Saturday 31 July 2021
That brings the Olympic Sunday
Zverev and its historic gold mission
On this Olympic Sunday, attention should be focused primarily on Alexander Zverev. He is the first German to win Olympic gold in tennis. After his drama fight against Novak Djokovic, he is the favorite against Karen Khachanov. Gymnast Elisabeth Seitz also wants a medal.
Golf: The medals are out of reach for Maximilian Kieffer and Hurly Long. Of course, they’ll tackle the fourth and decisive round anyway. This starts at 00:30. In the third, however, it was Kieffer in particular who showed his good side: At his Olympic premiere, the Düsseldorf-based player played a 67 on the par 71 course and advanced to 38th position with a total of 209 strokes. One stroke back followed as 42nd Long, who completed all three rounds with 70 strokes. “I played the first nine holes extremely well,” said Kieffer, “I had a great rhythm, the swing felt good. Then it was like the first few days that I lost that feeling a bit. In the end it was it was just brutally hot and I was physically exhausted. ” US professional Xander Schauffele goes to the final round as the front runner. The 27-year-old Californian, who has also had a German passport since 2018, leads the field of 60 with 199 strokes ahead of US Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama from Japan, who has 200 strokes.
BMX: The conditions were anything but good. Almost two months before Tokyo, Lara Lessmann broke her collarbone. With the daring tricks that the athletes show at their Olympic premiere, that could have been a major handicap. But it was enough for participation. “Maybe luck is on my side this time,” said the 21-year-old after finishing sixth in the seeding runs on Saturday. “Hope always dies last, anything is possible at the Olympics. I will not give up and still fight for a medal.” At 3:10 a.m., the nine participants start in the reverse order of the results from the two rounds on Saturday. Lessmann received an average of 69.70 points for their performance, with the Americans Hannah Robert (87.70) and Perris Benegas (86.50) going into the battle for medals as favorites. “For many people, the strategy is to be followed safely first and not to fall, since both runs count in qualification,” Lessmann explained the plan. “In the final, one run counts, you can go all in.”
Athletics: Sara Gambetta wished she would get support from her teammates. But she has to contest the final in the shot put all by herself. Ex-world champion Christina Schwanitz missed the qualification as did Olympic newcomer Katharina Maisch. So at 03:35 a.m., Gambetta alone is ready to represent the German colors. With 18.57 meters, she too had just made it into the final in twelfth place and thus last.
The 100-meter sprint will take place without any German athletes from the outset. At 2:50 p.m., the biggest final Olympia is due. Without big favorites. Because there is no such thing this year. Who will be the successor to star Usain Bolt is open. What exactly is it about? The best thing to do is to read up on this with colleague Tobias Nordmann.
Swim: Over 800 meters it was still close, is Florian Wellbrock now fulfilling his dream of a medal over 1500 meters freestyle? “Hook it and let’s go on,” he said himself. After fourth place, the 23-year-old should now move up at least one place. He is the world champion over this distance. At 3:44 a.m. he starts with his penultimate chance for gold, silver or bronze. Because he can also be expected in open water over ten kilometers. On Friday, Wellbrock, as the superior winner of his prelim, managed his program in 14: 48.53 minutes, competitors Michailo Romantschuk (Ukraine) and Robert Finke (USA) swam a little faster after him, Rio Olympic champion Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) was a little bit faster slower.
Sail: Laser world champion Philipp Buhl sailed into the medal race at the Olympic regattas off Enoshima with a lot of anger at himself. After finishing 32nd in the first race of the day, the 31-year-old secured a place in the top ten of the classification by winning the tenth and final race before the medal race on Friday. At 07:33 he started the double-ranked medal final in fifth place, 14 points behind the silver and eleven points behind the bronze. The Australian Matthew Wearn has already secured the Olympic victory unassailable. He just has to contest the final. “A lot of things went badly in this Olympic series,” said Buhl. “The good thing: I’m still fifth, I’m in the final and even have a small chance of a medal.”
Water jumping: She already has bronze from the synchronized jumping with Lena Hentschel, but Tina Punzel can make her best birthday present for herself. Because she secured the final of the jumpers from the three-meter board. At 8 o’clock she will start the competition as seventh in the semifinals. “I am now looking forward to tomorrow so that I will hopefully have two reasons to celebrate,” said Punzel after the successful qualification. National coach Lutz Buschkow revealed: “She left her small reserves for the final.” However, due to the strength of her opponents, the then 26-year-old has little chance of winning a medal.
Tennis: Alexander Zverev had said in the run-up to the Olympic Games that he was fighting for a medal. Well, that’s for sure, that’s what he did. Extremely successful, because it will be at least silver. After beating the world number one Novak Djokovic, he will face the Russian Karen Khachanov in the final from 9:30 a.m. A duel in which Zverev is favored. “In my opinion, Sascha has the better strokes, especially from behind. He’s like a bull at the moment,” said his brother Mischa Zverev. The younger one relativizes his role as a favorite: Khachanov is a “mad player”, he said of the Russian, who is 20 places behind him in the world rankings and has never made it past the quarter-finals in Grand Slam tournaments. Because Chatschanow won the last two duels with the German number one. “But that’s something completely different now,” said Mischa Zverev: “Sascha is playing for his country at the Olympics and has just beaten Djokovic.” If Zverev wins gold, that would be historic: no German man has ever succeeded. Tommy Haas won silver in Sydney in 2000.
Fencing: The fencing competitions did not go well for the Germans. The foil men in the team may now be able to prettify the performance. The colleagues from saber fencing had failed in the battle for bronze because of Hungary. Peter Joppich, Benjamin Kleibrink and André Sanita should do it better as possible. In their individual competitions it was already over for everyone in the round of 16. Only Joppich had won his first battle. Her round of 16 against Canada is at 2 a.m. The final is dated for 12:50 p.m.
Do gymnastics: Sixth in London in 2012, fourth in Rio 2016 – even better in Tokyo 2021? Elisabeth Seitz absolutely wants to achieve that. The uneven bars are their paragon. And then on the day of the final (from 12:24 p.m.), her mother Claudia has her birthday. A medal from the daughter would be the perfect gift. But she knows it herself: The competition against the best female pilots in the gymnastics world will be “extreme”. Seitz performed well in the qualification, but still had to pass four competitors with 14,700 points. World champion Nina Derwael from Belgium did the most demanding exercise, and the American Sunisa Lee, who has been the all-around queen since Thursday, was also convincing. Despite the incredible quality of the two bars, Seitz tries to “stay as relaxed as possible”. Because the 27-year-old has “learned one thing from experience: As soon as I stress myself, it stops working.” Seitz has already experienced how it feels there, on top of an international podium. In 2018 at the World Cup in Doha, she finished third behind the outstanding Derwael and record world champion Biles, who does not start because of persistent mental problems. She knows “it is possible”.
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