Antoine Dupont, seen by many as the world’s best 15-a-side player, came off the bench to mastermind an extraordinary second-half performance that saw him score twice and create another try for Fiji’s first-ever Olympic loss. AP
Antoine Dupont led from the front as France secured gold medal in men’s rugby sevens at the 2024 Paris Olympics, beating two-time champions Fiji 28-7 on Saturday. Dupont, seen by many as the world’s best 15-a-side player, came off the bench to mastermind an extraordinary second-half performance that saw him score twice and create another try for Fiji’s first-ever Olympic loss.
“It’s a huge reward for us, for rugby, for all the country,” an ecstatic Dupont told reporters afterwards.
“We really felt that we were representing not only rugby but the whole of French sport. We are really proud to start off the Olympics like that,” he added.
Fiji got off to a flying start, breaking several French tackles and offloading sweetly to release Joseva Talacolo for a try under the posts with just over one minute on the clock.
But to the delight of a raucous Stade de France crowd, Les Bleus were quickly back on terms, Andy Timo delivering a perfectly timed pass out of contact to enable Jefferson-Lee Joseph to dot down.
French coach Jerome Daret started star man Dupont on the bench, as he has for most of the tournament, but unleashed his main playmaker at half-time with the sides level. The impact was immediate.
Dupont broke down the wing from the restart, outpacing Fijian legend Jerry Tuwai to run half the length of the pitch and pop a try-scoring pass inside to Aaron Grandidier Nkanang.
And who else but Dupont was on hand to win it for France, a quick tap penalty catching the Fijian defence napping and darting himself under the posts.
Australia take lead in swimming showdown against USA
Australia took the lead in their swimming showdown against the United States at the Paris Olympics by claiming two of three gold medal s on the first full day of competition. Ariarne Titmus turned one of the most anticipated races of the Games into a blowout when she left Katie Ledecky in her wake at La Defense Arena. Titmus led from start to finish in the 400-meter freestyle Saturday night.
The Australian star known as “The Terminator” handed Ledecky a second straight Olympic defeat in an event the American won at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Australia’s swimming gold medallist Ariarne Titmus, Canada’s silver medallist Summer McIntosh and USA’s Katie Ledecky (Bronze) pose with the medals at the Paris Olympics on Saturday. AP
Titmus faced her stiffest challenge from 17-year-old Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh, but she won comfortably as McIntosh claimed the silver. Ledecky settled for bronze.
Titmus swept the 200 and 400 free in Tokyo, and she is going for the same double in Paris. Ledecky is going for a double in the 800 and 1,500. Australia then made it two out of two against the Americans in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay, claiming its fourth straight Olympic title in that event.
The quartet of Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris set an Olympic record with a winning time of 3 minutes, 28.92 seconds.
The Americans — Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske and Simone Manuel — rallied to take silver. China took bronze.
The US finally got its first gold in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay. The Americans were anchored by Caeleb Dressel, who won the eighth gold medal of his career. Australia took the silver.
The
first gold medal of the Paris Olympics
went to China when Huang Yuting and Sheng Lihao beat South Korea’s Keum Jihyeon and Park Hajun in the final of the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event Saturday morning.
Shortly before that, Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Le and Islam Satpayev became the first medalists of the Games when they beat Germany’s Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich 17-5 for the bronze.
Novak Djokovic beats Matthew Eben, perplexed by Olympic rules
Novak Djokovic was perplexed by the Olympics rules after his 6-0, 6-1 rout in less than an hour against an overmatched Matthew Ebden, a 36-year-old doubles player from Australia who hadn’t competed in a tour-level, main-draw singles match since June 2022. Djokovic felt other singles players deserved a spot at the Olympics instead of Ebden.
Ebden was in Paris to compete in men’s doubles, where he’s been as high as No. 1 and currently is No. 3 and has won two major championships. That made him available for the singles competition when 16th-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark pulled out because of a wrist injury.
Novak Djokovic scripted a comfortable straight sets win over Australia’s Matthew Ebden at the Paris Olympics. AP
Ebden was not the first doubles player asked to fill in, but he was the first to say yes. He hadn’t even practiced singles in about two years until playing a tiebreaker in training on Friday.
In other tennis action, Rafael Nadal is not sure whether he will compete in singles, saying after he paired with Carlos Alcaraz to win their first-round doubles match Saturday night that he wants to “make the smartest decision possible to have the best chances to bring (a) medal back home.”
Nadal’s first match in singles, against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, is scheduled for Sunday. Also, Angelique Kerber eliminated Naomi Osaka 7-5, 6-3 in the first round in a matchup between former No. 1-ranked players with multiple Grand Slam titles.
Rain continues to cause trouble
Rain continued from the opening ceremony through the first full day of competition and caused several postponements and delays at the Paris Olympics.
Men’s street skateboarding was supposed to start Saturday but was pushed to Monday because of the showers. The start of play in the scheduled tennis matches on the 10 smaller courts at Roland Garros was delayed because of rain, but action started as scheduled in the two main stadiums that have retractable roofs.
The rain could threaten the water quality for swimming in the Seine when the triathlon begins Tuesday with the men’s event at the Alexander III bridge next to Grand Palais.
With inputs from agencies
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Publish date : 2024-07-27 22:03:56
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