Football: Deanne Rose turned in a star performance yesterday to help Canada beat Brazil 2-1 and ensure the North Americans’ second consecutive bronze medal in women’s football. Rose got the opening goal for Canada after 25 minutes. She then turned goal-maker seven minutes into the second half, when she crossed for Christine Sinclair to make it 2-0 from close in. The host nation pushed forward and Beatriz pulled a goal back 11 minutes from time but the Canadians held on.
Diving :Chinese teenager Ren Qian claimed the gold medal in the women’s individual 10 metre platform event, giving her country a clean sweep of the champion titles in the sport’s women events. Fifteen-year-old Ren, the first Chinese Olympic champion to be born after 2000, achieved the highest-scored dive of the evening at 94.05 points, which gave her a total of 439.25 points. Her teammate, 17-year-old Si Yajie, took second place with a score of 419.40 while Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito won the bronze with 389.20 points.
Volleyball: Italy’s men’s volleyball team put an end to a United States winning streak and ousted the Americans from the Rio Olympic Games in a five-set battle yesterday to go through to the final seeking their first Olympic gold medal. Italy beat the United States 30-28 26-28 9-25 25-22 15-9 and will face defending gold medalists Russia or defending silver medalists Brazil tomorrow.
Modern Pentathlon: Russia’s Alexander Lesun set a new Olympic record for fencing in the modern pentathlon. Former world champion Lesun, who just missed the podium in London, won 28 of 35 bouts to beat a prior record set by his countryman Andrei Moiseev in 2008. Lesun was competing alone for Russia in the men’s event after compatriots Maksim Kutsov and Ilia Frolov were banned in July from the Rio Games due to doping offences. The roundrobin fencing competition sets the initial rankings for the pentathlon’s single day of swimming, horse riding, fencing, running and shooting.
Taekwondo: Ahmad Abughaush (picture), a 20-year-old student, claimed Jordan’s first ever Olympic medal when he beat Russian Alexey Denisenko to win Taekwondo gold in the men’s 68kg category. Abughaush was seeded 10th and considered an outsider for a medal in Rio. Jordan first competed at the Olympics in 1980 in Moscow. The Middle Eastern country of more than seven million people has never sent more than 10 athletes to compete at a Games, with only eight in Brazil