Tokyo Olympics: Canada’s Laurence Vincent-Lapointe claims first Olympic silver in women’s 200-metre canoe sprint

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Latest Olympic highlights

OLYMPIC EVENTS FOR AUG. 4

• Laurence Vincent-Lapointe wins first ever Olympic silver in canoe sprint: Vincent-Lapointe, a dominant canoeing force for more than a decade, had to wait for the sport’s international federation and the International Olympic Committee to make room for women to race at the Olympics. The women’s event was finally included at this year’s Tokyo Olympics and Vincent-Lapointe will stand on its first podium, claiming silver with a time of 46.786 seconds.
• De Grasse grabs gold in 200-metre race: Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse has added to his medal count in Tokyo with a gold medal in the 200-metre final. His first-place finish bests his result from Rio in 2016 when he won silver behind sprinting legend Usain Bolt. With Bolt retired, many saw De Grasse as the favourite to win this event, and he didn’t disappoint.
• Decathlon leader Damian Warner has gold within his grasp: Canada’s Damian Warner broke an Olympic decathlon record earlier today with a 13.46 second finish in the 110-metre hurdles. He finished third in discus throw, and cleared 4.90-metres in the pole vault. After eight events in the decathlon competition, Warner has a grip on first place, and the 31-year-old London, Ont., native is focused on steering it home for gold. After some career-best results Wednesday in the Tokyo Olympics, Warner (7,490 points) has a 221-point lead over Ashley Moloney of Australia (7,269), while fellow Canadian Pierce LePage sat third (7,175).
• Cycling Bronze Medal:

OFF THE FIELD

• Extreme heat prompts women’s soccer finalists to request new time for match: The Canadian and Swedish women’s soccer teams may be foes on the pitch, but they agree on one thing: their Olympic gold-medal match should be postponed until later in the evening because of the extreme heat forecast for Tokyo. The two teams made the request to Olympic organizers early Wednesday.
• Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arrives in Poland after refusing to go home: Belarusian Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has reached Warsaw via Vienna after the country offered her a humanitarian visa. The sprinter caused a diplomatic incident on Sunday when she said her coaches had cut her Tokyo Games short, demanding she return home against her wishes because she had publicly criticized them. Some Belarusians waited for Tsimanouskaya’s arrival at Warsaw airport holding signs of resistance: carnations and flags in red-and-white.
• Japan warns of unprecedented COVID-19 spread as Tokyo cases hit new record: Coronavirus infections in across Japan are surging at a pace “unseen in the past,” Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said. The news is overshadowing the Olympics and adding to doubts over the government’s handling of the pandemic.
• Athletes pull out of Olympics for health reasons: Russian karate athlete Anna Chernysheva has been ruled out of the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the coronavirus, Russia’s Karate Federation said. Meanwhile, Olympic organizers said Algerian weightlifter Walid Bidani has withdrawn from the men’s over-109-kilogram event Wednesday “due to health situation which requires him to undergo quarantine.” The statement doesn’t mention the cause.

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More Olympic updates for Aug. 4

• Meaghan Benfeito falters in 10-metre platform diving: Three-time Olympic medallist Meaghan Benfeito of Canada struggled to get her rhythm after performing a rough dive in her first attempt, and finished 13th in the women’s 10-metre platform diving event at the Tokyo Olympics. Benfeito was one spot shy of qualifying for the final.
• Canadian Hau-Li Fan finishes ninth in men’s swimming marathon: Hau-Li Fan finished the men’s swimming marathon race in ninth place with a time of one hour 51 minutes 37.0 seconds, a little more than three minutes behind Germany’s Florian Wellbrock, the gold medallist.
• British heptathlon world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson and German decathlon world champion Niklas Kaul out of Tokyo Olympics: British heptathlon world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson injured her right calf muscle as she rounded the bend in the 200 metres, the fourth event of the competition. About an hour later, decathlon world champion Niklas Kaul of Germany appeared to injure an ankle during the 400-metre race, and did not finish.
• Japan book spot in baseball gold-medal game: Japan is going to baseball’s gold-medal game and Dominican Republic will play for the bronze, with their opponents to be decided on Thursday based on a battle between the United States and South Korea.
• Canadians miss podium with fifth-place finish in artistic swimming: Canadian artistic swimmers Claudia Holzner and Jacqueline Simoneau once again delivered their best performance ever in their duet free routine Wednesday night at the Tokyo Olympics, good enough for fifth in the competition.
• Italy beats Denmark in thrilling cycling team pursuit final: Italy trailed late on in the 4-kilometre team pursuit duel with Denmark, but lead man Filippo Ganna powered the Azzurri back in the closing laps as they crossed the line in 3:42.032 to lower the world record they set in Tuesday’s heats. Denmark finished an agonizing 0.166 slower.

The Olympic experience

From The Globe’s Olympic team

‘I finally did it, Mom!’ Andre De Grasse’s family celebrate an Olympic gold nine years in the making

Andre De Grasse’s gold medal finish at the Tokyo Olympics can finally put an end to the good-natured ribbing he’s gotten ever since his partner, Nia Ali, won a gold medal in the 100-metre hurdles at the 2019 world championships. Still, Ali said, the fact that her victory wasn’t in an Olympic competition inspires her now to “get back on the horse” after taking some time away from sport to have another child with De Grasse, their second together, a son born in May. Beverley De Grasse, Andre’s mother, was similarly elated by the news.

“I feel like I’m on a high and I don’t know how to come down,” she said. “You know, even though I was expecting it, it was just still so surreal to really witness it. Wow.”

Andre De Grasse ‘has another decade of sprinting’ in him, his Olympian youth coach says

After Wednesday night’s triumph, no one will count out De Grasse any more. With five medals, he is already the most decorated Olympic sprinter in Canadian history. What more could he still achieve?

“I think Andre has another decade of sprinting in his body,” said Tony Sharpe, the former Olympic bronze-medal sprinter who is credited with discovering De Grasse at a high-school track meet in 2012. Because De Grasse turned professional after only one season running for the University of Southern California in the NCAA competitions, “he didn’t run a four-year college season,” Sharpe said, speaking to reporters at the news conference after Beverley De Grasse’s remarks. “That can put a lot of mileage on a sprinter. So, he’s got fairly fresh legs for a guy that’s winning Olympic gold already. I can anticipate that he should be around for another two or three Olympic cycles.”

In sport climbing’s debut at Tokyo Olympics, Canada’s Sean McColl ‘had a blast’

There’s never been anything quite like sport climbing at the Olympics, writes Rachel Brady.

As it made its debut Tuesday at the Tokyo Games – with Canada’s Sean McColl competing – its climbers did three gruelling disciplines on different areas of the wall in one fascinating night. The competition featured booming music and superbly fit contestants climbing the wall like Spiderman, dangling from holds by their fingertips, and improvising their way across boulders while battling against the clock

Keep up with the latest behind-the-scenes stories and images from the Olympics in our reporters’ notebook from Tokyo.

Tokyo Olympic events to watch tomorrow, Aug. 5

• Cycling: Canada’s Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell look to ride through to the semifinals in women’s track cycling keirin. Genest will compete in Quarterfinal 2 and Mitchell in Quarterfinal 3. (3:06 a.m. EDT)
• Track and field: Anicka Newell will compete in the women’s pole vault final. The vaulter from Saskatoon finished 29th at the 2016 Rio Games. (6 a.m. EDT)
• Track and field: The Canadian team will compete in Heat 2 of the 4x400m relay race. (6:25 a.m. EDT)
• Track and field: Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee will go for gold in the 50km race walk final (4:30 p.m. EDT)
• Canoe/kayak: Canadian men and women will compete in the Sprint-C2 500m event (8:30 p.m. EDT), the Sprint-C1 1000m event (8:44 p.m. EDT), the Sprint-K4 500m event (9:30 p.m. EDT for women; 9:44 p.m. EDT for men)
• Soccer: And the game that we’ve all been waiting for. After Canada’s emotional win against the U.S., Christine Sinclair and Co. will face Sweden in the gold medal game. (10 p.m. EDT)

Check the full Olympic schedule for the latest event times and competitors.

The Tokyo Olympics: Essential reads

What athletes and teams should Canadians look out for? Consult our guide.

How did Canada’s swimmers use data to get stronger? Grant Robertson and Timothy Moore explain.