Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi n Sunday stunned Adam Peaty to win a nail-biting 100m breaststroke final, while Leon Marchand surged to France’s first Olympic swimming gold since 2012.
Marchand said he had goosebumps after romping to gold in front of a packed and raucous Paris crowd on Sunday.
He obliterated the rest of the field in the 400m individual medley final, clocking 4 minutes, 02.95 seconds, nearly six seconds clear of Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita in second, with the US’ Carson Foster third.
Photo: AFP
It was the second-fastest 400m individual medley time ever and gave most of the spectators at La Defense Arena what they came for on the second night of competition.
The 22-year-old was greeted with a massive roar when he entered the arena and the noise did not let up until long after he had touched the wall in an Olympic record time.
“I had goosebumps on the podium,” Marchand said. “I felt really proud to be myself and to be also French tonight. It was an amazing time for me and I was really living it in the moment, so that was pretty cool.”
Photo: Reuters
Marchand said he took a call from French President Emmanuel Macron after the race.
“He told me that he was watching the final with his whole family,” Marchand said. “Everyone was screaming on the phone. It was kind of funny and I was very grateful for that phone call.”
Torri Huske then beat US teammate and world record-holder Gretchen Walsh to clinch the women’s 100m butterfly title, before the clash of the evening in the pool delivered an unexpected twist.
All the talk pre-race was about a blockbuster duel between England’s reigning two-time champion Peaty and China’s world title-holder Qin Haiyang in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
They were neck-and-neck for large parts of a thrilling race, before Martinenghi roared through for victory, pipping Peaty and the US’ Nic Fink by just 0.02 seconds as they shared second.
Qin, who was reportedly among 23 Chinese swimmers who failed drugs tests in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games, only to be cleared to compete, faded to seventh.
Peaty cried his eyes out after the race, hugging his three-year-old son and his girlfriend Holly Ramsey and he said it was the emotions of being with those closest to him that had brought out the tears.
“I think when I hug [son] George, as soon as I saw his curly hair, I’m like, I’m gone. I’m crying,” he said. “Any parent or anyone that, you know, has that love, it’s just, it’s just a different type of love, something that swimming can’t give me any more — and I don’t want it to give me any more.”
Peaty has focused heavily on his mental health after batting some demons in the past few years, including depression, and has repeatedly insisted that he no longer looks to results to give him self-worth.
“I’m not looking for these performances to give me a gratification of: ‘Oh, I’m okay, I’m the winner and it defines my whole journey.’”
“I’m so happy to pass the baton to Nicolo because I’ve embraced him so long,” he added.
OTHER EVENTS
Also on day two of the Paris Games, Rafael Nadal shrugged off injury concerns to set up a second-round showdown at Roland Garros against great rival Novak Djokovic.
Nadal beat 83rd-ranked Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 despite sporting strapping on his injured right thigh and was to play top seed Djokovic yesterday.
“Of course it’s beautiful to play against one of the two biggest rivals that I had in my career, especially on this court,” said 38-year-old Nadal, who is at his last Olympics.
As of press time last night, Djokovic had won the first set 6-1, and was ahead 4-3 in the second.
“But situations are completely different for him, for me,” Nadal said. “He’s being very competitive. I was not being very competitive for the last two years, so in that case, I think probably he is the clear favorite.”
On the basketball court, Kevin Durant returned from injury to produce a shooting masterclass as the US launched the defense of their Olympic crown with a 110-84 win over Serbia.
Durant shot a near-perfect 8-of-9 from the field to finish with 23 points in a convincing win for the reigning champions.
In April last year, Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying finally opened up about her future in the sport in which she had competed professionally since 2009. “My plan is to retire after the end of next year’s season. Even if I’m still able to compete, I would prefer not to,” she said at a promotional event. If true, the Paris Olympics would be her last stab at an Olympic gold medal, a prize some might think a player who has topped the rankings in women’s singles for a record total of 214 weeks — between December 2016 and September 2022 — should
Vivian Kong on Saturday won Hong Kong’s third ever Olympic gold medal, disappointing the home crowd as she beat France’s Auriane Mallo-Breton 13-12 in sudden death in the women’s epee final. Kong wiped away tears after she clinched the title, having held her nerve when she trailed 7-1 in the second period and with a passionate home crowd, including French President Emmanuel Macron, urging Mallo-Breton on. Her gold emulates that of fellow fencer Cheung Ka-long in the men’s foil in Tokyo three years ago and sailor Lee Lai-shan who won the women’s sailboard title at Atlanta in 1996. “I just thought it was
Japan’s 14-year-old Coco Yoshizawa on Sunday grabbed gold in the all-teenage women’s street skateboard final at the Paris Olympics, after nailing a high-risk ride down the hand-rail. Yoshizawa went into her penultimate trick with two big scores, but needing a third to complete her total, before finishing in style. “I knew that if I wanted to win, I had to go for the most difficult tricks. I didn’t aim for second or third place; I aimed for the top spot with my highest difficulty moves,” she said. Even though all her rivals had one more run, she raised her board above
POLYNESIAN FOCUS: The separate opening event welcomed visitors with Tahitian dancing, while athletes participated in rituals to mark the occasion Tahitian dancers in palm-leaf skirts mingled with Olympic surfers, locals and tourists as the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games commenced in French Polynesia on Friday, about 16,000km from the main ceremony in Paris. “The people of Tahiti, we are all enchanted to have these Olympics Games here and to welcome all our friends from all over the world,” French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson told reporters. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. All the world is looking at us for this mighty wave.” Just steps from the ocean and set against the lush green mountains of Tahiti, the event was heavily