At the start of the sixth day at the Olympics in Tokyo, there is for the first time a German medal in lightweight rowing – but there are also negative surprises.
The sixth day of the decision at the Olympic Games in Tokyo started ambiguously for the German team. Rowers Jonathan Rommelmann and Jason Osborne took silver, while their team-mate and gold favorite Oliver Zeidler surprisingly missed the final. Even with the swimmers, there were not the hoped for results on Thursday.
Row I: Jonathan Rommelmann and Jason Osborne were the first German lightweight rowers to win Olympic gold. The duo from Krefeld and Mainz only just had to admit defeat to Ireland on the Sea Forest Waterway and won the silver medal. Bronze went to the Italian boat. Since the Olympic premiere in Atlanta in 1996, no German men’s doubles have managed to reach the medal ranks.
Row II: Gold favorite Oliver Zeidler is surprisingly not in the singles final. The 25-year-old from the Donau-Ruder-Club Ingolstadt only finished fourth in his semi-finals. In order to move into the finals on Friday (2.42 a.m. CEST), the world and European champion would have had to be at least third. During his run, Zeidler was 0.6 seconds short of third place. In the last part of the route he could no longer keep up with the competition and lost meter by meter. Zeidler can now only compete in the B final.
Swimming I: Double world champion Florian Wellbrock just missed the second medal for the German pool swimmer. The 23-year-old finished fourth in the 800 meter freestyle. In 7: 42.68 minutes, Wellbrock did not come close to his German record time of 7: 41.77 minutes from the prelim. The American Robert Finke secured gold. Silver went to Gregorio Paltrinieri from Italy, bronze went to the Ukrainian Michailo Romantschuk.
Swimming II: Philip Heintz missed the final of the 200 meter medley. The 30-year-old hit after 1: 58.13 minutes and was seventh in his semifinals. The fastest was Wang Shun from China with a time of 1: 56.22 minutes. Jacob Heidtmann was eliminated the day before despite his personal best time in the run-up. For Heintz it will be the last Olympic Games in his career. He was already there in London in 2012 and 2016.
Swimming III: The German freestyle relay for women over 4 x 200 meters took sixth place. Isabel Gose, Leonie Kullmann, Marie Pietruschka and Annika Bruhn hit after 7: 53.89 minutes. The quartet from China secured victory in a world record time of 7: 40.33 minutes. The USA took silver in 7: 40.73, bronze went to Australia in 7: 41.29.
Corona: In parallel to the sharply increasing corona numbers in Tokyo, a new daily high of positive cases was also registered at the Olympic Games. A total of 24 other people tested positive around the games. This was announced by the organizers of the games. So many cases have not been recorded in one day since data was recorded on July 1st. There are also three athletes among the positive cases. The organizers do not publish the names of the athletes. In the morning, the US team announced that pole vault world champion Sam Kendricks had tested positive. This means that Rio’s third place in the Olympic Games will be canceled for the athletics competitions.
Judo: World champion Anna-Maria Wagner confidently reached the quarter-finals. After a bye, the Ravensburger defeated the Portuguese Patricia Sampaio through Ippon in her opening fight in the weight class up to 78 kilograms. Wagner, who has already won the Grand Slams in Tel Aviv and Kazan this year, is one of the favorites in the venerable judo temple Nippon Budokan. Karl-Richard Frey is also in the quarter-finals. In his second fight in the weight class up to 100 kilograms, the Leverkusen man defeated Michael Korrel (Netherlands), who was fifth in the World Championship.
Do gymnastics: Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles from the USA thanked them for the great encouragement after the frank words about their mental health: “The overflowing love and support that I received made it clear to me that I am more than my achievements and that Gymnastics. I never really believed that before, “Biles tweeted. The 24-year-old Biles had canceled her start in the individual all-around at the Olympic Games in Tokyo on Wednesday due to mental problems. The day before, the four-time Olympic champion had dropped out of the all-around final.
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
