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• Jamaica’s Valentino Evans has solid showing at Pan American Karate Foundation Cadet, Junior and U21 Championships in Sao Paulo

  Jamaica’s Valentino Evans reached the Round of 16 of both the U-14 Kata Male and U14 Kumite Male at the 2024 Pan American Karate Foundation (PKF) Cadet, Junior and U21 Championships held from August 26 to September 1 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

  Evans was beaten by Chilean Joaquin Ballestero in the Kata category before losing to Brazil’s Arthur Galante in the Kumite Male -40kg category.

  The youngster won two medals at the Caribbean Karate Championships in Curacao in July.

  He took bronze in the 12-13 Kata before going two better with gold in the 12-13 Kumite, his second straight Kumite gold after winning it in the 10-11 section at the 2023 Caribbean karate Championships in Santo Domingo.

  He also won Kata silver at last year’s championships.

   

• Tokyo Olympics: Golden double keeps China leading medal table

  China remain atop the Olympics Games medal table as they maintained their five-gold buffer over the United States with two on Friday in Tokyo.

  The table-toppers head into the penultimate day at the Olympics with their advantage still intact, courtesy of gold in the women's javelin and the men's team table tennis.

  Shiying Liu became the first Asian woman to win gold in the javelin, while China extended their perfect record in table tennis since its 2008 introduction – Ma Long becoming the most decorated table tennis Olympian with his fifth triumph.

  USA matched China's gold count on day 14, collecting the top spot in the women's beach volleyball and via Gable Steveson's last-second victory in the men's superheavyweight freestyle wrestling.

  Japan remain in third place and collected two golds, the first of which came in the women's featherweight freestyle wrestling from Mayu Mukaida with the second following through three-time world champion Ryo Kiyuna, who was crowned the first ever men's kata karate Olympic champion.

  After falling down to sixth on Thursday, Great Britain bounced back up to fourth with a pair of golds. Laura Kenny teamed up with Katie Archibald to become the first British female Olympian to triumph at three consecutive Games – winning the women's madison comfortably.

  Kate French captured Team GB's other gold in the women's pentathlon, though there could have been a third had the men's 4x100 metre relay team not been pipped at the line by Marcell Jacobs' Italy.

  The Russian Olympic Committee sit in fifth on 17 golds, Zaurbek Sidakov securing their sole gold of the day in the men's welterweight freestyle wrestling.

  After firing a blank on Friday, Australia – who equalled their best ever medal haul at the Games a day earlier – dropped down to sixth, level with the Russians on 17 golds.

   

• Tokyo Olympics Recap: Lewis lays into Team USA's relay failure, Spain clinch historic golds

  Nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis did not hold back in his criticism of the United States' performance in the men's 4x100 metres relay at Tokyo 2020.

  Team USA have not won the event in 21 years and though they entered Thursday's heat as one of the favourites, they failed to qualify for the final.

  It is the first time Team USA have failed to reach the Olympic final since 2008, though they have hardly had much fortune in the event since their success in Sydney.

  Indeed, they have only once made it to the finish line cleanly, without any mistakes, when they claimed silver at London 2012. That medal, however, was conceded in the wake of Tyson Gay's doping ban.

  This time around, a team including three of the fastest men in the world over 100m in 2021, fared little better.

  Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Ronnie Baker and Cravon Gillespie finished sixth in the heat with a time of 38.10 seconds.

  "We just didn't get the job done today," Kerley said. "That's all."

  Sprinting great Lewis, who won two golds in the 4x100m relay, hit out at what he labelled a "clown show".

  "The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay," Lewis wrote on Twitter. "The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw."

  He then expanded on his criticism in an interview with USA Today.

  "This was a football coach taking a team to the Super Bowl and losing 99-0 because they were completely ill-prepared," Lewis said.

  "It's unacceptable. It's so disheartening to see this because it’s people's lives. We're just playing games with people's lives. That's why I’m so upset. It's totally avoidable.

  "America is sitting there rooting for the United States and then they have this clown show. I can't take it anymore. It's just unacceptable. It is not hard to do the relay."

  HISTORY MADE BY SPAIN

  Sport climbing and karate were two of the sports introduced for the Tokyo Games, and the first medals in each were won by Spanish athletes.

  At the age of 39 years and 323 days, Sandra Sanchez became Spain's oldest Olympic champion as she triumphed in the women's kata, breaking the record set by Joan Llaneras in the velodrome in 2008.

  Sanchez also became the first Spanish woman to clinch gold in martial arts since judoka Isabel Fernandez did so in 2000.

  Her triumph was followed up by golds for France's Steven da Costa and Bulgaria's Ivet Goranova in the men's and women's kumite respectively.

  At the opposite end of the spectrum to Sanchez, 18-year-old Alberto Gines Lopez became the youngest male Spanish athlete to strike gold at the Games as he pipped Nathaniel Coleman and Jakob Schubert in the sport climbing men's combined final.

  "I think it will help the sport to grow, and for it to get more support. We need good installations in order to help the sport, and I think this will bring more support to the sport," the teenager said, before revealing his plans of celebration: "I'm going to break my diet. And then call my family and friends."

  FOURNIER PREPPED FOR 'THE MOST COMPLICATED MATCH'

  Team USA and France will meet in the final of the men's basketball competition, as the two favourites go head-to-head for gold.

  Luka Doncic's shooting was off as Slovenia fell to an agonising 90-89 defeat to France, who beat the USA in the pool stage.

  The European Champions, who also defeated the USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, now face a rematch against a side that has scored over 90 points in the last four games.

  Evan Fournier, whose 23 points was second behind only team-mate Nando de Colo, knows what is in store.

  "It represents a real step towards a dream, and the dream is to win the Olympics against the United States," said Fournier, who has just swapped the Boston Celtics for the New York Knicks.

  "We have to rest and not let our minds wander, and prepare as much as possible, because there's a team waiting for us. They've prepared for us for two years, apparently, and because we beat them in the pool it will be worse, so it will be the most complicated match of the competition for us without any doubt."

  SHOOT-OUT GLORY FOR BELGIUM

  Beaten finalists in 2016, Belgium claimed their first hockey gold, and only their second in an Olympic team sport, after their men beat Australia 3-2 in a shoot-out.

  Goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch was the hero in dramatic circumstances.

  He made two saves before then denying Jacob Whetton, only for Belgium's celebrations to be cut short by a referral. However, Vanasch stood firm for a second time.

  The shoot-out drama followed a 1-1 draw, with Tom Wickham having cancelled out Florent van Aubel's opener.

  "What a feeling. You become Olympic champion, but twice [because of the referral] It's unusual," Vanasch said. "We had to calm down and go again. We knew that.

  "I'm like a musician, it's a rehearsal and then you come to the concert and it comes naturally. That's how I come on the pitch. I'm composed, but also I trust myself, I trust my reflexes."

  Australia have now won seven men's hockey medals across the last eight Games, while Belgium won their first gold in a team event since the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, when their men's football team triumphed.