Leon Marchand of France celebrates after winning gold in the men's 200m breaststroke final, his second gold of the night, and his third of the games. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Leon Marchand of France celebrates after winning gold in the men's 200m breaststroke final, his second gold of the night, and his third of the games. Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Andy Bull, quite brilliantly, lays out the scale of Léon Marchand’s double achievement.
World Aquatics even had to rearrange the schedule so Marchand could even try and do it. The races were supposed to run back to back because it simply didn’t occur to them that anyone would try to take both events on, least of all Marchand, who had never competed in the breaststroke at an international championships.
Léon Marchand’s grin refuses to go away, sticking around for the national anthem too. And who can blame him? Grin away; it’s the best night of your life.
Leon Marchand is one happy bunny. Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
And is happy to pose for photos with the fans too. Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA
Men’s swimming: An incredible session takes in another staggering feat, Pan beating his previous world record by four-tenths of a second. Kyle Chalmers takes silver, David Popovici bronze.
Léon Marchand wins the men's 200m breaststroke - his second victory of the night
Marchand is in lane four, next to Zac Stubblety-Cook, the Olympic record holder in this race. Marchand starts well and leads, and it grows after the 50m turn … he’s threatening the world record. This is history we’re seeing as he closes in … and he wins his second gold medal of the evening! Marchand has to settle for the Olympic record, not the world – that’ll come another time. He clocks 2:05.85. Stubblety-Cook takes silver, 0.94 seconds behind. Caspar Corbeau has bronze.
Leon Marchand of France powers through the water, both under the surface … Photograph: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
And on the surface whilst on his way to victory in the men’s 200m breaststroke final. Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters
My dad saw it before I did. He saw the potential I had, but my potential wouldn’t have been unlocked without the girls that crossed the line with me today. I’m grateful for everyone who has got me here and he would be very proud if he was here.
Women’s 3x3 basketball: USA, the defending champions, have now lost both their games in Paris. Losing their opener to Germany was bad enough, but it got worse on Wednesday when they were well beaten by basketball powerhouse, Azerbaijan. It’s not over for the Americans: six of the eight teams in the group stage qualify for the knockout rounds, but on this evidence they’ve got A LOT of work to do.
An email in from Laura, with the excellent subject line of ‘BMXcellent’:
We’ve been loving the BMX this evening on catch-up. Firm highlights- the skills from “Maligno” Torres, the commentators’ wild enthusiasm.
The lowlights – the mullets on show, the lack of adequate personal protective equipment, the stinging reminder of a failed cycling proficiency course. Keep up the blog!
Here’s a roundup of the tennis action from today. Andy Murray – refusing to end his one last ride – and Dan Evans will take on Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz tomorrow in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.
Katie Ledecky wins the 1500m women's freestyle ... again
Ledecky cruises to her eighth Olympic gold medal, with the real battle for the silver and bronze. There’s plenty of noise as France’s Kirpichnikova claims second and Germany’s Gose third. Ledecky has a new Olympic record, finishing on 15:30.02. She has more than 10 seconds on second place. Sublime.
Katie Ledecky of the United States powers through the water on her way to victory in the women’s 1500m freestyle final. Photograph: David J Phillip/AP
Ledecky celebrates after winning gold and setting a new Olympic record. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP
Women’s swimming: And we’re off in the 1500m women’s freestyle final, with Katie Ledecky, world and Olympic record holder, the overwhelming favourite. She’s into the lead quickly.
Men’s swimming: Silly me; I forgot to note that Marchand’s 200m butterfly final effort also saw him claim a new Olympic record, beating Milak’s 1:51:25 from the Tokyo Games.
Men’s tennis: The big-name pairing of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz have lost in straight sets; the USA pair of Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram bag a 6-2, 6-4 win to advance to the doubles semi-finals.
Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram of the United States celebrate after winning match point. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images
Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal of Spain wave to spectators as they depart the court. Photograph: Claudia Greco/Reuters
The heavily fancied duo Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack failed to get on the podium on the 100m freestyle, in a disappointing start to the evening at the pool for Australia. O’Callaghan, winner of two gold medals already this Games, could not add to her tally, touching home in fourth place. Jack finished in fifth.
Time for the men’s 200m butterfly and an epic matchup between home star Léon Marchand and Kristof Milak. Milak starts best, holding off Marchand by 0.64secs after 50m. The Hungarian swimmer keeps the lead at the 100m mark, and it doesn’t change at 150m but Marchand stuns at the backend, winning gold to send the crowd absolutely berserk!
Leon Marchand of France (left) and Kristof Milak of Hungary power through the water. Photograph: Marko Đurica/Reuters
Marchand celebrates his second gold of the games. Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA
Women’s swimming: Sweden’s Sjöström wins with 52.16, having been fourth at the 50m mark. Torri Huske takes silver with 52.29, and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey has bronze with 52.33.
Not long before the swimming gets going, with the women’s 100m freestyle first up on the schedule. Mollie O’Callaghan took the 200m freestyle gold on Monday and is gunning for another bit of bling.
Men’s gymnastics: Japan’s domination of this event continues; Daiki Hashimoto, who won gold in Tokyo, has to settle for sixth after erring on the pommel horse. Joe Fraser finishes fifth, while Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun falls juuust short of a medal.
Shinnosuke Oka wins the men's all-round gymnastics final
Zhang Boheng finishes up, cueing the anxious wait for the final results … my word it’s nervy. The audience claps away …. and it’s Oka who is the all-round champion. The 20-year-old has gold with 86.832, Boheng trails with 86.599. Xiao Ruoteng has bronze with 86.364.
Shinnosuke Oka (left) celebrates with teammate Daiki Hashimoto after winning gold. Photograph: Abbie Parr/AP
Men’s gymnastics: Xiao Ruoteng leaps to the top of the board, extinguishing Jake Jarman’s hopes of a medal. Right then, here comes Shinnosuke Oka, dreaming of gold. “Double twist and double straight,” comes the excited shout from comms as he dismounts … and he scores 14.500 to take the lead! Now time for Zhang Boheng.
Men’s tennis: Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal are down a set to Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram. It’s 1-0 to the Spaniards in the second, with the Americans now serving.
Men’s gymnastics: Can Jarman trump Fraser? The formers wins praise from BBC comms for his execution and finishes on 84.565, behind Fraser. Illia Kovtun leads after a fine floor routine.
Men’s gymnastics: Joe Fraser steps up to the high bar and pumps the fists after a wonderful routine, scoring 14.266 to finish on 85.532. He scored 84.666 in qualification.
Men’s gymnastics: How do I feel watching this? Like I should probably head to the gym tomorrow, maybe stretch a bit more in the mornings, too. Shinnosuke Oka is still in business here, scoring 15.100 on the parallel bars to head to the top before the final rotation! He leads on 72.332.
A multiple exposure of Shinnosuke Oka of Japan performing on the parallel bars during the men’s all-around final. Photograph: Christian Bruna/EPA
Men’s gymnastics: Xiao Ruoteng shoots up to first despite not matching his compatriot Zhang Boheng on the parallel bars; he scores 14.766 to Zhang’s 15.300.
Men’s gymnastics: GB’s Joe Fraser leaps up to third after scoring 14.933 in the parallel bars. Jake Jarman follows him on the same apparatus and looks a happy man with a dismount that really pleases the Beeb commentary team. He scores 14.300 to move up to fourth.
Men’s tennis: Some early jeopardy for Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz, a break down in their first set against Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram. The USA pair lead 3-1 in this doubles quarter-final.
Women’s football: Spain have beaten Brazil 2-0 in their Group C clash, with Alexia Putellas scoring in the, um, 17th minute of injury time. Marta was shown a straight red card for the Brazilians.
Men’s gymnastics: And now we’re looking at a Ukrainian one-two! Illia Kovtun goes second by somehow exceeding the excellence of his compatriot on the parallel bars, scoring 15.400.
Hello, everyone! Let’s keep our focus on the big one …
Men’s gymnastics: Oleg Verniaiev nails it on the parallel bars to score 15! He’s at the top of the leaderboard. And up steps GB’s Jake Jarman on the vault … he sparkles with three and a half twists. He gets a staggering 15.166 for his efforts.
Men’s gymnastics: Felix Dolci is allowed a second chance at the high bar after the equipment failure last time. His hands must be painful after the cuts. He goes for a big swing and tries to grab hold but can’t grab the bar and falls to the ground because his hands are in agony. Such a shame. He goes back to complete the job with a fine dismount. You have to have a lot of respect for him.
Felix Dolci performs on the high bar. Photograph: Morry Gash/AP
Men’s gymnastics: Jake Jarman is on the rings, not his favourite piece of apparatus. It is pretty solid and brings out a good finish, earning a respectable score of 12.800. He will be pleased to have that out of the way.
Men’s gymnastics: Verniaiev comes up with a stunning piece of work on the vault, needing a little hop forward to sort the landing. It is a cracking effort that will help his challenge for a medal.
Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine in action on the vault. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
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