TOKYO (AP) — The gold medals are beginning to trickle in for U.S track and field athletes at the Tokyo Games.
Sydney McLaughlin has broken her own world record to win the women’s 400-meter hurdles in 51.46 seconds. She edged out Dalilah Muhammad, who won silver to make it a U.S. 1-2 finish.
McLaughlin set the previous world record of 51.90 seconds in June.
Also in Tokyo:
— Breanna Stewart scored 20 of her 23 points in the first half to help the U.S. women’s basketball team beat Australia, 79-55 in the quarterfinals. Trailing 5-2, Stewart scored seven consecutive points to start a 19-1 run. The Americans will face Serbia on Friday in the semifinals looking to advance to their seventh consecutive gold medal game.
— The U.S. women’s volleyball team has made it to the semifinals for the sixth time in the past eight Olympics by beating the Dominican Republic in straight sets. The Americans advanced despite playing without injured starters Jordyn Poulter and Jordan Thompson.
— NBA veteran Pau Gasol has been voted by his fellow Tokyo Games athletes to represent them as a member of the International Olympic Committee. Gasol will be an IOC member for seven years through the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, where he won two NBA titles with the Lakers. The results were announced the day after Gasol and Spain lost in the quarterfinals to the United States.
— American silver medalist Raven Saunders says her mother has died. The shot putter wrote on her Twitter account early today that “my mama was a great woman and will forever live through me. My number one guardian angel.” Media reports say that Clarissa Saunders died in Orlando, Florida, where she had been attending Olympic watch parties.
— Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden got off to a hot start in women’s golf at the Olympics. She played a bogey-free round for a 66. That gives her a one-shot lead over top-ranked Nelly Korda of the United States and Aditi Ashok of India.
— Italy has broken its own world record to win the gold medal in men’s team pursuit cycling at the Tokyo Olympics. It was a dramatic final at the Izu Velodrome as they edged world champion Denmark. The Italians led through the first half of the 4,000-meter race, then watched as the Danish team pulled ahead. Over the last five laps, the Italians wiped out a deficit of nearly a half-second to win the gold medal. Australia, the silver medalist in Rio, took bronze.
— A Russian athlete competing in karate has been ruled out of the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the coronavirus. Anna Chernysheva was the Russian Olympic Committee team’s only karate athlete at the Olympics. The 19-year-old was due to compete Thursday in the women’s 55-kilogram kumite event.
— A Belarusian sprinter has left Tokyo en route to Europe after resisting an attempt by her Olympic team’s officials to send her home to Belarus. The athlete says she fears she could be in danger from authorities in her country who have relentlessly cracked down on dissent. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya boarded a plane at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport on this morning that left the gate for Vienna, but she was expected to travel on to Poland later in the day.
