.
Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium out-sprinted Jakob Fuglsang and Rafal Majka on the long run to the finish at Copacabana Beach in the men’s cycling road race.
Van Avermaet’s victory came after Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, one of the prerace favorites, and Colombian counterpart Sergio Henao crashed while trying to navigate a corner on the final harrowing descent of the 6hour race.
The riders were going so fast that TV cameras on motorbikes couldn’t keep up, so it was unclear what caused them to crash.
The brutality of the course became evident over the cobblestone sectors. Tour de France champion Chris Froome needed a bike change after a mechanical issue. Richie Porte of Australia had his chain bounce off.
South Korea was nearly flawless as it defeated the United States in the men’s team archery final.
The Korean powerhouse scored in the 10 range on 15 of its 18 arrows to knock off the Americans, 6-0. South Korea has now captured five of the eight Olympic gold medals in the men’s team event.
The United States took home silver for a second consecutive Olympics.
The United States lost its Group B water polo opener to Croatia 7-5.
Former Stanford star Tony Azevedo gave the Americans a 4-3 lead with his second goal of the match with 5:03 remaining in the third quarter.
But Croatia got consecutive goals from Luka Bukic and Andelo Setka to take its first lead at 54. Fourth quarter goals by Setka and Maro Jokovic pushed the lead to 7-4.
The United States claimed one of the biggest wins in its Olympic women’s field hockey history, defeating No. 2 Argentina 2-1. The Americans haven’t medaled since 1984, when they claimed bronze in Los Angeles.
Brazil stunned reigning Olympic and world champion Norway 31-28 women’s handball. Ana Paula Rodrigues had 12 goals for Brazil, which was the 2013 world champion but has never won an Olympic handball medal.