others
Olympic swimming ends with splashy new records, US gold
American Caeleb Dressel finished off his gold rush at the Tokyo Olympics with two more dazzling races, and Australia’s Emma McKeon won seven medals, more than any other female swimmer in a single games.
Now, when the greatest swimmers are mentioned, there are two new names on the list.
Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Men's Football Quarter-Finals Preview
Taking his place alongside Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, Dressel captured his fourth and fifth gold medals of the pandemic-delayed games on the final day of swimming at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
With victories Sunday in the 50-meter freestyle and 4x100 medley relay, the 24-year-old Floridian joined a truly elite club of swimmers who won at least five gold medals at one games.
Phelps did it three times, of course, highlighted by his record eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Games. There’s also Spitz (seven golds in 1972), East German Kristin Otto (six golds in 1988) and Biondi (five golds, also in ’88).
Dressel starred at the pool with McKeon, who also won two more golds Sunday to push her overall total to seven — four gold and three bronze. She is the first female swimmer to win seven medals at a single games. The only men to do it are Phelps, Spitz and Biondi.
“It still feels very surreal,” the 27-year-old from Brisbane said. “It’s going to take a little bit to sink in. I’m very proud of myself.”
Mirroring Dressel’s final day, McKeon won the 50 free and took the butterfly leg on the Aussies’ winning 4x100 medley relay team on the women’s side.
In the men’s medley — a race the men have never lost at the Olympics —the Americans were trailing two other teams when Dressel dived in for the fly. Just like that, he blew by Britain and Italy with a blistering leg of 49.03 seconds, more than a second faster that anyone else.
Zach Apple made the lead stand up on the freestyle to give the Americans a world record of 3 minutes, 26.78 seconds -- eclipsing the mark of 3:27.28 they set at the 2009 Rome world championships in rubberized suits.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Ryan Murphy and Michael Andrew joined Dressel and Apple on the winning team, ensuring the Americans remained unbeaten in the medley relay — the final swimming event at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
In the first event of the morning, Dressel won the 50 free for his third individual title of the games.
Dressel cruised to a relatively easy win in the frenetic dash from one end of the pool to the other, touching first in the 50 free with an Olympic record of 21.07.
When he saw his time and, more important, the “1” beside his name, he splashed the water and flexed his bulging arms.
He also won gold in the 100 free, set a world record in the 100 butterfly and took part in the winning 4x100 free relay.
A few minutes after Dressel climbed from the pool, McKeon completed her own freestyle sweep. She touched in 23.81 to add the 50 title to her victory in the 100.
In the medley relay, McKeon entered truly rarified territory. She is only the second woman in any sport to win seven medals at an Olympics, joining Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya, who claimed two golds and five silvers at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
McKeon took the butterfly leg before Cate Campbell anchored the Aussies to a victory over the two-time defending champion Americans.
“I don’t know how she does it. I’m exhausted,” said Kyle Chalmers, one of the McKeon’s teammates. “To win one gold medal or an Olympic medal, it’s very, very special. We’re lucky to have her on the team.”
Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Turkmenistan Wins its First Olympic Medal
In keeping with the theme of the day, Bobby Finke pulled off his own sweep in the two longest freestyle races.
With another strong finishing kick, Finke became the first American man in 37 years to win the 1,500 freestyle. He added to his victory in the 800 free, a new men’s event at these games.
Olympics Athletics: Jahir Rayhan to compete in 400 meters on Sunday
Athlete Jahir Rayhan will compete in the heats of his lone event Men's 400-meter run of the Tokyo Olympics'202O at the Olympics Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday morning.
He will compete in lane-2 of the event's heats number-3 at 8:O1 am (Bangladesh time) along with the athletes of USA, Brazil, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobacco, Slovenia and Congo.
Jahir is keen to display his career best performance in his favourite 400-meter in the Bangladesh's last event in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics.
He will be the 3rd Bangladeshi athlete to compete in 400-meter of the Olympics after 29 years after the participation of Mehdi Hasan in the Bercelona Olympics'1992 and Milzer Hossain in the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
The present best timing of Jahir is 47.34 second.
Earlier on last Friday, five Bangladeshi athletes out of six--archer Ruman Shana, Diya Siddique, shooter Abdullah Hel Baki swimmers Ariful Islam and Junaina Ahmed-- completed their Tokyo Olympics assignments.
Except shooter Baki, all the Bangladeshi athletes performed their best show in the mega games.
Two Bangladeshi swimmers--M Ariful Islam and Junayna Ahmed were eliminated from their respective heats of the men's and women's 50-meter freestyle swimming of the Tokyo Olympics'2020 making their career best timings at Tokyo Aquatic Center on Friday.
Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes
Ariful Islam, who had the honour of carrying the Bangladesh national flag in the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, finished 3rd in heats number- 4 among eight competitors scoring his career best timing of 24.81 seconds.
In the overall ranking, Ariful was placed 51st among 73 competitors of the event.
His previous best timing of the event was 24.92 seconds made in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019.
In the Women's 50- meter freestyle, Junayna Ahmed, a Bangladeshi origin London- based swimmer, finished 5th among eight swimmers in heats number 3 scoring her career best timing of 29.78 seconds.
The overall ranking of Junayna in the event is 68th among 83 competitors.
The previous best timing of Junaina Ahmed in the event was 30.96 second made in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019.
Earlier Thursday, Bangladeshi promising teen-age archer Diya Siddique eliminated from the women's recurve singles after making a brilliant fight in shoot-off stage of Tokyo Olympics '2020 Archery at the Yumenoshima Park Archery field in the Japanese capital.
Read: Olympics Archery: Diya Siddique eliminated from recurve singles in shoot-off
The 17-year-old talented archer from Nilphamari District, Diya lost to her much superior opponent Karyna Dziominskaya of Belarus by 5-6 set points in a nerve shattering ups and downs elimination round match of the women 's recurve singles amid huge appreciations from games lovers.
She made a good start beating her superior rival by 23-22 points in the first set, suffered 25-26 points defeat in the 2nd set, played 25-25 in the 3rd set, conceded 25-27 defeat in the 4th set and earned a 27-25 victory in the 5th set to tie the match 5-5 set points.
Later, in the match fate-deciding shoot off, Diya, was miserably eliminated from the event in the very first attempt scoring 9 points against her opponent's score of 10 points.
Earlier, Bangladesh’s famed shooter Abdullah Hel Baki was eliminated from the qualification round of his favourite Men's 10- meter Air Rifles of the Tokyo Olympics Shooting at the Asaka Shooting Range in the Japanese capital last Sunday.
He finished 41st among the 47 competitors of the event making a worse total score of 619.8.
Country's celebrated archer M Ruman Shana was eliminated from round of 32 of the men's recurve singles losing to his Canadian rival Duenas Chispin by 4-6 set points in a keenly contested match last Tuesday.
Ruman smartly advanced to the round-32 of the event eliminating Tom Hall of Great Britain by 7-3 set points in the elimination round Tuesday morning.
On last Saturday, Bangladeshi archer Ruman Shana pairing with woman archer Diya Siddique lost to event's gold medalist South Korean pair An San and Kim Je Deok in the round-16 of the mixed team event (mixed doubles) of Olympics.
The two Bangladeshi archers made a total score of 1297 to finish 16th and qualified for the round of 16 of the mixed team event.
Ruman finished 17th among 64 competitors in the ranking round of recurve individual scoring 662 while Diya finished 36th among 64 participants in the ranking round making her career best score of 635.
Former GS of Table Tennis Federation Shamsul Alam Anu passes away
Renowned sports organiser, former general secretary of Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation ( BHF), South Asian Table Tennis Federation and Wari Club Shamsul Alam Anu died in the capital Saturday morning.He was 79.
He breathed his last at his Uttara residence following a cardiac arrest after recovering from Covid-19 two months ago.
Read:Top Table Tennis players in Bangladesh of All Time
Shamsul Alam Anu, a former table tennis player, suffered brain hemorrhage few days ago.
He left behind wife, three sons and a host of relatives and admirers to mourn his death.
Read: How to become a professional table tennis player in Bangladesh
His namaz-e-janaza was held at Baitul Noor Jam-e Mosque at sector- 6 in Uttara after Zohr prayers.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russell MP, Bangladesh Football Federation, Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) and Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association (BSJA) in separate messages expressed shock at the death of Shamsul Alam Anu.
Tokyo 2020: Swimming duo bow out in heats despite personal bests
The Bangladeshi swimming contingent in Tokyo - comprising M Ariful Islam and Junayna Ahmed-- each bowed out Friday during the heats on their first day at the Tokyo Aquatic Center, but not before recording their personal best times - a sign that athletes are improving, and worth persisting with.
Ariful Islam, who had the honour of carrying the Bangladesh national flag in the opening ceremony of the Games, finished 3rd in heat number 4 of the Men 's 50-metres Freestyle. He finished with a time of 24.81 seconds, shaving eleven-hundredths of a second off his previous best of 24.92 seconds, that he swam in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019. Ariful was placed 51st among 73 competitors for the event.
The 22-year-old Navy swimmer from Nikli of Kishoreganj trained in Paris under an IOC scholarship to prepare himself for the Olympics. Posting the personal best should encourage him to improve further.
The other member of the swim team, 18-year-old Junayna Ahmed, finished 5th in heat number 3 of the Women's 50-metre Freestyle, coming up for air with a time of 29.78 seconds.
It placed her 68th out of 83 competitors, but again it proved a personal best, and in her case by a long way - over one second faster than her previous best.
That too came in the World Swimming Championship in South Korea in 2019, when she swam the 50m Free in 30.96 seconds.
The Bangladeshi-origin London-based swimmer improved her timing by a full 1.18 seconds.
After the day's swimming event, five out of the six Bangladeshi athletes at the Games --archer Ruman Shana, Diya Siddique, shooter Abdullah Hel Baki swimmers Ariful Islam and Junaina Ahmed-- have completed their Tokyo Olympics assignments.
Now only Jahir Raihan remains, when he competes in the men's 400 meter sprint, with the heats on Sunday (Aug 1).
South African sets world swim record; Aussies add 6th gold
South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker was the star of the day, setting the first individual swimming world record at the Tokyo Olympics.
Others shined, too.
Evgeny Rylov completed a backstroke double for Russia, Emma McKeon gave the Aussie women another gold, and China earned a return trip to the top of the medal podium.
The mighty Americans? For the first time in the meet, they spent the entire session Friday watching others win gold.
Schoenmaker, a 24-year-old South African, won the women’s 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona.
It was the third world record at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with the first two coming in women’s relays.
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” said Schoenmaker, who added to her silver in the 100 breast. ”It couldn’t have been a better race. It still just doesn’t sink in, maybe one day.”
Rylov thoroughly snuffed out America’s dominance in the backstroke, adding the 200 title to his victory in the 100 back.
Rylov won with an Olympic-record time of 1:53.29, while American Ryan Murphy wound up with the silver (1:54.15).
Also read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Murphy was a double-gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he extended an American winning streak that began at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The U.S. won 12 straight men’s backstroke events over six Olympics, but that streak ended with Rylov’s victory in the 100. He made it 2-for-2 in the longer race, while Murphy settled for bronze and silver in the two events.
Britain’s Luke Greenbank grabbed the 200 bronze in 1:54.72.
McKeon touched first in the 100 freestyle with an Olympic-record time of 51.96, becoming only the second woman to break 52 seconds in the sprint.
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey earned the silver in 52.27, while another Aussie, Cate Campbell, took the bronze in 52.52. American Abbey Weitzeil was last in the eight-woman field.
The Australians have won four individual women’s events at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, in addition to setting a world record in a 4x100 free relay that included both McKeon and Campbell.
The team from Down Under has six golds overall, tied with the Americans, though the U.S. has the lead in the overall medal count.
The Americans won three medals Friday, also claiming the other two spots on the podium behind Schoenmaker.
But it was the first time the U.S. team went through an entire sessions of finals in Tokyo without winning at least one gold.
Lilly King set a blistering pace early in the 200 breast and held on for a silver in 2:19.92, adding to her bronze in the 100 event. Annie Lazor nabbed the bronze in 2:20.84.
“I don’t come from behind, that’s for sure, so I just wanted to put it out there and see where it goes,” King said. “I thought I did great.”
A day after winning its first two golds at the pool, China picked up another victory when Wang Shun touched first in the men’s 200 individual medley.
Wang edged Britain’s Duncan Scott with a time of 1:55.00. Scott took the silver in 1:55.28, while the bronze went to Switzerland’s Jeremy Desplanches in 1:56.17.
Also read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Turkmenistan Wins its First Olympic Medal
It was another disappointment for hometown star Daiya Seto, who didn’t even qualify for the final of his first two events. He got through in the 200 IM, but just missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish -- a mere five-hundredths of a second behind the Swiss bronze medalist.
American Michael Andrew led after the third leg, powering to the top spot on the breaststroke. But he faded badly on the freestyle to wind up in fifth, more than 2 seconds behind the winner.
“I think it hurt worse than it looked, and it looked pretty bad,” Andrew said. “I knew I had to be fast at the 150 and I was praying for some Holy Spirit power to get me home in that (final) 50, but it wasn’t all there.”
But the U.S. has several good chances to claim gold over the last two days of the swimming competition.
Caeleb Dressel has two individual finals remaining, and Katie Ledecky is a big favorite in the 800 free.
Dressel set another Olympic record in the semifinals of the 100 butterfly.
Minutes after Hungary’s Kristof Milak took down the mark in the first semifinal heat, Dressel went even faster with a time of 49.71 in the second heat.
“I feel fine,” Dressel said. “I’m not worried about the schedule. I’ve had it written down for a couple weeks now. I know what’s coming. I know how to pace it correctly. I know how to take care of my body.”
It was the third-fastest time in history and left Milak as the second-fastest qualifier at 50.31.
In the preliminaries, Dressel tied the former Olympic record of 50.39 set by Singapore’s Joseph Schooling to win gold at the 2016 Rio Games.
Dressel will be a big favorite in Saturday morning’s final, though he could get pushed by Milak. The Hungarian already won the 200 fly with a dominating victory.
Dressel picked up the first individual gold medal of his career with a win in the 100 freestyle.
Olympics Archery: Diya Siddique eliminated from recurve singles in shoot-off
Bangladeshi promising teen-age archer Diya Siddique was eliminated from the women's recurve singles after making a brilliant fight in shoot-off stage of Tokyo Olympics '2020 Archery at the Yumenoshima Park Archery field in the Japanese capital Thursday morning.
Seventeen years old talented archer from Nilphamari District Diya lost to her much superior opponent Karyna Dziominskaya of Belarus by 5-6 set points in a nerve shattering ups and downs elimination round match of the women 's recurve singles amid huge appreciations from games lovers.
She made a good start beating her superior rival by 23-22 points in the first set, suffered 25-26 points defeat in the 2nd set, played 25-25 in the 3rd set, conceded 25-27 defeat in the 4th set and earned a 27-25 victory in the 5th set to tie the match 5-5 set points.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Later, in the match fate-deciding shoot off, Diya, miserably was eliminated from the event in the very first attempt scoring 9 points against her opponent's score of 10 points.
After the day's match, three Bangladesh athletes out of six --archer Ruman Shana, shooter Abdullah Hel Baki and Diya Siddique -- completed their Olympics assignments.
Three Bangladesh athletes-- swimmers Ariful Islam and Junaiyna Ahmed and athlete Jahir Raihan now in Tokyo as their events are yet to start.
Two Bangladeshi swimmers will compete in the heats of their respective 50- meter freestyle on Friday (July 30) while the lone athlete will contest in heat of the 400-meter run on Sunday (August 1).
Earlier, Bangladesh famed shooter Abdullah Hel Baki was eliminated from the qualification round of his favourite Men's 10- meter Air Rifles of the Tokyo Olympics Shooting at the Asaka Shooting Range in the Japanese capital last Sunday.
He finished 41st among the 47 competitors of the event making a worse total score of 619.8.
Read:Olympics Archery: Ruman Shana eliminated from recurve singles
Country's celebrated archer M Ruman Shana was eliminated from round of 32 of the men's recurve singles losing to his Canadian rival Duenas Chispin by 4-6 set points in a keenly contested match last Tuesday.
Ruman Shana smartly advanced to the round-32 of the event eliminating Tom Hall of Great Britain by 7-3 set points in the elimination round Tuesday morning.
In last Saturday, Bangladeshi archer Ruman Shana pairing with woman archer Diya Siddique lost to event's gold medalist South Korean pair An San and Kim Je Deok in the round-16 of the mixed team event (mixed doubles) of Olympics.
Bangladeshi pair suffered 30-38 defeat in the first set, conceded 33-35 defeat in the 2nd set and eliminated from the event conceding a narrow 38-39 defeat in the 3rd and final set to Korean pair.
Earlier on last Friday, the two Bangladeshi archers made a total score of 1297 to finish 16th and qualifed for the round of 16 of the mixed team event as the last team.
Read:Olympics Shooting: Baki eliminated from 10-meter Air Rifles
Ruman Shana finished 17th among 64 competitors in the ranking round of recurve individual scoring 662 while Diya Siddique finished 36th among 64 participants in the ranking round making her career best score of 635.
Archer Ruman Shana directly qualified to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the recurve men 's singles of the Archery World Championship held in June, 2019 while Diya Siddique earned opportunity to complete in the Olympics after getting a wild card.
The Bangladeshi pair Ruman Shana and Diya Siddique earlier played in the mixed team event final of the Archery World Cup Stage 2 held in Lausanne, Switzerland last May.
‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
For decades, they were told to shake it off or toughen up — to set aside the doubt, or the demons, and focus on the task at hand: winning. Dominating. Getting it done.
For years, Simone Biles was one of the very best at that. Suddenly — to some, shockingly — she decided she wasn’t in the right headspace.
By pulling on her white sweatsuit in the middle of Tuesday night’s Olympic gymnastics meet, and by doing it with a gold medal hanging in the balance, Biles might very well have redefined the mental health discussion that’s been coursing through sports for the past year.
Michael Phelps, winner of a record 23 gold medals and now retired, has long been open about his own mental health struggles. Phelps has said he contemplated suicide after the 2012 Olympics while wracked with depression. Now an analyst for NBC’s swimming coverage, he said watching Biles struggle “broke my heart.”
Read:Tokyo Olympics 2020: Turkmenistan Wins its First Olympic Medal
“Mental health over the last 18 months is something people are talking about,” Phelps said. “We’re human beings. Nobody is perfect. So yes, it is OK not to be OK.”
Biles joins some other high-profile athletes in the Olympic space — overwhelmingly females — who have been talking openly about a topic that had been taboo in sports for seemingly forever.
— Tennis player Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, never went to Wimbledon and, after her early exit in Tokyo this week, conceded that the Olympic cauldron was a bit too much to handle.
— American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson made no secret of the issues she faced as she prepared for an Olympic journey that never happened. She said she used marijuana to help mask the pain of her birth mother’s death, to say nothing of the pressure of the 100 meters.
— Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin left training camp in January to clear his head, saying he was finding it “very difficult for me to know how to find my way as Tom Dumoulin the cyclist.” He resumed training in May; on Wednesday, he won a silver medal in the men’s individual time trials.
— Liz Cambage, a WNBA player who competes for Australia, pulled out of the Olympics a week before they opened because of anxiety over entering a controlled COVID bubble in Tokyo that would have kept her friends and family away.
“Relying on daily medication to control my anxiety is not the place I want to be right now. Especially walking into competition on the world’s biggest sporting stage,” she wrote on social media.
Biles, though, took things to a new level — one that now makes it thinkable to do what had been almost unthinkable only 24 hours before. She stepped back, assessed the situation and realized it would not be healthy to keep going.
On Wednesday, she pulled out of the all-around competition to focus on her mental well-being.
“I have to do what’s right for me and focus on my mental health, and not jeopardize my health and well-being,” a tearful Biles said after the Americans won the silver medal in team competition. She said she recognized she was not in the right headspace hours before the competition began.
“It was like fighting all those demons,” she said.
The International Olympic Committee, aware of the struggles young athletes face, increased its mental health resources ahead of the Tokyo Games. Psychologists and psychiatrists are onsite in the Olympic village and established a “Mentally Fit Helpline” as a confidential health support service available before, during and for three months after the Games.
Read:Tokyo records record virus cases days after Olympics begin
The 24-hour hotline is a free service that offers in more than 70 languages clinical support, structured short-term counseling, practical support and, if needed, guidance to the appropriate IOC reporting mechanisms in the case of harassment and/or abuse.
The IOC-developed Athlete365 website surveyed more than 4,000 athletes in early 2020, and the results led the IOC to shift its tone from sports performance and results to mental health and uplifting the athlete’s voices.
Content was created for various social media platforms to feature current Olympians championing mental heath causes. And the Olympic State of Mind series on Olympics.com shares compilations of mental health stories and podcasts.
“Are we doing enough? I hope so. I think so,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said Wednesday. “But like everyone in the world, we are doing more on this issue.”
Naoko Imoto, a swimmer at the 1996 Atlanta Games, is a consultant on gender equity for the Tokyo Olympic Committee. She said Osaka’s admission in early June about mental-health struggles represented an opening for a discussion largely avoided.
“In Japan, we still don’t talk about mental health,” Imoto said. “I don’t think there’s enough of an understanding on mental health, but I think there are a lot of athletes coming out right now and saying it is common.”
Australian swimmer Jack McLoughlin choked back tears after winning the silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle Sunday, describing how the pressures of training during a pandemic while also pursuing an engineering degree nearly caused him to quit the sport.
“That’s all to my family and friends. They really helped me out, I was really struggling,” McLoughlin said. “I train up to 10, 11 times a week, so to do that when you are not 100% sure you’re actually going to get where you want to be is pretty hard.”
Particularly with the world watching. John Speraw, coach of the U.S. men’s volleyball team and the son of a psychologist, hired a specialist to assist his athletes when he coached at UC Irvine. He was an assistant on two Olympic teams before advancing to be the head coach for the Rio Games. There, he noticed his players were posting on Facebook — during the actual opening ceremony.
“To me, it was the most striking,” he said. “I think we are very conscious of the increased scrutiny and external pressure and expectations that it places on our athletes.”
Thriveworks, a counseling, psychology, and psychiatry services with more than 300 locations, found that one in three elite athletes suffer from anxiety and depression. In an analysis of more than 18,000 data points from print, online, broadcast and social media sources covering track and field, swimming, tennis, gymnastics and soccer, 69% of negative mentions were about female athletes compared to 31% about male athletes.
It showed that when the focus is on an individual athlete, coverage becomes less enthusiastic with a 29% negative tone that exemplifies the public pressure and criticism athletes face, said Kim Plourde, a licensed clinical social worker at Thriveworks who works with elite athletes through the Alliance of Social Workers in Sport.
Read:Naomi Osaka eliminated from Tokyo Olympics tennis tournament
“Female athletes have to manage a different level of expectations from themselves, coaches, other athletes, media, and fans ranging from their physical appearance to their performance,” Plourde said.
Jenny Rissveds of Sweden was the youngest women’s cross-country mountain biking champion when she won gold in Rio at 22. A year later, two deaths in her family triggered depression she still deals with. Rissveds failed to win a second consecutive gold, finishing 14th in Tokyo, but she was elated to be done with competition.
“I’m just so f—-ing happy that it’s over,” she said. “Not just the race. But all these years, to not have to carry that title any more. I have a name and I hope that I can be Jenny now and not the Olympic champion, because that is a heavy burden.
“I hope that I will be left alone now.”
Tokyo records record virus cases days after Olympics begin
Tokyo reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, days after the Olympics began.
The Japanese capital reported 2,848 new COVID-19 cases, exceeding the earlier record of 2,520 cases on Jan. 7.
It brings Tokyo’s total to more than 200,000 since the pandemic began last year.
Tokyo is under its fourth state of emergency, which is to continue through the Olympics until just before the Paralympics start in late August.
Also read: 10 new Covid cases reported at Olympic village
Experts have warned that the more contagious delta variant could cause a surge during the Olympics, which started Friday.
Experts noted that cases among younger, unvaccinated people are rising sharply as Japan’s inoculation drive loses steam due to supply uncertainty. Many serious cases involve those in their 50s. They now dominate Tokyo’s nearly 3,000 hospitalized patients and are gradually filling up available beds. Authorities reportedly plan to ask medical institutions to increase their capacity to about 6,000.
Japan’s vaccination drive began late and slowly, but picked up dramatically in May for several weeks as the supply of imported vaccines stabilized and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s government pushed to inoculate more people before the Olympics.
Also read: Tokyo Olympics begin with muted ceremony and empty stadium
The government says 25.5% of Japanese have been fully vaccinated, still way short of the level believed to have any meaningful impact on reducing the risk for the general population.
Still, Japan has kept its cases and deaths much lower than many other countries. Nationwide, it has reported 870,445 cases and 15,129 deaths as of Monday.
Suga’s government has been criticized for what some say is prioritizing the Olympics over the nation’s health. His public support ratings have fallen to around 30% in recent media surveys, and there is little festivity surrounding the Games.
Also read: Pandemic Olympics endured heat, and now a typhoon’s en route
Olympics Archery: Ruman Shana eliminated from recurve singles
Bangladeshi celebrated archer M Ruman Shana was eliminated from his favourite men's recurve singles on the 5th day of Tokyo Olympics Archery at Yumenoshima Park Archery field in the Japanese capital Tuesday noon.
He lost to his Canadian rival Duenas Chispin by 4-6 set points in a keenly contested round-32 match.
Read:Olympics Shooting: Baki eliminated from 10-meter Air Rifles
Ruman Shana made a good start beating his rival 26-25 in the first set, suffered 25-28 defeat in the 2nd set, conceded 27-29 defeat in the 3rd set, earned a 27-26 victory in the 4th set and eliminated from the event conceding a narrow 25-26 defeat in the 5th and match deciding set to his Canadian rival.
Earlier in the morning, Ruman Shana smartly advanced to the round-32 of the event eliminating Tom Hall of Great Britain by 7-3 set points in the elimination round.
He played 28-28 in the first set, earned 27-25 victory in the 2nd set, managed 26-25 victory in the 3rd set, conceded 25-27 defeat in the 4th set and qualified for the round-32 by winning the 5th and final set by 29-27.
In remaining Bangladesh archery event, archer Diya Siddique will play Dziominskaya Karyna of Belarus in the elimination round of the women 's recurve singles on Thursday (July 29).
Read:Olympics Archery: Bangladesh eliminated from mixed team event
In last Saturday, Bangladeshi archer Ruman Shana pairing with woman archer Diya Siddique lost to event's gold medalist South Korean pair An San and Kim Je Deok in the round-16 of the mixed team event (mixed doubles) of Olympics.
Bangladeshi pair suffered 30-38 defeat in the first set, conceded 33-35 defeat in the 2nd set and eliminated from the event conceding a narrow 38-39 defeat in the 3rd and final set to Korean pair.
Earlier on last Friday, the two Bangladeshi archers made a total score of 1297 to finish 16th and qualifed for the round of 16 of the mixed team event as the last team.
Ruman Shana finished 17th among 64 competitors in the ranking round of recurve individual scoring 662 while Diya Siddique finished 36th among 64 participants in the ranking round making her career best score of 635.
Read:Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes
The Bangladeshi pair Ruman Shana and Diya Siddique earlier played in the mixed team event final of the Archery World Cup Stage 2 held in Lausanne, Switzerland last May.
Archer Ruman Shana directly qualified to compete in the Tokyo Olympics after winning the bronze medal in the recurve men 's singles of the Archery World Championship held in June, 2019 while Diya Siddique earned opportunity to complete in the Olympics after getting a wild card.
Naomi Osaka eliminated from Tokyo Olympics tennis tournament
The host country’s superstar is out of the Tokyo Olympics.
Naomi Osaka lost to former French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4 in the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament on Tuesday.
The second-ranked Osaka, who was born in Japan and grew up in the United States, struggled with her usually reliable groundstrokes while the left-handed Vondrousova produced a series of drop-shot winners and other crafty shots that drew her opponent out of her comfort zone.
Read: Pandemic Olympics endured heat, and now a typhoon’s en route
“It’s tough for her also playing in Japan and in the Olympics,” the 42nd-ranked Vondrousova said. “It’s so much pressure, I cannot imagine.”
Osaka, who lit the Olympic cauldron in Friday’s opening ceremony, won her opening two matches in straight sets following a two-month mental-health break. But conditions were different Tuesday with the roof closed because it was raining outside.
Shortly after the match was over, organizers said that Osaka had left the venue and would not be talking to the media.
Osaka spoke openly to reporters after her first two matches. That came after she announced in May going into the French Open that she wouldn’t speak to reporters at that tournament, saying those interactions create doubts for her.
Then, after her first-round victory in Paris, she skipped the mandatory news conference.
Osaka was fined $15,000 and — surprisingly — publicly reprimanded by those in charge of Grand Slam tournaments, who said she could be suspended if she kept avoiding the media.
The next day, Osaka withdrew from Roland Garros entirely to take a mental health break, revealing she has dealt with depression.
Read: Tokyo Olympics 2020: Meet the Bangladesh Athletes
She sat out Wimbledon, too. So the Tokyo Games marked her return to competition.
Playing Osaka for the first time, Vondrousova came out with her entire game clicking from the start and quickly ran out to a 4-0 lead in the first set as Osaka hardly had time to gather herself.
Osaka then broke Vondrousova’s serve in the opening game of the second set but almost immediately handed the break back when she double-faulted to make it 2-2.
After Osaka lost her serve again to end the match by hitting a cross-court backhand wide, she shook hands with Vondrousova at the net, walked to her chair, zipped her racket up in her bag and followed Vondrousova off the court.
While both players produced 22 winners, Osaka hit 32 unforced errors to Vondrousova’s 10. But it wasn’t simply an off day for Osaka; it was also an outstanding performance from Vondrousova.
“I also (beat) Simona (Halep) twice, but I think now she (Osaka) is the greatest,” Vondrousova said. “The greatest in the game, and she was also the face of the Olympics so it was tough for her, I think, to play like this.”
Osaka got a decent 64% of her first serves in play but won only 49% of the points off her first serve.
During one point midway through the second set, Vondrousova hit an underspin, scooped forehand approach shot that landed right on the line — prompting Osaka to stare at the line for a few seconds in apparent disbelief.
Read:Olympics Shooting: Baki eliminated from 10-meter Air Rifles
Osaka had break points to take a 4-3 lead in the second but Vondrousova hit consecutive drop-shot winners to get back in the game and then held.
About 10 minutes later, the match was over.
“I just really believed the second I stepped on the court,” Vondrousova said. “I think that that’s the main thing.”