Track cycling: World record broken twice in men’s sprint qualifying (2024)

Quincy Hall won Olympic gold in the men’s 400m final on Wednesday by just four-hundredths of a second in another dramatic photo finish at Paris 2024.

Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith set a new European record but he was pipped at the post by Hall, who won gold in a personal best 43.40.

Elsewhere, Noah Lyles — who triumphed in the men’s 100m final on Sunday night in an even closer final — progressed in the 200m by finishing second in his semifinal.

At Le Golf National, defending Olympic champion and world No 1 Nelly Korda carded a level-par 72 in her first round. And the United States women’s basketball team beat Nigeria 88-74.

Medal table | How to follow | U.S. women's basketball

You might have noticed there have been lots of broken world records already in the track cycling, and there has — but that is not unusual.

The latest record to tumble is in the men’s sprint where Trinidad and Tobago’s Nicholas Paul set the record of 9.100 five years ago in Cochabamba.

But it has just been broken, and then broken again!

Matthew Richardson of Australia went quicker with 9.091 before Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen — who led the Netherlands to men’s team sprint gold yesterday — stole it a couple of minutes later with 9.088.

Going to be some fight for the gold medal in that one, with the chance for someone to do the incredible and dip under nine seconds...

The first of today’s quarterfinals in the women’s basketball is done and dusted, and so is Serbia after a 85-67 defeat against Australia.

Alanna Smith led the way with 22 points and 13 rebounds, backed by Cayla George (18pts), as the Aussies booked a semifinal against either Team USA or Nigeria.

Theirs is the last quarterfinal of today, with Spain vs Belgium and Germany vs France before that.

The news came through earlier that Vinesh Phogat of India failed her weigh-in and would no longer be taking part in the women’s freestyle 50kg final, having been disqualified.

It will be Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba (pictured, left) who will take her place in the final; a second chance she was not anticipating.

If (like me) you’re not clued into the ins and outs of skateboarding, let me bring you up to speed.

There are 22 competitors divided into four groups, with each completing three 45-second runs. Five judges rank the runs from 0-100 and, like in the diving, the best and worst scores are scrubbed with an average (to two decimal places) taken from the other three.

Each skateboarder gets three attempts and the best score of the three is the one that counts.

The eight with the highest scores make the final.

The world record holder has her gold medal!

Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland has just won a thrilling final in the women’s Speed event in sport climbing ahead of China’s Deng Lijuan.

There were just eight hundredths of a second between the two finalists!

Two medals for Poland in that event as Natalia Kalucka took bronze moments before.

Before the men’s Olympic 1500 metres final, if you had offered Josh Kerr a British record time of three minutes 27 seconds and a guarantee that he would beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen, his eyes would have lit up.

His ubiquitous sunglasses would have hidden the excitement, but finishing ahead of his rival with a fast time was almost certain to result in Olympic gold.

It did not turn out that way.

If the post-Tokyo Games narrative saw the 1500m reduced to a conflict between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen, Tuesday night’s final proved there was another story to write. The story of Cole Hocker.

Read more below.

A classic case of the commentator’s curse in the speed climbing.

In one breath the commentator said: “Emma Hunt, looking good” only for the American climber to slip and lose her footing a moment later.

As a result, Hunt — one of the favorites for gold — was knocked out by her Indonesian opponent Rajiah Sallsabillah, who progresses through to the semifinal.

Hunt, 20, had said before the Games that she was targeting the world record and wanted to scale the 15-metre wall in 6.5 seconds.

At the Place de la Concorde in the eighth arrondissem*nt of Paris, France, the preliminary round of the men's park skateboarding is under way.

The first heat is done and American Tom Schaar is second with a strong score of 92.05, Australia's Keegan Palmer is ahead with 93.78.

Fellow U.S. competitors Gavin Bottger and Tate Carew go in heat two while Britain's Andy MacDonald is the last to go in the final heat.

The women's javelin qualifiers have just concluded at Stade de France and there was disappointment for the United States and for world No 5 Maggie Malone-Hardin.

She finished 24th of 32 with a best throw of 58.76 and will not progress to Saturday's final.

Poland's Maria Andrejczyk qualified with the biggest throw (65.52) and will be among the contenders for the gold medal.

The six heats are done in the men’s 800m at Stade de France and two U.S. athletes will compete in the semifinals on Friday morning.

Hobbs Kessler qualified in third in heat four with a time of 1:46.15 while Bryce Hoppel did the same in the sixth and final heat, finishing second with a time of 1:45.24.

Unfortunately, 1:46.34 was not enough for Brandon Miller who has been eliminated.

Canada’s Marco Arop, the current world champion, is safely through to the semis as is current world No. 1 Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya.

Nelly Korda's Olympic defence is not going to plan in the first round at Le Golf National.

After a bogey on the first hole, she added two more bogeys and six pars across the first eight holes. The American was able to wrestle back some control with a first birdie on the ninth to card a 2-over 38.

It leaves her tied 34th with 51 golfers out on the course — plenty of time to surge up the leaderboard.

At the top of the leaderboard, there are just four golfers under par and Norway's Celine Borge still has the solo lead after going through the front nine 3-under par.

Colombia's Mariajo Uribe has made a superb start to her opening round with birdies at each of the first two holes and a narrow miss for another at the third.

There were four fallers in that 5000m opening heat this morning, and it has now been confirmed that all four have been handed a place in Saturday’s final by the referees despite their fall.

So the Refugee Olympic Team’s Dominic Lobalu, Britain’s George Mills, Mike Foppen of the Netherlands and Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo have all made it through.

Sadly for USA runner Abdihamid Nur, his fall from the second heat stands and he will not play a part in the final.

At least we get a Hugo Hay vs Mills rematch at the weekend, which could be fiery given how their heat finished...

One of the most heartwarming moments of the Tokyo Olympics was in the men’s high jump, when Italian Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatari Mutaz Esse Barshim agreed to share the gold medal.

But both haven’t had the best morning today. Barshim qualified but looks to have picked up a calf injury and was receiving treatment for several minutes. Will he be in any state to contest the event in three days?

As for Tamberi, left in the picture, who was only released from hospital with kidney stones a few days ago, he failed three attempts at 2.27m but eventually his mark of 2.24m was enough to progress.

Bad news for American pair Juvaughn Harrison (2.20m) and Vernon Turner (2.15m), who both failed to qualify for the final. That is a big shock for Harrison in particular, who seemed to be struggling with an injury of his own by his final jump.

What a classic. Spain are through to the semifinals after an epic contest with Egypt in the men's handball.

Spain trailed with 30 seconds remaining before Ian Tarrafeta at the death sent the match into overtime.

Then with 25 seconds remaining in overtime, Aleix Gomez stepped up with a penalty goal to secure a 29-28 win.

Now the only question is whether or not Spain can top the bronze medal they picked up in Tokyo.

The three remaining quarterfinals — dominated by European teams — take place today.

More action in the diving pool today as the men’s 3m springboard semifinal has just concluded. Of the 18 to dive this morning, 12 have made it into tomorrow afternoon’s final.

There will be U.S. representation in that final as Carson Tyler has qualified in seventh position. But compatriot Andrew Capobianco finished 15th so has been eliminated.

Here is the full lineup in order of highest qualifying scores as China continue their pursuit of a diving clean sweep:

1. Wang Zongyuan (China): 537.85
2. Xie Siyi (China): 505.85
3. Jack Laugher (Britain): 467.05
4. Osmar Olvera (Mexico): 463.75
5. Jordan Houlden (Britain): 445.55
6. Jules Bouyer (France): 438.30
7. Carson Tyler (United States): 438.00
8. Moritz Wesemann (Germany): 433.00
9. Woo Ha-ram (South Korea): 432.00
10. Luis Felipe Uribe Bermudez (Colombia): 423.80
11. Kurtis Mathews (Australia): 417.15
12. Jonathan Ruvalcaba (Dominican Republic): 416.20

As you can tell, Britain’s George Mills is absolutely seething with what happened at the end of that first 5000m heat, jabbing his finger at the man he holds responsible for the collision.

To me, it looked as if France’s Hugo Hay, who finished seventh and progresses, shrugged his right arm and shoulder outwards, making contact with Mills, who took a tumble and subsequently finished 18th, leaving four athletes on the floor.

Mills, the son of former England soccer player Danny Mills (who also loved a confrontation, some might remember), will hope the appeal lodged by the British team will amend the result, but said he wasn’t optimistic given Hay was running at his home Games.

Hay has claimed he was pushed by someone else. Hmm.

China’s Zheng Haohao competed in the women's skateboarding park. What’s special about her? She’s only 11 years old, her country’s youngest ever Olympian, and was born on the penultimate day of the London 2012 Games.

She scored 63.19 to finish 18th in the preliminaries, missing out on the final, but she can console herself with the prospect of a 12th birthday on Sunday.

At the other end of the spectrum (though in the same sport), Andy MacDonald of Britain, all of 51 years young, will compete in the men’s park skateboarding preliminaries later this morning.

He’s not the oldest competitor in Paris, though: that is Spanish dressage athlete Juan Antonio Jimenez.

The second 5000m heat is a little more respectable in terms of pace — but only at certain points.

It also has its own dollop of chaos too, as an unaware cameraman starts crossing one of the bends a couple of laps from home and the field of runners has to avoid him like the peloton avoiding a bollard in the Tour de France.

Not ideal, but there is a lot going on inside the Stade de France right now so maybe it was bound to happen at some point.

There is also another faller on the home straight, as United States’ Abdihamid Nur hits the ground. Another one for the judges to look at.

Anyway, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen response to his 1500m disappointment last night to take the heat, with another U.S. contender, Grant Fisher, also safely through in fourth.

What a mess of an opening heat in the men’s 5000m. It’s little more than a slow jog for the opening 10 laps, then the fun begins.

With the field bunched and plenty of chaotic chopping and changing, Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed — winner of the 10,000m — is knocked to the ground ahead of the final lap.

Then heading into the home straight, there’s a tangle between France’s Hugo Jay and Britain’s George Mills that leaves the Brit and the Netherlands’ Mike Foppen in a heap.

Emotions run high once they all cross the line too, with Mills making his feelings on the incident clear to Hay. It will be interesting to see how the officials viewed it.

Hay qualified seventh with Canada’s Thomas Fafard also making the top eight and Saturday’s final. United States’ Graham Banks (sixth) and men’s 1500m gold medalist Narve Nordas of Norway (first) are through too.