Olympics day 13 early wrap: Tebogo takes gold, US keep basketball hopes alive, first refugee medal for Ngamba

BOTWANA'S TEBOGO SWOOPS IN

Letsile Tebogo became the first African to win the men's Olympic 200m title on Thursday when he powered clear of Americans Kenny Bednarek and Covid-hit Noah Lyles to claim Botswana's first Olympic gold medal.

REFUGEE TEAM MEDAL

Cindy Ngamba became the first representative of the refugee team to win a medal at the Olympics after making it to the boxing semifinals of the Paris Games on Sunday, guaranteeing her at least a bronze though she is gunning for more.

US SNEAK PAST SERBIA

The US kept the dream alive with a stirring fourth quarter rally to tame feisty Serbia 95-91 on Thursday and move into the Paris Olympics men's basketball gold medal final against France.

Trailing by double digits for much of the game and down 76-63 heading into the fourth quarter, the US' chances of a fifth consecutive gold were quickly dimming.

Then NBA stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry took charge, bringing a wide-eyed capacity crowd at the Bercy Arena to their feet with a furious fightback.

CHINA'S FIRST IN WOMEN'S BOXING

Chang Yuan became the first woman boxer to win Olympic gold for China by beating Turkey's Hatice Akbas by unanimous decision in the women's bantamweight final at the Olympics on Thursday.

Pang Chol-mi of North Korea and South Korea's Im Ae-ji took bronze after their semifinal defeats.

CLIMBING FAST

Indonesia's Veddriq Leonardo won a gold medal in the men's speed climbing in a historic Olympic title for his country, while American Sam Watson walked away with a bronze despite setting a world record in his last race.

TABLE TENNIS SUSPENSE

China's men's table tennis team triumphed over host nation France with a 3-0 semifinal victory, but the scoreline belied the closely contested matches that captivated a packed stadium of French and Chinese fans.

China now have their sights set on winning the men's and women's teams gold medals on Friday and Saturday to complete a sweep of the five on offer at the Games.

FIRST KITEBOARD GOLD

Britain's Ellie Aldridge won the first ever Olympic kiteboarding gold on Thursday, with Lauriane Nolot of France securing silver and Annelous Lammerts of the Netherlands the bronze.

KAYAK CHAMPION

New Zealand's Lisa Carrington led her women's kayak four crew to the gold medal, increasing her personal Olympic tally to six golds and one bronze with another stunning performance.

Germany's four-man kayak team edged Australia by four-hundredths of a second to take gold in the 500 metres final with Spain claiming the bronze.

SAILING GOLD

Reigning Olympic champions Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy won gold in the mixed multihull event, sailing an assured final race to confirm their overall win.

Earlier, Austria's Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr did enough in their medal race to clinch gold in the mixed dinghy after fighting their way up from the back of the fleet.