Hou Zhihui of China is in a class by herself. As other weightlifters in the women’s 49-kilogram division took turns Saturday lifting heavier and heavier weights, she waited and waited some more.
Her declared attempt in the snatch event was several kilograms above that of her nearest competitor, Mirabai Chanu of India, who took silver. On her second attempt, Hou, 24, achieved an Olympic record. On her third minutes later, she blew past that record by lifting 94 kilograms.
Hou, 24, set records again in the clean and jerk with each of her three successful lifts, finishing at 116 kilograms. She also collected three more Olympic records for the combined total of her lifts.
Hannah Beech
Cycling
Carapaz of Ecuador prevails in road race
Six days after finishing third in the Tour de France, Richard Carapaz of Ecuador battled the steamy conditions, pushed his body past exhaustion and won gold in the men’s road race Saturday.
Digging deep for a closing burst, Carapaz, 28, broke away with nearly 6 kilometres left and sprinted to the end, recording a 6:05:26 finish, comfortably ahead of the next riders.
It was the first Olympic medal for Carapaz and only the second gold in Ecuador’s history.
The brutal 234-kilometre course was made worse by intense heat and humidity. In all, the cyclists were subjected to 4,865 meters of climbing, making it one of the toughest races in Olympic history.
James Wagner
Shooting
Final-round slip-up costs Russian shooter gold
A terrible last shot cost a Russian shooter the first gold medal of the 2020 Olympics. In the women’s air rifle competition Saturday morning, Anastasiia Galashina held a lead of 0.2 of a point over Yang Qian of China with one shot to go.
Air rifle is a witheringly precise sport. The bull’s-eye is a mere half a millimetre across.
Galashina fired her last shot and missed the centre of the target, scoring just 8.9 points. It was the worst score of the eight-woman final. Yang’s last shot, at 9.8, was her lowest score of the competition as well, but it was easily enough to surpass Galashina and win the gold medal.
“I got too nervous, held on too long,” Galashina said afterward. “My thoughts were not in the right place. I lost concentration.”
Victor Mather
Archery
First coed event in Tokyo goes to South Korea
For decades, with rare exceptions, men competed with men and women with women at the Olympics. Increasingly, though, the Games have been adding mixed team events. The first mixed event of the Tokyo Games was held Saturday, with favoured South Korea winning the mixed team archery competition.
The team of An San and 17-year-old Kim Je Deok tore through the field, with the team from the Netherlands putting up the biggest fight. The result was no surprise; South Korea has won five of eight men’s team events contested at the Olympics and all eight women’s events.
Victor Mather
Gymnastics
Host country’s hero falls, loses out on a medal
Nearly everyone in the arena — other gymnasts, coaches, arena workers and reporters — stopped what they were doing Saturday to watch Kohei Uchimura of Japan, considered one of the best male gymnasts ever, perform his horizontal bar routine.
At the start of his fourth Olympics, Uchimura, one of the most revered and beloved athletes in Japan, swung around the high bar and soared over it in his usual daring and dazzling way. But then his hands slipped during a fast — maybe too fast — pirouette requiring intricate handwork, and spectators gasped.
Uchimura fell, landing on the mat with a loud smack that was likely to echo throughout the country. The mistake, during the men’s qualifying event, ended his hopes of winning a gold medal at his home Olympics.
Uchimura, 32, has been a staple at the top of the sport for more than a decade. At the 2016 Rio Games, he won the all-around to become the first male gymnast to retain his Olympic title in the event in 44 years. From 2009 to 2016, he didn’t lose an all-around at the world championships or the Olympics.
Juliet Macur