Tokyo Olympics digest: Novak Djokovic leaves Games empty-handed again

World tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic has left the Olympics empty-handed for a third-straight Games after a shoulder injury forced him out of Saturday’s mixed doubles bronze medal match.

The Serbian, who earlier lost to Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in the singles bronze medal match in which he threw his racket into the stands and smashed another, has failed to earn a place on the podium at the London, Rio and now Tokyo Olympics.

Djokovic lost to Germany’s Alexander Zverev on Friday in the singles semifinals, ending his hopes of winning a ‘Golden Slam’ of Olympic gold and all four Grand Slams. It puts Djokovic’s participation at the US Open, which starts on August 30, in doubt.

Djokovic’s withdrawal from the mixed doubles means Ash Barty and John Peers bag a bronze medal for Australia. His one and only Olympics medal remains the bronze he won in the singles in Beijing in 2008.

Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare has been provisionally suspended for doping

Okagbare suspended for failed doping test

The morning action at the Olympic Stadium was overshadowed by news of a failed doping test.

Blessing Okagbare tested positive for human growth hormone in an out-of-competition test on July 19, four days before the Olympics opened, the Athletics Integrity Unit said. The findings have prompted a mandatory provisional suspension.  

The results of that test were only received by track and field’s anti-doping body late Friday – after Okagbare had already run in the heats on the opening day of track competition at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo – the AIU said. She won her heat with a time of 11.05 seconds.    

The 32-year-old won a silver medal in the long jump at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2013 world championships. She also collected a bronze in the 200 meters at the 2013 worlds in Moscow behind gold medal winner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who is the favorite for the 100 meter title in Tokyo. The highly-anticipated women’s 100 final is the last event on the day’s track schedule.

Okagbare (l.) won her heat on Day 6 of the Olympics comfortably ahead of the field

Gold medals

At the Tokyo Acquatics Centre, Great Britain won the wild debut of the 4×100-meter mixed medley relay, where two men and two women per country swim different legs as they beat out China and Australia with a world record time of 3 minutes, 37.58 seconds. The US team finished last, but did celebrate in other events as Katie Ledecky retained her 800-meter freestyle gold and Caeleb Dressel set a new world record in the men’s 100-meter fly. 

Spain beat San Marino in nail-biting finish to win the shooting mixed team trap final and claim gold. While it’s Spain’s first gold of the Tokyo Games, for San Marino the silver is only their second ever medal at the Olympics.

Germany Update

Germany added a bronze medal to their tally as the German Judo Federation claimed their third medal of the games in the mixed team event. On the final day of judo competition at Tokyo 2020, Germany secured a 4-2 win in the best of seven series against the Netherlands.

The Olympic dreams of Tyler Edtmayer may be over five days before he was due to compete in skatebaord park. The 20-year-old from Lenggries broke his arm during a training session in the Olympic skate park and admitted on Instagram: “I don’t know if I can skate at the Games.” 

More news from Tokyo

While Simone Biles’ withdrawal from two more events and Okagbare’s failed doping test dominated the sporting headlines, concerns continue to grow about the viability of the Olympics. Amid a sharp rise in infections across Japan, the government on Friday lengthened the state of emergency for the Games host city and extended the measure to other nearby prefectures.

On Saturday, Olympics organizers reported 21 new cases of COVID-19 linked to the Tokyo Games, but no athletes were among them. The total number of infections since the start of this month to 241.

Click here for a roundup of Friday’s Olympic news and results.

jt (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

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