Olympics day three: Gold for Japan in men’s skateboarding and gymnastics, Canada achieves a judo first, and Great Britain wins a mountain bike thriller.
Yuto Horigome of Japan has retained his Olympic title in men’s street skateboarding in Paris, clinching the top of the podium on his last trick in a tense final.
Team USA’s Jagger Eaton upgraded his Tokyo bronze to silver, while his compatriot Nyjah Huston claimed the last spot on the podium on Monday.
Horigome clinched gold at the last moment with a flawless slide down the 10-stair round rail and a smile, underlining Japan’s dominance in the sport a day after his compatriot Coco Yoshizawa won the women’s event.
“It was hard to make the podium this time,” said Horigome. “The skate level’s insane.”
Eaton brought out some of his best material across the five tricks but could not catch Horigome, as the American fell on his final attempt.
The competition was held under clear skies in sweltering heat after rain forced the postponement of the event on Saturday, while the competitors kept their cool in front of another packed house at the La Concorde venue.
Horigome looked every bit the favourite as he made terrific use of the course’s 18 features in his opening run of the final. But Huston had the lead heading into the five tricks as he capped his second run with a nollie backside 180.
Huston, one of the biggest names in US skateboarding since retired great Tony Hawk, was hungry for redemption after a shock seventh-place finish in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, and he tightened his grasp on the lead with a pair of high-scoring tricks.
But Eaton briefly took the top spot in the standings with a nollie 270 slide in his fourth try.
Horigome looked as though he might miss the podium entirely after falling on three of his first four attempts. But he pulled out a bit of magic to leap over the rest of the field at the last moment as Japanese fans cheered.
Olympic skateboarding will continue with the women’s and men’s park events on August 6 and 7.
Japan claim men’s team gold in artistic gymnastics after dramatic final
Daiki Hashimoto turned heartache into unimaginable joy as he overcame a fall from the pommel horse to power Japan to the gymnastics gold medal, edging out China in a pulsating men’s team final.
While Hashimoto led Japan to their eighth men’s team title at the Games, Team USA were celebrating their first Olympic team medal since 2008 as they grabbed bronze.
Just when it looked like China had the title in the bag as they led Japan by more than three points with only three more performances left on their final apparatus, the high bar, Su Weide fell twice during his routine, turning the title race into a nail-biter.
When the chalk settled, Japan emerged victorious with a total of 259.594 points, less than a point ahead of China.
The USA men put on a superb performance and locked up the bronze after nailing most of their landings in the competition.
Deguchi becomes Canada’s first judo champion
Christa Deguchi won the women’s under 57kg (126-pound) gold to hand Canada its first-ever Olympic judo title before Hidayat Heydarov of Azerbaijan disappointed a partisan crowd by triumphing in the men’s under 73kg (161-pound) final.
Current world champion Heydarov edged French underdog Joan-Benjamin Gaba with a golden score ippon in a marathon final that lasted nine minutes and 24 seconds at Champ-de-Mars Arena.
Heydarov tried multiple times to catch his breath as the bout wore on and planted a kiss on his opponent’s forehead after celebrating victory.
Gaba, ranked 35th in the world and competing in his first Olympics, surprised everyone by fighting his way into the final after defeating London 2012 under 66kg (146-pound) gold medallist Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia in the round of 32.
In the women’s event, Sarah-Leonie Cysique added a bronze medal to the host nation’s haul after losing to Deguchi in the semifinal. In the final, Deguchi took out Huh Mi-mi after the South Korean was penalised for a third time.
Great Britain’s Pidcock wins thriller to retain mountain bike title
Tom Pidcock of Great Britain roared back after suffering a puncture to retain his Olympic men’s mountain bike title after a thrilling battle with France’s Victor Koretzky.
World champion Pidcock, who won gold in Tokyo, found himself 35 seconds adrift after a front wheel puncture on the fourth of eight laps on the 4.4km (2.7-mile) circuit carved into Elancourt Hill.
But he surged back and then went head-to-head with Koretzky on the final lap when he again had to make up ground before pulling clear with the finish line in sight.
The partisan crowd booed as he crossed the line nine seconds ahead of silver medallist Koretzky, while South Africa’s Alan Hatherly finished third for the bronze medal.
The Olympic gold medal came as an early birthday present for Pidcock, who turns 25 on Tuesday.
