Biles wins record-equaling fourth gold with floor victory

Biles wins record-equaling fourth gold with floor victory

August 17, 2016

[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="Bolt safely through 200m heats" ids="77719,77718,77720,77721,77717"]

RIO DE JANEIRO — Simone Biles showed off her sassy moves and explosive tumbles on the floor exercise to win a record-equaling fourth gold at the Olympics Tuesday.

A day after a wobbly performance on the beam ended the American's hopes of leaving Rio with a record haul of five golds for a female gymnast, she was back on form to capture the floor title with 15.966 points.

Aly Raisman completed a 1-2 for the United States by earning 15.500, while Briton Amy Tinkler's crowd-pleasing routine to Pretty Woman earned her bronze.

Reigning champion Christian Taylor retained his Olympic triple jump title Tuesday, the American comfortably seeing off his rivals in the Rio sunshine.

The 26-year-old world champion set a season's best 17.86 meters with his first leap, good enough for gold as compatriot Will Claye took silver in a repeat of their positions in London four years ago.

Claye, who beat Taylor at the US Olympic trials, pushed hard to overturn Taylor's advantage, fouling on a big third jump which nibbled the 18-meter line. Claye's top effort was a personal best of 17.76.

But Taylor, prowling the track and muttering furiously to himself between jumps, proved too strong, also recording two jumps of 17.77 which would also have been enough for gold.

World indoor champion Dong Bin took bronze to give China a first Olympic triple jump medal, leaping to another PB of 17.58, like the two Americans also on his first attempt.

Croatia's Sandra Perkovic, meanwhile, overcame nerves and early fouls to successfully defend her Olympic discus title, winning with a best throw of a 69.21 metres.

The 26-year-old hot favorite recorded five foul throws from six attempts but still won by 2.48 meters.

France's Melina Robert-Michon set a national record of 66.73 meters to take silver, while Cuba's reigning world champion Denia Caballero grabbed bronze.

Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands won the men's marathon swimming event off Rio's Copacabana Beach in a race so close that he did not realize he had won until a friend called from home to give him the good news.

After the grueling 10km open-water swim, the 24-year-old Weertman touched the electronic pads at the finish line just before veteran swimmer Spiros Gianniotis of Greece, giving the Dutchman his first gold medal in his first Olympics.

The official results showed the first two swimmers with the same time of 1:52:59.8. Marc-Antoine Olivier of France, 20, finished 2.2 seconds behind to win the bronze medal.

Gianniotis appeared to finish ahead of Weertman, but he said his arm was in a position that he could not get to the pad first. It was the last race for the 36-year-old Greek who retires after five Olympics as a pool and open water competitor.

Weertman's victory means a sweep by the Dutch in marathon swimming after Sharon van Rouwendaal, 22, won the women's 10km open water race Monday.

Ukrainian gymnast Oleg Verniaiev won Olympic gold on the parallel bars.

Verniaiev, the all-around silver medalist in Rio, took gold with 16.041.

American Danell Leyva took silver (15.900) with Russia's David Belyavskiy taking bronze (15.783).

Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands won the laser radial women's dinghy gold. Ireland's Annalise Murphy took silver while Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom earned bronze in a final postponed because of high winds on Monday.

Usain Bolt took the next step in his quest for a "triple triple" of sprint golds.

Bolt, fresh from winning the 100m title for an unprecedented third time, safely came through the first round of his favored event, the 200m.

Running in lane five of heat eight of 10, the 29-year-old coasted home in 20.28seconds. American rivals Justin Gatlin and Lashawn Merritt also qualified for Wednesday's semifinals, with the final slated for Thursday.

Claye celebrated his silver by proposing to long-time girlfriend, hurdler Queen Harrison.


August 17, 2016
HIGHLIGHTS