Paris 2024 Olympics day seven: Cheptegui wins 10,000m, BMX 1-2-3 for France – as it happened
Key events
Here’s the Saturday front page of L’Equipe after a day of French excellence.
Time for me to sign off; I’ll leave you with Daniel Boffey’s roundup of another dramatic day in Paris. Thanks for joining me, and au revoir.
Want to see the best pictures from Friday at the Games? Yeah you do.
And here’s Jeremy Whittle on British disappointment in the BMX finals.
Here’s Andy Bull on the night’s swimming action, with Leon Marchand claiming a fourth gold as Ben Proud and Duncan Scott took silvers.
What to look out for on Saturday? There are early golds up for grabs in shooting, rowing and dressage, before the men’s cycling road race gets under way at 10am (BST). From 11am, medals will be won at Roland Garros where Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekic fight for women’s singles gold.
Britain’s Emma Wilson features in the windsurfing iQFOiL final, with GB gymnasts Jake Jarman and Luke Whitehouse in the men’s individual floor final from 2.30pm. Simone Biles then goes for a third Paris gold in the women’s vault final.
Medals will be handed out in badminton, fencing and boxing before the big swimming and athletics events in the evening. In the pool, Katie Ledecky chases 800m gold and there’s a star-studded women’s 200m medley final.
On the track, the women’s 100m final is the main event, with mixed 4×400 relay gold up for grabs and the decathlon reaching its climax. And if all that isn’t enough, there’s still the women’s shortboard surfing final in Tahiti.
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Here are the thoughts of Beth Shriever after missing out on a BMX racing medal earlier. “I had the perfect run-in pretty much. I won everything going in and I think maybe I might have got a little bit excited, my thoughts got away from me but I can’t complain.
“I’ve had the best time, the absolute best time and that’s what it’s all about,” the Tokyo gold medallist added. “The pressure is high, everyone’s feeling it, literally one little mistake cost me so, it is what it is.” Teammate Kye Whyte crashed out in the semi-finals, with Team GB reporting he suffered “no significant injuries”.
Shriever added that she spoke to Whyte before he was taken to hospital. “I know he was gutted, so I gave him a hug and then had to try and get my job done, so he’s good. I just said it doesn’t matter, you’ve got your friends and family, they love you no matter what, literally nothing changes, so that’s it.”
The France players came back out on to the pitch in Bordeaux to celebrate with fans, suggesting the skirmish with Argentina players has settled down. France midfielder Enzo Millot was shown a red card, though – leaving Thierry Henry unimpressed. “That’s unnecessary, useless. He was on the bench. I’m really not happy about it.”
Here’s Sean Ingle on the first day of athletics, with the purple track delivering the pace many expected and records tumbling:
Nick Ames was in Bordeaux to see France edge out Argentina in a stormy contest.
The men’s hockey quarter-finals are set after the final pool games took place today – all matches will take place on Sunday.
India v Great Britain
Belgium v Spain
Netherlands v Australia
Germany v Argentina
There are still preliminary matches in the women’s event to come tomorrow, with Team GB looking to secure their quarter-final place against Argentina.
Novak Djokovic is guaranteed at least a silver medal in Paris, having won bronze in Beijing and finished fourth in London and Tokyo. In what is likely to be his last chance to complete the “golden slam”, Djokovic overcame Lorenzo Musetti to set up a final against Carlos Alcaraz.
“It’s a huge relief because I never got to the Olympics final, even though I played really well I thought at Olympic Games,” Djokovic said. “Just to secure a higher medal for the first time for my country, whatever happens on Sunday, it’s huge pride and happiness, and that’s why I celebrated the way I did.
“Of course I’m going to go for gold on Sunday, there’s no doubt about it, but this is a big deal,” he added. “I don’t consider myself the favourite [in the final] because Alcaraz has proven himself the best player in the world at the moment – but I feel like I’m a different player than I was in Wimbledon. I feel more confident about myself and my chances in the final.”
France 1-0 Argentina (FT): It’s all over in Bordeaux and France are into the semi-finals – but that may only be half the story. At the final whistle, things got ugly very fast, with scuffles breaking out all over the place. The players have now headed down the tunnel with hostilities still very much ongoing, while the referee and his assistants wait on the pitch.
My esteemed colleague Beau Dure writes in about US BMX rider Alise Willoughby who, like Beth Shreiver, was a long way off the medals in the racing final earlier.
“Crashed in Tokyo. Missed podium here. Just destined to be one of those people who wins the world championship every other year but is cursed at the Olympics?”
It may be the nature of the event, where your chance is gone in a split-second – but she may get another shot at LA 2028. Cam McEvoy, who got his gold tonight in the pool, may inspire her.
Sticking with the romantic theme – this is the city of love, after all – with a nice story from earlier today. China’s Huang Yaqiong won badminton mixed doubles gold with Zheng Siwei – and then received a proposal from her off-court partner, Liu Yuchen. Gold medal, diamond ring: a good day at the office.
Mixed doubles gold for Czechia!
Czechia, the Czech Republic, whatever you prefer: they’ve won their first gold of the Games. Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac fought back to deny China’s Wang and Zhang 10-8 in the final tie-break. The Czech pair have also been partners off the court since 2020.
No goal for France! VAR has intervened and disallowed Olise’s goal for a foul in the buildup. France still lead by just the one goal.
Goal for France! The hosts are heading to the semi-finals as Michael Olise’s shot on the turn is deflected into the net. They lead Argentina 2-0, and coach Thierry Henry runs down the touchline to join in the celebrations.
In the mixed doubles tennis final, China’s Wang and Zhang have won the second set – so we’re going to a 10-point tie-break for the gold.
In the women’s 200m medley semi-finals, American Alex Walsh qualified fastest, ahead of Canadian superstar Summer McIntosh and US compatriot Kate Douglass. Britain’s Abbie Wood is into the final with the fourth fastest time, with Aussie duo Kaylee McKeown and Ella Ramsay also in a star-studded field. The final will take place on Saturday evening.
A thoughtful read from Barney Ronay on the boxing controversy that has swept far beyond the Olympic Games…
Gold for Hungary in men’s epee team final: Hungary did just enough to dethrone Tokyo champions Japan, winning 26-25 to snatch gold.
Having cruised through the early rounds, Hungary took an early lead but could not build a clear advantage, eventually winning in sudden death as Gergely Siklosi defeated individual gold medallist Koki Kano.
It is Hungary’s fourth gold in the event, but their first since 1972. The Czech Republic claimed the bronze medal, beating France 43-21.
Those BMX golds keep France and Australia in the medal table top three, behind leaders China.
In the mixed doubles tennis gold medal match, Czech duo Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac have won the first set against China’s Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen.
Here’s Jack Snape’s trackside report from the BMX women’s final:
Egypt are into the men’s football semi-finals after beating Paraguay 5-4 on penalties. They’ll face either France or Argentina in the semi-finals; the second half is just kicking off in that game, with France a goal up.
So, it’s 10,000m gold for Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, silver for Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi and bronze for USA’s Grant Fisher, who made a late surge to deny Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed a medal. That was a seriously quick race.
Uganda’s Cheptegei wins 10,000m gold in Olympic record
Joshua Cheptegei waited patiently behind the Ethiopian trio but with 600m to go, he makes his move. Plenty of movement behind him but he holds his lead into the final turn and nobody is going to catch him from here. He coasts home in 26:43.14, easily a new Olympic record.
No Tokyo repeat for Beth Shriever, who was squeezed out early on and couldn’t recover, finishing eighth. It’s a thrilling gold for Australia’s Saya Sakakibara, silver for the Netherlands’ Manon Veenstra, and bronze for Zoe Claessens of Switzerland.
