Olympics day 9 late wrap: world records tumble as US rule Paris pool

The men's 100m final took centre stage on Sunday's day 9 of the Paris Olympics, but there was plenty of other late action, including the final night of swimming and many more medals in track and field: 

Swimming: World records tumble as US rule Paris pool

Iron-man Bobby Finke and the US women's medley relay team shattered world records in golden performances as the Olympic swim meet ended in exhilarating fashion on Sunday with the Americans on top again.

Floridian Finke took down Sun Yang's 12-year 1,500m world record as he retained the gold medal in the lung-busting event before the American women smashed their previous world mark for gold in the medley relay.

The golds saw the Americans finish with eight at the top of the swimming medal table, one more than second-placed Australia whose ambitions of ruling the Olympic pool for the first time since Melbourne 1956 were quashed.

It was by no means an American shutout, though, with the US men's medley relay team suffering their first defeat ever at Olympics meets dating back to the 1960 Rome Games in a febrile atmosphere at La Defense Arena.

China, anchored by the human missile Pan Zhanle, took the gold ahead of the US team, whose talisman Caeleb Dressel took his first minor medal from a previously uniform set of nine golds.

“I feel like for a team USA, the expectation is gold,” said Dressel who swam the third butterfly leg of the relay. “That's traditionally what we strive for and I don't think that changes any Olympic cycle.

“That was a close race, came down to the wire, and they had four great splits, we had four great splits, and they were faster, simple as that.”

Sarah Sjostrom finished the Games on a huge high after claiming the women's 50m freestyle in 23.71 seconds, the evergreen Swede's two-gold haul surpassing all returns at her previous four Games.

“This was definitely my best [Olympics],” said the 30-year-old, who took the first of her three golds at Rio 2016.

“I'm definitely going to continue swimming for many years, but I mean, how can I top this ever?”

Though the sport shone on the closing night, there was also a clear note of dissent over China's success amid a doping storm that engulfed the team in the lead-up to Paris.

China, who finished fifth on the swimming medal table with two golds among their 12 medals, came to the Games under a cloud of suspicion after revelations in April that 23 of their swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication but were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Games.

The World Anti-Doping Agency accepted a Chinese investigation's findings that the test results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen the team were staying at.

The team China brought to Paris included a number of swimmers named among the 23 in media reports.

China was then thrust back into the doping spotlight last week when the New York Times reported that two of its swimmers in 2022 had tested positive for a banned steroid but had their provisional bans lifted when the results were blamed on contaminated food.

One of those two swimmers according to the Times report was competing at Paris.

Wada concluded there was no evidence to challenge the contaminated meat scenario.

China's anti-doping agency (Chinada) accused the US newspaper of politicising doping issues and said the publication was trying to “affect the psychology” of China's athletes in Paris.

Britain missed out on a podium place in the men's medley won by China, and triple Olympic champion Adam Peaty was pointed in his comments afterwards.

“One of my favourite quotes I've seen lately is 'There's no point in winning if you don't win it fair',” the breaststroker said.

“I don't want to paint a whole nation or a whole group of people with one brush. I think it's very unfair.

“But there has been two cases and I think it's very disappointing.”

The prevailing mood at the pool was joy, though, as another huge crowd roared their appreciation of the sport from start to finish.

After Sjostrom's gold, Finke won the 1,500m in 14:30.67, shaving 0.35 seconds off Chinese swimmer Sun's previous mark.

He finished four seconds clear of Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri, who took silver eight years on from his 2016 gold at Rio.

Wiffen took bronze days after stripping Finke of his 800m crown to become Ireland's first male Olympic swimming champion.

France celebrated another medal with bronze in the men's relay medley, finishing third on the table thanks to Leon Marchand's four individual golds.

“This medal has the same flavour as the others. Except that it's shared,” said Marchand.

“It's the cherry on the cake and I will remember it because we had a super team.”

In the end it was the Americans on top again, though, as they have been at every Olympic swimming meet since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske made sure of it with a world record swim of 3:49.63 in the women's medley relay, with Australia taking silver and China bronze.

“It's awesome to see everybody improving and just an awesome way to cap off the meet,” said King.

Athletics: Ukraine's Mahuchikh soars to women's high jump gold

Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh completed her trophy cabinet with the women's Olympic high jump gold medal on Sunday, clearing 2.00 metres in front of an adoring crowd at the Stade de France.

Australian Nicola Olyslagers took silver and Ukraine's Iryna Gerashchenko and Australian Eleanor Patterson shared the bronze.

Mahuchikh fled her home in Dnipro after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but has kept her competitive career going and claimed Olympic gold weeks after breaking a world record that had stood since 1987 with a leap of 2.10m.

The world champion cleared the winning height on her first attempt and took the gold over the Australian by virtue of having fewer failures, bowing to the crowd as she took one shot at clearing 2.04m but knocked the bar down.

Mahuchikh was all business and kept her cool during the competition as she laid down on the ground with a sleeping bag wrapped around her while her competitors took their turns.

She and Olyslagers were the only two not to knock the bar down through 1.98 and it was game on from there, as the Australian revved up the crowd but could not get over 2.00m until the third attempt.

Neither competitor could get over 2.02 and Mahuchikh, her eyes adorned with blue-and-yellow makeup in her country's colours, smiled after her failure at 2.04.

The bronze medal winners, who could not clear 1.98 but reached the podium with the fewest failed attempts during the competition, each ran to the stands as it became clear they were going home with a piece of Olympic hardware.

It was the second straight Olympics that two high jump competitors shared one spot on the podium, three years after Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi agreed to share the gold at the Tokyo Games.

Gerashchenko threw her arms around her compatriot after the competition wrapped up and the pair jogged around the stadium with Ukrainian flags draped over their shoulders.

Mykhaylo Kokhan added to Ukraine's joy with bronze in the men's hammer.

“We are very proud! Thank you for this result,” Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the social media platform X. “Ukrainians know how to be strong and how to win.” 

Athletics: Canada's Katzberg wins gold in men's hammer throw

Canada's Ethan Katzberg won gold in the men's hammer throw at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, cementing his dominance of the discipline after becoming the youngest ever world champion last year.

Katzberg, 22, who cuts a distinctive figure with his moustache and long curly hair, asserted himself with a first throw of 84.12 metres, and none of his rivals could respond.

“I don't think I expected it, but I had the preparation in mind to get a good round on the first throw, and to throw 84 metres felt really good,” Katzberg said.

Hungary's Bence Halasz won silver with 79.97 and Ukraine's Mykhaylo Kokhan won bronze with 79.39.

The three hammer throwers jokingly took turns to put questions to each other in the press conference after their win, as journalists in the Stade de France thronged the men's 100-metre medallists instead.

A podium of Katzberg, Halasz, who was celebrating his 27th birthday on Sunday, and 23-year-old Kokhan, represented a changing of the guard as defending Olympic champion, Poland's Wojciech Nowicki, 35, finished seventh and his teammate, Tokyo bronze medallist Pawel Fajdek, was fifth, taking a bow after his final throw.

Norway's Eivind Henriksen, who won silver in Tokyo, was fourth.

Kokhan, who secured his bronze medal after Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Iryna Gerashchenko won gold and bronze in the high jump, said it was a great night for his country.

“These medals are very important for Ukraine. Because our people finally have happy time, they can cheer us, and they can celebrate this with us. Not to think about the war for one day,” he said.

Fencing: Japan win historic gold in men's foil team event at Paris Games

Japan won the Olympic men's foil team title for the first time, beating Italy in a thrilling bout at the Paris Games on Sunday.

Takahiro Shikine opened the scoring against Italy's Tommaso Marini, and Kazuki Iimura, who finished fourth in the individual event on Monday, delivered the final touches in a 45-36 win.

The bout was tight, with Japan leading at first, then Italy, until Iimura scored seven decisive touches against Filippo Macchi, silver medallist in the individual event.

Then substitute Yudai Nagano who fenced a flawless round, scored five touches against Italy's Alessio Foconi to give Japan a comfortable lead of six touches.

It was Japan's fifth fencing medal in Paris, and their eighth medal overall in Olympic fencing.

They won the silver medal in the same event at the London Games in 2012.

Japan's foil coaches, Frenchmen Erwann Le Pechoux and Franck Boidin, said earlier in the day that the country had a successful strategy to foster fencing talents, bringing in expertise from abroad in recent years.

Italy took silver for the fifth time in this event, and France claimed bronze. 

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