PARIS: Keegan Palmer of Australia won his second consecutive Olympic men’s park skateboard title with some spectacular moves on Wednesday, while women’s golf star Nelly Korda made an error-ridden start to her title defence.

All eyes at the Place de la Concorde venue in central Paris, including American rapper Snoop Dogg’s, were on Palmer to see if he could retain the title he won when skateboarding made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

The US-born 21-year-old did not disappoint, leading from start to finish after laying down a score of 93.11 with his first run.

It was good enough to finish ahead of American Tom Schaar on 92.23 and Brazil’s Augusto Akio on 91.85 and Palmer had the gold wrapped up before his final run.

At Golf National, home favourite Celine Boutier delighted the French crowds as she cruised into a three-shot lead after the opening round of the women’s golf event.

Boutier poured in eight birdies in a brilliant seven-under-par round of 65.

South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai sits in second place, while Korda battled back from a poor opening stretch of holes to finish on even par, seven strokes behind Boutier.

Spaniards Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez clinched gold in the inaugural marathon race walk mixed relay.

The Spaniards, who each collected individual gold in both the 20km and 35km races at last year’s worlds in Budapest, finished in two hours, 50 minutes and 31 seconds, with Perez pulling away over the final lap.

Poland’s Aleksandra Miroslaw proved she is the undisputed queen of speed climbing taking gold by a fingertip ahead of China’s Deng Lijuan after breaking her own world record with 6:06sec in qualifying.

“I never thought about the time. I only had one thing in my mind: just run. I didn’t even look at the other side, I didn’t even know it was close,” Miroslaw said.

WEIGHTLIFTING STARTS

The first gold of the weightlifting programme went to Li Fabin, who retained his Olympic 61-kilogramme title with a total lift of 310kg, coming up just short of breaking his own world record.

The three-time world champion led off with an Olympic record lift of 143kg with his third attempt in the snatch and all but assured himself of gold when he hoisted 167kg in his second attempt at the clean & jerk.

“I’ll give myself nine out of 10,” said Li. “The black spot was clean and jerk. But it is the Olympics and I won smoothly, so nine out of ten is appropriate.”

In track cycling, Australia won the men’s team pursuit, beating Britain in the final by more than a second — a relatively large margin by Olympic standards.

The United States won gold in the women’s team pursuit for the first time as they beat New Zealand in the final.

Sailing events in Marseille saw Australia’s reigning champion Matt Wearn grabb gold in the men’s dinghy, holding off his nearest rival Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus, who picked up his second silver, while Stefano Peschiera brought home bronze for Peru after a 32-year medal wait.

Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands earlier became the most successful female Olympic sailor ever with gold in the women’s dinghy, ahead of Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom with silver and Norway’s Line Flem Hoest taking bronze.

KHELIF INTO FINAL

In late action on Tuesday, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, at the centre of a row about her eligibility to fight in the women’s category, won again to move into the gold-medal bout.

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Khelif beat Thailand’s 2023 world silver medallist Janjaem Suwannapheng in a unanimous points decision to progress into Friday’s final in the 66kg category.

Algeria fans flocked to the Roland Garros to support her and her victory means she is guaranteed at least a silver medal in Paris.

The International Boxing Association disqualified Khelif and another boxer, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, from last year’s world championships after failing gender eligibility tests.

The boxing competition in the French capital is run by the International Olympic Committee because of concerns about the way the IBA were operating the sport.

The IOC cleared the two boxers to fight and Lin is also guaranteed a medal.

Ireland’s Kellie Harrington meanwhile won the first boxing gold of these Games when she retained her 60kg title before leading her fans in a wild celebration.

RACE OF THE GAMES?

On the track, American Cole Hocker delivered one of the all-time Olympic shocks when he won the 1,500 metres gold with a stunning finish to blast past British world champion Josh Kerr as defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen faded to fourth.

He was part of a great night for the United States on the track, with Gabby Thomas finally claiming the global title she has promised for so long in the 200 metres.

Thomas held off the newly crowned 100m champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia, who won silver, and became the first American woman to take an Olympic short sprint title since her childhood idol Allyson Felix won the 200m at the 2012 London Games.

Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou leapt 8.48 metres to become only the second man after Carl Lewis to successfully defend the men’s Olympic long jump title on Tuesday, delivering his country’s first gold of the Paris Games.

In a high-quality competition, Jamaican Wayne Pinnock took silver with 8.36 and Italy’s Mattia Furlani (8.34) claimed bronze.

CUBA’S WRESTLING WARRIOR

Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez made Olympic history when he became the first athlete to win five consecutive individual gold medals in the same event.

Lopez, who turns 42 in two weeks’ time, defeated Chile’s Yasmani Acosta in the final of the 130kg Greco-Roman final.

With his victory, Lopez broke a tie for four successive individual Olympic golds he shared with Carl Lewis (athletics/long jump), Michael Phelps (swimming/200m medley), Katie Ledecky (swimming/800m freestyle), Al Oerter (athletics/discus), Paul Elvstrom (sailing) and Kaori Icho (wrestling).

Sophia Smith scored an extra-time winner as the United States reached the women’s football final with a 1-0 victory over Germany in a tight game in Lyon to edge closer to a fifth Olympic gold medal.

The US, eyeing their first title at the Games since 2012, will face Brazil, who reached their first Olympic final since 2008 by thrashing reigning world champions Spain 4-2 in Marseille.

Medals table

(Tabulated under country, gold, silver, bronze and total)

USA 25 33 32 90

China 24 22 16 62

Australia 17 12 10 39

France 13 16 19 48

Great Britain 12 16 20 48

Japan 12 6 12 30

South Korea 11 8 7 26

Italy 9 10 8 27

Netherlands 9 5 6 20

Germany 8 5 4 17

Canada 6 4 8 18

Ireland 4 0 3 7

New Zealand 3 6 1 10

Hungary 3 3 2 8

Sweden 3 3 2 8

Croatia 2 1 2 5

Belgium 2 0 3 5

Hong Kong 2 0 2 4

Philippines 2 0 1 3

Azerbaijan 2 0 0 2

Serbia 2 0 0 2

Israel 1 4 1 6

Switzerland 1 2 4 7

Kazakhstan 1 2 3 6

Georgia 1 2 1 4

Denmark 1 2 0 3

Chile 1 1 0 2

Ecuador 1 1 0 2

Saint Lucia 1 1 0 2

Uganda 1 1 0 2

Chinese Taipei 1 0 4 5

Cuba 1 0 2 3

Uzbekistan 1 0 2 3

Czech Republic 1 0 1 2

Guatemala 1 0 1 2

Norway 1 0 1 2

Algeria 1 0 0 1

Jamaica 0 3 1 4

North Korea 0 2 3 5

Mexico 0 2 1 3

Thailand 0 2 1 3

Ethiopia 0 2 0 2

Kyrgyzstan 0 1 2 3

Turkey 0 1 2 3

Armenia 0 1 1 2

Kosovo 0 1 1 2

Colombia 0 1 0 1

Cyprus 0 1 0 1

Iran 0 0 2 2

Lithuania 0 0 2 2

Malaysia 0 0 2 2

Moldova 0 0 2 2

Austria 0 0 1 1

Cabo Verde 0 0 1 1

Egypt 0 0 1 1

Grenada 0 0 1 1

Indonesia 0 0 1 1

Peru 0 0 1 1

Portugal 0 0 1 1

Slovakia 0 0 1 1

Updated to 11:30pm (PST)

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2024