Olympics day 4, late wrap: McKeown extends swimming reign, NZ win Sevens

There were more medals and big results in swimming, tennis and the women's rugby sevens in the late action on day 4 of the Paris Olympics on Tuesday:

Swimming: Queen McKeown extends reign, Wiffen the toast of Ireland

Australian dominator Kaylee McKeown crushed Regan Smith to extend her reign over the 100 metres backstroke before Irish trailblazer Daniel Wiffen became his nation's first man to win an Olympic swimming medal with 800m freestyle gold on Tuesday.

Great Britain capped the night session on day four by defending their men's 4x200 metres freestyle relay crown at a heaving La Defense Arena.

Britain's late triumph was their first gold medal of the Paris swimming meet and condemned the US to a second straight day without a title.

Instead, Americans had to settle for minor medals in all three events as Australia extended their lead at the top of the table with four titles to the US team's two.

Three years after driving Australia to a record haul of nine gold medals at Tokyo, the nation's brilliant women have again done all the heavy lifting.

Backstroke queen McKeown may well end up the best of the lot, having stared down American rival Regan Smith, the would-be challenger who snatched her world record weeks before the Games.

McKeown's strong back-end pace made the difference again as she mowed down eventual silver medallist Smith and American bronze-winner Katharine Berkoff to retain her own 100m title in an Olympic record time of 57.33 seconds.

She joins teammate Titmus and swimming icons, Ian Thorpe and Dawn Fraser, among Australians with three individual gold medals.

“It feels pretty cool. It's great to be a part of history. Hopefully I can keep the momentum going for the rest of the week,” said the 23-year-old, her nation's first woman to win a backstroke title.

The Ireland team have been buzzing since Mona McSharry took a surprise bronze in the women's 100m breaststroke on Monday, and the lanky Wiffen ramped up the party several notches with an emphatic win for the 800m freestyle title.

The 23-year-old clocked an Olympic record time of seven minutes 38.19 seconds to dethrone American champion Bobby Finke, who took silver.

Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri took bronze three years after being runner-up at Tokyo.

Already Ireland's first world championship medallist in swimming, Wiffen wiped tears from his eyes on the podium after breaking new ground in the Olympic pool and securing the country's first gold at Paris.

“I'm not going to lie, I did tell everybody already I was going to do it before,” Wiffen told reporters.

“So it's just good to see it on paper.”

In the 4x200m freestyle relay the quartet of James Guy, Tom Dean, Matthew Richards and Duncan Scott then kept the gold medal in British hands, beating the Americans by 1.35 seconds, with Australia taking the bronze.

It came three years after the same British foursome beat a Russian team and Australia for the title in Tokyo.

Scott's gold was a record seventh Olympic medal — two golds and five silvers — for a British swimmer and there was no catching him on the last leg.

Scott and Guy also took silver in the event at Rio 2016.

“There's so many great individual athletes in that team,” said Scott.

“When we come together, it's always really special.”

Tennis: Nadal and Alcaraz turn up the heat, Gauff knocked out

Spain's raging bulls Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz blazed into the quarterfinals of the Olympics men's doubles but a host of women's singles medal contenders were knocked out as the heat was turned up at Roland Garros on Tuesday.

Once again the dynamic duo received top billing on the schedule and they did not disappoint a fevered crowd as they fought off Netherlands' Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof to claim a 6-4 6-7(2) 10-2 victory.

Earlier, as the mercury soared into the mid-30s Celsius (90s Fahrenheit) leaving spectators and players wilting, the women's singles was blown apart as second seed Coco Gauff, fourth seed Jasmine Paolini and seventh seed Maria Sakkari all perished.

Women's top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland stayed on course for gold though with a 6-3 6-4 win against injury-hampered Chinese player Wang Xiyu to reach the quarterfinals.

Defending men's singles champion Alexander Zverev of Germany stayed cool in the oven-like heat as the third seed kept on track for a repeat of his Tokyo title with a 6-3 7-5 defeat of Czech player Tomas Machac to reach the third round.

There was only one place to be on a tropical evening alongside the Bois de Boulogne though — the claustrophobic Court Suzanne Lenglen for the latest 'Nadalcaraz' show.

Up against a former doubles world number one in Koolhof, the Spaniards found themselves involved in a red-dirt dogfight as the Dutch showed scant regard for reputations and threatened to spoil the party by deservedly levelling the match.

But the 38-year-old Nadal and Alcaraz, 21, have 26 Grand Slam singles titles between them for a reason, and they caught fire again in the deciding tiebreak, with some electrifying tennis moving them within three wins of a dream gold medal.

“Our goal to try to get a medal is closer. So I'm really, really happy about it and let's see tomorrow,” said Alcaraz.

The Spaniard plays a third-round singles against Roman Safiullin on Wednesday before joining Nadal to take on Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram in the doubles.

“I'm trying to enjoy every single second out there.”

Gauff, like Alcaraz an Olympic debutant, still has medal hopes but not in the singles after her shock exit to Croatia's 13th seed Donna Vekic.

The American was in tears in the second set when an over-ruled line call saw her slip 4-2 behind and became embroiled in an argument with umpire Jaume Campistol and the tournament supervisor in which she was heard to say “I'm being cheated”.

Gauff had grounds for complaint as a call of “OUT” on a Vekic shot was quickly overruled but the American insisted it put her off. Vekic remained focused to seal a superb victory and become the first Croatian woman to reach the Olympic singles quarterfinals since 1996.

“Afterwards they apologise, but 'Sorry' doesn't help you once the match is over,” Gauff said.

Italian Paolini, runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon in the build-up to the Olympics, lost 7-5 3-6 7-5 to Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova while Sakkari lost a lengthy battle against Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk.

Zverev reached the French Open final this year and looked perfectly at home on the Parisian clay as he maintained a strong start to his bid to repeat his Tokyo gold.

He was pushed hard by Machac but turned on the afterburners at 5-5 in the second set with two searing forehands earning a break of serve before he ended the contest a game later.

Germany's Angelique Kerber, a singles silver-medallist in Rio, will retire after the Olympics but stayed on course for a golden farewell by beating Canada's Leylah Fernandez 6-4 6-3 to reach the last eight where China's Zheng Qinwen awaits.

The line-up for the women's quarterfinals is complete with Kostyuk to face Vekic, Schmiedlova up against Czech Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova and Swiatek playing American Danielle Collins.

In the men's singles, two Americans reached the third round with Taylor Fritz beating Britain's Jack Draper 6-7(3) 6-3 6-2 and Tommy Paul overcoming Czech Jakub Mensik 6-3 6-1.

Fritz will face Italy's 11th seed Lorenzo Musetti, who beat Argentina's Mariano Navone. Felix Auger-Aliassime also reached round three by thrashing Germany's Maximilian Marterer 6-0 6-1 but Swiss three-times Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka lost to Australia's Alexei Popyrin.

Britain's Andy Murray kept his career going for one more match at least as he and Dan Evans saved match points for the second contest in a row — beating Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen in a cliffhanger to reach the quarterfinals.

Rugby sevens: NZ remember how to scrap to see off Canada for women's gold

New Zealand's women avoided — just — the curse of being “too good” that dogged their men's XVs team for so long, as they were forced to dig deep and show their ultimate professionalism in their Olympic rugby sevens final victory over Canada.

Between 1987 and 2015 the All Blacks men were pretty much the best team in world rugby but when it came to the World Cup they kept failing, usually in the first stiff test they faced after cruising through their early games.

New Zealand's women arrived in Paris as defending Olympic champions and had won the last four world series tournaments in a row.

They began their campaign by beating China 43-5, then Canada 33-7 and Fiji 38-7. In the quarterfinals they chalked up an Olympic record 55-5 thrashing of China.

Their deadly strike runners and ferocious work were there for all to see but their defence, and its systems under pressure, was rarely tested.

So, in retrospect, they will probably be hugely grateful to the US for keeping them honest in the semi-finals the favourites had to battled to a 7-5 halftime lead.

In the second half New Zealand took control to run out 24-12 winners but, not that they probably needed it, it was a reminder that in the short 14-minute burst of an international sevens match, things can turn quickly.

That was in evidence for all to see in the final as Canada, fresh from stunning Australia with a last-play score in their semi, scored twice in a minute to reach halftime 14-12 ahead.

New Zealand regained the lead soon after through the irrepressible Michaela Blyde but this was a very different Canada to the team brushed aside in the pool encounter.

There followed a fabulously intense five minutes as Canada stood up and went toe-to-toe with their illustrious rivals, who likewise refused to give an inch in a ferocious fight.

For all the exciting speed and movement of sevens, this was back to the trenches of hard rugby.

A day earlier Canada had broken the hearts of the Stade de France crowd by beating the home nation but the capacity crowd was right behind them on Tuesday, full of respect for what they were seeing.

Two points down, they were hammering at the New Zealand line, only for the wise old head of Kiwi co-captain Sara Hirini to engineer a key turnover and charge forward.

Knowing she did not have the legs to go all the way, she slammed the brakes on and turned to find, as she knew she would, three teammates thundering in support.

After three days of battle and in gruelling heat and humidity on Tuesday, it was a remarkable display of fitness and attitude and, outnumbering the back-pedalling Canadian defence, they slung passes back and forth before sending Stacey Waaka over the line to seal the 19-12 victory. 

Judo: Japan's Nagase retains title, Leski wins gold for Slovenia

Japan's Takanori Nagase retained the Olympic under 81kg judo title he won in Tokyo three years ago before Andreja Leski triumphed in the women's under 63kg final to hand Slovenia its first gold medal of the Paris Games on Tuesday.

Nagase, a bronze medallist in Rio eight years ago, was already a point up when he secured a victory by ippon over Georgia's three-times world champion Tato Grigalashvili after two minutes, 48 seconds of the contest.

In front of a crowd mainly composed of locals hoping for a first judo gold for France, Nagase at first showed little emotion before finally waving to the audience when the speaker announced that he was now a double Olympic champion.

Before Paris, Nagase's form was uncertain as the 2015 world champion competed just eight times between his two Olympic titles, only winning the Antalya Grand Slam in March.

“The first time, the second time, both were tough, I can't say which one was easier or harder but after Tokyo I went through difficult times, I could not win much,” Nagase said.

“This struggle lasted more than before Tokyo but I managed to win gold here in Paris and this is an achievement”, added Nagase, who did not confirm whether he will aim for a third gold at the Los Angeles Olympics.

Leski had already disappointed another packed house at Champ-de-Mars Arena by beating French reigning champion Clarisse Agbegnenou 1-0 in the semi-finals of the women's competition.

The European champion went on to take out Mexican Prisca Awiti Alcaraz by ippon to clinch her country's second Olympic judo gold following Urska Zolnir in the same class in London in 2012.

“I said to myself, 'I have five fights left', I just go all in and enjoy,” Leski said. “I will explode from joy. It's historic for Slovenia.”

During a press conference, Agbegnenou asked Leski about her participation at the Los Angeles Games in four years. The Slovenian replied that she was not sure about it.

“When you will be sure? You will have to tell me so we can have a revenge”, said the Frenchwoman with a smile.

Just 15 seconds before the gong in the semifinal, the Slovenian had swiped her opponent's feet from under her and forced Agbegnenou on her shoulder.

Officials used video refereeing to confirm the decision of a waza-ari, stunning a crowd that has yet to celebrate a home judo gold at the Paris Games after four days of competition.

Surfing: Reigning champion Moore just 'stoked' to be a surfer after epic day in Tahiti

Reigning Olympic champion Carissa Moore said she was "stoked" just to be a surfer after the Paris Games venue in Tahiti showcased a perfect day of wave-riding to the world's biggest sports audience.

Teahupo'o, which translates as "Wall of Skulls", started the surfing event nicely enough on Saturday but turned the dial up to a 10 on Monday, with some of the best conditions ever seen in competition.

"I don't think as surfers we could have asked for more in the first few days of this Olympic Games - it really showed what this wave can do and what the surfers can do," the American told Reuters after surfing with some local kids and a handful of pros at a playful beachbreak near the main event site.

"It also just showed how much skill you have to have as a surfer, as an athlete. Not only the commitment and the fearless factor, but the endurance and then like - you know, you're getting saved.

"There's like the very real factor of getting seriously injured. I don't know many other sports where you're actually getting saved on the field of play like quite like that."

While successful rides ended with surfers being spat out of giant tubes into a flotilla of media and spectator boats, those who wiped out were swiftly picked up by water patrol experts on jet skis and sped back to the line-up.

"Those guys were able to push themselves like they did because those (rescue) guys were coming in so quick. It was super impressive," she added.

The event was postponed before women's competition could get underway on Monday as a storm tore the lineup to shreds and a lay day, or rest day, was called for Tuesday due to conditions.

Moore said the defeats suffered by fellow Team USA surfers John John Florence and Griffin Colapinto in the men's round three were heartbreaking, but the team held an appreciation on Monday night as everyone digested the historic day.

"They were great sports last night. They've been encouraging of the women on the team and kind of passed on the good energy for us," said Moore, who will take on South Africa's Sarah Baum in round three when competition resumes, possibly on Wednesday.

"So yeah, it was a shame but they're amazing - deep love for those two."

Moore, gold medallist in surfing's debut at the Tokyo Games, took the year off the professional world tour and is planning to take time off and may look to start a family once this event finishes.

On Monday, she was just a surf fan like everyone else.

"I was just really stoked to be a surfer yesterday. I mean, I'm biased, but this has to be the coolest sport in the Olympics, especially here."