Day 12: De Grasse realizes gold dream in men's 200m, China remains atop medal count

Andre de Grasse (L) of Canada competes during the men's 200m final at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, in Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 4, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)

TOKYO, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Canadian sprinter Andre de Grasse redeemed his golden dream at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday night after winning the men's 200m final, while China saw a day of barren harvest but still leads the medal tally.

With one silver medal from the women's duet artistic swimming, China now has 32 golds, 22 silvers and 16 bronzes. The United States ranks second with 25 gold and 79 medals in total, followed by host Japan who has 21 gold and 40 medals overall.

De Grasse, who ran his fastest 100m time ever to capture a bronze medal three days ago, won his first Olympic gold by outpacing two Americans Kenneth Bednarek and Noah Lyles to finish in 19.62 seconds. He came second in this event behind Usain Bolt of Jamaica at Rio 2016.

"I've been waiting for this moment. I've been training hard for this moment," said the 26-year-old. "I knew the Americans were going to push me, and they were going to take me to a personal best."

Bednarek took silver in a personal best of 19.68, with Lyles, the 2019 world champion, having to settle for bronze in 19.74.

In women's duet artistic swimming, Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko won the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) the gold with a total score of 195.9079 points.

China's Huang Xuechen and Sun Wenyan won their second Olympic duet silver at 192.4499 after the Rio Games. Marta Fiedina and Anastasiya Savchuk took bronze for Ukraine with 189.4620.

But China still stands a chance for gold in the coming days as its ever-victorious table tennis players booked a final slot in both men's and women's team events.

The Chinese women's team claimed a straight-set win over Germany to set up a final clash against Mima Ito's Japanese team, while their male counterparts whitewashed South Korea 3-0 to face Germany in the final, who upset Japan with a hard 3-2 win.

Wednesday also saw several world records shattered in athletic, cycling, weightlifting.

Georgia's Lasha Talakhadze set three world records en route to win his second Olympic gold in the men's over 109kg weightlifting, basically in a competition against himself.

Talakhadze met no challenge in the snatch as he hoisted 223kg in third attempt, one kilo more than his own world record. Then he extended the lead, beginning his solo in the clean and jerk after all the lifters finished their competition.

He jerked 245kg in his first attempt to nail the gold medal, but he did not stop and pushed himself to hoist a new world 265kg in his last lift. His total lifts of 488kg eclipsed the world record by three kilos. He also became the first Georgian to win multiple Olympic gold medals in any sport.

"I had a great dream and excitement to win the gold medal again and that dream came true again," said Talakhadze, adding he will definitely compete at Paris 2024.

Ali Davoudi of Iran, the Asian champion this year, lifted a total of 441kg to claim the silver while the bronze went to Man Asaad of Syria at 424kg.

U.S. runner Sydney McLaughlin won the women's 400m hurdles title in a world record time of 51.46 seconds, 0.44 seconds faster than the previous world record set by herself on June 27.

Her compatriot Dalilah Muhammad won the silver with personal best of 51.58, also bettering the previous world record of 51.90s. Femke Bol of the Netherlands took bronze in 52.03.

In track cycling, Italy also refreshed the world record of men's team pursuit to win the gold in three minutes and 42.032 seconds, shattering the previous world and Olympic record of 3:42.307.

It is the first time in 61 years that Italy won an Olympic gold in the team event. The last time they were crowned Olympic champions was at Rome 1960 and their last time on the podium came at Mexico 1968 with a bronze.

Denmark took the silver and Australia bagged the bronze by defeating New Zealand, who lost a rider in a crash.

Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich completed a Kenya 1-2 in men's 800m final. Korir crossed the finish line first at 1:45.06 to win Kenya's fourth gold medal in a row in men's 800m at the Olympic Games after in 2008, 2012 and 2016. Patryk Dobek of Poland won bronze.

Japan proved its strength in skateboarding after Sakura Yosozumi won the third gold for the host Japan in the women's park final. The 19-year-old had an impressive first run in the final that earned her 60.09 points which no other skaters could match.

Another Japanese teenager Kokona Hiraki, 12, took silver with 59.04 points, while Britain's 13-year-old Sky Brown wrapped up her performance with a 56.47-point showdown that secured her a bronze.

The one-two finish for Yosozumi and Hiraki put Japan firmly on top of the skateboarding medal tally, after Yuto Horigome and Momiji Nishiya won men's and women's street gold and Funa Nakayama added a bronze after Nishiya.

Japan also claimed its first gold in wrestling as Yukako Kawai won the women's freestyle 62kg title

Kawai, 23, edged Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 4-3 in the final, giving a record-extending 12th Olympic gold medal for Japan in women's wrestling.

In the bronze medals matches, Ukraine's Iryna Koliadenko defeated Anastasija Grigorjeva of Latvia while Mustafa Yusein Taybe took other bronze.

The men's Greco-Roman 67kg title went to Mohammadreza Geraei of Iran, who shut-out Parviz Nasibov of Ukraine 9-1. It is the fourth Olympic title for Iran in Greco-Roman wrestling.

In the first event of the day, Brazilian Ana Marcela Cunha won her first Olympic gold in women's 10km marathon swimming in one hour 59 minutes 30.8 seconds, beating the silver medalist Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands by only 0.9 seconds.

Australia's Kareena Lee took bronze and China's Xin Xin finished 8th, after she recorded a fourth place in Rio and won the event at the 2019 World Championships.

"I accept the result, but I am a little disappointed with the ranking. As to the race, there were a lot of body contacts at the beginning, and it took so much energy, so I fell behind in the end," said Xin.

The British crew of Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre won the women's 470 gold medal. Poland's Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Jolanta Ogar won silver, with France's Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz taking bronze.

With silver at London 2012, gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 under her belt, Mills has become the most-decorated female sailor in Team GB history.

Already leading the overall classification heading into Wednesday's medal race, Australia's Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan sealed the men's 470 gold in style by winning the medal race as well.

Second-placed Sweden, crewed by Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom, were close to the Aussies throughout the race and took the silver medal. Jordi Xammar and Nicolas Rodriguez won the bronze for Spain.