The Guardian

Paris 2024 Olympics day 12: women’s golf begins, athletics, diving and more – live

By Barry Glendenning (now) Jonathan Howcroft and Luke McLaughlin (earlier),

7 hours ago

11.50am BST

Sport Climbing – Boulder & Lead: “The men’s semi-final lead round was incredibly dramatic and emotional,” writes the Guardian’s South Africa correspondent Rachel Savage, who into this particular sport and watching the event so that I don’t have to pretend I have a clue what’s going on. “As well as Team GB medal favourite Toby Roberts, Hamish McArthur also made it through, so GB is the only country to have two athletes through to the men’s final.

“The top qualifier was 17-year-old wunderkid Sorata Anraku (Japan), who made it through even before having climbed the lead route, thanks to an amazing boulder round. His teammate Tomoa Narasaki, who was second in bouldering, fell early on the lead route - as did many other top athletes - putting him out of the final. It was heartbreaking for him, as he came fourth in Tokyo Olympics and his wife, Tokyo bronze medallist Akiyo Noguchi, was in the crowd”

Updated at 11.51am BST

11.45am BST

Women’s basketball: The Australian team, the Opals, are through to the Olympic semi-finals after downing Serbia 85-67 in the first quarter-final of Wednesday. It is revenge for Australia after the Serbian men’s team defeated the Australian Boomers in quarter-finals yesterday. Alanna Smith led the scoring for Australia with 22 points. The Opals will now await the outcome of the United States’ meeting with Nigeria tonight to see who they will face in the semi-finals on Friday.

11.40am BST

Women’s golf: While some of us have been off the smokes for nearly three months, Charley Hull remains a martyr to the coffin nails and earlier this week bemoaned the fact that she is not allowed to light up while competing at the OIympics. The Team GB golfer could clearly do with a cigarette, as her first round has started very badly. She’s five shots over par through nine.

Updated at 11.52am BST

11.26am BST

Athletics: A late call-up to the British team following the injury suffered by Jake Wightman, Elliot Giles advances from the his heat of the men’s 800m, finishing second behind gold medal favourite Djamel Sedjati (Algeria), who has said he is targeting the world record of 1min 40.91sec set by Kenya’s David Rudisha at London 2012.

Updated at 11.32am BST

11.21am BST

Athletics: Good news for George Mills! The Team GB athlete and the three other athletes who fell in the home straight of their heat of the 5,000m have been advanced to the final by the race officials. Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu (Refugee Olympic Team), Mike Foppen (Netherlands) and Thierry Ndikumwenayo (Spain) are the other “lucky” fallers. This largesse on the part of the judges means there will be a field of 20 men in the final, which could lead to more carnage.

Updated at 11.21am BST

11.18am BST

Athletics: There was further drama in the second heat of the men’s 5,000m, when a TV cameraman wandered across the track to the infield, apparently oblivious to the fact that the field of runners were heading his way.

He ended up getting in their way and the competitors had to dodge him, a state of affairs that prompted Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen to gesture angrily at the rogue technician. Ingrebrigsten, who surprised many including himself by finishing out of the medals in last night’s thrilling 1,500m race, did go on to qualify for the final.

Updated at 11.22am BST

11.14am BST

Good day everybody. Everyone loves a row and arguably the most entertaining thing to happen from a British perspective so far this morning was George Mills finding his progress impeded in the home straight of the first heat of the men’s 5,000m and taking a tumble along with three other athletes.

Mills got back to his feet, finished the race well out of the qualification places and angrily confronted France’s Hugo Hay, who he felt had brought him down. Hay was in more conciliatory mood and tried to calm down Mills, who is the son of former England footballer Danny, but the English runner was in no mood for a pacifying arm around the shoulder.

In a post race interview with the BBC, a considerably more calm Mills said “I think it’s pretty clear, I got stepped out on. I was about to kick into the straight and boom: the French lad took me down.”

Interestingly, on the BBC coverage, I think it was Paula Radcliffe who said the pace the race was run at was far too slow which meant that a pile-up was almost inevitable as the athletes jockleyed for position in the home straight. She felt Mills had got himself in a bad position and had nobody to blame but himself for coming a cropper. Anyway, he won’t be in the final unless the race officials see fit to reinstate him, which seems extremely unlikely.

11.01am BST

Sport is happening all over the place in Paris. Not to mention Lille and other locations. And Barry Glendenning is now here to take you through the next bit … over to you, Barry.

Updated at 11.07am BST

11.00am BST

Men’s climbing: boulder & lead: Thanks to Ivana for the heads up on email:

“Toby Roberts (GB) just qualified for the final in sport climbing (boulder&lead).”

He did! Alberto Lopez of Spain was first in the semi-final, with 72 points, GB’s Roberts second with 68.1, Adam Ondra of Czech Republic third, also 68.1.

10.56am BST

Women’s golf: Celine Borge continues to lead the way at Le Golf National. The Norwegian is three under par after eight holes.

Aditi Ashok (India) is one under through nine holes, Yin Ruoning of China is one under after six.

But … Nelly Korda is three over after seven!

10.49am BST

Women’s 50kg wrestling update from Beau Dure:

The Indian wrestler, Vinesh Phogat, didn’t make weight for today’s gold medal match at 50kg and has been disqualified.

Contrary to some reports, Phogat’s disqualification does not mean the USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt wins gold. The wrestler Phogat beat in the semifinals, Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba, has been put through to the final.

In her first match, Phogat pulled off one of the shocks of the Games, beating Yui Susaki, who hadn’t conceded a point in Olympic or world championship matches in five years.

Even though Phogat’s results have been scrubbed from the competition, the wrestlers she defeated, including Susaki, are still in the repechage and can get bronze.

Phogat was a nominee for the Laureus Sports Awards comeback of the year honour a few years ago.

Updated at 10.51am BST

10.46am BST

Women’s basketball: The Australians have extended their advantage through the second quarter at the basketball, with the Opals leading by 16 at the half-time break, 48-32. Jade Melbourne has led the scoring for Australia, knocking down 14 points with only one missed three detracting from an otherwise perfect streak. Ivana Raca has been Serbia’s most effective scorer, with 57% accuracy.

Updated at 10.47am BST

10.46am BST

Final handball score AET: Spain 29-28 Egypt

Egypt led the men’s handball quarter-final by four goals in the second half. Spain fought back and their goalkeeper, Gonzalo Vargas, made no fewer than 17 saves to keep their opponents out! It’s over!

Updated at 10.52am BST

10.42am BST

Men’s handball: Under a minute left … Spain 28-28 Egypt … penalty Spain!

10.41am BST

Men’s diving: Wang Zongyuan (China) currently tops the charts in the 3m springboard with a total of 435.25.

10.38am BST

Men’s handball: Spain 27-27 Egypt with about three minutes to go in extra time … but Ali Zein has just been sent to the sin bin for Egypt after making contact with an opponent’s face!

Updated at 10.39am BST

10.37am BST

Men’s high jump: Mutaz Barshim (Qatar), Shelby McEwen (USA) and Stefano Sottile (Italy) currently top the standings in qualifying. Tamberi is fourth.

Updated at 10.38am BST

10.34am BST

Men’s high jump: JuVaughn Harrison (USA) has crashed out in qualifying after three failed jumps. He appears to have injured himself on the third and final effort, too.

10.30am BST

Men’s 5000m: George Mills of Team GB is very unhappy with Hugo Hay of France after the 5,000m heat at the Stade de France, for some reason. I did not see the race so not sure what occurred but will try and bring you more on that when I get it …

Narve Gilje Nordas of Norway won the first heat in a time of 14min 08.16sec. Hagos Gebrhiwet (Ethiopa) second, John Heymans (Belgium) third.

Updated at 10.32am BST

10.27am BST

Marathon swimming training session goes ahead in River Seine

The athlete training session for the Olympic marathon swimming in the River Seine went ahead on Wednesday morning. World Aquatics cancelled a familiarisation session 24 hours earlier before the women’s race on Thursday and men’s event on Friday as water quality assessments found that levels of Enterococci - an indicator of faecal pollution - were too high in the river.

But a Paris 2024 statement said: “During a meeting on water quality held on 7 August at 4am attended by representatives from World Aquatics, including their technical delegates and medical delegates, Paris 2024, Meteo France, DRIEAT, the City of Paris and the Prefecture of the Ile-de-France Region involved in carrying out water quality tests, World Aquatics have confirmed that the familiarisation session for the marathon swimming (athlete training) will go ahead as planned on 7 August from 7.30-9.30am.

“The results of the latest water quality tests, reviewed during the meeting at 4am, have been assessed as compliant by World Aquatics, allowing for the familiarisation session for the marathon swimming to take place.”

The issue of water quality had dominated the build-up to all three triathlons in the first week of the Games. Several familiarisation sessions were cancelled and the men’s race delayed by one day to allow conditions to improve.

Monday’s mixed relay went ahead without the Belgian team, who withdrew after athlete Claire Michel fell ill having competed in the women’s race, finishing 38th, the previous Wednesday. In the build-up to the Olympics, Paris invested 1.4billion euros trying to clean up the Seine, but water quality levels have dipped during the Games after a number of storms. PA Media

10.22am BST

The Australian Opals are up by seven points after the first quarter of the women’s basketball quarter-finals, leading Serbia 26-19. It has been a physical opening contest - Yvonne Anderson looking dangerous for the Serbians, but the Opals doing well to control the contest. The winner of this match will face the United States or Nigeria in the semi-final.

10.19am BST

Men’s handball: You could tell a classic was brewing … Spain 25-25 Egypt is a final score in the quarter-final in Lille. The match goes to extra time: two five-minute periods.

Egypt had a chance to win it in the final seconds, but the Spain goalie, Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, pulled off a stunning save.

Updated at 10.20am BST

10.17am BST

Jakob Ingebritsen has taken to Instagram, reacting to last night’s shock result in the 1500m:
”My team always say that “because you have a big mouth and is the one to beat, you have everything to lose in competitions”. Today, Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Josh Kerr outsmarted me. They were “the best guys” when it really mattered. And I want to congratulate them all on a great performance! … Of course, I am disappointed!

“Running is the ultimate sport. Everyone can participate. Everyone can set their own goals and achieve them. All you need is to show up … Thank you to all my competitors for putting on a great show today. Congratulations to the guys bringing home the medals! Luckily for me, I get to do it all again tomorrow morning.”

10.11am BST

Who is leading the medal table? You can find out here:

10.09am BST

Thanks to Fabiana Scarazzato for the following email regarding the high-jumper Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, he who lost his wedding ring:

“Three days ago Tamberi was rushed to hospital where it was discovered he had kidney stones, so the fact that he managed to be in Paris today for the qualifier is quite the miracle.”

10.07am BST

Over the hardest three laps of his life , Cole Hocker clung on with the stubbornness of a mule. Then, in an Olympic 1500m final for the ages, he kicked like one.

It took the 23-year-old American past the fading Tokyo gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway. Then, in an extraordinary last few yards, Britain’s world champion Josh Kerr. And suddenly, and without warning, a 37-1 underdog from Indianapolis had shaken up the world.

10.01am BST

Women’s golf: All, or certainly many, eyes are on Nelly Korda at Le Golf National. She has dropped a shot early doors, though, and is one over par through three holes.

Borge of Norway leads on two under par after five.

Updated at 10.05am BST

10.00am BST

Men’s handball: Spain 17-20 Egypt after 48min.

9.58am BST

Josh Kerr speaks to the BBC after last night’s silver medal in the men’s 1500m: “I was just trying to stay as close as possible … I could feel like we were really rolling, it was unrelenting pace.

“He [Cole Hocker] is a fantastic athlete … we could feel there were some guys still there and it wasn’t just us [Kerr and Jakob Ingebritsen].

“It was a great move for him, but it took the sting out of my legs a little bit, I was just trying to get to the finish line as fast as I could.

“You shake everyone’s hand, you move on, and you try and get better from it.”

9.54am BST

Tomorrow night at the Stade de France, it’ll be McLaughlin-Levrone v Bol in the women’s 400m hurdles final. Not to be missed.

9.52am BST

In skateboarding , the men’s park final is coming up this afternoon, with the BBC coverage beginning at 4.30pm. A little later there is track cycling – including men’s and women’s team pursuit. The men’s 400m final will feature in the athletics this evening.

9.50am BST

The men’s 800m heats will be coming up a bit later at the Stade de France, which is nice.

9.45am BST

Men’s diving: In the men’s 3m springboard semi-final, Team GB’s Jack Laugher is currently placed eighth after two dives, having scored 86.70 and 87.50.

Yona Knight-Wisdom of Jamaica leads the way at the top of the standings.

Updated at 9.45am BST

9.40am BST

A humble statement , on behalf of the media and the entire athletics establishment. In light of the surprising events at the Stade de France on Tuesday, we wish to make a few minor clarifying amendments to some of the coverage you may have seen over the last 12 months.

For example, when we described the Olympic men’s 1500m final as a head-to-head showdown between Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen we should of course have pointed out these two men would end up finishing second and fourth. When we thrust microphones in front of Kerr and Ingebrigtsen and asked them to take pot shots at each other, we in fact misspoke when we actually meant to be asking them both to trash talk Cole Hocker.

9.40am BST

Men’s high jump: Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy takes out 2.20m after whipping up the crowd before his jump at the Stade de France. For some reason, he pulls a disgusted face after successfully completing the jump. What a showman!

He’s the bloke who lost his wedding ring in the river during the opening ceremony.

“It will remain forever in city of love,” he said.

Updated at 9.42am BST

9.37am BST

Full results for the inaugural Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay can be seen here .

As stated it’s gold for Spain, silver for Ecuador and bronze for Australia.

9.35am BST

Women’s golf: Celine Borge (Norway) leads at Le Golf National. She’s flown out of the blocks, so to speak, and is two-under par after three holes.

9.33am BST

Women’s 100m hurdles: The American-born British runner, Cindy Sember, is through, running 12.72sec in her heat. “I think I’m ready for a medal,” she tells the BBC.

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Puerto Rico), Pia Skrzyszowska (Poland) are also qualified after the heats, and now Nadine Visser (Netherlands), Masai Russell (USA) and Cyrena Samba-Mayela (France) are also through after the heats.

9.27am BST

Men’s handball: Spain 8-12 Egypt at half time in the quarter-final in Lille. Ali Zein of Egypt just executed a fantastic dinked penalty shot on the stroke of half time. He feinted to go low and hard and then popped it over the goalie’s head. The handball equivalent of a Panenka.

Updated at 9.28am BST

9.22am BST

Gold for Spain in the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay

Perez brings it home for the Spanish team after 42km in this inaugural event. That was a dominant performance from the 28-year-old who won silver in the individual 20km event. Ecuador silver, 51sec down, Australia bronze, 1min 07sec behind.

Organisers will no doubt regard this new event as a roaring success. It was a really high quality race and very entertaining.

Updated at 9.36am BST

9.20am BST

There really is … quite a lot of sport happening at the Paris Olympics today. You can check out our live schedule here . (Sympathy for live-bloggers optional.)

Updated at 9.20am BST

9.18am BST

Women’s 100m hurdles heats: Tobi Amusan wins in 12.49sec. Alaysha Johnson of the USA second in 12.61sec, Janeek Brown (Jamaica) third in 12.84. The top three qualify.

Updated at 9.21am BST

9.15am BST

It’s Serbia vs Australia redux at the basketball this morning at Bercy Arena. On Tuesday, the Serbian men’s team overcame the Australian Boomers in over-time to win through to the semi-finals. But today is another day and the Australian women, the Opals, will be hoping to get revenge. The Aussies started slowly at this tournament but showed plenty of grit to progress through to the knock-out round, overcoming home nation France in a must-win clash last Sunday. Keep an eye on Lauren Jackson - the legendary basketballer, 43, is back at the Games after first retiring before the 2016 Rio Olympics due to injuries. Talk about longevity.

9.13am BST

Men’s handball: Spain 8-9 Egypt after 26min. A classic encounter appears to be developing.

9.12am BST

Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay: It’s 40sec now for Perez up front. Montag is in bronze medal position for Australia, more than 30sec down on Morejon of Ecuador.

9.10am BST

Women’s golf: Yin Ruoning of China has obviously been in the drink at the first. She’s pictured chipping out of the drop zone and hits a fantastic shot that pitches beyond the hole and spins back to within a couple of feet. That is why she’s in the side.

Updated at 9.10am BST

9.09am BST

Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay: Correction, the overall race distance is 42.195km, or 26.2 miles in old money.

9.05am BST

Tom Daley Tokyo content over there on the official Olympics X feed:

9.03am BST

Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay: Spain remain in control as the race moves into its final 2.5km. (It’s 40km in total: four legs of 10km).

Maria Perez of Spain leads by 32sec and it would appear to be an insurmountable lead. A brilliant performance by Perez because the gap was only a handful of seconds when the fourth leg began.

Updated at 9.04am BST

9.00am BST

Women’s canoe sprint: Gazso (Hungary) and Wood (Australia) place first and second in heat two and progress to the semi-finals. Wang (China) and Peters (Belgium) follow suit in heat three.

8.58am BST

Men’s handball: Spain 6-8 Egypt after 20 minutes in the quarter-final. This is end to end stuff.

8.57am BST

Women’s golf: Charley Hull of Team GB hits a stunning second shot at the first after an indifferent drive. A brilliant hit with a fairway wood with the ball nestled on the edge of the fairway, carrying the water and leaving a very long putt for birdie.

8.53am BST

Women’s golf: Maria Fassi of Mexico drains a magical chip at the first to move one under par. Meanwhile, back on the tee, the world No 1 Nelly Korda is getting ready to tee off. She receives a warm round of applause from the fans gathered around the tee.

8.50am BST

Men’s handball: Spain 5-4 Egypt is a latest score from Lille after 14min of the first half.

I snaffled a ticket for the handball at the Copperbox back in 2012, which was nice. France v Croatia if I remember correctly.

Updated at 8.51am BST

8.48am BST

Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay: Perez of Spain continues to lead Ecuador’s Morejon on the fourth and final leg. They’ve been racing for 2hr 16min now. Perez has 13sec.

8.45am BST

Women’s taekwondo: The 49kg competition has begun. Oumaima El Bouchti (Morocco) has already beaten Ana da Costa da Silva Pinto Belo (East Timor) 2-0.

8.42am BST

Men’s handball: Egypt have just taken the lead against Spain after seven minutes of their quarter-final.

8.38am BST

Women’s canoe sprint: The Women’s K1 500m heats have now begun at Vaires-sur-Marne. Aimee Fisher (NZ) and Brenda Rojas (Argentina) place first and second respectively in the first heat and qualify for the semi-finals.

Updated at 8.39am BST

8.34am BST

Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay: Pintado has pulled a couple of seconds clear of Martin. He’s also just been yellow-carded by a judge. He seems to be sailing close to the wind, to employ an entirely inappropriate metaphor.

Now Martin of Spain has overtaken Pintado! The race time has ticked past two hours. The fourth leg will be contested by women athletes. Martin of Spain tags to Maria Perez, Pintado to Glenda Morejon.

Updated at 8.36am BST

8.30am BST

Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay: Ecuador, Spain, Italy and Australia is the top four and we’re still in leg three. Pintado and Martin, of Ecuador and Spain respectively, are 36sec up on the chasers.

Pintado has two red cards. (Red cards are given for technical infringements, typically for bending the knee or not keeping one foot on the ground.) Another one and they’ll get a three-minute penalty and they’ll be out of contention.

8.23am BST

Men’s handball: Spain v Egypt are about to begin their quarter-final at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.

According to the Wikipedia page, Handball at the 2024 Summer Olympics , the venue can be changed from a football stadium ( or rugby ) by a hydraulic system in three hours, creating “a lower-level centre floor around which up to 30,000 seats can be set up.”

Updated at 8.27am BST

8.18am BST

In other live Olympic sport news , the women’s golf has commenced at Le Golf National. I’ll bring you occasional updates from there throughout the morning, as we like to call this part of the day in Europe.

Updated at 8.29am BST

8.15am BST

Thanks Jonathan and hello everyone. It promises to be a busy day indeed. China have just been ruled out of contention in the mixed relay race walk after another three-minute penalty. They have dropped way back down the field.

8.10am BST

Thank you for joining me this morning. It’s been fun to have some early action to cover for a change. It’s now over to Luke McLaughlin for the culmination of the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay and the avalanche of other sport that’s about to descend from Mt Olympus.

Updated at 8.13am BST

7.53am BST

PreviouslyID9637740 07 August 2024 7:46am

Kellie Harrington dancing in the ring after winning her second gold medal last night was joyful. It will be one of the memories of these games.

Boxer, dancer, singer. I think Kellie Harrington is what the entertainment industry would call a triple threat.

7.49am BST

MRWMR : There is now a gap of 36 seconds between the leading eight (ECU, PER, ITA, ESP, MEX, CHN, BRA, and AUS) and the rest, towards the end of the second of four legs. This marathon is going to be a two-legged 20km sprint.

7.45am BST

We’re a few minutes away from the start of taekwondo action for the day, beginning with the men’s flyweight (58kg) and women’s flyweight (49kg).

At the same time the opening tee shot will be struck in the women’s golf at Le Golf National. Defending champion Nelly Korda (USA) has been the star of the 2024 season so far, and she tees off at 09:55 local time.

7.36am BST

Bewildered1 07 August 2024 7:20am

Are they walking laps? What is the course like? Finding it hard to picture this relay walk.

Yes – they are walking laps. I can’t locate exactly how long the laps are, but I reckon approximately 3km. These loops start and finish at the Eiffel Tower, so the views are spectacular.

The course – It’s the same as the one used for the individual 20km race walks.

The action – we’re about halfway through the second leg (the first female leg) and there’s a leading bunch now of eight teams (ECU, PER, ITA, ESP, MEX, CHN, BRA, AUS) with Australia’s Jemima Montag working hard to join the front runners walkers. The gap to the chasing pack is almost 20 seconds.

Updated at 7.37am BST

7.23am BST

The US Women’s National Team haven’t won Olympic gold since 2012, which represents an unprecedented drought, but new coach Emma Hayes is leading a revival with her side now clear favourites for a fifth title.

A year to the day since one of their lowest ebbs, the loss on penalties to Sweden in the first knockout stage of the 2023 World Cup, a hard-fought and sometimes hard to watch 1-0 extra-time victory over Germany sent the US into Saturday’s final against Brazil, ensuring the Americans at least a silver medal.
The team is yet to recapture the imperious brilliance that was the hallmark of American sides of yesteryear; perhaps it never will, given the dramatic improvement of other nations. But in reaching the Olympic final the US are back on a familiar stage after the uncertainty and insecurity of the past couple of years under the previous head coach, Vlatko Andonovski, as a group of exceptional veterans endured a slow fade.

7.18am BST

MRWMR : After 43 or so minutes of walking, it’s over to the second leg of the race. There is no baton to pass, with the rule in place being the two members of each team must touch at the changeover.

There’s a leading five of Germany, Spain, Brazil, Ecuador, and Japan. Canada and Italy are not far off the pace. Australia in ninth have around 20 seconds to make up, which already feels significant even at this early stage.

7.08am BST

There’s not a better date on the basketball calendar than the Olympic men’s quarter-finals, according to Bryan Armen Graham.

Thirty-two years on from Barcelona, basketball has taken its place alongside hip-hop and jazz as America’s richest cultural exports. With all those kids long since grown and the international talent pool deeper than ever, the last eight of the Olympic knockout stage has become the best day basketball can offer: an all-day quadruple-header of win-or-go-home quarter-finals that winnows eight of the best teams on the planet down to four. The winners move within touching distance of a medal, the losers hit the bricks and the whole thing crackles with an energy that only national pride can engender.

7.02am BST

MRWMR : Dunfee (CAN) and Kawano (JPN) have been reeled in by the chasing pack. There is now a leading group of eight walkers, with a further five still in touch.

However, it remains to be seen if this matters greatly as the strategy of this race unfolds. There have been so few Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay races nobody is quite sure what the best approach is. Go hard, and treat it like two 20km dashes, expecting to recover sufficiently during the women’s leg? Or conserve energy and make up lost ground towards the end of the race as early bolters tire?

6.53am BST

I’ll keep you updated with the walking but continue to stud this blog with other stories from around the Games. Like this one from Bryan Armen Graham on Bob Bowman, swimming’s supercoach, whose golden touch extends from Michael Phelps to Leon Marchand

Four years ago, Bowman, soon after taking the coaching job at Arizona State University, received an email from a French teenager hoping to attend college and train in the United States.

Dear sir, I am a French swimmer, my name is Léon Marchand (18 years old). I would like to join the university of Arizona State in summer 2021 for swim and compete in NCAA with your amazing team. Do you think I could benefit from a scholarship? What level of education is required? (TOEFL, SAT …) You will find attached my presentation sheet. Thank you for the time granted to my request.
Sportingly, Léon

6.47am BST

ArchieStaircrow 07 August 2024 6:38am

When it’s this good athletics is absolutely thrilling to watch. The 1500 men’s final was just incredible. All complemented by wonderful performances in field events too. At this rate I will have to be surgically removed from my armchair.

All of which has been enhanced by the Stade de France, which is proving a magnificent Olympic stadium, and the French crowds, that have packed out every session and contributed greatly to the atmosphere.

Credit also due to Mondo Worldwide, the track manufacturer, for laying a surface that is encouraging such fast times.

6.41am BST

MRWMR : Canada’s Evan Dunfee made a fast start to the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay. The bronze medallist in the 50km race walk at Tokyo struck out on his own, but he has now been joined by Japan’s Masatora Kawano, with the bulk of the field five or six seconds further back. We’re about a quarter of the way through this opening leg.

Updated at 6.43am BST

6.32am BST

MRWMR : The coup de bâton has been performed just a few metres from the Eiffel Tower. The very first leg in the history of the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay is away!

Updated at 6.41am BST

6.28am BST

MRWMR : There are 25 pairs competing along the historic course through the centre of Paris. At the 2024 World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Italy took gold from Japan and Spain. The Spanish pair of Alvaro Martin (20km walk bronze medallist) and Maria Perez (20km walk silver) are heavily fancied to secure gold this morning.

6.22am BST

It’s nearly time for the first starter’s pistol of the day with the marathon race walk mixed relay almost upon us. This is the first time the 42.195km race has been staged at the Olympics, after it was introduced to replace the 50km race walk, which was deemed too long (men’s winners came in at around 3h 30, women’s around 4h).

The relay involves two athletes, one man and one woman. Each has to complete two legs in the following order: male 11.45km, female 10km, male 10km, female 10.745km.

6.14am BST

In other good news for Australia, 14-year-old Arisa Trew handled gold medal favouritism with aplomb.

The Australian had entered the Olympics in strong form, winning qualifying events in Shanghai and Budapest . But she looked somewhat shaky in the preliminaries earlier on Tuesday, only qualifying in sixth of eight. The pressure built when Trew came unstuck on her first run, a big opening 540 followed by a Madonna before she fell to the ground. An excellent first run from Hiraki, scored at 91.98, only added to the occasion.
On her second run, Trew showed the composure that had many considering her the pre-Games favourite. She began with another big 540, before closing out the run without a wobble, earning a 90.11. It was enough to move Trew into the medal placings – and by the end of the field’s second runs, the Australian was ranked third.
It all came down to the final run, and Trew held nothing back. “I was just thinking on my third run that I had to land it no matter what,” she said afterwards. “I need to land this run.”

6.10am BST

But the Australian track cycling team are ready to make their mark after a few olympiads in the wilderness.

The Australians are no longer underdogs. That changed over two quick-fire evenings at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. On Monday, the Australian squad of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien, surprised the field to qualify fastest, in a time of 3:42.958 – barely a second away from the world record. Just 24 hours later, in Australia’s first round encounter with Italy, the team not only set a new world record, but smashed the old one – finishing in a time of 3:40.730.
It has been five years since Australia were world champions in the men’s team pursuit. It has been two decades since the Australians were last Olympic gold medallists in the discipline, at Athens 2004.

6.05am BST

The Netherlands, and Harrie Lavreysen in particular, are very fast in the velodrome.

In a one-sided final, Great Britain’s sprint trio of Jack Carlin, Hamish Turnbull and Ed Lowe, were valiant but powerless, as Lavreysen and teammates, Jeffrey Hoogland and Roy van den Berg led almost from the first bend.
As the Dutch, having already broken the world record earlier in the competition, sped to a world-record time of 40.949sec, Carlin, Turnbull and Lowe could only look on as Lavreysen and his two teammates raised their arms in celebration.

5.50am BST

At a Games where Armand Duplantis turned the pole vault into performance art, Simone Biles did what Simone Biles does, and Novak Djokovic completed tennis, it would be easy to overlook the accomplishments of Cuban wrestler Mijaín López, but his fifth gold medal in a row sets new standards for endurance.

At the end, alone in the wrestling ring with his name ringing out from the stand, Mijaín López untied his boots and raised them to his lips. He placed them in the centre of the mat and walked away from his sixth Games as arguably the greatest Olympian of all time.
In winning the Greco-Roman wrestling title for an unprecedented fifth consecutive time just two weeks before his 42nd birthday, López has done what no other Olympian has achieved – and on a balmy night at the Champ de Mars Arena in Paris he made it look easy.

5.45am BST

Despite the controversy surrounding her participation Imane Khelif remains on course for a boxing gold medal.

Imane Khelif’s extraordinary Olympic Games still has one round left to run. At a wild, steamy, increasingly unbound Roland Garros, Algeria’s fifth seed outclassed Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand to win the women’s 66kg semi-final bout and set up a final against Yang Liu of China on Friday.
This was a startling event in so many ways, in large part here because of its exuberantly Algerian tone. The snaking queue outside Roland Garros in the hours before this evening round of Olympic boxing had been heavily stacked with Algerian flags and football shirts. Centre court, reconfigured into a breathtaking boxing area, was similarly decked with the red and green.

Updated at 6.00am BST

5.42am BST

We begin our look back at yesterday’s action with a thrilling men’s 1500m final that saw Cole Hocker turn the Kerr v Ingebrigsten narrative on its head.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for all of us: in the power and fallacy of narrative. This is, after all, the most competitive and volatile of events, a function not just of speed or endurance, but luck and tactics and sometimes blind opportunism.
An hour later, Hocker stepped on to the podium to receive his gold medal. He didn’t look stunned or overawed. He looked like he belonged there. Turns out he was the one with the vision all along.

5.33am BST

We are open for business much earlier than usual today with an 07:30 start. That’s because it will take around three hours for the winners of the marathon race walk mixed relay to be decided, and it’s best that all that pavement pounding concludes before the midday sun turns the event from gruelling to dangerous.

From 09:00 we have women’s golf and taekwondo , followed by canoe sprint and handball at 09:30.

From 10:00 there’s more action than you can shake a shinty stick at. Except shinty, of course, which is not an Olympic sport. Although, it’s near cousin hurling was a demonstration event at St Louis 1904.

5.30am BST

Here’s the best of yesterday’s images. Don’t dwell on the underwater shot of France’s artistic swimming team; consider yourselves warned.

5.24am BST

For fans of per capita medal tables, I don’t have a fancy graphic for you, but I can tell you the tiny Caribbean islands of Dominica and St Lucia lead the way courtesy of their performances in track and field.

Of the nations that have won multiple medals via a range of athletes, the standouts are New Zealand (with surely more to come with the canoe sprint getting under way), Ireland (here’s looking at you Daniel Wiffen), and perennial overachievers Australia.

5.15am BST

It’s taken longer than expected but the USA have wrested control of the medal table from China. Behind them Australia remain at the front of the peloton after another gold yesterday.

Athletes from 48 countries have now saluted their national anthem, with 76 NOCs in total earning a medal.

5.04am BST

Preamble - Day 12 Schedule

Hello everybody and welcome to live coverage of the 12th official day of competition of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

Day 11 belonged to the USA with Gabby Thomas and Cole Hocker excelling on the track, Amit Elor winning on the mat, and the USWNT continuing their return to form under Emma Hayes. Things are heating up in the velodrome , and there were notable results at opposite ends of the spectrum with Arisa Trew becoming Australia’s youngest gold medallist while Mijain Lopez broke new ground as the first athlete to win an individual event at five consecutive Games.

So what can we look forward to today?

Medal Events

🥇 Race Walk – mixed marathon relay (from 07:30)
🥇 Sailing – women’s & men’s dinghy / mixed multihull / mixed dinghy (from 12:13)
🥇 Sport Climbing – women’s speed (from 12:54)
🥇 Weightlifting – men’s 61kg (from 15:00)
🥇 Skateboarding – men’s park (from 17:40)
🥇 Pole Vault – women’s (from 18:15)
🥇 Cycling – men’s & women’s team pursuit (from 18:04)
🥇 Wrestling – men’s Greco-Roman 77kg & 97kg / women’s freestyle 50kg (from 18:15)
🥇 Artistic Swimming – team acrobatic routine (from 19:30)
🥇 Weightlifting – women’s 49kg (from 19:30)
🥇 Discus – men’s (from 20:25)
🥇 Taekwondo – women’s 49kg & men’s 58kg (from 21:19)
🥇 400m – men’s (from 21:20)
🥇 3000m Steeplechase – men’s (from 21:43)
🥇 Boxing – men’s 63.5kg & 80kg (from 22:34)
*(All times listed are Paris local)

Simon Burnton’s day-by-day guide

Sailing: mixed dinghy medal race
In which Britain’s odd couple Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube – she’s 23 and going into her first Games, he’s 39 and has been tempted out of retirement for one last go – have a chance of medals after coming second at the world championships in Mallorca this year, despite suffering from illness, injury and having worked together only for a matter of months. Heathcote’s uncle, Nick Rogers, won silver medals in 2004 and 2008. Spain’s Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman, who won that event in Mallorca, and Japan’s Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka are the key rivals.

Artistic swimming: team acrobatic routine
In 2022 World Aquatics changed its rules to allow men to compete in artistic swimming at the Olympics, and it looked like the American Bill May was going to be the one to make history. In February he was in the US team that won world championship bronze. “They’re going to see a male in the Olympics, and it’s going to inspire them, whether it be a male, female, anyone that has a dream,” he said. In June he was left out of the US squad. There will be no men in the artistic swimming this year. It’ll still be amazing, in its odd way.

Boxing
This could be the last round for Olympic boxing – the IOC has set a deadline of early next year to find a governing body to replace the IBA as its partners, leaving the sport’s place at Los Angeles 2028 in doubt. So catch it while you can.

I’m sure I’ve failed to include something notable to you in this short rundown, so feel free to let me know what’s on your agenda by emailing: jonathan.howcroft.casual@theguardian.com .

I’ll be around for the first few hours of the blog here in Australia, after which I’m handing over to Yara El-Shaboury.

Paris 2024 Olympics day 12: women’s golf begins, athletics, diving and more – live

Final handball score AET: Spain 29-28 Egypt

Marathon swimming training session goes ahead in River Seine

Gold for Spain in the Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay

Preamble - Day 12 Schedule

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