Pidcock dominates mountain bike race

Tom Pidcock won the Olympic men’s moun- Pidcock, who splits time between the road Gold medalist Thomas tain bike race in the hilly countryside south- and mountain biking, won the World Cup race Pidcock of Great west of on Monday, extending Britain’s at Nove Mesto earlier this year to become an Britain bites his medal dominance from the road and track to the dirt. Olympic favorite. But then he was hit by a car on the podium during Leaving reigning champion Nino Schurter and broke his collarbone on a training ride, a medal ceremony and his Swiss teammate Mathias Flueck- keeping him off a bike for about a week in for the men’s cross iger behind on the fourth of seven laps, the June, and some wondered whether he’d have country mountain 21-year-old multidiscipline prodigy proceeded the same legs for the Tokyo Games. bike competition at to dominate the toughest course in Olympic Turns out they were even better. the 2020 Summer history. Olympic organizers originally wanted to Olympics, on July 26, Flueckiger gave chase in vain and was left carve out a mountain bike course at Yu- in Izu, . (AP) with a silver medal. David Valero Serrano of menoshima, a district in Tokyo, on an artifi cial Spain won a surprise bronze. island built upon landfi ll waste. (AP)

ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2021

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13-year-old Nishiya wins gold, becomes Japan’s youngest medalist Skateboarding teens blaze trail for women at Tokyo Olympics TOKYO, July 26, (AP): On the Olympic podium stood three riding it down rails taller than she is. She said she’d celebrate dress with angel wings. teenage girls - 13, 13 and 16 - with weighty gold, silver and by asking her mother to treat her to a dinner of Japanese ya- “Skateboarding is for everyone,” she said. bronze medals around their young necks, rewards for having kiniku barbecue. But that hasn’t always been true for young girls, even landed tricks on their skateboards that most kids their age The silver went to Rayssa Leal, also 13 - ’s second among the 20 female pioneers who rode the rails, ramps and only get to see on Instagram. silver in skateboarding after Kelvin Hoefl er fi nished in sec- ledges at the Ariake Urban Sports Park. After decades in the shadows of men’s skateboarding, the ond place on Sunday in the men’s event. The fi eld included Leticia Bufoni of Brazil, whose board future for the sport’s daring, trailblazing women suddenly was snapped in two by her dad when she was a kid to try to looked brighter than ever at the Tokyo Games on Monday. stop her from skating. She was 10. It’s anyone’s guess how many young girls tuned in to “I cried for hours,” she recalled. “He thought girls watch Momiji Nishiya of Japan win the debut Olympic SKATE BOARDING shouldn’t skate because he had never seen a woman skate skateboarding event for women, giving the host nation a before.” Bufoni added, half-joking, that getting him to relent sweep of golds in the street event after Yuto Horigome won Both Nishiya and Leal became their countries’ youngest had been harder than qualifying for the Tokyo Games. the men’s event. ever medalists. The bronze went to 16-year-old Funa Nakay- “So I want be that girl that the little girls can show their But around the world, girls trying to convince their parents ama of Japan. parents and be like, ’She can skate. I want to be like her,’” that they, too, should be allowed to skate can now point to “Now I can convince all my friends to skateboard every- Bufoni said. Gold medal winner Momiji Nishiya of Japan holds her the 13-year-old from Osaka as an Olympic-sized example of where with me,” Leal said. Annie Guglia of Canada said she didn’t see any other girls medal after winning the women’s street skateboarding skateboarding’s possibilities. She fi rst caught the skateboarding world’s attention as a skate during her fi rst two years on her board. The fi rst contest fi nals at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on July 26, in To- A champion of few words - “Simply delighted,” is how 7-year-old with a video on Instagram of her attempting, and she entered, at the age of 13, had no women’s category, so kyo, Japan. (AP) she described herself - Nishiya let her board do the talking, landing, a jump with a fl ip down three stairs while wearing a organizers had to create one for her. Olympic Medalists Judo’s elusive star Shohei Ono ARCHERY Men’s Team GOLD: South Korea (Je Deok Kim, Woojin Kim, Jin- hyek Oh) SILVER: Taiwan (Yu-Cheng Deng, Chih-Chun Tang, Chun-Heng Wei) BRONZE: Japan (Takaharu Furukawa, Yuki Kawata, Hiroki Muto) ‘dominates’ another Olympics CANOE SLALOM Men’s Canoe GOLD: Benjamin Savsek, Slovenia SILVER: Lukas Rohan, Czech Republic ‘I had some fear going into golden score’ BRONZE: Sideris Tasiadis, DIVING Men’s Synchronised 10m Platform TOKYO, July 26, (AP): GOLD: Britain (Thomas Daley, Matty Lee) SILVER: (Aisen Chen, Yuan Cao) Shohei Ono made two of BRONZE: (Aleksandr Bondar, Viktor Mini- his fi rst three opponents baev) cry when he returned to Men’s Foil Individual judo at the Tokyo Olym- GOLD: Ka Long Cheung, Hong Kong pics after 18 mysterious SILVER: Daniele Garozzo, BRONZE: Alexander Choupenitch, Czech Republic months away. Women’s Individual These were not small tears, GOLD: Sofi a Pozdniakova, Russia either. Loud, body-shaking SILVER: , Russia sobs emanated from the men BRONZE: Manon Brunet, who had to walk behind Ono in defeat through the oth- Men’s Team erwise hushed halls of the GOLD: Russia (Denis Abliazin, David Belyavskiy, Ar- tur Dalaloyan, ) Budokan, giving voice to SILVER: Japan (Daiki Hashimoto, Kazuma Kaya, the anguish of extraordinary Takeru Kitazono, Wataru Tanigawa) athletes whose lifetimes of BRONZE: China (Chaopan Lin, Wei Sun, Jingyuan preparation had still left them Zou, Ruoteng Xiao) unequipped to survive four JUDO minutes against Japan’s elu- Men — 73 kg GOLD: Shohei Ono, Japan sive judo superstar. SILVER: Lasha Shavdatuashvili, Turkey’s Bilal Çiloğlu, the BRONZE: Changrim An, South Korea world’s No. 9 lightweight, BRONZE: Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir, Mongolia screamed and put his fi sts to his Women — 57 kg head after Ono pinned him help- GOLD: Nora Gjakova, Kosovo lessly to the tatami for an ippon, his SILVER: Sarah Leonie Cysique, France wails echoing down the corridors. BRONZE: Tsukasa Yoshida, Japan Azerbaijan’s Rustam Orujov, BRONZE: Jessica Klimkait, Canada second ranked in the world and CYCLING MOUNTAIN BIKE top-seeded in Tokyo, dried his eyes Men’s Cross-country with his untucked gi after Ono end- GOLD: Thomas Pidcock, Britain ed the rematch of their gold medal SILVER: Mathias Flueckiger, bout in with two BRONZE: David Valero Serrano, Spain waza aris 65 seconds apart. SHOOTING Shohei Ono of Japan, (right), and Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir of Mongolia compete during their men’s - 73kg judo semifi nal match, at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, on July 26. Inset: Gold medalist Shohei Ono of Japan poses after the medal ceremony. (AP) Skeet Men GOLD: Vincent Hancock, United States SILVER: Jesper Hansen, Denmark JUDO BRONZE: Eric Delaunay, France Medvedev and Zverev advance BRONZE: Abdullah Alrashidi, Kuwait Ono is the most dominant player Skeet Women on a Japanese judo team that might GOLD: Amber English, United States be the best in Olympic history. SILVER: Diana Bacosi, Italy Osaka, Djokovic raise profi le at Tokyo Games His combination of brute ferocity BRONZE: Meng Wei, China and tactical invention have kept SKATEBOARDING TOKYO, July 26, (AP): Naomi Osaka has the him unbeaten since 2015, even in Women’s Street hopes of the entire host nation resting on her. an Olympic weight class stacked GOLD: Momiji Nishiya, Japan Novak Djokovic is attempting to accomplish Gjakova wins gold on mourning day for Kosovo SILVER: Rayssa Leal, Brazil with incredible talents - only one of something that no man has done before in ten- whom has ever even scored a point BRONZE: Funa Nakayama, Japan nis. PRISTINA, Kosovo, July 26, (AP): Nora pic history. Majlinda Kelmendi won the fi rst SWIMMING Gjakova brought some semblance of joy to at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, also in judo. against Ono. Both players are after something special at The 29-year-old Ono is now a Men’s 100m Breaststroke Kosovo by winning its second Tokyo Olym- Gjakova had reached the fi nal with a the Tokyo Olympics and both produced con- pics judo gold medal on Monday. shock victory over Japan’s Tsukasa Yoshi- two-time Olympic champion after GOLD: Adam Peaty, Britain vincing victories Monday to reach the last 16 at SILVER: Arno Kamminga, Netherlands With her country in mourning following da. winning fi ve straight matches at BRONZE: Nicolo Martinenghi, Italy Ariake Tennis Park. the death of 10 people in a road accident The 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, then a the Budokan, completing his return Osaka crushed winners off both wings - fore- Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay on Sunday, the 28-year-old Gjakova took Serbian province, ended after a NATO with a superiority over his peers hand and backhand - seemingly at will in a 6-3, the title with an ippon victory over France’s military intervention that forced to that only he can boast in the mod- GOLD: United States (Brooks Curry, Blake Pieroni, 6-2 victory over 49th-ranked Viktorija Golu- Bowen Becker, Zach Apple, Caeleb Dressel) Sarah-Leonie Cysique in the women’s withdraw its forces. The United Nations ran ern sport. SILVER: Italy (Alessandro Miressi, Santo Condorelli, bic of Switzerland. Then Djokovic dispatched 57-kilogram division. the territory for nine years before Kosovo in Not even two-time Olympic Lorenzo Zazzeri, Manuel Frigo, Thomas Ceccon) 48th-ranked Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany She joined Distria Krasniqi, who took the 2008 declared independence, a move that champ Teddy Riner, the massive BRONZE: Australia (Cameron McEvoy, Zac Incerti, 6-4, 6-3. 48kg crown on Saturday, as the second Serbia doesn’t recognize. French heavyweight who went a Alexander Graham, Kyle Chalmers, Matthew Temple) Despite this being her fi rst tournament back and third gold medalists in Kosovo’s Olym- Kosovo has a population of 1.8 million. decade between losses, is as domi- Women’s 100m Butterfl y from a two-month mental health break, Osa- nant as Ono now. GOLD: Margaret Macneil, Canada ka’s strong start is hardly a surprise considering This is Osaka’s fi rst event since she with- drousova of the Czech Republic, who beat Mi- Ono is also idiosyncratic: He de- SILVER: Yufei Zhang, China that the Olympic tournament is being played on cided not to compete between the BRONZE: Emma McKeon, Australia drew from the French Open in May, revealing haela Buzarnescu of 6-1, 6-2. hard courts - the surface on which she has won that she has dealt with depression. She then sat In windier, cooler and more overcast conditions start of the coronavirus pandemic Women’s 400m Freestyle all four of her Grand Slam titles. out Wimbledon. than the sweltering opening two days of the com- and the Olympics, choosing a path GOLD: Ariarne Titmus, Australia It was similar to the way Osaka over- Two more wins and Osaka will be in line for petition, Osaka compiled 29 winners to Golubic’s to gold that would seem foolish to a SILVER: Kathleen Ledecky, United States whelmed Zheng Saisai of China a day earlier more honors in her Olympic debut - a medal. 14 and had only 11 unforced errors to her oppo- judoka without his abilities. BRONZE: Bingjie Li, China and it extended her momentum after carrying The second-ranked Osaka will next face nent’s 21. Perhaps more telling was that Osaka re- Ono has followed this strategy TAEKWONDO 2019 French Open runner-up Marketa Von- quired only 65 minutes to dispatch a player coming before: He skipped two straight Men — 80kg TENNIS off a quarterfi nal appearance at Wimbledon. world championships after Rio, GOLD: Maksim Khramtcov, Russia A few other top women struggled. but returned at the Budokan in SILVER: Saleh Elsharabaty, Jordan 2019 to claim his third world ti- BRONZE: Toni Kanaet, Croatia Donna Vekic of Croatia beat third-seeded BRONZE: Seif Eissa, Aryna Sabalenka of 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3), tle. out the ultimate honor at the Games’ opening Ono apparently feels he ben- Women — 67kg Alison van Uytvanck of Belgium rallied past ceremony by lighting the Olympic cauldron. 2016 bronze medalist Petra Kvitova of the efits more from hard training in GOLD: Matea Jelic, Croatia The Japanese superstar, who grew up in the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-3, 6-0, and Paula Ba- Japan’s peerless domestic system SILVER: Lauren Williams, Britain United States, was asked in March to handle BRONZE: Ruth Gbagbi, Ivory Coast dosa eliminated sixth-seeded Iga Swiatek of than on tournament trips to far- BRONZE: Hedaya Wahba, Egypt the fl ame honors but said she “didn’t feel pres- 6-3, 7-6 (4). flung locations, and his results sure” about the assignment. TRIATHLON In men’s action, second-seeded Daniil Med- are unquestionable. If Djokovic can win four more matches, he’ll vedev of ROC and fourth-seeded Alexander “I was not in a match for a long Men’s Individual not only have won his fi rst Olympic title, he’ll time, but I decided to be practical,” GOLD: Kristian Blummenfelt, Norway Zverev of Germany each advanced quickly. SILVER: Alex Yee, Britain also be four-fi fths of the way to a Golden Slam Medvedev beat Sumit Nagal of India 6-2, 6-1 Ono said through a translator. “I BRONZE: Hayden Wilde, New Zealand - victories in all four Grand Slam tournaments and Zverev eliminated Daniel Elahi Galan of tried to engage in the training. I was TABLE TENNIS and Olympic gold in the same calendar year. Colombia 6-2, 6-2. not idle. I stayed focused.” The Serb already won the Australian and In the evening, Ono’s two fi ghts Mixed Doubles Meanwhile, the International Tennis Federa- GOLD: Japan (Jun Mizutani, Mima Ito) French Opens as well as Wimbledon this year. tion announced that Dutch player Jean-Julien were tougher. His gold medal SILVER: China (Xin Xu, Shiwen Liu) Now he needs the Tokyo title and the U.S. Rojer tested positive for COVID-19 and was bout was an epic showdown with BRONZE: Taiwan (Yun Ju Lin, I Ching Cheng) Open trophy to complete the unique collection. withdrawn from the doubles tournament with Georgia’s Lasha Shavdatuashvili, WEIGHTLIFTING Steffi Graf was the only tennis player to partner Wesley Koolhof. a fearless veteran who secured his Women’s 55kg achieve the Golden Slam in 1988. Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, reacts after The eighth-seeded pair were scheduled to third Olympic medal while getting GOLD: Hidilyn Diaz, Philippines Djokovic’s next opponent will be 16th- winning a point off Jan-Lennard Struff, of play Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus of Ono into several dangerous situa- SILVER: Qiuyun Liao, China seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, Germany, during the second round of the New Zealand. Daniell and Venus received a tions. BRONZE: Zulfi ya Chinshanlo, Kazakhstan who defeated John Millman of Australia 6-4, tennis competition at the 2020 Summer walkover into the quarterfi nals and Rojer was “I had some fear going into gold- 6-7 (4), 6-3. Olympics, on July 26, in Tokyo, Japan. placed in isolation. en score,” Ono admitted.