August 6 Tokyo 2020 Olympics news and results

Japan's Ryo Kiyuna etched his name into Olympic history on Friday, becoming the first gold medalist in the men's kata event.

Three-time world champion Kiyuna beat Spaniard Damian Quintero in the final, finishing first with a score of 28.72 to Quintero's 27.66 at the Nippon Budokan.

It was a rematch of the men’s gold medal kata event at the 2018 world championships in Madrid -- which the Japanese also won.

Karate is making its debut at the Summer Games in Tokyo this year.

Kiyuna is the only karateka to have won a men's kata medal in each of the past four world championships.

He was in an appreciative mood after becoming the sport's first Olympic gold medalist.

"I appreciate standing on this stage at the Olympics," he told reporters after.

"There are so many people who have been working so hard with Covid-19, and I appreciate that I can stand here even in this situation."

Turkey's Ali Sofuoglu and Team USA's Ariel Torres won bronze medals.

The Netherlands became the first country to win four Olympic titles in the women’s hockey event after a dominant 3-1 victory over Argentina in Friday’s final.

The world No.1 team, who were denied a third successive gold medal by Great Britain at Rio 2016, scored three goals in the space of six minutes in the second quarter before Argentina pulled a goal back.

The score remained at 3-1 in the third and fourth quarters before the Dutch players burst into celebration at the final whistle.

Friday’s gold medal for the Netherlands extends a remarkable streak with the team now finishing on the podium at each of its past 25 major tournaments -- Olympic Games, World Cups and European championships.

The last time they failed to do so was a sixth-place finish at the 1994 World Cup.

Argentina claimed silver -- their fifth Olympic medal in women's hockey -- adding to its silvers won at Sydney 2000 and London 2012, and bronze medals won at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

Earlier on Friday, Great Britain defeated India 4-3 to win the bronze medal.

The women’s Olympic marathon race will start one hour earlier than initially planned due to “expected high temperatures,” Tokyo 2020 organizers announced on Friday.

The event in Sapporo will now begin at 6 a.m. (local time) on Saturday.

“Athletes’ health and well-being are the organizers’ top priorities. Having taken advice from World Athletics' medical team and reviewed all other considerations, World Athletics (WA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee had a series of discussions today and confirmed the schedule change,” a Tokyo 2020 statement read.

“All team officials will be asked to inform their athletes of the conditions so they are able to pace themselves during the race,” the statement concluded.

The men’s marathon race is currently scheduled to start at 7 a.m. (local) on Sunday.

Annika Schleu's horse was definitely not a 'Saint Boy.'

It all started so well for the German athlete.

After the opening two rounds of the modern pentathlon -- the 200m freestyle swimming and fencing -- the 31-year-old led the standings and had strong hopes of a medal.

However, her hopes were extinguished during the riding event as her horse, Saint Boy, refused to cooperate with her wishes.

Horses are assigned to athletes in a draw in modern pentathlon.

Despite her attempts to get him to try to jump, the horse was having none of it, with Schleu reduced to tears on the back of Saint Boy.

“I talked to the (owner of her horse) and she said just gallop in and let him go," Schleu said afterwards. "I tried but he did not want to go. I just started crying.

“I did not expect to make him go and that was the reason I was crying.

"I felt the horse lacked confidence. But I tried my best.”

It resulted in elimination for the German with just the laser run -- the staggered-start race-to-the-finish event that combines laser shooting and running -- to go.

And despite starting the final event fifth, 15 seconds behind leader Uliana Batashova, Team GB's Kate French claimed a brilliant gold, finishing over 15 seconds clear of second-placed Laura Asadauskaitė of Lithuania.

French was accurate with her shooting and quick with her running to take the first gold medal of her career, setting a new overall Olympic record of 1,385 points along the way.

There was a thrilling finish to the men's sprint event on Friday, as Harrie Lavreysen finished just fractions ahead of his Dutch teammate Jeffrey Hoogland to claim an exciting gold medal.

In the best-of-three sprint race final between the two compatriots, Hoogland won the opener by just +0.012 seconds, with Lavreysen claiming the second by an equally small margin, just +0.015 seconds.

And in the deciding race, it was tight and cagey between the pair, with tactics taking precedence over speed during the opening lap.

It almost got too tight, as their bikes almost came together midway through the second lap.

However Lavreysen, 24, was able to get himself just ahead on the final lap, narrowly edging to victory, winning his second gold of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Poland's Aleksandra Miroslaw smashed the women's speed climbing world record on Friday as the sport continues to excite at Tokyo 2020.

The 27-year-old raced to the top of the 15 meter wall in 6.84 seconds, bettering the previous record of 6.96 set last year by the Russian Olympic Committee's Iuliia Kaplina.

The record came in the first leg of the women's combined sports climbing final, with athletes still to compete in the other two disciplines: bouldering and lead.

Miroslaw's climb shot her to the top of the standings but with climbers currently tackling the bouldering leg, Slovenia's Janja Garnbret has begun dominating as many expected she would.

View from Tokyo: Dark clouds have now gathered behind the climbing wall, which had been bathed in light, as night descends at Tokyo's Aomi Urban Sports Park.

It's providing a dramatic backdrop to the women's combined final -- the first time this event has ever been staged at the Olympics.

Like the men's combined final on Thursday, plenty of volunteers and members of staff have assembled in the stands, while several members of the public have also gathered outside the venue to try and get a glimpse of the action.

Germany’s cycling director Patrick Moster has been suspended until the end of the year over reported racist remarks he made during the men’s individual time trial at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, according to world governing body Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

On July 28, Moster was heard shouting at his rider Nikias Arndt: "Get the camel drivers, get the camel drivers, come on,” Reuters reported.

The following day, the UCI had decided to provisionally suspend Moster as his remarks were “discriminatory and contrary to basic rules of decency.”

The UCI released another statement Friday, saying Moster has acknowledged his remarks and agreed with the suspension, during which he is banned from participating in any competition authorized by the UCI, a Continental Confederation or a member National Federation, until December 31.

Germany's cycling federation has removed him from international competitions for an indefinite period.

"The UCI condemns all forms of racist and discriminatory behaviour and strives to ensure integrity, diversity and equality in cycling," the UCI's statement read Friday.

Two members of the Belarusian athletics team who tried to forcibly send sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya home on Monday will return to Minsk, the Belarus National Olympic Committee said Friday. 

Timanovskaya was due to compete in the women's 200 meters on Monday but defected to Poland after alleging that representatives of the Belarus national team tried to send her back home against her will.

Athletics head coach Yuri Moisevich and team official Artur Shumak had their Tokyo 2020 accreditations removed on Friday and were asked to leave the Olympic Village, following an International Olympic Committee (IOC) disciplinary hearing on the incident. 

“In the interest of the wellbeing of the athletes from Belarus who are still in Tokyo and as a provisional measure, the IOC canceled and removed last night the accreditations of the two coaches,” the IOC said in a tweet on Friday.

Responding to the IOC decision, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus said the two coaches would soon return home to Minsk, where they “reserve the right to appeal this decision.”

“At the moment, the investigation is still in process ... in the near future the coaches will return to Minsk. However, they reserve the right to appeal this decision,” the NOC statement said. 

“We are ... in close cooperation with the IOC to clarify all the circumstances of this decision. The NOC of Belarus fully defends and will continue to defend the interests of all Belarusian athletes and coaches from any forms of discrimination,” it continued. 

Keeping up with the action in the women's Madison cycling race in the Izu Velodrome was a tough task for viewers. The handovers and the sheer number of cyclists on the track over the 120 laps made for gripping viewing.

With huge groups of riders converging at points, it inevitably led to some big crashes between riders.

Ireland's Emily Kay and Shannon McCurley were a victim of one of the races' crashes, failing to finish after a coming together with a rider from Italy.

An even bigger crash took place just a few laps later, taking down a rider from Belgium, Poland, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. The Netherlands received a warning for an ill-adjudged handover.

But there was still one more crash to come -- a changeover between the Belgians went wrong and it ended up with an Australian rider sent sprawling.

Amid all the chaos, Team Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald were able to dominate and claim an impressive gold.

The pair finished on 78 points, while Denmark finished in the silver medal position on 35 points. It was a bronze for the Russian Olympic Committee with 26 points.

As a result, Kenny became the first British woman to win five Olympic gold medals.