Letsile Tebogo claimed a stunning Olympic gold in the men’s 200m on Thursday to prevent Noah Lyles from completing a sprint double as LeBron James’ USA survived a huge scare from Serbia to reach the men’s basketball final.
In another great performance on the track, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world record to win gold in the 400m hurdles.
At the Stade de France, brash Lyles was keen to showcase his speed and endurance in the preferred 200m after winning one of the closest 100m finals in modern Olympic history.
But Botswana’s Tebogo stunned the American with a blistering ride, relegating Lyles to bronze and his US teammate Kenneth Bednark to silver.
Tebogo, the first African to win 200m gold, clocked a continent-wide record time of 19.46 seconds, leaving a distraught Lyles on the track. Lyles later revealed that he had tested positive for Covid two days earlier.
“It was a really beautiful race for me,” said Tebogo.
The women’s 400m hurdles was considered a possible event of the Games, pitting McLaughlin-Levrone against Femke Bol of the Netherlands – the two fastest women ever over the distance.
The race was hardly a contest in the end, with McLaughlin-Levrone dismantling the field to set a stunning world record time of 50.37 seconds.
Perhaps tired from an extraordinary anchor leg to win gold for her country in the 4x400m medley relay earlier in the Games, she fell short in third place in 52.15 seconds.
Another record was broken in the men’s javelin, with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem throwing an Olympic record 92.97m in his first attempt to win the country’s first gold since 1984.
Grant Holloway won gold in the men’s 110m hurdles in 12.99 seconds to finally add an Olympic title to America’s tally of world golds.
In the morning session, the American men and women raced in the 4x100m relay to give a warning to any rivals looking to challenge their dominance.
At a packed Bercy Arena, the United States had to come back from 17 points down to beat Nikola Jokic’s Serbia 95-91 to keep alive its quest for a fifth straight men’s basketball gold medal.
But it took a huge effort in the fourth quarter to finally overhaul the Serbs, who were ahead for most of the game and led 76-63 in the fourth quarter.
“To come back the way we did … I saw a lot of Team USA basketball, and that was special,” Curry said.
Hosts France, led by the towering Victor Wembanyama, lie on course for gold after beating Germany 73-69 in the first semi-final.
Earlier on Thursday, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands won a grueling battle against her competitors and the water current in the 10 kilometer swim in 2 hours 3 minutes 34 seconds.
She dedicated her gold in memory of her beloved dog Rio, who died in May.
“Swimming is my everything, but so is he.
Water quality in the Seine has been in the spotlight during the Games despite a 1.4 billion euro ($1.5 billion) effort to improve sanitation and water treatment.
Organizers were forced to cancel several training sessions and postpone the men’s individual triathlon after judging the water too dirty for swimming.
On the golf course, unheralded Swiss player Morgane Metraux took a half-way lead after a sensational first nine 28-under-par 66 to move her to a tournament score of 8-under par.
World No. 1 Netherlands secured their first gold in men’s hockey since 2000 when they beat Germany in a penalty shootout.
The Dutch hope to double that as the women take on China for gold on Friday.
