Leonardo clinches first gold for Indonesia

LE BOURGET, France, Aug 08 (Agencies): Veddriq Leonardo struck gold in the inaugural men's speed climbing event on Thursday to give Indonesia their first Olympic title in a sport other than badminton at the Paris Games.

The 27-year-old defeated China's Wu Peng by just two hundredths of a second, scaling the 15-metre wall at the Le Bourget venue in 4.75 seconds.

However American teenager Sam Watson set a new world record in the battle for bronze.

Watson, 18, had lost to Wu in the semi-finals but came back with a spectacular time of 4.74 seconds to finish third.

Watson lowered his own world record for the fourth time this year. Leonardo had been the first man to break the five-second barrier in April 2023.

Integrated into a combination of speed, bouldering and lead in the Tokyo Olympics, speed is a discipline in its own right in Paris for the first time.

For the Paris Games, organisers decided to separate out the speed element, the most spectacular of the climbing disciplines.

Meanwhile, Netherlands' iron-woman Sharon van Rouwendaal claimed her second Olympic women's 10km marathon swimming gold as she snatched victory from her Australian friend and training partner Moesha Johnson in the long slog through the river Seine on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Van Rouwendaal has now medalled at three straight Games after the 2016 champion won silver in Tokyo, making her the most accomplished open-water swimmer at Olympics.

She bided her time before striking late in the final leg upstream, swimming close by a pylon at the Pont des Invalides where the current was weaker before powering past Johnson.

She held on to finish first after a lung-busting two hours, three minutes and 34.2 seconds, 5.5 seconds ahead of Johnson.

Ginevra Taddeucci won the bronze for Italy in 2:03.42.8.

Van Rouwendaal was grief-stricken after her dog died in May and lost interest in swimming for a few weeks before her father convinced her to race.

"My dad said you've been away from him for seven years during competitions. Just give it one more race, give it everything and swim for him," she said.

"So I had a tattoo three days later after the cremation. And I was like, 'Let's try it and I'll swim for him with my whole heart'. And I did, I won for him."

Johnson was thrilled with her silver and said she had no regrets about how the race ended.

"Sharon's my best friend, also the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) of the sport, so to be right up there with her sharing that podium, it's like more than a dream come true," she told reporters.

"I took my line, stuck to it ... I committed and I'm happy with my decision. I still got silver."

The race went ahead as scheduled after organisers said the water quality in the river flowing through Paris had met acceptable thresholds.

The swimmers dived off a pontoon by the Alexandre III bridge right on schedule and swam furiously toward the Pont de l'Alma on a 1.67km loop to be completed six times between the bridges.

In another event, Olympic 100m silver medallist Sha'Carri Richardson and newly-crowned 200m champion Gabby Thomas steered the United States into the final of the women's 4x100m relay after winning their heat in 41.94 seconds on Thursday.

Melissa Jefferson, who won bronze in the 100m in Paris, ran the opening leg, with Twanisha Terry taking the baton down the far straight.

Terry's handover to Thomas wasn't as smooth as it could have been, however, handing the advantage to Germany.

Thomas' pass to anchor-leg Richardson was clean.

The 100m silver medallist then powered past Rebekka Haase to push the German quartet into second in 42.15.

Switzerland took the third automatic qualifying spot.

Britain won the second semi-final in 42.03sec ahead of France and Jamaica, the reigning Olympic champions but missing big guns such as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah.

Canada and the Netherlands sealed the two fastest non-automatic qualifying places for the final scheduled for 1730 GMT on Friday.

Noah Lyles' bid for a first triple sprint gold since Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio Games remains on track thanks to his US teammates Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, Kyree King and Courtney Lindsay.

That American quartet clocked 37.47sec to win their semi-final ahead of South Africa and Britain and book a place in the final to be held 15 minutes after that of the women.

Lyles won the 100m in a dramatic photo-finish on the weekend and goes into the final of the 200m later Thursday as hot favourite. Come the relay final, he will undoubtedly run the anchor leg.

"We're going to come out and we're ready for blood tomorrow night," said Britain's Richard Kilty.

China won the second semi in 38.24sec ahead of France and Canada. Jamaica, with 100m silver medallist Kishane Thompson on anchor, finished fourth and failed to advance.

Also qualifying as the two next fastest were Japan and Italy, for whom Tokyo Games 100m gold medallist Marcell Jacobs ran the opening leg.

After the two opening events of the heptathlon, the 100m hurdles and high jump, reigning world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson led with 2,197 points.

The Briton clocked 13.40sec in the hurdles and a best of 1.92m in the high jump.

Belgium's two-time defending Olympic champion Nafi Thiam, who missed last year's world champs through injury, was in second on 2,173pts.

American Anna Hall, the world silver medllist, was in third, just nine points adrift.

The evening session see the heptathletes compete in the shot put and 200m.

Friday sees them in action in the long jump and javelin in the morning before wrapping up the two-day, seven-discipline event with the 800m at the Stade de France.

Meanwhile, reigning Olympic champions Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti of Italy cruised to gold in the mixed-gender multihull Thursday, while Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr of Austria won gold in the mixed-gender dinghy, a new sailing category for the Paris Olympics.

"We knew winning again would be the hardest thing of all," Tita said. "It's a success that comes over a long, long time."

Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco of Argentina won silver in the event, also known as Nacra 17, while Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson of New Zealand got bronze.

Normally, the catamarans fly off the water on foils - but the same fickle, light breezes that have plagued more than a week of Olympic sailing meant they never got to foiling, rare for a medal race.

"We knew Marseille was going to throw everything at us," Wilkinson said on the sweltering beach.

The dinghy known as 470 became a mixed-gender event in these Games, the first with equal medal opportunities for men and women.

In that race, ran just before the multihull on Thursday, Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka of Japan won silver and Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Karlsson of Sweden took bronze in the event, also known as 470.

"It's a big honor to give back to our country," Maehr said.

Austria's last Olympic gold medal in sailing was 20 years ago.

Okada, with a large Japanese flag covering his head in the beating midday sun, said he was proud of the fans.

"My family and coach and all Japanese sailors cheered us on every day at midnight in Japan," he said.

The Swedish duo screamed in happiness on the beach after one last battle with the light winds that challenged so many sailors.

"We've been fighting so hard for this the whole week," Karlsson said.