International Sports
China retains top position with 39 gold
Sweeps the diving gold in all eight events.![China retains top position with 39 gold](https://assets-api.kathmandupost.com/thumb.php?src=https://assets-cdn.kathmandupost.com/uploads/source/news/2024/world/Untitled3-1723365509.jpg&w=900&height=601)
Reuters
China retains the top position in the Olympic medal tally with 39 gold. The United States of America with 38 gold is in second position followed by Australia and Japan with 18 gold. Host country France stands in fifth position with 16 gold.
Here are the major highlights of day 15 of the Paris Olympics 2024:
Volleyball:
France beat the world number one ranked side Poland 3-0 with a 25-19 25-20 25-23 to win the Olympic men’s volleyball gold on Saturday, defending their title from the Tokyo Games but this time on home soil inside a rocking South Paris Arena 1.
The US had beaten world champions Italy in straight sets on Friday to take the bronze medal.
Diving:
Cao Yuan won the men’s 10-metre platform event on Saturday at the Paris Olympics to complete a golden sweep for China, the first time a country has won all the diving events at one Games.
Rikuto Tamai of Japan took silver to land Japan’s first-ever Olympic diving medal, and Britain’s Noah Williams finished in third place to claim the bronze.
Athletics:
Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola finished in two hours, six minutes and 26 seconds to win gold in the men’s marathon at the Paris Games on Saturday.
Belgium’s Bashir Abdi took silver in 2:06:47, improving his bronze from Tokyo, and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto claimed bronze posting a time of 2:07:00.
New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr won gold in the men’s Olympic high jump on Saturday by beating American Shelby McEwen in a jump-off.
Defending champion Mutaz Barshim of Qatar won bronze.
Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi held off one of the strongest fields in history to win the Olympic gold medal in the men’s 800 metres on Saturday in a time of one minute 41.19 seconds, securing his country's fifth consecutive Olympic title in the event.
Canada’s world champion Marco Arop furiously tried to overtake the Kenyan over the final 100m but finished one-hundredth of a second behind in 1:41.20.
Algeria's Djamel Sedjati in 1:41.50 for bronze.
Haruka Kitaguchi won the women’s javelin throw on Saturday with her first throw of 65.80 metres to earn Japan’s first gold medal in the event.
South Africa’s Jo-Ane van Dyk and Czech Republic’s Nikola Ogrodnikova made valiant efforts to overhaul her but never came close as they took silver and bronze with throws of 63.93 and 63.68.
The United States continued their dominance of the Olympic men’s 4x400 metres relay on Saturday.
Botswana, bronze medallists in Tokyo, took silver in an African record 2:54.53 with Britain taking bronze in a European record 2:55.83.
The United States blazed to the gold medal in the Olympic women’s 4x400 metre relay on Saturday clocking three minutes 15.27 seconds.
The Netherlands settled for silver in 3:19.50. Britain claimed bronze in 3:19.
American Masai Russell produced a stunning run to win the Olympic women’s 100-metre hurdles title in a blanket finish on Saturday.
Russell clocked 12.33 seconds as French President Emmanuel Macron watched Samba-Mayela (12.34) deliver France’s first track medal of the Paris Games with silver and Puerto Rico's Camacho-Quinn (12.36) took bronze.
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon was over the moon after winning her third straight Olympic woman’s 1,500 metres gold on Saturday, surging through the final lap to finish more than a second ahead of the field.
Australia’s Jessica Hull took silver and Britain’s Georgia Bell won bronze.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen bounced back from defeat in the men’s 1,500 metres to win the Olympic men’s 5,000 metres gold with a fierce final lap on Saturday, just as he did in the last two world championships.
Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi got ahead in a charge for the line to take silver with American Grant Fisher adding a brilliant bronze.
Artistic swimming:
China claimed its first gold medal in the duet artistic swimming event at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, as the Wang twins did just enough to hold off three other pairs of sisters fighting for the title.
Britain and the Netherlands won their first medals in the sport, with silver and bronze respectively.
Golf:
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko won gold in the women’s golf competition on Saturday, holding her nerve in a tense finish to complete her medal set in her final Games.
Ko held off a late charge from Germany’s Esther Henseleit, who claimed silver two strokes behind, with China’s Lin Xiyu a further shot back to take bronze.
Weightlifting:
Norway’s Solfrid Koanda put in a dominant performance to win the women’s 81kg weightlifting title at the Paris Games on Saturday, hoisting aloft a combined total of 275kg to give her country only its second Olympic title in the sport.
Egypt’s Sara Ahmed, former world champion in the 76kg weight class, lifted an impressive 151kg in her second attempt of the clean and jerk to finish with a total of 268kg and grab the silver.
Ecuador’s Neisi Dajomes secured bronze.
China’s world champion Liu Huanhua put in a superb performance to win the men’s 102kg weightlifting title with a total of 406kg at the Paris Games on Saturday.
Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan took silver with a total of 404kg. Belarusian Yauheni Tsikhantsou, who was competing as a neutral athlete, won bronze with 402kg.
Georgia’s Lasha Talakhadze won his third Olympic weightlifting title with a dominant performance in the men’s over 102kg class on Saturday, lifting a total of 470kg to prevail in a dramatic three-way battle.
Talakhadze faced a spirited challenge from young Armenian Varazdat Lalayan, who equalled his 215kg snatch lift and secured silver while Bahrain’s Gor Minasyan took a narrow lead going into the clean and jerk by lifting one kilo more in the snatch to secure bronze.
Climbing:
Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret by battling her way to a back-to-back Olympic title with a victory in the women’s boulder and lead event at the Paris Games on Saturday with 168.5 points.
American Brooke Raboutou took the silver and Austria’s Jessica Pilz the bronze.
Canoeing:
The women’s canoe single 200m sprint ended with one of the tightest finishes of the Games, with Canada’s Katie Vincent, declared the winner after a long wait to see who would be crowned champion.
It was Vincent who walked away with the gold medal by a margin of one-hundredth of a second from American Nevin Harrison.
Cuban Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys took bronze.
New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington completed a stunning clean sweep of gold medals in her Olympic events at by winning the women’s kayak single 500 metres title in her third and final competition at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Saturday.
Hungary’s Tamara Csipes came second to take the silver medal, with Denmark’s Emma Aastrand Jorgensen picking up the bronze.
Canoeist Josef Dostal of the Cech Republic roared to victory in the men’s 1000m canoe single Olympic final at the Vaires-sur-Marne.
Dostal beat the Hungarian pair Adam Varga who took silver and Balint Kopasz (bronze) to win gold.
![](https://assets-cdn.kathmandupost.com/uploads/source/news/2024/world/Untitled2-1723365509.jpg)
Breaking:
Canadian Philip Kim, better known as B-Boy Phil Wizard, produced a spellbinding performance to defeat France’s Danis Civil by a 3-0 win in the final and capture the first Olympic gold medal ever awarded for men’s breaking on Saturday.
American B-Boy Victor won a fierce bronze medal against Japan’s B-Boy Shigekix.
Handball:
Norway overcame a hostile home crowd to beat France 29-21 in the women’s handball final to win Olympic gold at the Pierre Mauroy stadium on Saturday.
Hosts and Toyko Games champions France had to settle for silver while Denmark earlier took the bronze medal with a 30-25 win over Sweden.
Table Tennis:
China extended its dominance in table tennis by winning the Olympic women’s team event on Saturday, achieving a gold medal sweep for the country in the sport in Paris after the disappointment of dropping one in Tokyo.
China triumphed over Japan in 3-0.
Earlier in the day, the Korean team of Shin Yubin, Jeon Jihee, and Lee Eunhye defeated Germany with three wins to clinch another bronze for their nation in table tennis.
Water Polo:
Spain celebrated their first gold medal in Olympic women’s water polo by fending off Australia 11-9 on Saturday.
The US missed out on the medals altogether for the first time, with the Netherlands’ Sabrina van der Sloot scoring with less than a second left to claim a thrilling 11-10 win and the bronze.
Football:
The United States claimed a record-extending fifth Olympic gold medal in women’s football after Mallory Swanson earned them a 1-0 win over Brazil in the final at Parc des Princes on Saturday.
Earlier on Friday Germany beat Spain 1-0 to win the bronze medal.
Modern Pentathlon:
Ahmed Elgendy took Egypt’s first gold medal of the Paris Olympics when he won the men’s Modern Pentathlon with a world record 1,555 points.
Japan’s Taishu Sato took the silver and Italy’s Giorgio Malan the bronze, meaning three continents were represented on the podium.
Cycling:
Portugal claimed their first-ever Olympic track cycling gold medal as Iuri Leitao and Rui Oliviera blasted out of nowhere to win a crash-littered men’s Madison race on Saturday.
After 200 laps of mayhem, the Portuguese duo plotted a way through the chaos to top the leaderboard with 55 points to Italy’s 47. Tokyo champions Denmark were third on 41.
Wrestling:
Sakura Motoki won Japan’s sixth wrestling gold of the Paris Olympics on Saturday, underlining her country’s domination of the mat at the Champ de Mars Arena.
Her victory against Ukrainian Iryna Koliadenko in the women’s 62kg freestyle final extended Japan’s big lead in the wrestling medal table.
Koliadenko scored an activity clock point but Motoki hit a low single followed by a two-point leg lace to lead 4-1 at the break.
Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan and Grace Bullen of Norway took bronze.
Uzbekistan’s Razambek Jamalov won the men’s 74kg freestyle, two years after contemplating retirement following a slew of surgeries that left him with a battered body.
Japan’s Daichi Takatani won silver. Chermen Valiev’s bronze was Albania’s first Olympic medal while Kyle Dake of the United States claimed the other bronze.
Geno Petriashvili of Georgia staved off a late comeback by Iran’s Amir Hossein Zare to win the men’s 125kg freestyle gold to go with his silver in Tokyo and bronze in Rio.
Rio champion Taha Akgul of Turkey retires after winning a bronze medal. Giorgi Meshvildishvil of Azerbaijan took the other bronze.
Taekwondo:
France’s Althea Laurin claimed the women’s taekwondo women’s heavyweight +67kg title on Saturday, winning the country’s first Olympic gold medal in the sport by beating Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Osipova.
Laurin, 22, beat Osipova 3-0 3-3. Nafia Kus Aydin of Turkey won bronze, along with South Korea’s Lee Da-bin.
Iran’s Arian Salimi won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s taekwondo heavyweight (+80kg) division on Saturday, beating Britain’s Caden Cunningham who claimed silver.
Cuba’s Rafael Alba and Ivory Coast’s Cheick Sallah Cisse won the bronze medals.
Basketball:
The United States claimed their fifth consecutive Olympic title in men’s basketball by beating France 98-87 on Saturday.
Serbia beat Germany to clinch bronze.
Boxing:
Lin Yu-ting, one of two boxers at the heart of a gender dispute at the Paris Games, made light work of Polish opponent Julia Szeremeta to claim the women’s featherweight 57kg title on Saturday.
Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines and Turkey’s Esra Yildiz were awarded bronze.
Uzbekistan’s dominance at the Paris Games boxing tournament was completed on Saturday as Bakhodir Jalolov and Abdumalik Khalokov won gold in men’s 57 kg.
Kyrgyzstan’s Munarbek Seiitbek Uulu took silver. Australian Charlie Senior and Bulgaria’s Javier Ibanez took bronze after their semi-final defeats.
China’s Li Qian won gold in the women’s middleweight 75 kg boxing final at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, leaving Panama’s Atheyna Bylon with silver.
Australian Caitlin Parker and Cindy Ngamba of the refugee Olympic team took bronze after their semi-final defeats.
Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov won gold in the men’s super heavyweight +92 kg boxing final at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, leaving Spain's Ayoub Ghadfa with silver.
France’s Djamili-Dini Aboudou Moindze and German Nelvie Tiafack took bronze after their semi-final defeats.