Thursday, August 5th, 2021
That brings the Olympic Friday
The chance for the ultimate sensation
The Olympics in Tokyo are entering the home straight – and there is a very complicated opportunity waiting on Friday. In table tennis, silver is certain for the team, gold seems impossible. The sprinters have big plans, in the modern pentathlon a German athlete goes into the final sprint as the leader.
Soccer: From 4 a.m. the women from Canada and Sweden are looking for a successor to the German team. That had won gold in Rio 2016, for Tokyo, the team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg could not even qualify. The USA have already won bronze: the star players Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd shot the world champion to victory in the “small final”. Thanks to the two braces of the experienced duo, the USA won the game for third place against Australia 4: 3 (3: 1). In Kashima, the favorite benefited from some defensive failures by the Australians and, after the failed gold mission, said goodbye to Japan.
Beach volleyball: While the soccer women are playing, the beach volleyball players are also looking for the successor to a German team: Kira Walkenhorst and Laura Ludwig won gold in a magical final in the sand of Rio, this time Ludwig and their new partner Margareta Kozuch were eliminated in the quarter-finals. Because the vice world champions Julius Thole and Clemens Wickler were eliminated in the quarter-finals and finished fifth, for the first time since 2008 there is no medal for the German Volleyball Association in beach volleyball. From 4.30 a.m., Mariafe Artacho / Taliqua Clancy from Australia and April Ross / Alix Klineman will be looking for gold. The US-Americans Ross / Klinemann were the final destination for the German women’s duo after a very close match.
Modern pentathlon: Annika Schleu is in the lead after the first day of competition. The Berliner achieved the most victories in the first discipline of fencing and is in first place with 274 points before the final day (from 7.30 a.m.). “For me, fencing went in a way that I’ve never done it before,” said the Olympic fourth from Rio and admitted: “Before the games, I squinted a bit towards the medal.” Now it is important to keep your nerve. “I’m suddenly in a situation I’ve never been in before.” The German men performed significantly worse in fencing. Patrick Dogue took a disappointing 32nd place as Olympic sixth in Rio de Janeiro – for Fabian Liebig, with 24th place, things were hardly better. “It’s a shame. The medals are very, very far away,” said Dogue.
In addition to fencing, the athletes also compete against each other in swimming, riding and a combined competition of running and shooting. In the first three disciplines, achievements are converted into points in order to determine the starting order for the final so-called laser run.
Horse riding: At the last chance for a medal in Tokyo, national coach Otto Becker relies on show jumpers Daniel Deußer with Killer Queen and André Thieme with Chakaria and Maurice Tebbel with Don Diarado. Tebbel had not been nominated for the previous individual, which the 27-year-old from Emsbüren was “hugely” disappointed with. Christian Kukuk is not on the team. The rider from Riesenbeck had already failed in the individual qualification with Mumbai after a drop like Thieme, who was now given preference for the team competition starting Friday (from 10 a.m.). The top ten teams will qualify for the final on Saturday (10 a.m.). In contrast to the previous games, an Olympic team only consists of three instead of four riders.
Table tennis: The German team could possibly win the most unlikely gold medal of these games: One day after the women’s team missed the bronze medal, the men’s trio around Dimitrij Ovtcharov wants to cheat the Chinese. Ovtcharov, Timo Boll and Patrick Franziska do not want to be satisfied with silver in the final (12.30 p.m.). “We believe that we can go all the way to the end,” said Ovtcharov, who won bronze in the individual competition. There has never been Olympic gold for German table tennis. In fact, there is little to be said for a coup this time either. The first-placed Asians have never lost in the team competition introduced in 2008, they triumphed three times. They left only three individual matches to their opponents in all years. In Tokyo they only gave four sentences, are in the top three of the world rankings and have individual Olympic champion Ma Long in their ranks.
Athletics: The German sprint quartet with final runner Gina Lückenkemper has big plans in the final – and after successfully qualifying for the final (3:30 p.m.) they now want to win a medal. In 42.00 seconds, the second place in the European Championship, together with Rebekka Haase, Alexandra Burghardt and Tatjana Pinto, relegated Switzerland (42.05 seconds) and China (42.82) to ranks two and three, in the first run were Great Britain and the US even faster. “In any case, we want to be at the front, we want a medal,” announced Pinto. “We give a thousand percent for that.” The men also made it into the medal competition. Julian Reus, Joshua Hartmann, Deniz Almas and Lucas Ansah-Peprah were only fourth in their lead in 38.06 seconds. As one of the two fastest seasons, they secured a place in the final on Friday (3:50 p.m.). In the final of the javelin throwers (13.50), the German champion Christin Hussong is a candidate for a place in the top three as the reigning European champion.
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