Singapore upstart Joseph Schooling stunned swimming legend Michael Phelps at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, while Taiwanese athletes experienced mixed fortunes in golf and table tennis, among other sports.
The athletics has already been startled by a world record in the women’s 10,000m for Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana.
Schooling, 21, strayed from the script that had laid out 31-year-old Phelps would get a 23rd career gold medal and fifth of the week in the 100m butterfly.
Photo: EPA
Phelps, who had one more chance to extend his all-time record medal tally in the 4x100m medley relay yesterday, was relegated to a three-way dead-heat for silver with South African Chad Guy Bertrand le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh.
Phelps called the result “kind of cool.”
Schooling, who was inspired to become a top-level swimmer by a meeting with Phelps as a 13-year-old, said the night had been “just crazy.”
Photo: Reuters
He set an Olympic record of 50.38 seconds.
“He said: ‘good job, that was a great race,’” Schooling said of Phelps’ reaction. “I told him to go four more years and he said: ‘No way.’”
Phelps has insisted there is no way he is changing his mind about quitting after his fifth Olympics.
Photo: Reuters
Taiwan’s women’s table tennis team crashed out of contention, losing to Hong Kong yesterday.
Cheng I-ching, Huang Yi-hua and Chen Szu-yu were expected to go further, but were knocked out by Doo Hoi Kem, Lee Ho Ching and Tie Ya Na.
Taiwan began well, seizing the first match 3-1, but Hong Kong rallied to win the second match 3-0 and dominated from then on.
Hong Kong took the next two matches, both 3-0, for a comprehensive win over Taiwan, who embraced each other and cried after the loss.
“We have not been together as a team for long, so we did not have good teamwork to gain points during the crucial moments in the contest,” Chen said. “Each of us trained diligently over the past years to participate at this Olympics, but we got beaten in quick succession and we are out.”
“With all that hard training and so many people cheering for us, it is a terrible feeling to bear: ending up losing like this,” she said.
Taiwan’s table tennis team had already seen a shock at the start the tournament, when veteran Chuang Chih-yuan was eliminated by Quadri Aruna of Nigeria.
Out on the links, Taiwanese golfer Pan Cheng-tsung shot another two-under-par 69, grabbing three birdies in second-round action on Friday.
He remained in the hunt for a top finish, sitting in 10th after two rounds, the best performance among Asian nations.
Veteran pro and former Asian Tour champion Lin Wen-tang had a miserable time in Rio, picking up an injury after hitting his head on a tree branch in round one.
He came down with a cold and stomach cramps, vomiting at the 11th hole on Friday, and withdrew from further play.
Lin finished 12-over-par after two days, in last place.
In rowing, Taiwan’s Huang Yi-ting won her E final in a time of 8 minutes, 34.53 seconds. The gold-medal race was about to start at press time last night.
Swimmer Lin Pei-wun was ranked 49th after a time of 26.41 seconds in her 50m freestyle heat.
In windsurfing, Hao Chang competed in races 10 to 12 of the men’s RS:X preliminaries, placing 28th, 27th and 28th respectively.
Elsewhere, Wang Zhen of China won the men’s 20km race walk gold, 15 seconds ahead of compatriot Cai Zelin.
Britain’s Jessica Ennis-Hill led Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam by 72 points in her bid to retain the heptathlon title.
She won the 100m hurdles, finished third in the high jump and second in the shot put and 200m.
Cyclist Bradley Wiggins became Britain’s most decorated Olympian of all time.
Wiggins, along with Edward Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull, beat Australia in a world-record time to win the men’s team pursuit at the Rio velodrome. It was Wiggins’s eighth medal, the most compiled by a Briton.
Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby refused to shake hands with his Israeli opponent at the end of their heavyweight first-round encounter. He had to appear before an International Olympic Committee ethics commission.
In soccer, US goalkeeper Hope Solo lashed out at Sweden as “cowards,” as the 2004, 2008 and 2012 women’s gold medalists and reigning world champions went out 4-3 on penalties.
“We played a bunch of cowards,” Solo told Sports Illustrated.
“The better team did not win today,” she said, indicating that she thought their opponent’s tactics were too defensive.
There will be no fourth straight gold medal for the US, instead, the favorites head home from Brazil without an Olympic medal for the first time.
Alex Morgan’s eyes were red from tears following their quarter-final loss.
“I was really optimistic. I didn’t even anticipate it going into penalties,” said Morgan, who scored the lone goal for the US, but missed in the shootout.
“It just wasn’t our day,” she said.
Sweden head into a semi-final against hosts Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday. Canada, the bronze medalists from London in 2012, face Germany in Belo Horizonte.
Additional reporting by AP
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