Game Diary: A vertigo-free leap for a new “Top 10”

Portugal’s “Top 10” in dressage, semi-finals in rowing, a new world record for the 400m hurdles and the new king of the 200m are the highlights of Wednesday at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Luciana Deniz reached 10th place in the showjumping event and was very close to failing to get an Olympic diploma for Portugal. Riding Vertigo de Desert, the rider took down the penultimate hurdle of the track, for a four-point penalty, which put her out of the top-flight discussion in the “jump”.

In rowing, who has already won a medal for Portugal, Teresa Portela qualified for the semi-finals of the K1 500m, finishing second in the knockout series. He didn’t even have to play in the quarter-finals, when compatriot Joanna Vasconcelos was eliminated.

Marta Ben Freitas did not reach the final, but she can be proud of her performance in the 1500m semi-final, where she posted a personal best of the year: 4: 04.15 minutes. The Portuguese finished 19th in the best timing in the two series and was eliminated from the final, in which 10 athletes participate.

Katia Azevedo was also a semi-finalist, in this case in the 400m. The Portuguese athlete ranked seventh in the series, with a time of 51.32 seconds. She was 17th out of 24 semi-finalists.

Angelica Andre doubled her 12 hour markers, Tuesday through Wednesday, with 17th in the 10km open water swim. He completed the race at the Parque Marítimo de Odaiba in 2:04.40 hours, 5.09 minutes from the winner, which equates to the best all-time record in Portugal, held by Daniela Inacio in Beijing 2008.

In the finale of Absolute Speed, the last word belonged to Andre de Grasse. The Canadian needed a 200-meter sprint like never before, in 19.62 seconds – the best time of the year and Canada’s record – to overtake Americans Kenneth Bednarek (19.68 seconds, personal record), silver, and Noah Lyles, bronze (19.74 seconds), in the final meters.

However, the biggest star of the day was Sidney McLaughlin, who won the gold in the 400m hurdles with a new world record. The American, 21 (1999), finished the final in 51.46 seconds, trailing the previous maximum of 51.90 seconds, which she had established in June.

McLaughlin beat fellow countryman Dalilah Muhammad, who had fallen behind the previous world record (51.58 seconds). In addition to the Dutch Vimki Paul, also 21 (2000), the bronze medalist, who clocked 52.03 seconds, a new European record, improving the 52.34 seconds that had belonged to Russian Yulia Bykonkina for 19 years.

Biruth Shimotai won Uganda’s first Olympic gold in the 3000m hurdles final. The candidates left behind and set a new national record (9:01:45 min).