TOKYO TITBITS: Dina Asher-Smith calls in new chapter as sprinter is named GB captain… as Canadian equestrian team fly in on Air Horse One!
The Tokyo Olympics are now in full swing, as the under-pressure athletes finally take to the big stage they’ve been preparing for the last five years.
There has been a huge shock in the women’s road race, Simone Biles hinted she’s human and GB have taken their first medals through Chelsie Giles and Bradly Sinden.
Here, though, are a few moments you may have missed from day two of the Games…
Day Two of the Olympics in Tokyo has seen the event kick into gear as athletes take the stage
CAPTAIN DINA CALLS FOR NEW CHAPTER
In a move with little shock value, Dina Asher-Smith was confirmed as the captain of the Team GB athletics delegation on Sunday.
The 200 metres world champion said: ‘I’ve been fortunate enough to be on senior teams at championships for eight years now — my first championships was 2013 and I was brought in the year Christine Ohuruogu made her fantastic speech as team captain which set the bar so high.
‘I’ve told the team to be proud of themselves, deep down proud of themselves, and also to know that the future is not written.’
Experienced sprinter Dina Asher-Smith has been named captain of the GB athletics delegation
GOING NOWHERE
Monday’s rowing programme has been cancelled due to fears over high winds, with forecast gusts ‘creating unequal and potentially unrowable racing conditions’.
Sunday’s events had already been squeezed into the weekend schedule, and now the quad sculls medal rounds, set for today, have been moved to Wednesday, with other events moved to then and Thursday and the rest of the programme moved back a day.
HAFNAOUI ON THE OUTSIDE
Eighteen-year-old Ahmed Hafnaoui announced himself on the Olympic stage in stunning style by winning swimming’s 400m freestyle from lane eight having qualified slowest.
A rapid finish saw him beat Australia’s Jack McLoughlin to gold with a time of 3min 43.36sec and win Tunisia’s fifth ever gold medal.
Ahmed Hafnaoui qualified slowest for the 400m freestyle before charging to a shock win
AIR HORSE ONE
There have been titters of amusement within the Olympic circus about the naming of the plane that carried the Canadian equestrian team’s horses to Tokyo — Air Horse One.
Featuring only six seats behind the pilots, the jumbo jet transported 37 horses on the 18-hour flight to Japan.
OUT OF SYNC
Grace Reid and Katherine Torrance could only finish sixth in the women’s synchronised three-metre springboard. The Team GB duo were in medal contention after the third of five dives.
But a disappointing two-and-a-half somersault pike in the fourth round effectively ended their hopes as China’s Shi Tingmao and Wang Han dominated the first diving event.
Grace Reid and Katherine Torrance were in the mix but mistakes meant they fell to sixth
WIDE OF THE TARGET
Archery trio Naomi Folkard, Sarah Bettles and Bryony Pitman crashed out of the women’s team event in the last 16.
Team GB are the world bronze medallists but they were beaten 5-3 by Italy as South Korea went on to take gold.
US STUNNED
The United States lost to France 83-76 in the men’s basketball — the Americans’ first defeat since the 2004 Games.
The French had upset the US men when they last met in the 2019 FIBA World Cup quarter-finals and they had their number again on the first day of group play.
Advertisement