Sunday 25th July 2021
That brings the Olympic Monday
Are you going to win the next medal in the slalom?
On Monday, several Germans who already know the feeling of a medal will intervene in the Olympic events. Especially slalom canoeist Sideris Tasiadis has a chance to shine again after eight years. Under completely different conditions than back then in London.
Shoot: Skeet is unlikely to be a familiar term to the general public. But many can imagine something under the name of target shooting. The Skeet discipline is about hitting the clay target, which is thrown from two different points in fixed directions. A German is so good at it that she qualified for the final round of the Olympic Games: Nadine Messerschmidt passed the preliminaries and can start again from 07:50. The 27-year-old debutante, who won the World Cup in Nicosia (Cyprus) last year and most recently finished fourth in the European Championship in Osijek, Croatia, hit 72 targets on Sunday with three shooters placed in front of her. “There’s a medal in it. If she gets through the night well, she can get involved,” says Heiner Gabelmann, the sports director of the German Shooting Federation.
Cycling MTB: Up until now he has lacked the Olympic flair – and yet the race starts at 8 a.m. for mountain biker Manuel Fumic and his team-mate Maximilian Brandl. The mountain bikers are accommodated in Izu a good two hours from Tokyo, so there is little atmosphere. The 39-year-old Fumic knows his way around and has been at all the Olympic Games since Athens 2004. This year’s course is going to be tough: It is the “most challenging course that we have ever had at the Olympics”. It is “insanely technical and insanely steep,” said the veteran. But he was already fast on the course and finished eighth in the test race. Brandl is also aiming for a place in the top ten.
Canoe: He knows what an Olympic medal feels like: Sideris Tasiadis. In 2012 in London he won silver in the canoe slalom – as a “youngster”, as he puts it. And a medal is in there again this time, after all, the 31-year-old is the world’s number one. “I know I can win here, but if you’re on the starting line and you’re mentally absent or not focused, you won’t win here,” he said beforehand. But also declared: “Now everyone knows that Sideris Tasiadis has been number one since 2018, and everyone says you are the favorite.” That is “a little difficult”. In the preliminary run, he finished sixth, in the semifinals from 7 a.m. it will then be about to move into the final at 8:45 a.m.
Judo: So far, things are not going well for the German judoka. The trio that had competed so far were eliminated in the first fight. It should now run better for Theresa Stoll. After all, the 25-year-old is third in the lightweight championship. Her first fight is at 4:54 a.m. in the round of 16 when she has to deal with an opponent to be determined in the first round. The toughest fight is already behind her: Stoll had to qualify for Tokyo against her twin sister Amelie, among other things. She is now keeping her fingers crossed for her from home so that Theresa Stoll will make it to the final at 11:38 a.m.
Already in the first round Igor Wandtke intervenes in the men’s lightweight. It starts at 05:42 for him against Khikmatillokh Turaev. A tough lot for the 30-year-old from Lübeck, after all, the Uzbek is the winner of the military games in 2019 and was fourth at the World Cup this year. Wandtke already has Olympic experience: he finished ninth in Rio.
Do gymnastics: The entry into the all-around final was already enthusiastically cheered: The German men are there, a great success for the squad. She finished sixth in the qualification. “I’m so proud to be part of this awesome team. We haven’t done a single exercise, you have to imagine that,” said the best German, Lukas Dauser, about what he saw as an “absolutely successful day”. From 12 noon, Dauser, Nils Dunkel, Philipp Herder and Andreas Toba will again be looking for a good performance. However, a medal is extremely unlikely. The favorites come from China, Japan and Russia.
Fencing: The start of the fencing competitions was unsuccessful from a German point of view. Both the saber men and the only woman with the foil, Leonie Ebert, retired early. The men in this discipline have a chance to do better. Peter Joppich, Benjamin Kleibrink and André Sanita fight from 02:25 in the first round. The experienced Joppich, who has been part of the team since Athens 2004, is up against the Canadian Alex Cai. Sanita fights his first battle against Cheung Siu Lun from Hong Kong. Kleibrink, the Olympic champion in Beijing 2008, has another round break. At 05:05 he will face Egyptian Alaaeldin Abouelkassem in the round of the best 32.
Triathlon: Are the triathletes actually allowed to start or does the weather thwart them? An approaching typhoon puts organizers and athletes alike to the test of patience. The two German starters, Justus Nieschlag and Jonas Schomburg, are going to their first Olympic Games. Nevertheless, they are optimistic. “Winning a medal with the team would be a dream. We have extremely good chances to be among the front runners,” said Nieschlag in the run-up to the games. But the medal chances of the German team are low and probably more in the mixed race that was included in the program for the first time. The French Vincent Luis is the big favorite in today’s men’s race over the “Olympic distance” – in the race over 1.5 km swimming, 40 km cycling and 10 km running.
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