Sports

PARIS — Matthew Hudson-Smith will attempt to become Britain's first Olympic men's 400m champion in 100 years on Wednesday, while women's golf star Nelly Korda teed off in the defence of her title.

Victory would represent a huge achievement for Hudson-Smith who was at a personal low after being isolated in the United States during the Covid pandemic, racking up huge medical bills as he recovered from a torn hamstring and Achilles.

The 29-year-old has arrived in Paris in peak form, clocking a blistering 43.74sec at last month's London Diamond League -- the fastest time in the world this year.

Hudson-Smith qualified for the final by easing to victory in his semifinal on Tuesday.

However, one of his major threats is the man who beat him in the Commonwealth Games final, Zambia's Muzala Samukonga, an unpredictable runner who looked good in the heats.

Also on the track, Moroccan hero Soufiane El Bakkali will defend his 3000m steeplechase crown and bid to become only the third Arab to win double Olympic gold.

"Thanks to all the experience I have, I know how to manage pressure," said the two-time world champion, who eased through his heat in first place.

The women's pole vault and men's discus medals will be decided in the field events at the Stade de France.

Wednesday's first gold medal was won by Spain in the inaugural marathon race walk mixed relay, the duo of Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez timing 2hr 50 min 31 sec.

Ecuador — whose duet included men's 20km walk champion Brian Pintado -- finished second (2hr 51:22) with Australia third (2hr 51:38).

Korda heads golf field 

World number one Korda started her attempt to be the first double Olympic golf champion but will need to reverse a recent drop in form.

The American became the first LPGA Tour player to win six titles in a single season since 2013 in the space of just seven tournaments earlier this year, but then suffered three successive cuts.

"The game of golf is a funny game," Korda told reporters ahead of the first round.

"Sometimes you feel on top of the world and in a matter of a couple seconds, you just feel like you're on the bottom of the sea."

Japan's US Open champion Yuka Saso, two-time Olympic medallist Lydia Ko and home hope Celine Boutier are also among the medal favourites at Le Golf National.

Lin targeting boxing final 

In the boxing ring, Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Imane Khelif, after the pair were at the centre of a gender controversy, by reaching a gold-medal bout.

Algerian Khelif, who beat Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand in the semifinals of the 66kg division on Tuesday, is guaranteed at least silver in Paris.

The International Boxing Association disqualified Khelif and Lin from last year's world championships after failing gender eligibility tests.

The International Olympic Committee cleared the two experienced female boxers to compete and Lin faces Turkey's Esra Yildiz Kahraman in the semifinals of the women's 57kg event in the first fight of the evening at Roland Garros.

The team pursuit golds are up for grabs in the velodrome, with new world-record holders Australia going up against Britain in the men's final, while New Zealand were the fastest qualifiers for the women's first round.

The final day of skateboarding at the Place de la Concorde sees 51-year-old Briton Andrew Macdonald compete in the men's park, the day after 14-year-old Arisa Trew of Australia won the women's final.

China will be hoping for a late gold rush in weightlifting, which gets under way, to aid their battle at the top of the medals table with the United States.

Meanwhile, organisers gave the green light to a training session in the river Seine, a day after another one was cancelled due to pollution.

The open water swimming events, which run for 10 kilometres in a loop around the Seine, will be held on Thursday and Friday.

PARIS — Nikola Jokic led Serbia into the men's Olympic basketball semi-finals on Tuesday as they rallied from 24 points down to edge Australia 95-90 in overtime and set up a potential showdown with the United States.

Patty Mills scored 26 points for Australia, including 14 in a row during a 20-0 run spanning the first and second quarters, but Serbia hung tough and gradually erased the deficit to pull off an epic comeback.

"I thought we threw everything at them, hell of a first half," said Mills. "In international basketball, once you lose that momentum, it's hard to get it back. Maybe not enough in the tank at the end of the day."

"It's heartbreaking to go out this way. We gave ourselves every chance," added Josh Giddey, who finished with 25 points for Australia.

Three-time NBA MVP Jokic tallied 21 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists and received plenty of help from his supporting cast. Bogdan Bogdanovic had 17 points as one of five other players to hit double figures for Serbia.

"They destroyed us at the start of the game. They played so well, they smelled blood. We didn't respond well. We had the right attitude but physically we were not ready to respond," said Serbia's Vasilije Micic.

"We had great players who led us in the last 25 minutes."

Australia made it through the group stage despite losing two of three games, whereas Serbia pipped South Sudan to second in their section behind Team USA.

Serbia, beaten 110-84 by the US in their tournament opener, could meet the reigning four-time champions again in the semifinals if the Americans get past Brazil later on Tuesday.

Australia broke open a tight game early on, fuelled by the hot hand of Mills, the 35-year-old former NBA champion who played sparingly for Atlanta and Miami this season.

Mills drained back-to-back threes as part of a spree that fired Australia in a 44-20 lead early in the second period.

But Serbia chipped away at the deficit and slashed it in half by the interval, eventually nudging in front when Bogdanovic hit a short jump shot with 13 minutes to play.

Serbia outscored the Tokyo bronze medallists 25-11 in the third quarter to take back control, but Giddey ensured Australia didn't go away quietly and Mills sent the contest to overtime.

Mills sank a rainbow jumper over Jokic with 1.4 seconds to play to keep Australia alive, but it was the towering centre who had the final say as Serbia reeled off the final eight points in overtime.

Australia led 90-87 after a three from Giddey but Jokic produced a key block under his own basket and then connected with a hook shot and made a pair of free throws to put Serbia ahead for good.


PARIS — Germany won gold in the mixed triathlon relay on Monday at the Paris Olympics, with the event disrupted by illnesses that saw at least three teams report sick team members who swam in the River Seine last week.

In a thrilling climax to the team race through central Paris, Germany's Laura Lindemann won a sprint finish, narrowly edging out Taylor Knibb from the United States in second and Beth Potter from Britain in third.

The Belgian team did not race at all after their athlete Claire Michel fell sick, reportedly with E.Coli, having swum in the Seine during the women's individual triathlon last Wednesday.

The Swiss team also had to bring in a replacement after their racer Adrien Briffod suffered a gastrointestinal infection, while Norwegian competitor Vetle Bergsvik Thorn told AFP he too had been stricken with a stomach bug after the men's race last week.

"I was sick for about 12 hours, overnight from Friday to Saturday," he said. "I don't know if it was food poisoning or from the Seine. Obviously it wasn't the best preparation for today."

The relay is a four-person sprint triathlon, with Monday's race seeing two men and two women completing a 300-metre swim in the Seine, a seven-kilometre bike ride through central Paris and a 1.8 km run.

The Seine has been the focus of attention during the Paris triathlon events with the waterway consistently failing water quality tests despite a 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) upgrade to improve the Paris sewerage and water treatment systems.

The men's race last week had to be delayed by 24 hours and no training has been possible since the start of the Games on July 28, with many athletes again surprised by the strength of the current on Monday.

"It takes some courage to swim and the ability of a good swimmer to navigate it," victorious German Tim Hellwig told reporters.

Organisers have stressed that the illnesses cannot be attributed to the Seine and Hellwig said he felt confident in the water tests overseen by international governing body World Triathlon.

"No-one was afraid to jump in. We were all happy to have a race," he added, saying that he woke up fine after last week's men's event.

"If like 99 per cent of the athletes don't have any problems, I think it's fine," he said.

Safety 

On the eve of Monday's relay, the Belgian National Olympic Committee (COIB) revealed that Michel had fallen sick in a statement that also criticised the organisation of the triathlon at the Paris Games.

"The COIB and Belgian Triathlon hope that the lessons will be learned for future triathlon competitions at the Olympics," the committee said.

Other racers have also expressed frustration that decisions on whether the river could be used for the training and competitions were taken in the middle of the night, while organisers had threatened to scrap the swimming leg completely if the river remained too dirty.

"I don't want to be too negative. However I do think if a situation like this happens again at the Olympics, they should have a backup venue," US silver medallist Morgan Pearson told reporters.

"I don't think any of us are like 'I'm not going to race because of the chance of E. coli'. It's the Olympics. But that shows the liberty they took," he added.

Heavy rainstorms overwhelm Paris's sewerage system, leading to discharges of untreated waste water that send levels of bacteria such as E.Coli spiking.

Paris has been drenched by two major downpours since the Olympics started, on the night of the opening ceremony and again last Thursday evening.

The Paris 2024 organising committee said in a statement that testing on the day of the men's and women's triathlon last week had shown that the quality of the water was "very good" based on World Triathlon's criteria.

"The decision on whether to proceed with an event is taken by the international federation, World Triathlon, in coordination with Paris 2024, and based on the test results and a range of [notably health] criteria," it said.

"Paris 2024 wishes to remind everyone that the health and well-being of athletes is our top priority," it added.

Paris —  Novak Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday to claim a maiden Olympic title and become just the fifth player to complete a career Golden Slam.

The 37-year-old Serb, competing in his fifth Games, came through 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2) in an enthralling final at Roland Garros to add Olympic gold to his 24 Grand Slam triumphs.

Victory allowed him to join Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Steffi Graf and the watching Serena Williams as the only players to win all four Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic singles gold.

He also became the oldest singles champion since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988 and shattered Alcaraz’s bid to add gold to the French Open and Wimbledon titles he has already pocketed this summer.

An emotional Djokovic celebrated by holding aloft the Serbian flag on court before clambering into the players’ box to embrace his wife and children.

“We almost played three hours, the final shot was the only moment when I was sure I could win the match,” said Djokovic, who had lost heavily to Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final last month.

‘Finally I did it’

“I put my body, my family on the line to win gold and finally I did it.”

Alcaraz was distraught and wept as he attempted to conduct a TV interview.

“Three hours, a big battle with tough moments,” said the 21-year-old after a final in which neither player dropped serve. “It’s very painful to lose.”

Djokovic carved out a break point in the second game of the opener and three more in the fourth, all saved by the Spaniard.

Then it was the Serb’s turn to demonstrate his famed powers of resilience, fighting off three break points in the fifth game and another five in a marathon ninth game.

In a rollercoaster duel, Alcaraz saved a set point in the 12th game but his veteran opponent dominated the tiebreak to claim the opener after a breathless 93 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier.

There was no let-up in the second set, scintillating shot-making alongside rousing defence with Alcaraz fighting off the final’s 14th break point in the third game.

Again the set was decided by a tie-break and it was Djokovic with history on the line again sweeping through to take victory after two hours and 50 minutes.

Lorenzo Musetti defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets on Saturday to claim the bronze medal, giving Italy its first men’s tennis medal in 100 years.

Later Sunday, Russian athletes can claim their first gold of the Games when Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider face the Italian team of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in the women’s doubles.

Russian competitors are taking part in the Olympics as neutrals following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.

If Andreeva and Shnaider win gold, their achievement will not be recognised in the medals table while both the Russian flag and national anthem will be banned from the podium ceremony.

Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo, the Spanish eighth seeds, defeated the Czech pair of Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova 6-2, 6-2 in the bronze medal match.

ALGIERS — Born in a poor village some 300 kilometres from Algiers, boxer Imane Khelif had to overcome obstacles in a conservative country where women are considered unfit for the sport.

With braided hair and a powerful 1.79 metre physique, the 25-year-old is the object of a Paris Olympic Games gender controversy.

With smiles and a soft voice, Imane told her story on television channel Canal Algerie one month before the start of the games.

“Our village was around 10 kilometres from the centre [of Tiaret, 280 kilometres southwest of Algiers]. I moved from the village to the city. From the city to the capital. From the capital to abroad,” she said.

From a family of limited means, she spoke of the difficulty of her life in “a village of conservative people” in Tiaret’s semi-desert surroundings.

“I came from a conservative family. Boxing is not a widely-practised sport by women, especially in Algeria. It was difficult.”

Already a strong athlete, she played football with the boys in her village of Biban Mesbah — but beating boys in matches brought on fights where she fought back with punches.

These fights lead her to boxing.

In an interview with UNICEF, she said she used to sell scrap metal and her mother sold homemade couscous to pay for bus tickets to Tiaret.

Imane’s father at first did not approve of her decision to pursue boxing, but he eventually became one of her biggest fans.

The 49-year-old unemployed welder told AFP that his daughter is “an example of the Algerian woman, a heroine of Algeria”.

‘How society looked at me’ 

He hailed “her strong will to work and to train”, in an interview with AFP on Friday.

In 2022, Imane told the Algerian news agency APS that she had considered giving up boxing “because my family did not accept the idea, and because of how society looked at me, considering that I was doing something wrong”.

But “all these barriers made me even stronger and were an extra motivation to achieve my dreams.”

She also expressed her determination in an interview on the UNICEF website, where she said her “dream is to win a gold medal”.

“If I win, mothers and fathers will be able to see how far their children can go,” she said. “I want to inspire girls and children in Algeria.”

Imane’s international career took off with her participation in the lightweight category in the 2020 summer Olympic Games in Tokyo — postponed to 2021 — where she won fifth place after losing in the quarter finals to Ireland’s Kellie Harlington.

“Everything changed for the better, especially as my country’s flag flew and its hymn played in many countries throughout the world,” she explained.

In 2023, she made it to the semifinals of the women’s amateur boxing world championships in New Delhi, India.

But then she was disqualified following unspecified gender eligibility testing by the International Boxing Association, which is not recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

After her match against Italian opponent Angela Carini this week in the Paris Games — whom she beat in less than a minute — Imane was targeted by online harassment and racism, where far-right publications insinuated that she was “a man fighting women”.

Her father has dismissed aspersions about her gender, saying she is “a strong and courageous girl”.

And the IOC has supported her participation, amid the furore over Khelif and another woman boxer also disqualified from last year’s world championships.

“All of the competitors respect the eligibility rules for the competitions,” said Mark Adams, IOC spokesman, adding that it had “established that these are women”.

Imane’s coach, Mohamed Chaoua, said the “controversies give her the strength to move forward”.

PARIS — France’s Leon Marchand produced a dazzling double gold-medal winning performance to electrify the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, powering to victories in the 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly to send the host nation into ecstatic celebrations.

The 22-year-old bagged his first gold of the night after summoning a lung-bursting late charge to claim the 200m fly, and then just under two hours later showed incredible reserves of stamina to motor home in the 200m breaststroke.

The back-to-back golds made Marchand — who won gold in the 400 individual medley earlier in the Games — the first swimmer to win the 200 fly and breaststroke in the same Olympics.

The five-time world champion, little known outside the world of swimming before the Olympics, has become a national hero in the space of a week with his trio of golds.

“I’ve fulfilled a lot of dreams since I’ve been here. Doing this double was something I felt I could do. But to really do it, that’s something else,” he said.

“Of course, I had a lot of doubts. Because everyone told me it wasn’t possible,” he said of the unprecedented double.

While the 15,000 crowd at the La Defense Arena belted out a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise during the medal ceremonies, a smiling Marchand looked calm as he soaked up the adulation.

“I’m just trying to keep going. I really enjoyed every moment of those two finals. It was really amazing for me to swim those,” he said, after dethroning two defending champions.

‘Tonight was amazing’ 

For as powerful, focused and technically gifted as he is when racing, the prodigy from Toulouse is a relaxed, chilled, individual out of the pool, a winning combination that has earned him the hearts of a nation.

In the breaststroke, the 22-year-old touched the wall in a time of 2min 5.85sec, a new Olympic record and the second fastest time of all-time.

Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook, the defending champion from Tokyo, finished with silver 0.94 seconds behind with Caspar Corbeau of The Netherlands claiming bronze.

Remarkably the race was the first time Marchand has swum the 200 breaststroke in a major international competition but in his current form and with a deafening home crowd behind him, there was simply no stopping him as he led from start to finish.

But it was his astonishing victory in the butterfly which will live longest in the memory.

World record holder and defending champion Kristof Milak of Hungary led until the final lap when Marchand hunted him down.

The Frenchman produced a perfect turn, coming out of it with the momentum he needed to catch Milak and he did just that — the moment he passed the Hungarian, midway through the final greeted with a guttural roar from the crowd.

Milak had no answer and the arena was on its feet as Marchand finished with a new Olympic record time of 1min 51.21sec.

“The 200 butterfly was crazy. I had a really good race strategy. I managed to stay fairly close to the favourite and I really managed to catch him...with the pool on fire. It was pretty crazy to experience that as a French swimmer. I’m so happy,” he said.

Could he really follow up all that exertion with another individual medal later in the same evening?

Marchand is trained by Michael Phelps’ former coach Bob Bowman and not even his former charge had managed this particular double gold haul in the same Games.

Nothing seems to faze France’s newest sporting superstar though as he raced to victory with not the slightest sign of fatigue.

“It’s wonderful. That tonight was amazing. It’s a night he’ll never forget,” said a purring Bowman.

“The way he handled it. His attitude about it was amazing. The way that he put different parts of it and lands how to swim each race were just exactly why I’m so proud,” he added.

Marchand could add further to his historic Olympic performance when he competes in the 200m individual medley starting Thursday.

Even amidst the joy of his remarkable triumphs, Marchand’s thoughts were turning to that next challenge.

“Now I’m going to have to realise what happened, appreciate every moment — and above all, refocus for the 200 IM.”