Day 8 at the Olympics: all the Saturday action - RTHK
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Day 8 at the Olympics: all the Saturday action

2024-08-04 HKT 06:04
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  • Tennis golden girl Zheng Qinwen celebrates with her medal. Photo: Reuters
    Tennis golden girl Zheng Qinwen celebrates with her medal. Photo: Reuters
  • Team Hong Kong's swimmers weren't too despondent in defeat. Photo: Reuters
    Team Hong Kong's swimmers weren't too despondent in defeat. Photo: Reuters
  • Chen Meng celebrates a second consecutive gold medal after defeating Sun Yingsha. Photo: Reuters
    Chen Meng celebrates a second consecutive gold medal after defeating Sun Yingsha. Photo: Reuters
  • Nicholas Halliday is moving on up in the dinghy field. Photo: Reuters
    Nicholas Halliday is moving on up in the dinghy field. Photo: Reuters
  • Simone Biles couldn't be touched in the women's vault. Photo: Reuters
    Simone Biles couldn't be touched in the women's vault. Photo: Reuters
  • Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan celebrate their Olympic victory. Photo
    Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan celebrate their Olympic victory. Photo
  • Zheng Qinwen can't quite believe it as she claims Olympic gold. Photo: Reuters
    Zheng Qinwen can't quite believe it as she claims Olympic gold. Photo: Reuters
  • Remco Evenepoel celebrates at the finish line in Paris. Photo: Reuters
    Remco Evenepoel celebrates at the finish line in Paris. Photo: Reuters
  • Katie Ledecky streaks to victory in the pool. Photo: Reuters
    Katie Ledecky streaks to victory in the pool. Photo: Reuters
  • A delighted Femke Bol brings it home for the Netherlands in the mixed 4x400m relay. Photo: Reuters
    A delighted Femke Bol brings it home for the Netherlands in the mixed 4x400m relay. Photo: Reuters
  • Felix Diu didn't quite do enough to progress in the 100m. Photo: Reuters
    Felix Diu didn't quite do enough to progress in the 100m. Photo: Reuters
Kelly Yu and Hailey Yip report from Paris
The Olympic Games reached the halfway stage on Saturday, with an unexpected gold in tennis capping another day of success for Team China.

Meanwhile Hong Kong, China's swimmers made their last appearance of the Games, while the SAR's cycling road racer and sprinting representative had their moment in the spotlight.

China still top the medal table with 16 golds, ahead of the United States with 14 and hosts France and Australia, with 12 each.

Zheng seals historic gold on Olympic debut

Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen has claimed the biggest victory of her budding career, clinching a gold medal on her Olympic debut by defeating Croatian veteran Donna Vekic in the women's final.

Sixth-seeded Zheng made a name for herself after upsetting world number one Iga Swiatek in the last four. The 21-year-old carried that momentum into the showdown at Roland Garros, leading Vekic from wire to wire for the 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Chen makes history in repeat of Tokyo showdown

The nation's table tennis player Chen Meng put herself in the record books with an emphatic 4-2 victory against compatriot Sun Yingsha, becoming only the third woman to defend an Olympic singles crown.

The all-China matchup was a repeat of the Tokyo games, when Chen defeated Sun by the same margin.

Top seeds Chen and Jia win all-China showdown

China's badminton pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan won Olympic gold, defeating compatriots Liu Shenshu and Tan Ning in straight games for the women's doubles title.

It was China's first gold in the women's doubles since 2012, and sixth since the event became a fixture at the Olympics in 1992.

Evenepoel makes history but HK's Lau fails to finish

Belgium's Remco Evenepoel made history in the men's cycling road race, though Hong Kong's Vincent Lau dropped out almost three-quarters of the way through one of the most gruelling of all Olympic events.

Evenepoel, who won the time trial a week earlier, became the first man to claim gold in both road cycling disciplines, despite having to swap bikes four kilometres from the finish because of a mechanical failure.

Biles soars to new heights with third gold

Simone Biles won the vault final to clinch her third gold medal of the Games, dominating the competition with her signature Biles II vault to beat Brazilian silver medallist Rebeca Andrade with American Jade Carey taking bronze.

The American has claimed gold in all three women's events contested so far in Paris. She now has 10 Olympic medals overall, seven of them gold. Biles can add to her tally further when she competes in the balance beam and women's floor finals on Monday.

Legend Ledecky ties all time gold record

Katie Ledecky won a record-equalling career ninth gold medal by claiming an unprecedented fourth women's 800 metres freestyle title.

The American great's ninth gold from four Games gives her a share of the all-time record for female Olympians. She also joined fellow American great Michael Phelps as the only swimmer to win four Olympic golds in the same event.

Dutch sensation Bol seals mixed 4x400m gold

Femke Bol ran a stunning last lap to lead the Netherlands to victory in the Olympic 4x400 metres mixed relay, glorious redemption for the 24-year-old who fell just before the line in the same race at last year's world championships.

Elsewhere, Julien Alfred delivered a brilliant gun-to-tape performance to win the women’s 100 metres final and claim Saint Lucia’s first-ever Olympic medal.

Sole athlete Diu out early in sprints

Hong Kong sprinter Felix Diu was eliminated in the preliminary round of the men’s 100 metres, finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 10.62 seconds, just 0.02 seconds behind second place.

The 100-metre specialist entered the Olympics through a wild card. Diu’s personal best, which is also his best time this year, is 10.33 seconds.

Sailor Halliday moves up in dinghy rankings

SAR sailor Nicholas Halliday improved his overall ranking in the men's dinghy, going up by three places to 25th out of 43..

The 25-year-old completed two more races – coming in 6th place in the second one – on the third day of the event. Halliday has four more races to go over the next two days in Marseille.

Relay swimmers happy despite dropping out

Team Hong Kong, China, women's swimmers finished their 4x100 metres medley relay ranked 13th out of 14 teams, saying they all very much enjoyed their last race at the Paris Olympics.

Stephanie Au, Siobhan Haughey, Natalie Kan and Karen Tam clocked a time of four minutes and 3.56 seconds, nearly two seconds short of the Hong Kong record the four hold, and more than a second slower than their Paris entry time.

Day 8 at the Olympics: all the Saturday action