Roundup of Olympic gold medals from Thursday

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TOKYO (AP) — A roundup of gold medals from Thursday, July 29, at the Tokyo Games:

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CANOE SLALOM

Australia’s Jessica Fox has made Olympic history at the Tokyo Games as the first gold medalist in women’s canoe slalom. Fox made the last run of the final and crushed it.

She beat rival and silver-medalist Mallory Franklin of Britain with a winning run through the rapids of of the Kasai Canoe Slalom Center. The women’s canoe slalom is one of 18 new events introduced to the Olympics this year in a push for gender equity. Andrea Herzog of Germany took bronze.

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FENCING

WOMEN’S FOIL TEAM

Russian fencers won gold in the women’s team foil by beating France 45-34 in the final.

The Russians stayed on course for gold despite an early medical timeout when Marta Martyanova rolled her ankle. She stayed in the game and contributed 14 of the team’s points.

The Russian Olympic Committee team has won five fencing medals in Tokyo in women’s events. France was on the podium in the women’s team foil for the first time since 1984.

Italy beat the United States 45-23 for the bronze medal to make the podium in the event for a record seventh consecutive Olympics.

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GYMNASTICS

WOMEN’S ALL-AROUND

Sunisa Lee became the fifth straight American woman to claim the Olympic title in the women’s all-around. She edged Rebeca Andrade of Brazil in an entertaining and hotly contested final while Simone Biles watched from the stands.

Lee’s total of 57.433 points was just enough to top Andrade. The Brazilian earned the first gymnastics all-around medal by a Latin American athlete but missed out on gold when she stepped out of bounds twice during her floor routine.

Russian gymnast Angelina Melnikova earned bronze two days after leading ROC to gold in the team final.

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JUDO

WOMEN’S 78-KILOGRAM

Shori Hamada won Japan’s seventh gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics, beating French former world champion Madeleine Malonga by ippon just 1:08 into the women’s 78-kilogram final.

Hamada, who won the 2018 world title, was the third Japanese woman to win gold in the past week.

Germany’s Anna-Maria Wagner — the current world champion — and Brazil’s Mayra Aguiar won bronze.

MEN’S 100-KILOGRAM

Aaron Wolf won Japan’s eighth gold medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics, defeating South Korea’s Cho Gu-ham 5:35 into golden score for his first Olympic title in the men’s 100-kilogram division.

Wolf, whose father is American, won the draining final bout by ippon with an o-uchi-gari throw. Wolf beat Georgian veteran Varlam Liparteliani in the semifinals to reach his first Olympic final.

Portugal’s two-time world champion Jorge Fonseca and Russian athlete Niiaz Iliasov won bronze. Cho upset Fonseca in the semifinals.

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ROWING

MEN’S PAIR

Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic dominated the men’s pair in Olympic rowing, cruising to gold in a race they led from the start.

The Croatians were the heavy favorites. They won double sculls in 2016, then switched boat disciplines and won two world championships before claiming another Olympic gold medal. They are the first men to win Olympic gold in both double sculls and the sweep pairs.

Romania’s duo of Marius Cozmiuc and Ciprian Tudosas won silver. Denmark’s Frederic Vystavel and Joachim Sutton won bronze.

WOMEN’S PAIR

New Zealand’s Grace Pendergrast and Kerri Gowler won gold in the women’s pair.

The Kiwi duo won the world championship in 2019 and were favored to grab victory in Tokyo. They are just the third non-European team to win the Olympic event and the first since 1996.

Russia’s Vasilisia Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia surged past Canada’s Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens over the final 300 meters to take the silver medal. Canada won bronze.

MEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT DOUBLE SCULLS

Irish duo Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan held off a late charge from Germany’s Jonathan Rommelmann and Jason Osborne to win the gold medal in men’s lightweight double sculls.

The Irish boat looked secure through the first 1,000 meters before the Germans closed the gap with 500 to go and threatened to pull even. A late surge over the final 200 meters sent the Irish to the win by 0.86 seconds.

Italy’s Stefano Oppo and Pietro Ruta won bronze.

WOMEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT DOUBLE SCULLS

Italy’s Valentina Rodini and Federica Cesarini surged over the final 50 meters to win gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls.

The Dutch team of Marieke Keiser and Ilse Paulis had led nearly the entire race but collapsed to the bronze medal in the final 20 meters as the French team of Laura Tarantola and Claire Bove won silver.

The Dutch team nearly slipped out of the medals entirely, and only took the podium by 0.01 seconds ahead of Britain.

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SHOOTING

WOMEN’S TRAP

Slovakia’s Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova set an Olympic record in women’s trap to deny the United States a third-straight shotgun gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Rehak Stefecekova hit 43 of 50 targets on a breezy day at Asaka Shooting Range, beating American Kayle Browning.

Alessandro Perilli took bronze to earn the first medal in San Marino’s 61-year Olympic history.

A 37-year-old police officer, Rehak Stefecekova took silver at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games, and missed Rio in 2016 due to the birth of her son.

MEN’S TRAP

Czech shooter Jiri Liptak has outlasted teammate David Kostelecky in a shoot-off to win men’s trap gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Liptak and Kostelecky tied after 50 shots, hitting 43 targets to set an Olympic record. Both shooters hit the first six targets in the shoot-off before Kostelecky missed on the seventh.

Britain’s Matthew Coward-Holley took bronze.

Liptak finished 18th at the 2012 London Games, but did not compete in Rio five years ago. Kostelecky earned his second medal in his sixth Olympics with the gold he won at the 2008 Beijing Games.

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SWIMMING

MEN’S 800-METER FREESTYLE

Bobby Finke of the United States captured gold in the debut of the men’s 800-meter swimming freestyle event at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri grabbed the silver after leading most of the race, while the bronze went to Mykhailo Romachuk of Ukraine.

It was a thrilling finish. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock grabbed the lead from Paltrinieri on the final flip, with Finke lurking back in fourth. But the American turned on a dazzling burst of speed at the end of the 16-lap race, passing all three swimmers ahead of him to take the gold.

MEN’S 200-METER BREASTSTROKE

Izaac Stubblety-Cook of Australia won the 200-meter breaststroke at the Olympic pool in Tokyo.

Stubblety-Cook rallied on the final lap to pass Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, who went out fast and tried to hold on. The winning time was an Olympic record of 2 minutes, 6.38 seconds.

Kamminga was under world-record pace through the first 150 meters, but he faded to the silver in 2:07.01. The bronze went to Finland’s Matti Mattsson in 2:07.24.

WOMEN’S 200-METER BUTTERFLY

Zhang Yufei of China turned in a dominating performance to win the women’s 200-meter butterfly with an Olympic-record time of 2 minutes, 3.86 seconds. She was more than a body length ahead of the pair of Americans, Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger.

The U.S. swimmers dueled back and forth for the silver, with Smith pulling ahead at the end to touch in 2:05.30. Flickinger earned the bronze in 2:05.65.

MEN’S 100-METER FREESTYLE

American swimmer Caeleb Dressel claimed the first individual Olympic gold medal of his career.

Dressel held off the defending Olympic champion, Australia’s Kyle Chalmers, with a furious sprint to the wall. The winning time was an Olympic record of 47.02 seconds.

Dressel beat Chalmers by a mere six-hundredths of a second, leaving the 2016 winner with a silver medal this time. The bronze was claimed by Russia’s Kliment Kolesenikov.

WOMEN’S 4 x 200-METER FREESTYLE RELAY

China surprised the U.S. and Australia with a world-record performance to win gold in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay.

China won in 7 minutes, 40.33 seconds.

The Americans claimed silver in 7:40.73, while Australia took the bronze in 7:41.29. It was the first swimming world record of the Tokyo Games — in fact, all three medalists broke the previous mark of 7:41.50 set by the Aussies at the 2019 world championships.

TABLE TENNIS

WOMEN’S SINGLES

For the ninth straight Olympics, a Chinese woman won the gold medal in table tennis.

Chen Meng beat teammate Sun Yingsha 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 5-11, 11-4, 11-9 in the women’s singles final, keeping China perfect in the event since its debut at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Despite its predictability, the win marked a return to form after China surprisingly lost to Japan in the mixed doubles final.

In the final game, the players traded the lead before Chen ended up on top. She then went to hug her coach before she and Sun posed together holding the Chinese flag and their paddles.

In the bronze medal match, Mima Ito, part of Japan’s gold-medal winning mixed doubles team, beat Yu Mengyu of Singapore.

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Zhang Yufei of China poses with her gold medal after winning the women’s 200-meter butterfly final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 29, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2021/07/web1_127016202-4045caf1adcd4c258c4a953c08ed7a0f.jpgZhang Yufei of China poses with her gold medal after winning the women’s 200-meter butterfly final at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 29, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

The Associated Press

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