Welshwoman Nicole Cooke handed Britain their first gold of the Beijing Games when she won the women’s cycling road race yesterday.
Sweden’s Emma Johansson took the silver medal, with Italian Tatiana Guderzo placing third for the bronze.
Cooke, one of the most successful road racers of modern times, claimed an elusive first major international crown after holding off Johansson and Guderzo with a winning sprint on the uphill finish line of the 126km race.
She finished in a time of 3 hours, 32 minutes, 24 seconds to become the first British rider to win gold in an Olympic road race.
Pre-race favorites Marianne Vos of the Netherlands and Germany’s Judith Arndt finished in a group of riders 21 seconds behind, having missed the move that allowed a quintet, including Cooke, to go on a fight for the gold.
On the final 9km climb, featuring on the second of two laps of a 23.8km circuit, a number of attacks came and went but everyone, including Cooke, was caught napping when Guderzo flew off on her own with 13km to race.
On the flat section leading through the 1km long tunnel, however, a quartet containing Cooke, Linda Melanie Vilumssen Serup of Denmark, Austria’s Christiane Sauder and Johansson closed the gap.
With the chasing pack only 11 seconds in their wake, the five leaders were far from safe. But behind them a distinct lack of cooperation gave them the advantage they needed.
The teams of Vos and Arndt failed to close the gap and by the time they arrived at the uphill finish the leading quintet were jostling for position.
Cooke, who has just missed out on world and Olympic titles on past occasions, celebrated wildly after coming across the finish line.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner and Kody Clemens homered on Wednesday as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 9-6 and clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. Castellanos had three hits and scored three times. Bryson Stott also had three hits and Brandon Marsh drove in three runs for the Phillies, who on Monday claimed their first National League East title in 13 years. Coupled with the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia secured the bye and home-field advantage in the NL Division Series. The Phillies owned the tiebreaker with the Brewers after winning the season series against the