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Jack Laugher at a loss to explain disastrous defence of Olympic synchronised springboard title
- Jack Laugher and Daniel Goodfellow finish seventh of eight teams
- Charlotte Dujardin wins bronze medal in individual dressage
- Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games full schedule
Jack Laugher was unable to offer any explanation for the disastrous defence of his Olympic 3m synchronised springboard title on Wednesday, simply concluding that “diving is a bit of a b---- really”.
Laugher became Britain’s first ever Olympic diving champion alongside Chris Mears at Rio 2016, but only narrowly avoided finishing last with new partner Daniel Goodfellow in Tokyo.
Four of the British pair’s six dives were scored as the worst of the round and they ended the competition a huge 85 points off the Chinese winners.
“Today was just a bad day and everybody has them,” said Laugher. “Sometimes you can’t put your finger on it.
“We woke up feeling good. We felt a little bit nervous but no more than a normal competition. Springboard diving is a bit of a b---- really. It really does just go south very quickly and there is very little you can do about it.
“Today the errors that we made weren’t really errors through nerves, they were almost too much adrenaline, too much speed, too quick on our somersaults. It’s just how it goes sometimes.
“It’s not the result we want and I apologise to everyone at home, but we move on.”
Laugher and Goodfellow found themselves in last place after their first dive and only moved off the foot of the standings when a catastrophic error from the Russian pair saw them given no score for their final effort.
The British duo’s results had been mixed leading up to these Tokyo Olympics, winning world silver in 2019 and triumphing at the Diving World Cup in May, before only finishing sixth at this year’s European Championships. That result saw Laugher admit he was “panicking” and putting too much pressure on himself.
He competes again next week in the 3m individual springboard - an event that earned him Olympic silver in 2016 - and he insisted he still feels “pretty good” about his prospects of making the podium again.
Goodfellow, who claimed Olympic bronze in the 10m synchronised platform alongside Tom Daley in Rio, said he still believed he had made the right decision to change event and move down to the 3m springboard.
“I think it was always the right thing to do,” he said. “I’m really enjoying my springboard diving. We’ve had some very good results, we have a World Championship medal, we were World Cup champions coming into this.
“I think it’s sometimes hard to explain that mistakes just happen. In springboard diving the margin for error is so small. You can make mistakes. The frustrating thing is we felt really good, but the amount of hard work we have put in has not really shown.”
School drop-out turned Army boxer earns medal
By Pippa Field
No stranger to receiving her marching orders in the past, school drop-out turned Army boxer Karriss Artingstall dished out her own punishment to guarantee Great Britain's first boxing gold in Tokyo.
Artingstall defeated Australia's Skye Nicolson by split decision (3-2) in the women's featherweight division to not only secure a semi-final place against home favourite Sena Irie, but ensure that the least she will be leaving Japan with is bronze.
It marks a remarkable transformation for the 26-year-old who, in her own words, was "never the best-behaved pupil", extending to the point of being excluded from three different secondary schools. "I never knocked about with the girls, always with the lads. I would be doing five a-side football, manhunt, BB gun wars, climbing and getting stuck in trees where I would be so high up you could see the whole estate."
Growing up in Macclesfield, Artingstall's troublesome behaviour threatened to send her down the wrong path. But it was while attending the non-mainstream school into which she had been placed that she came across boxing as part of her Friday PE lessons.
She was boxing competitively by the age of 16. But if the sport proved her saviour and a way of channelling her energy, then the Army was the steady guiding influence in her ultimately becoming an Olympic medallist.
After two years spent as a sports coach apprentice but desperate to avoid falling into a full-time 9-5 job – "I'd have been bouncing off the walls" – she bit the bullet and followed up on her long-held interest in joining the forces aged 18. She completed her training, coming out as a Gunner with 1 Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, but fighting in the ring was never far away and she joined the British Army's Elite Gold Squad, a select group of elite soldier athletes who are marked out for greater things.
In 2018, the big predictions for her came true. After impressing as one of seven Army boxers to make it to the finals of the England Boxing Elite National Championships, winning the featherweight title, Artingstall became part of GB Boxing's Podium Potential squad that same year and won European silver in 2019.
"The best decision I've ever made [was joining the Army]," she said last year. "They have helped me massively, in progressing to the level I have within boxing. Without their support and allowing me to train in boxing full-time, it would have been a big struggle for me.
"Not only has it benefited my career but it has remoulded me as a person. I'm more mature, confident, and clued-up. The opportunities in the army are endless."
Nicknamed 'The Bomber', Artingstall has been given time off from the Army to focus purely on her boxing dream but she was almost denied her Olympic moment, having to secure a featherweight box-off victory at the European qualifiers in June. The reward was a place on the British team, making her Britain's first female Army boxer to represent her country at a Games.
Botswana's Keamogetse Sadie Kenosi was swatted aside in the first round in Tokyo before another unanimous points victory over one of Brazil's top medal hopes, Jucielen Romeu, pitted her against Nicolson.
Artingstall was given problems by the elusiveness and skilfulness of the Australian but she gained her rewards for her work rate and pressure.
"I'm over the moon just to have got myself on that podium," she said. "I keep looking at that badge on my chest and can't believe it. Just to be an Olympian is amazing. It is everyone's dream isn't it?
"I can't put into words what it means to me. When I am stood here in two days' time with a gold or silver, I am going to be even more lost for words."
Day five - afternoon session, as it happened
Aomi Urban Sports Park isn't exactly picturesque
From Thom Gibbs in Tokyo
It's the dastardly ROC against the USA in the 3X3 women's basketball final here at the Aomi Urban Sports Park. Tragically being in Tokyo means I have so far been unable to visit the new Marble Arch Mound, but the photos I've seen suggest it has a similar construction style to the basketball venue here.
This is just a temporary venue, and after the 3X3 concludes tonight the seats will be reconfigured to face the climbing wall, looming promisingly over the left-hand bank of courtside seating. It looks as much like the Gladiators wall as you'd hope.
Joe Fraser brings his final to a close
On the high bar and it's a brilliant way to finish - that was a high level of difficulty and he nailed the landing. He scores 14.400 and while he won't get a medal it is important to remember he's only 22 and the level of difficulty he was packing into some of his routines bodes well for the future.
Just one rotation to go (the high bar for the top dogs)
Nikita Nagornyy scores 15.400 on the parallel bars and that's good enough to get him into second with only one rotation to go. This will be a close finish.
1. Xiao Ruoteng (China) - 73.999
2. Nikita Nagornyy (ROC) - 73.665
3. Daiki Hashimoto (Japan) - 73.532
James Hall is in 11th on 70.132 and Joe Fraser is in 12th on 70.099
Slight change in the top three
1 - Xiao Ruoteng (China) - 58.633
2 - Sun Wei (China) - 58.432
3 - Nikita Nagornyy (ROC)- 58.256
So very tight at the top with two rotations to go. The cream is rising to the top.
As for Joe Fraser and James Hall - Hall is now 11th on 56.132 and Fraser is in 15th on 54.966
Joe Fraser needs a good performance on the rings
He's put in some big scores on rings so far in Tokyo - he needs another one now...
That was very good and should lift him from his current 17th place. And he scores 14.433 and he's happy with that, as he should be. The Russian duo of Nagornyy and Dalaloyan only scored marginally higher with a pair of 14.666s
Joe Fraser is now on the pommel horse
It's a good piece for him - he'll be looking for a high 14...
What a shame - he was packing in the difficulty there, trying to build a score and fell off. He then composes himself and gets back on before finishing the routine. He scores 13.300, the lowest on the pommel horse in his group. That's over a mark less that he would have expected.
Meanwhile James Hall scores highest in his group on the rings with a fine 13.966
Nikita Nagornyy out to get back on track
Floor is usually the favourite's (he's not been beaten in the all-around for three years) big, strong piece so needs to get back on track on the pommel horse - he keeps his composure, it was a solid routine. He was sixth after the first rotation and scores 14.266, that's again down on his best.
German official apologises over racist remarks during road time trial
Patrick Moster, the sporting director of the German cycling federation (BDR), has been forced to apologise after he was caught on camera making racist remarks during the men's Olympic road time trial on Wednesday.
"Get the camel drivers, get the camel drivers, come on," said the German official said as he urged his rider Nikias Arndt who was chasing opponents Algeria's Azzedine Lagab and Eritrea's Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier during his time trial effort.
On German television, ARD commentator Florian Nass was left stunned, describing the comments as "totally wrong".
"Words fail me," he added. "Something like that has no place in sport."
Moster has since apologised for his comments, which he said were made in the "heat of the moment".
"I was in the feed zone and cheered on Nikias Arndt," he told German DPA news agency.
"In the heat of the moment and with the overall burden that we have here at the moment, my choice of words was not appropriate.
"I am extremely sorry and can only offer my apologies."
Reuters
After the first rotation
Daiki Hashimoto is in the lead with 14.833.
With five rotations still to go it will take time to get an idea over who is vying for what medals, but after the first exercise Joe Fraser (floor) has 14.100 and James Hall (pommel horse) 13.433
That's enough for Fraser to be in eighth. But there's a long way to go.
James Hall has got his final under way
He's on the pommel horse - it's a tough piece to start with (it's all about the swing, apparently) but Hall does well. He goes with a tricky, high level of difficulty routine, and he dismounts well .
The camera focuses on him afterwards and he looks happy with that - 13.433 is his score. The BBC commentators think he deserved more than that.
We're going to focus on the men's all-around now
Joe Fraser and James Hall are both looking for medals.
Fraser in his first Olympics will go first on the floor - he's in the first group.
Russian pair Nikita Nagornyy and Artur Dalaloyan the last two world all-around champions, should figure among the medals.
GB boxer Karriss Artingstall speaks
She's guaranteed a bronze but the gunner in the army is focused on trying to get gold in the women's featherweight division.
“In the last round I just had to go out and up the tempo, I believe in myself and back myself when it comes to physicality. I'm a fit girl so if you want to go toe-to-toe with me then I'll go all day but, I am better at boxing so I'll stick to that. I've got two days off now, finally. Little rest, few ice baths, tick over a little bit. Then get my head set on the next one. I'm over the moon to be on the podium, hopefully I can go and change the colour of the medal in two days time.”
Lauren Price is pretty talented
Most of us are are lucky if we're average (at best) in one sport, the Welsh hero is exceptional at three (that I am aware of, there may well be more...).
Having played football for Wales she became a talented kickboxer, but realising that that sport wasn't in the Olympics she turned her attention to boxing. She has already won golds at World Championships, European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. She now wants an Olympic gold and so far it's going well. Price has eased through to the quarter-final after beating Mongolia's Myagmarjargal Munkhbat 5-0 in the women's middleweight division.
One of the worries (among many) about Tokyo hosting
Was the very hot and humid conditions of the Japan capital at this time of year. Very few, if any, events have escaped the problems that the brutal temperatures and sweltering conditions have created.
The latest complaint came after another oppressive day in and around the tennis courts. Heatstroke forced Paula Badosa to retire from her quarter-final clash, while Daniil Medvedev questioned whether players would 'die' in conditions.
There's another national holiday on the way in Fiji
There was one when they won the seven gold in Rio and they've just defended their title in Tokyo. The sevens specialists have just beaten New Zealand 27-12 - catch up with how they did it and all the reaction here.
It's no huge shock they won...
Dominant Djokovic
It is without even a slither of shock that I can report Novak Djokovic is through to the quarter finals. The world No.1 and one-man battering ram honing in on a possible 'Golden Slam' beat Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 6-1.
The Serbian now faces home hope Kei Nishikori in the quarter finals. The Japanese star reached his third straight Olympic last-eight match by beating Ilya Ivashka of Belarus.
The sevens final has started
It's defending champions Fiji up against New Zealand - it should be a cracker.
Follow the action with my friend and yours, Charles Richardson here - sevens final, Fiji vs New Zealand
'Springboard diving is a bit of a b**** really'
From Ben Bloom in Tokyo
Jack Laugher was unable to offer any explanation for the disastrous defence of his Olympic three metres synchronised springboard title on Wednesday, simply concluding that “diving is a bit of a b---- really”.
Laugher became Britain’s first ever Olympic diving champion alongside Chris Mears at Rio 2016, but only narrowly avoided finishing last with new partner Daniel Goodfellow in Tokyo.
Four of the British pair’s six dives were scored as the worst of the round and they ended the competition a huge 85 points off the Chinese winners.
Laugher said…
“Today was just a bad day and everybody has them. Sometimes you can’t put your finger on it. We woke up feeling good. We felt a little bit nervous but no more than a normal competition. Springboard diving is a bit of a b---- really. It really does just go south very quickly and there is very little you can do about it. Today the errors that we made weren’t really errors through nerves, they were almost too much adrenaline, too much speed, too quick on our somersaults. It’s just how it goes sometimes. It’s not the result we want and I apologise to everyone at home, but we move on.”
Liam Broady is out
He fought back well in the second set to take the third round match to a decider but the heat, humidity and his French opponent all proved too much as Jeremy Chardy took the third set 6-1 for a 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 win over the Briton.
Happy with gold an Olympic record? Not hugely if you're Kristof Milak
Normally when you’ve won gold and set a new Olympic record - beating the mark set by Michael Phelps no less - you’re expected to be happy, overjoyed, ecstatic.
But Hungary’s Kristof Milak was left furious, flustered and convinced the chance of beating his own world record was ruined when his swimsuit ripped moments before his Olympic 200 metres butterfly final.
"They split 10 minutes before I entered the pool and in that moment I knew the world record was gone," Milak said after marching off the pool deck to collect his kit bag and pulling out the damaged trunks, which he switched for a spare set just before the final.
"I lost my focus and knew I couldn't do it."
The Hungarian turned third at the midway point but powered off the wall and opened up an insurmountable lead down the third length to finish in 1:51.25, four metres ahead of silver medallist Tomoru Honda of Japan, with Italian Federico Burdisso winning bronze.
Great Britain go for bronze in the sevens
They're just out on the pitch in the match against Argentina.
Follow the action here with Charles Richardson - Great Britain v Argentina, Tokyo 2020 sevens: live score and latest updates from men's bronze medal match
More on Karriss Artingstall
By Pippa Field in Tokyo
Great Britain is guaranteed its first medal in the ring after Karriss Artingstall reached the semi-finals of the women's featherweight division. Up against Skye Nicolson, the Australian who was looking to become the first female boxer from Down Under to win an Olympic boxing medal,
Macclesfield's Artingstall earned victory via split decision. It means she is guaranteed at least bronze and advances to Saturday's semi-finals where she will face the winner of Sena Irie, of Japan, and Maria Nechita, of Romania, for the chance to fight for gold.
The 26-year-old began boxing competitively aged 16 before taking two years away from the sport after joining the British Army aged 18. The Gunner, who now serves with 1 Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, is Britain's first female Army boxer to represent her country at an Olympic Games.
The big question in tennis at the moment
Is can anyone stop Novak Djokovic - as it stands it looks as though the world No.1 will win the Golden Slam - that's all four grand slams and Olympic gold, as if you didn't know...
He's won the Australian and French Opens as well as Wimbledon so far and as it stands he's marching on in the men's singles in Tokyo.
The Serbian is one set up against Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and it will take a brave, and some may say stupid, person to predict he won't be in the quarters within the next hour or so.
Karriss Artingstall into the semis in boxing
The Briton has just beaten Australia's Skye Nicolson in the quarter final of the women's feather 54-57kg division.
It was a very tight contest but the gunner in the British Army came through on a 3-2 split decision. She moves into the semi finals with bronze now the lowest of her ambitions.
GB's Mallory Franklin lays down gold medal marker
By Pippa Field, in Tokyo
Mallory Franklin underlined her status as a serious contender to be crowned the first Olympic women's C1 canoe champion by qualifying fastest for tomorrow's semi-finals.
The C1 is a new event in Tokyo, added to the schedule in place of a men's C2 to give the sport gender parity. Franklin is already Britain's most successful female canoeist, winning individual world gold in 2017 and the European title two years later plus a whole host of team and World Cup medals. And the 27-year-old started her Tokyo campaign in fine style, going fastest in both heats with just one two-second time penalty.
Reigning world champion Andrea Herzog, of Germany, delivered the second-fastest time while another pre-race favourite, Australian Jessica Fox, was fifth fastest ahead of tomorrow's semi-finals (0600 BST) and final (0755 BST).
"I'm really pleased. I've had quite a while watching other people race so it was good to get on the start line and use today as a confidence-builder to show me I can deliver and I have the pace," said Franklin, who tapped up British team-mate Adam Burgess for his knowledge of the course after he finished fourth in his men's C1 final on Monday.
"There is a hint of getting caught up in the moment and what it means. I'm trying to be really present and enjoy it. Perhaps there were a lot of people who thought we wouldn't perform very well and it didn't warrant being at the Games but today so far we've shown that is not true. There have been some good runs and it's really tight."
Liam Broady takes the second set against Jeremy Chardy
Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury may have lost their doubles this morning BUT Great Britain's tennis hopes for the day are far from over.
Broady, the world No. 143, lost the first set in a tiebreak to France's Chardy before coming through a gruelling second set, that lasted nearly an hour, 6-4.
It's very hot and humid out there (you'll hear that a lot over the next 10 days or so) and the pair get a well deserved 10-minute break to cool down.
Dutch skateboarder fuming over quarantine
Quarantined Olympic skateboarder Candy Jacobs says she's had to take action to be allowed to get fresh air in an isolation hotel in Japan.
The Dutch athlete was removed from the Olympic Village after testing positive for Covid-19 a week ago.
Jacobs said on social media that "not having any outside air is so inhuman."
She added that she refused to move on her seventh day of quarantine in a room where the window doesn't open.
After more than seven hours, she said, officials agreed she could stand at an open window under supervision for 15 minutes a day.
Jacobs said "having that first breath of outside air was the saddest and best moment in my life."
The 31-year-old skateboarder missed the street event in the sport's Olympic debut.
Jacobs said watching the event on television was "a super-cool distraction" from quarantine.
AP
Archery - Sarah Beetles out in the last-16
Beetles was beaten 6-2 by China's Wu Jiaxin in the individual event. The Briton was 2-2 at one point but the Chinese sharpshooter took the next two sets to secure the victory.
Earlier, Wu Jiaxin beat Naomi Folkard in the round of 32, with Patrick Huston eliminated at the same stage in the men's event.
Tom Dean on THAT video
By Jeremy Wilson
Tom Dean, who followed only Rebecca Adlington and Henry Taylor in winning two golds at the same Olympics, said that he had shed further tears on Tuesday night when he saw the viral video of his family and friends celebrating in Maidenhead.
“I got back to my flat in the village and Ross Murdoch says, ‘have you seen this video that's going all around Twitter about your family?' He was like 'I've been bawling my eyes out'. So I had a look and there was like 70 people going nuts, someone set a flare off. I was like 'what is going on here?' It set me off again. It was amazing and that's the support that Team GB have back home - people are willing to wake up at stupid hours in the morning.
“It's an honour to have this hanging round my neck. Forever now, this will be something that I can say I was part of and it will be something I can tell my kids and hopefully my grand-kids about one day. I've got a lot of things that I want to achieve in my swimming career and as far as I'm concerned this is just the very beginning. This team of lads has got so much potential and the youngsters that are coming up through British swimming at the moment is just so exciting.”
(For those that haven't seen the video the double Olympic gold medalist was talking about here it is, and if you've already seen it then watch it again as you cannot get enough of videos like this)
Anyone worried about the 'rise of the machines'
Can sleep easy tonight...
Thom Gibbs is in Tokyo for us to report on the Games but he's also done us a huge public service in revealing that those slightly scary robots that some say will one day takeover the world, Terminator style, aren't nearly as impressive as some fear.
I mean, if you cannot nail a half-court shot then how are you going to beat and then control all humankind as part of some evil, malign plot?
John Connor, stand down...
The big news from Tokyo
Is that Simone Biles has withdrawn from the gymnastics all-around event.
Read all about it here - Simone Biles withdraws from gymnastics all-around event in Tokyo to focus on her mental health
A limp defence
By Ben Bloom
As Olympic title defences go, that was as limp as could be from Jack Laugher and his new partner Daniel Goodfellow in the men's 3m synchro springboard final.
They started poorly, were ranked last of the eight pairs after their very first dive... and only avoided coming bottom when the Russian pair failed to score with their final effort. Four of their six dives were scored as the worst of the round and they finished a whopping 85 points off the Chinese winners.
Even with Laugher's admission a couple of months ago that he was "panicking" during dives, the British duo would never have envisaged things going quite so badly. Laugher still has the individual 3m springboard - an event he won silver in at Rio 2016 - next week, but it would take something incredible to bounce back from a confidence-shredding outing like today and make the podium.
From our man in Tokyo
By Ben Bloom
They are halfway through the 3m synchro springboard final here at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre and things aren't going at all well for Britain's defending champion Jack Laugher and his new partner Daniel Goodfellow.
The pair came into this competition with a troubled build-up (they could only manage to finish sixth at the European Championships earlier in the year), after which Laugher admitted the pressure he put on himself was leading to “terrible results”.
That poor run looks highly unlikely to end here. They are a distant last of the eight competitors with three of the six dives remaining.
This is what they're up against
The Chinese pair are the ones to beat and their back dive and pike is close to perfection. They leave to pool to receive 9s and 9.5s.
After one round Laugher and Goodfellow are eighth - but it's all very tight. They have 47.40 points with Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi first on 55.80. There's not a lot in it.
Meanwhile from the basketball court
By Thom Gibbs
High drama at the beginning of the men's basketball tournament this weekend, when the USA did the unthinkable and lost a game. It was only the sixth time that's happened in history. Two of those were before NBA players were allowed to compete in the Olympics, the other three were in their disastrous showing at the Athens Games of 2004.
That was until they came up against France at the Saitama Super Arena on Sunday. I'm back there today to see if lightning can strike twice. Will Iran pull off another shock? Well, it's half time and the score is USA 60 Iran 30. I'm going to stick my neck out here and say - no.
Have though just watched a robot called taking shots from the free throw, three point and half-way lines. His record was scored two missed two. Didn't quite manage the half-court shot. Back to the factory, bad robot.
Laugher and Goodfellow aiming to emulate Daley and Lee
Jack Laugher will be aiming to retain his gold from Rio alongside new partner Daniel Goodfellow in the 3 metres synchronised diving.
It’s been a great Games for the divers so far, obviously with Tom Daley finally getting that gold and he later showed he was a man of many talents, not just limited to artistic and athletic brilliance on diving boards.
The 27-year-old claimed his first Olympic title on Monday as he and diving partner Matty Lee won the men's synchronised 10-metre platform event.
Daley has a longstanding love of knitting and crocheting, and shows off his creations on a dedicated Instagram page with 100,000 followers.
And he put those skills to good use to make sure his first Olympic gold medal remained in pristine condition by knitting a pouch to keep his gold medal safe.
He said on his Instagram Story: "If you've been following me for a while now you'll know that I'm a little bit knitting obsessed.
"And I kept on banging my medal, so what I decided to do was make a little case for my medal.
"One side is the Union Jack, the other side is the Japanese flag - because now my medal is not going to get scratched."
Daley made his Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008 and went on to win bronze medals in both the London and Rio Games.
He will also compete in the individual 10m platform competition in Tokyo later this week. Let’s hope he’ll have more pouches to knit, not just for him but for Laugher and Goodfellow.
The three metres springboard event is an unpredictable one but inspired by Daley and Lee can they get another gold for Team GB in the diving pool? Stay here to find out.