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Biles signs off from Rio with four golds
RIO DE JANEIRO: Simone Biles bowed out of her fabulous Olympic debut in Rio with a record-equalling fourth gold, short of the record five she sought, but with her
RIO DE JANEIRO: Simone Biles bowed out of her fabulous Olympic debut in Rio with a record-equalling fourth gold, short of the record five she sought, but with her name in lights among the gymnastics greats.
“It’s been a long journey, but I’ve enjoyed every moment,” said the Texan whose early life struggles had not set her out as the future face of women’s gymnastics.
The 19-year-old took gold on floor on Tuesday ahead of US teammate Amy Raisman, muscles flexed and with the steely determination she had shown on her way to the team, all-around and vault titles.
The only blip standing between her and history, a slip on the beam on the penultimate day of competition, which gave her bronze. She is the fifth woman to win four golds at the same Games after Agnes Keleti (1956), Larissa Latynina (1956), Vera Caslavska (1968) and Ecaterina Szabo (1984). But Biles remains unfazed. “To walk away from your first Olympics with five medals and four in gold, how can you be disappointed,” she said. “It’s exciting it’s over, but kind of sad too.”
BELGIUM STUN DUTCH TO SET UP ARGENTINA FINAL
Belgium set up an intriguing men’s Olympic hockey final against Argentina after they dumped out the world’s second-ranked team the Netherlands with a resounding 3-1 semifinal victory on Tuesday.
Goals from Jerome Truyens, Florent van Aubel and JohnJohn Dohmen guaranteed Belgium a place in their first ever Olympic final.
“It’s an historical night. It was a great game, amazing against Holland. I think we’ve never beaten them in an official tournament,” Dohmen told reporters.
“Now we are doing the perfect tournament, the tournament for life and it’s at the right moment, at the Olympics.”
LIFTING SITE HACKED AFTER ‘CONSPIRACY’
The International Weightlifting Federation website was hacked on Wednesday and its Instagram page flooded with over 285,000 comments after Iran’s star lifter Behdad Salimikordasiabi controversially crashed out of the Rio Games.
Having broken a world record in a previous round, the 26-year-old super heavyweight was disqualified when Olympic officials ruled that he had failed to register a total in the clean and jerk, leading to angry protests by his coach and fans that led to riot police being called to the arena in Rio.
The IWF website was unavailable after it was hacked by someone using the moniker “Master of Pain”, who plastered the homepage with the Iranian lifter’s name and photograph.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram is not blocked by authorities in the Islamic republic.
State television slammed the decision as “unfair” and a video of the “Iranian Hercules” crying went viral.
