Women’s track and field events will occupy most of the Olympic primetime line-up Wednesday night, with medals being handed out in three high profile events.
Reigning champion American Brittany Reese will kick things off at 8:15 p.m. when she defends her long jump title against teammate Tianna Bartoletta and Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic, who recorded the best jump in qualifying rounds earlier this week.
Elaine Thompson of Jamaica, who won the women’s 100 meter sprint on Saturday, looks to earn another gold in the 200 meter event at 9:30 p.m.
Thompson will face stiff competition from a pair of American runners, Tori Bowie, who matched Thompson’s time of 22.13 in the semifinals, and Deajah Stevens, who finished about a second shy of Thompson’s time. Should Thompson win the race, she would best Usain Bolt as the first Jamaican to win a 200 meter sprint.
The women’s 100 meter hurdles final will close out the night. Americans Brianna Rollins and Kristi Castlin look to battle each other for the top spot, but first they must get through the semifinal round, which will be held just two hours before the final.
Rollins and Castlin took first and second place, respectively, in the first round competition earlier this week.
London 2012 champion American Ashton Eaton will also defend his title, as the men’s decathlon starts competition Wednesday morning with the 100 meter sprint. Athletes will continue the 10-sport contest throughout the day, with events held in the long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 meter race. The event will conclude Thursday night.
The women’s beach volleyball competition will wrap up Wednesday night when Brazil takes on Germany in the gold medal match at 11 p.m. Brazil’s Bárbara Seixas and Agatha Bednarczuk put an end to American Kerri Walsh Jennings’ hopes for a fourth gold medal Tuesday night after beating the American team in straight sets and handing Jennings her first ever loss in an Olympic beach volleyball match.
Team USA will take on a different Brazilian team, composed of Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes, in the bronze medal match at 9 p.m.
China will look to sweep the Olympic table tennis championships when world number one Ma Long and teammate Zhang Jike square off against Japan in the men’s team gold medal match. China has already won gold in the men’s singles and both the women’s singles and team tournaments. South Korea will play Germany for the bronze medal.
Other medal events include women’s sailing, both men’s and women’s boxing and taekwondo, as well as women’s wrestling. In total, 16 gold medals will be handed out Wednesday.
Highlights from Day 11
U.S. gymnast Simone Biles won her fourth gold medal of the 2016 Olympic games in the floor-exercise competition Tuesday.
Biles, who is 19 years old, has given one of the best performances ever by a gymnast in the Olympic Games. On Monday, she took a bronze medal in the balance beam event – a disappointing outcome, given that no woman has ever won five gold medals in a single Olympics.
Biles was the favorite to win the floor exercises; teammate Aly Raisman, seen as Biles’ chief competition, took the silver medal.
In track cycling, which wrapped up competition Tuesday, Britain’s Jason Kenny took the gold medal in the keirin, his third in the Rio Olympics.
Brazil took the gold medal in men’s beach volleyball Tuesday, beating the Netherlands in a tiebreaking third set. The final round of the popular sport filled the stadium with 12,000 dancing, cheering, raucous Brazil fans, which Brazil player Alison Cerutti said added to the pressure to win. Once he and partner Bruno Schmidt had secured their victory, Alison fell face-first into the sand in celebration.
In Greco-Roman wrestling, Armenia’s Artur Aleksanyan took gold, beating Cuba’s Yasmany Lugo Cabrera 3-0. Turkey’s Celk Ildem and Iran’s Ghasem Rezaei took the bronze medal.
Canada’s Derek Drouin won the men’s high jump final at a height of 2.38 meters, beating out silver winner Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar who couldn’t get past the 2.36 meter mark. Bogdan Bondarenko of Ukraine failed twice to pass the 2.38 meter jump before passing and raising the bar to 2.40 to try and win gold. He failed to make the jump and ended up with bronze.
And Brazilian police said Tuesday they have not been able to find witnesses to the reported robbery at gunpoint of U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte and several teammates, an incident that took place late Saturday or early Sunday morning after the completion of the Olympic swimming events.
The four U.S. swimmers say they were robbed at gunpoint by men dressed as police as they returned from a party at the French swim team’s hospitality house in an upscale Rio neighborhood. Authorities say the police were not called to the scene when the robbery occurred, and only began investigating when reports of the event appeared in local media.
Lochte, who said one of their assailants held a gun to his forehead, has moved out of Olympic housing and employed 24-hour security.
The swimmers said they had been drinking and could not remember details about the taxi they took back to their housing that night.
Also Tuesday, The International Olympic Committee announced it has stripped Russia of a gold medal awarded in the 2008 Olympics in the women’s 4×100 sprint relay. The IOC said one of the runners, Yulia Chermoshanskaya, tested positive for two steroids in a reanalysis of her doping samples from the Beijing Olympics. She and the rest of her teammates have been ordered to return their medals.
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