South Africa’s Semenya easily wins women’s 800m – Rio 2016

Associated Press

South Africa's Caster Semenya crosses the line to win the women's 800-meter final during the athletics competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The latest on the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):

9:20 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Caster Semenya, the unwilling face of track’s dilemma dealing with hyperandrogenism, wins Olympic gold in the women’s 800 meters.

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9:10 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Matt Centrowitz of the United States ran from the front and held off Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria at the line to win the gold medal in the men’s 1,500 meters.

Centrowitz won the silver medal at the 2013 world championships and took fourth at the 2012 London Games.

His last lap on Saturday was 50.62 seconds.

Nick Willis of New Zealand took bronze.

The last American to win the men’s 1,500 was Mel Sheppard at the 1908 London Olympics.

Kenya favorite Asbel Kiprop fell halfway through the race and could not get back into medal contention. He finished sixth.

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8:40 p.m.

For Brazilians, it’s the perfect finish to an imperfect Olympics.

In Brazil vs. Germany for men’s soccer gold, Neymar gives the hosts a 1-0 lead. But the Germans tie it and ultimately it goes to penalty kicks.

Germany makes its first four. So does Brazil.

Then Germany is stopped on its fifth, and the stage is set for — who else? — Neymar to set off a national celebration. His shot sails into the back of the net, Brazil wins and the roar could be heard all over Rio as Neymar collapsed on the field in a quivering mass of joyous tears.

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8:35 p.m.

The 60,000-capacity Olympic Stadium was only a third full 20 minutes before the opening event of the track and field evening program, when one giant roar made it clear why there was a lack of attention.

When Germany missed its fifth penalty in a shootout against Brazil in the men’s soccer final miles away at Maracana Stadium, the crowd suddenly roared.

Following the game on their smartphones or over the radio, all Brazilian eyes and ears were turned across town.

The roar was even bigger when Neymar slotted the decisive kick, and fireworks started cracking around the Olympic Stadium.

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8:15 p.m.

Neymar buried the final penalty kick and host country Brazil won its first-ever Olympic men’s soccer gold medal with a 5-4 shootout following a 1-1 draw with Germany.

The crowd at iconic Maracana Stadium roared and Neymar fell to the field sobbing after he was mobbed by his teammates.

Neymar scored in the 27th minute as Brazil took a 1-0 lead in Saturday’s match. Max Meyer scored the equalizer for Germany in the 59th minute.

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8:10 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Brazil wins soccer gold medal in penalty kicks, clinched by Neymar.

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7:55 p.m.

Germany and Brazil are into penalty kicks knotted 1-all in the gold medal match at the Olympics.

Neymar scored in the 27th minute as Brazil took a 1-0 lead in Saturday’s match. Max Meyer scored the equalizer for Germany in the 59th minute.

Brazil is looking for its first gold medal in soccer. Germany is playing soccer in the Olympics for the first time since 1988.

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7:25 p.m.

Germany and Brazil are in overtime knotted at 1-all in the gold medal match at the Olympics.

Neymar scored in the 27th minute as Brazil took a 1-0 lead in Saturday’s match. The crowd at the iconic Maracana Stadium — which included Usain Bolt — roared when Neymar’s free kick bounced off the crossbar and into the goal.

Max Meyer scored the equalizer for Germany in the 59th minute.

Brazil is looking for its first gold medal in soccer. The Brazilians finished with the silver medal three times and the bronze twice. Four years ago, it lost to Mexico in the final in London.

Germany was playing in the Olympics for the first time since 1988, when U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann was on the team. It won the bronze at the time, when it competed as West Germany. It has never won the gold.

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7 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Dusan Mandic scored four times and Serbia beat Croatia 11-7 to win the gold medal in men’s water polo.

Serbia was the favorite coming into the Rio Games, increasing the pressure on the players to bring home the country’s first Olympic title in perhaps its favorite sport.

The former Yugoslavia won three gold medals and Serbia and Montenegro lost in the 2004 final in Athens, but Serbia finished third in each of the previous two Olympics.

No settling for bronze this time around. After opening with two draws and a loss to Brazil, Serbia closed with five straight victories. Branislav Mitrovic made 12 saves in Saturday’s final.

Sandro Sukno scored three times for Croatia, which won gold in London.

Italy beat Montenegro 12-10 for the bronze medal. ___

6:55 p.m.

A Russian athlete has been stripped of the silver medal in the women’s shot put from the 2012 London Olympics after testing positive in a reanalysis of her doping samples.

The International Olympic Committee said Saturday that Evgenia Kolodko was retroactively disqualified after tests on her stored samples came back positive for two banned substances.

The IOC asked the IAAF to modify the results and consider any further sanctions against the 36-year-old Kolodko, who could face a two-year ban.

It’s the latest shake-up in the medals in the women’s shot put in London.

Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus was stripped of the gold medal the day after the games because of a failed drug test.

New Zealand’s Valerie Adams was promoted to the gold, with Kolodko upgraded from bronze to silver and Gong Lijiao of China from fourth to bronze.

Now, Gong could move up to silver and Li Ling of China from fourth to third.

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6:30 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: No missed shots or missed medals for Russia’s Aleksander Lesun this time. Only gold.

Lesun held off a big charge by reigning world champion Pavlo Tymoschmenko in the final event of men’s modern pentathlon on Saturday, capturing a gold medal four years after being disappointed in London.

Tyomschenko moved up from eighth at the start of the running/shooting combination finale to earn silver. Mexico’s Ismael Hernandez Uscanga captured bronze.

Lesun is a two-time world champion and holder of two world records, but missed five shots on his final shooting turn at the 2012 London Games to finish fourth.

He was solid all the way through in Rio, taking the lead after the fencing bonus round and staying there until he waved to the crowd just before crossing the finish line.

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6:30 p.m.

The leader of the Australian Olympic team is saying sorry to its athletes for the flap that saw 10 of them detained over basketball game credentials.

Kitty Chiller says in a statement that she is sorry about the trauma suffered by the athletes held for hours at a police station until early Saturday morning.

The Australian Olympic Committee says 10 athletes were detained at Friday’s Serbia-Australia men’s basketball semifinals out of concern their credentials had been tampered with so they could get inside.

Chiller says the athletes were not at fault and the AOC says it’s investigating who was responsible for not following credentials rules.

Nine of the athletes faced charges of falsifying a document. A 10th was held as a witness. Rather than deal with a criminal case and wait three weeks to go before a judge, the committee issued an apology to a judge and says it’s will pay a fine of 10,000 Brazilian reals ($3,100) for each of the nine. Once those are paid, they’ll get their passports back.

Australia lost the game and will play Spain for the bronze on Sunday.

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6:20 p.m.

Neymar scored in the 27th minute as Brazil took a 1-0 lead at halftime in the men’s Olympic soccer final.

The crowd at the iconic Maracana Stadium roared when Neymar’s free kick bounced off the crossbar and into the goal on Saturday.

Brazil is looking for its first gold medal in soccer.

Brazilian fans are also hoping for a bit of redemption after the 7-1 loss to Germany’s senior team at the World Cup two years ago. Younger squads play in the Olympics, but pride is still in play.

Brazil has finished with the silver medal three times and the bronze twice. Four years ago, it lost to Mexico in the final in London.

Germany is playing in the Olympics for the first time since 1988, when U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann was on the team. It won the bronze at the time, when it competed as West Germany. It has never won the gold.

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6:20 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Chen Aisen of China has won men’s 10-meter platform, giving the Chinese their seventh title in eight diving events at the Rio Games.

That equals China’s best performance at the Olympics. The diving superpower also won seven of eight golds at the 2008 games in Beijing.

Aisen totaled 585.30 points. He was perfect on his last dive, earning all 10s for a back 2 ½ somersaults with 2 ½ twists to close the contest on Saturday night.

German Sanchez of Mexico earned silver at 532.70.

Defending champion David Boudia of the United States took bronze at 525.25.

China’s Qiu Bo, the silver medalist four years ago in London, finished sixth.

Britain’s Tom Daley, the bronze medalist in 2012, had failed to make the final. He finished last among 18 divers in the semifinals.

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6:20 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Margarita Mamun became the fifth straight Russian to claim the Olympic all-around title in rhythmic gymnastics, edging three-time world champion Yana Kudryavtseva on Saturday.

Mamun, a runner-up to Kudryavtseva each of the last two years, posted a total score of 76.483. The 20-year-old put up the top score on clubs and the second-best score among the 10 finalists on hoop, ribbon and ball. Kudryavtseva was close behind in 75.608. The 18-year-old was done in when she failed to catch one of her clubs during the end of her club routine to give Mamun enough breathing room.

Ganna Rizatdinova of Ukraine earned bronze.

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6:20 p.m.

Mexico’s top-seeded Maria Espinoza will face China’s number two Zheng Shuyin in the finals of the women’s taekwondo heavyweight division on Saturday evening.

Serbia’s defending Olympic champion in the over-67 kilogram division, Milica Mandic, was knocked out in the quarterfinals. Espinoza, a bronze medalist from the London Games, only just made it into the final after winning her semifinal in overtime. Zheng defeated current world champion Bianca Walkden of the U.K. to get to the final.

In the men’s division, third seed Abdoulrazak Issoufou of Niger will fight Azerbaijan’s second-seeded Radik Isaev in the gold medal match.

At six feet nine inches, Issoufou towered over all of his opponents and used his height advantage to land numerous head kicks on his rivals, including world number one Dimitry Shokin of Uzbekistan, who he defeated out in the semifinal to roars from the partisan crowd.

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5:45 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Twenty-year-old Russian sensation Abdulrashid Sadulaev has won his first gold medal in the 86-kilogram division of men’s freestyle wrestling.

Sadulaev beat Turkey’s Selim Yasar 5-0 Saturday for his third consecutive world title and the third gold for the Russians in wrestling at the Rio Games.

Sadulaev scored on a pair of two-point moves late in the first period in beating Yasar in the world final for the second year in a row.

Sadulaev outscored his opponents a staggering 28-1 in the Olympic tournament.

Bronze medals went to Azerbaijan’s Sharif Sharifov and American J’Den Cox, who scored a takedown with six seconds left to give the U.S. its first freestyle medal of these Games.

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5:25 p.m.

MEDAL ALERT: Russia has beaten France 22-19 to win gold in women’s handball.

It is the first women’s handball gold for Russia, though the Soviet Union won in 1976 and 1980. France’s silver is its first women’s handball medal, and it has a chance to add men’s gold Sunday.

A hard-fought, defense-first final, with the lowest scoring total in Olympic women’s history, saw Russia take a four-goal advantage with five minutes to go then grind out the win.

Russia’s Anna Vyakhireva shared top-scorer honors on five goals with France’s Allison Pineau and Siraba Dembele.

Earlier, pre-tournament favorite Norway cruised to bronze in a 36-26 win over the Netherlands, with seven goals from tournament top scorer Nora Mork.

On Sunday, France and Denmark play for men’s gold after Germany and Poland contest bronze.

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5:20 p.m.

Russia’s Aleksander Lesun has maintained his lead in modern pentathlon through equestrian, though the competition is closing the gap.

Lesun moved into the lead following the fencing competition, but his cushion dwindled from 23 points to nine after an average equestrian run.

Great Britain’s Joseph Choong is second and Egypt’s Amro El Geziry is third heading into the final event, a combination of shooting and running.

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5:10 p.m.

The dominant U.S. women’s basketball team won a sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal in impressive fashion, routing Spain 101-72 on Saturday.

Diana Taurasi and the Americans played nearly flawless basketball in Rio, and were never challenged. They have won 49 consecutive games in the Olympics with only one of those decided by single digits.

They won by nearly 40 points a game, but fell short of the record 102.4 points the 1996 team averaged.

The U.S., which beat Spain by 40 in a preliminary round game, got off to a slow start and only led 21-17 after the first quarter. Then the Americans got going with a 16-3 run in the second that blew the game open and the rout and celebration was on.

VIAAfrican News Agency (ANA)
SOURCEAssociated Press