Tokyo Olympics Day 14: Canadian men win bronze in 4x100-metre relay; Canada and Sweden head to extra time in the women's soccer gold medal final
The latest Olympics news from Tokyo on Friday. Web links to longer stories if available.
Follow along here for updates on the women's soccer gold medal matchup between Canada and Sweden.
10:10 a.m: Sweden given a yellow card in the 104th minute. The gold medal match remains in a stalemate.
9:53 a.m.: Andre De Grasse ran a blistering anchor leg, and Canada's men's 4x100 relay team won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. It's the third medal of the Games, and sixth Olympic medal overall, for De Grasse. The 26-year-old from Markham, Ont., overtook the Chinese runner in the final leg as Canada finished in a season-best time of 37.7 seconds.
Italy finished first in 37.5 seconds, followed by Britain in 37.51.
De Grasse led a team that included Toronto's Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake of Kelowna, B.C., and Toronto's Brendon Rodney. It's Canada's second straight Olympic bronze in the event.
9:50 a.m.: Canada and Sweden are heading to extra time with the gold medal on the line.
9:43 a.m.: Canada subsitutes Christine Sinclair for Jordyn Huitema in the 86th minute. Game tied 1-1.
9:23 a.m.: Canada's Jessie Fleming converted a penalty in the 67th minute to even up the women's soccer gold medal final against Sweden.
8:57 a.m.: Kenya's Faith Kipyegon took home another gold and set a new Olympic record in the women's 1,500-metre race with a time of 3:53.11.
Canada's Gabriela DeBues-Stafford finished in 5th.
8:45 a.m.: Canada trails by one goal after a dominant first half by Sweden.
8:35 a.m.: Sweden strikes first. Stina Blackstenius scored in the 35th minute to take a 1-0 lead over Canada.
8:15 a.m.: Canada's Moh Ahmed has won a silver medal with a gutsy effort in the men's 5,000 metres at the Tokyo Olympics.
Ahmed ran a fast final lap and challenged Joshua Cheptegei, the world record holder in the distance, for the gold on the final stretch, but couldn't catch the Ugandan. Cheptegei finished in 12 minutes 58.15 seconds followed by Ahmed at 12:58.61. Paul Chelimo of the United States took bronze in 12:59.05.
It's Canada's first Olympic medal in the men's 5,000, and it's fitting that Ahmed delivered it.
The 30-year-old runner from St. Catharines, Ont., has blazed a trail for Canadian distance runners on the global scene in the past few years. His bronze in the 5,000 at the 2019 world championships in Doha, Qatar, was the country's first world championship medal in a distance event. Last summer, he sliced 11 seconds off his own Canadian record, running 12:47.20 seconds in a high-performance meet in Portland, where he trains with the Bowerman Track Club.
It was also a North American record, and saw Ahmed crack the top 10 all-time in that distance in the world.
Ahmed opened the Tokyo Olympics with a sixth place in the 10,000 metres, taking the lead with less than two laps to go before running out of gas over the final 300 metres.
Justyn Knight of Toronto finished seventh in 13:04.38.
7:45 a.m.: Canada's women's soccer team is guaranteed a medal this morning, which will make Quinn the first transgender and non-binary athlete to win an Olympic medal at Tokyo 2020.
Read more from the Star's Laura Armstrong.
7:10 a.m.: Canada's Nathan Zsombor-Murray put together an impressive six-dive performance in the preliminary round of the men's 10-metre platform at the Tokyo Olympics Friday to punch his ticket to the semifinal.
Fellow Canadian Rylan Wiens of Pike Lake, Sask., missed the semifinal by the smallest of margins.
5:30 a.m.: Canada's Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest both won their races to advance to the 1/8 in the women's sprint Saturday.
Genest has already won the bronze in the keirin event.
4:55 a.m.: The path may have been winding, but canoe sprinters Laurence Vincent-Lapointe and Katie Vincent still qualified for the semifinal of the C-2 500 metres.
Failing to advance directly to the semifinal after finishing third in their heat on Tokyo's Sea Forest Waterway, Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivieres, Que., and Vincent of Mississauga, Ont., rebounded to win their quarterfinal in two minutes 2.259 seconds.
The semifinal will take place Saturday.
2:25 a.m.: The U.S. women's basketball team defeated Serbia 79-59, and will go head-to-head with either France or Japan in the gold medal game on Sunday.
12:55 a.m.: Canada's Brooke Henderson shot a third-round 71 to stay at par in women's golf at the Tokyo Olympics.
Teammate Alena Sharp had a 2-under 69 on Friday to move up the leaderboard and sit a shot back of Henderson.
The International Golf Federation warned on Wednesday that the tournament may be reduced to three rounds because of the weather. Tropical storms were expected to hammer the region starting late Friday and through Saturday, making play potentially dangerous.
12:30 a.m.: The Canadian women's soccer team will go for Olympic gold for the first time on Friday (8 a.m. ET). The start time against Sweden was pushed back to 9 p.m. local in Tokyo because of heat concerns.
Canada arrived with one goal: changing the colour of the medal after bringing home bronze from back-to-back Olympics.
Here's a look at Canada's lineup, with hometown and how they've fared on the road to the big game.
Check out the latest from Laura Armstrong: Meet the Canadian women's soccer team that will go for Olympic gold
12:30 a.m.: Florian Wellbrock won the men's 10 km open water swim Thursday morning by defeating 25 humans - and one other rival that was tougher than all the rest.
The temperature was the biggest competitor," the German said.
How hot was the water in Tokyo Bay? Official temperature at the start for the women was 29.3 degrees Celsius, which is 84.74 degrees Fahrenheit. When trying to power your way through six-plus miles of swimming, that is certainly detrimental to performance and bordering on dangerous.
12:16 a.m. (Updated): April Ross and Alix Klineman won gold for the U.S. in women's beach volleyball, defeating Australia's Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy 21-15, 21-16 at Shiokaze Park.
Playing in 33-degree Celsius temperatures under the hot Tokyo sun, the Americans finished off the Aussies in 43 minutes. In the bronze medal match earlier Friday, Joana Heidrich and Anouk Verge-Depre of Switzerland cruised to a straight-set victory over Latvia.
The silver for Australia was its first beach volleyball medal since Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst took gold on Bondi Beach in 2000.
11:28 p.m.: In the kayak four 500m sprint, Canadians Nicholas Matveev, Mark de Jonge, Pierre-Luc Poulin and Simon McTavish made it to the quarterfinals with a time of 1:26.824.
11:28 p.m.: American Kyle Snyder defeated Canadian Jordan Steen in the 97kg freestyle wrestling quarterfinals.
11:20 p.m.: Connor Fitzpatrick qualified for the 1000 m canoe sprint semifinals after finishing with a time of 4:09.622.
Fellow Canadian Roland Varga did not advance. He finished 6th in his quarterfinal round with a time of 4:28.174.
10:53 p.m.: Two coaches involved in the attempt to force an Olympic athlete home to Belarus against her will have been stripped of their credentials and expelled from the Olympic Village, Games organizers said Friday.
The case of 200-meter specialist Kristina Timanovskaya, 24, briefly turned the Tokyo Games into the centre of a major diplomatic conflict when Timanovskaya sought sanctuary from the police at Narita International Airport.
Timanovskaya, who is now in Poland, said she had been kidnapped" after writing an Instagram post criticizing the Belarusian athletic federation's preparations for the Olympics.
10 p.m.: Evan Dunfee is a two-time Olympian who has competed in race-walk events around the world, writes Star columnist Dave Feschuk. So, as he arrived at these strangest of Summer Games, he said it didn't bother him much that the Olympic experience would be thin on ancillary benefits. No sashaying through the opening ceremony, no free tickets to see other events - it was no problem for Dunfee, the 30-year-old from Richmond, B.C.
I've never lived for that, the pomp and circus and all that stuff," Dunfee said.
The latest from Dave Feschuk: Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee can't avoid the circus after rallying for a bronze medal in Sapporo
9:50 p.m.: Canadians Andreanne Langlois, Michelle Russell, Alanna Bray-Lougheed and Madeline Schmidt are going to the women's kayak four 500m quarterfinals after finishing their heat with a time of 1:38.971.
9:16 p.m.: Canadian Roland Varga qualified for the 1000 m canoe sprint quarterfinals with a time of 4:49.250.
Connor Fitzpatrick also qualified for the quarterfinals after finishing third in his heat with a time of 4:05.577.
8:57 p.m.: Dutch Olympic track cyclist Laurine van Riessen is recovering in a Tokyo hospital a day after a harrowing crash in the keirin semifinals at the Izu Velodrome.
Van Riessen was briefly knocked unconscious when she collided with British rider Katy Marchant at more than 40 mph. Van Riessen remained on the apron of the track for several minutes before doctors loaded her onto a stretcher and removed her from the velodrome.
She was transferred to a Tokyo hospital and diagnosed with a broken collarbone, broken ribs and a bruised lung.
8:45 p.m.: The 50-kilometer event is walking into the sunset and will not return for the Paris Games in 2024.
Canada's Evan Dunfee won a bronze medal at the final race walking event, while Poland's Dawid Tomala captured gold, and Germany's Jonathan Hilbert claimed silver.
The Olympic committee has decided the race does not fit with the organization's stated mission of gender equality. It is the only event on the Olympic program that has no approximate equivalent for women. Rather than add a women's race, the IOC will introduce an unspecified mixed-team race walking event.
8:43 p.m.: In canoe doubles 500 m, Canadians Laurence Vincent-Lapointe and Katie Vincent qualify for the quarterfinals with a time of 2:02.170.
8:41 p.m. (Updated): Canada's Evan Dunfee won a bronze medal in the last-ever Olympic men's 50-kilometre race walk Friday.
The 30-year-old from Richmond, B.C., reached the podium in a race of attrition amid the heat and humidity of Sapporo. The temperature at the 5:30 a.m. start was 25 C with over 70 per cent humidity and it got hotter.
Poland's Dawid Tomala captured gold, Germany's Jonathan Hilbert claimed silver, while Dunfee took the final podium spot with a late push on the final lap.
6:20 p.m.: Star columnist Bruce Arthur writes: How long does it take several international sporting federations to read a weather forecast?
Canada and Sweden had been slated to play the Olympic women's soccer final at 11 a.m. Friday morning in the bowels of hell - or, if you prefer, Tokyo's Olympic Stadium - where it feels like it's about 47 Celsius at that time of the day. Canada and Sweden had both asked for the game to be moved due to the heat.
And after a remarkable delay, the International Olympic Committee and FIFA finally announced Thursday evening that Canada and Sweden would play for gold at 9 p.m. Friday night in Yokohama Stadium.
Bruce Arthur's latest column from Tokyo: Moving the time of Canada-Sweden Olympic women's soccer game was clearly the right decision. What took so long?
6:18 p.m.: On today's episode of Tokyo Daily, host Brendan Dunlop talks with Olympic medal-winning swimmers Kayla Sanchez and Taylor Ruck, after the Canadians returned home from Tokyo with silver and bronze relay medals.
Sanchez and Ruck talk about training during a pandemic, their whirlwind experience in Tokyo, relay strategies in the pool, the athletes village, what their homecoming was like and what they will be up to in the coming months.
Plus, a recap of Day 13, where Damian Warner smashed records to win the decathlon, Canada's fifth gold medal at these Olympic Games. And Christine Sinclair and the Canadian women's soccer team have their gold medal match with Sweden rescheduled, making for a Friday morning viewing party for you and yours on this side of the world.
Listen to the full Tokyo Daily podcast here.
6:17 p.m.: And at the end of a very long, very hot, very gruelling day, lining up for the 1,500 m, Damian Warner really couldn't stop thinking about how much he hated that race, No. 10 in the decathlon itinerary, writes Rosie DiManno.
I don't think that I'll ever find love for that event," Warner said. I was talking to a lot of the guys, saying, I've had fun running the 100 metres, the long jump, the shot put, the high jump, the pole vault, javelin ... I've never had fun running the 1,500. Not one time.'"
Perhaps the 31-year-old from London, Ont., will have more affection for the distance now. It put Warner over the top, made him an Olympic champion - Canada's first Olympic decathlon champion - even with a fifth-place finish in the final event Thursday. He set a Games record as he crashed through the 9,000-points barrier (9,018), becoming just the fourth man in history to do so.
Rosie DiManno's latest dispatch from Tokyo: Canada's Damian Warner is the world's greatest athlete after decathlon gold, even if he can't bring himself to say it.
4:20 p.m.: Hugues Fabrice Zango jumped 17.47 meters in the men's triple jump finals Thursday, coming in third place and earning a bronze medal - the first fmedal or Burkina Faso.
Portugal claimed gold, while China took home silver.
4 p.m.: Canadian soccer player Quinn will step onto the soccer pitch Friday in Japan and make history as the first transgender, non-binary athlete to win an Olympic medal.
The 25-year-old midfielder from Toronto will play Sweden for gold with the rest of Team Canada, with silver going to the defeated side. The Canadians have won bronze at the previous two Olympic Games.
5:17 p.m.: Here's a quick look at where Team Canada is Thursday:
In women's heptathlon, Georgia Ellenwood from Langley, B.C., finished in 20th place with 6,077 points after the eight events.
In the women's 4x400 relay, Canadians Alicia Brown, Sage Watson, Madeline Price, and Kyra Constantine ran a season-best 3:24.05 to qualify for the final.
In the men's 4x100 relay, Canadians Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, and Andre De Grasse were second in their semifinal with a season-best 37.92 seconds - the third-fastest time overall in qualifying - and will compete in the final.
In the second round of golf, Brooke Henderson shot a three-under-par 68 (142), and is 13 behind the leader; Alena Sharp had a par 71 (145).
In the classification round of women's water polo, Canada lost 4-2 to Australia in a 14-12 decision (10-10 after regulation), and will play China to determine seventh place.
Previously: Damian Warner, a 31-year-old from London, Ont., set an Olympic decathlon record with 9,018 points to win gold at the Tokyo Games on Thursday. Lauriane Genest surprised herself in her first Olympic Games by winning Canada's first track cycling medal in Tokyo. The 23-year-old from Levis, Que., took the bronze medal in the women's keirin Thursday at Izu Velodrome.
For a full write-up of what you missed on Day 13 of the Tokyo Olympics, click here.