Leon Marchand capped off an "unbelievable" week in the pool as he claimed his fourth gold medal of the Paris Games.

Home hope Marchand has dominated at La Defense Arena, and won the 200-metre medley to complete a remarkable set of golds.

His win on Friday came on the back of success in the 400m medley, 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke.

The 22-year-old, who was cheered on by French president Emmanuel Macron, told BBC Sport: "It has been unbelievable for me this week.

"I am enjoying every moment of it and this crowd was crazy. I was enjoying everything, it was so cool."

Marchand, who was just 0.06 seconds shy of the world record, finished ahead of Duncan Scott of Great Britain.

"He showed his class there, that is very quick," Scott told BBC Sport.

"What he just went after what has been a busy schedule for the guy – it was special to race him.

"It is a great way to finish it [his individual events] off."

There were two medals for France, with Florent Manaudou clinching bronze.

France continued their 100% record at their home Olympics as they defeated Argentina 1-0 to advance to the semi-finals.

Crystal Palace's Jean-Phillipe Mateta headed in from a cross from his former club-mate Michael Olise five minutes in, and that ultimately proved enough for Thierry Henry's men to progress.

VAR disallowed France a second late on, but Argentina could not make their fortune count before tempers boiled over between the players at the final whistle.

Argentina came out on top in the 2022 World Cup final between these great footballing nations, and there were an equal amount of thrills and spills this time around.

Mateta's early goal set the tone for a dominant display from Les Bleus in the first half, with Enzo Millot going close before Geronimo Rulli denied France's goalscorer a second.

While Giuliano Simeone should have done better before the break, it was a similar story in the second half as Mateta again met an Olise corner, but this time his header went just over.

Olise seemed to have capped off a virtuous display with a goal of his own 10 minutes from time, but VAR disallowed the goal for a foul in the build-up.

Loic Bade struck the woodwork just after, and Claudio Echeverri - just on as a substitute - may have made France pay had he kept his composure with the goal gaping, only to slice over as Les Bleus held on to set up a semi-final against Egypt, who beat Paraguay 5-4 on penalties.

Data Debrief: France's Palace connection

Two players who starred at Selhurst Park last season were the main men in Bordeaux on Friday.

He was a constant threat, taking the most shots for France (three) and contributing 0.35 of their 0.97 expected goals (xG), while also having the joint-most touches inside the box (four, level with Olise).

Olise shone in a central role behind his former team-mate, creating three chances, the joint-most of any player in the match. 

Carlos Alcaraz is relishing what will be a "special moment" in his already remarkable career as he prepares for an Olympic gold medal match.

Alcaraz defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1 6-1 on Friday to take his place in the final of the men's singles, which will take place at Roland-Garros on Sunday.

And standing in the way of the Spaniard, who won the French Open earlier this year, and a gold medal is 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic.

Like Alcaraz, the 37-year-old Djokovic is into his maiden final at the Games, having previously claimed bronze in 2008.

Alcaraz, who beat Djokovic in the final of Wimbledon in July, would be the youngest-ever champion of the men's singles should he triumph. He is the second-youngest male to have made it into a singles final at the Games, after Robert LeRoy in 1904.

"It's going to be a really special moment for me, in my life, in my career, so I'm going to try and enjoy this moment, because it’s going to be really difficult," Alcaraz said.

"It's going to be difficult, but it’s going to be special.

"I will try to be focused on myself and try not to hear all this, all the fans, all the people that say 'I'm going to win'.

"I just want to give 100% my best tennis and hopefully I reach my goal to get the gold."

Auger-Aliassime, meanwhile, conceded he was simply second best.

He said: "I just couldn't find a way to be comfortable in any pattern, any position.

"Whether it was trying to dominate the forehand cross-court or change of direction, the forehand inside-out, the backhand side.

"Every aspect. The movement. The defence. I was dominated.

"He's improved a lot, every time we've played. I don't have the solutions right now."

Auger-Aliassime swiftly shrugged off his disappointment by winning the bronze medal match alongside Gabriela Dabrowski in the mixed doubles.

Their success against Dutch pair Wesley Koolhof and Demi Schuurs marked Canada's first medal in the mixed doubles.

Andy Murray is immensely proud of what he achieved after his return from life-altering hip surgery in 2019.

Murray, a three-time major champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist, retired from tennis after his doubles campaign at the Paris Games came to an end on Thursday.

The 37-year-old and his partner Dan Evans lost to American duo Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul in straight sets.

When reviewing his career after the hip surgery in 2019, Murray spoke of his pride in achieving victories against some of the brightest talent that the sport has to offer in the years that followed.

He also looked back fondly on the 46th and final title of his career, which came in Antwerp against great rival and fellow three-time slam champion Stanislas Wawrinka.

"Winning the trophy in Antwerp was great and although the results certainly weren't consistent I did have wins against quite a lot of players who are up at the top of the game – [Carlos] Alcaraz, [Jannik] Sinner, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, [Hubert] Hurkacz," Murray told BBC Sport.

And Murray doubts whether a similar comeback will be seen again.

"To do that with a metal hip, I don't know if that will happen again or not," he added.

"I was the first to try to do it and although it didn't go perfectly I was able to have what many players would consider a pretty successful four or five years."

Though Murray acknowledges the challenges he faced playing with a resurfaced hip, he remains content with how he was able to compete well into his thirties. 

"It wasn’t the same as it was before but that's what I’m most proud of – I was able to come back and play at the highest level with a pretty significant physical limitation," he said.

Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell successfully made it through to the final of the men’s shot put on day two of Athletics competition at the Paris Olympics in the Stade de France on Friday.

Campbell, competing in the first qualifying group, produced only one legal throw measuring 21.05m which was good enough 10th overall in qualifying among the two groups.

The 28-year-old has a season’s best 22.16m done at the Madrid World Continental Indoor tour meet in February.

Campbell is also currently Jamaica’s national record holder with his 22.22m done in Madrid in 2023.

Italian Leonardo Fabri led all qualifiers to the final in Paris with 21.76 with Czechia's Tomas Stanek (21.61m), Americans Payton Otterdahl (21.52m), World record holder Ryan Crouser (21.49m) and New Zealand's Tom Walsh (21.48m) and Jacko Gill (21.35m) rounding out the top six.

Also joining Campbell in the final will be USA's Joe Kovacs (21.24m), Mexico's Uziel Munoz (21.22m), Nigeria's Cornnell Enekwechi (21.13m), Italy's Zane Weir (21.00m) and Norway's Marcus Thomsen (20.81m).

Novak Djokovic will face Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the men's singles at the Paris Olympics.

Djokovic, having seen Alcaraz dispatch Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets, made light work of Lorenzo Musetti in Friday's second semi-final to qualify for an Olympics singles showpiece match for the first time in his incredible career.

The Serbian won 6-4 6-2 at Roland-Garros, where he also defeated Rafael Nadal en route to reaching the final.

Now, Nadal's compatriot Alcaraz stands in between Djokovic and his first gold medal, who previously claimed bronze at the 2008 Games.

Djokovic will also have revenge on his mind, with Sunday's showdown coming just three weeks after the 37-year-old lost to Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.

The pair's head-to-head record stands at three wins apiece.

Data Debrief: Three of a kind

In reaching his maiden Olympic gold medal match, Djokovic became just the third player to reach the singles final after turning 30 since tennis returned to the Games in 1988.

It is quite the illustrious list, with Djokovic joining Serena Williams and his old foe Roger Federer, who both reached the respective men's and women's finals in London 12 years ago.

Should he triumph against Alcaraz, Djokovic will become just the fifth player to complete a career golden slam, which includes winning all four grand slams and a singles Olympic gold medal.

Only Stefanie Graf, Andre Agassi, Nadal and Williams have previously done so.

Spain saw off Japan 3-0 to reach the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics thanks to Fermin Lopez's superb double and a harsh VAR call.

Barcelona youngster Fermin, who played a bit-part role as Spain won Euro 2024, slammed in a sublime strike in each half of Friday's quarter-final in Lyon.

Having beat the despairing dive of Leo Kokubo with a long-range left-footed effort in the 11th minute, Fermin took centre stage again midway through the second half as he lashed in with an expertly controlled volley after taking the ball down on his chest.

Matters could have been vastly different had a first-half equaliser for Japan been allowed to stand, however.

Mao Hosoya brilliantly spun Pau Cubarsi to arrow home, only for the goal to be disallowed for the forward's right foot to have been millimetres offside as he tussled with the Spanish centre-back.

Hosoya was denied by Spain goalkeeper Arnau Tenas late on, but La Roja added gloss to an ultimately convincing win when captain Abel Ruiz poked in from close range after Japan failed to clear their lines from a set-piece.

Kota Takai struck the crossbar in one last fruitless attempt for Japan, and Spain will now ready themselves for a last-four tie with Morocco.

Data Debrief: Fabulous Fermin

Spain have one of the strongest squads at the tournament, and Fermin is possibly the standout.

He showed all his quality with his fantastic long-range finishes, which came from a combined expected goals (xG) of just 0.03.

Fermin had five shots in total, and hit the target with four of them, as he moved into joint-second place in the goalscoring charts with three, behind Morocco's Soufiane Rahimi.

The semifinals of the women’s 100m at the Paris Olympics will provide some of the most anticipated battles of the athletics programme.

With all the projected medal contenders successfully making it through the heats on Friday, the fields for Saturday’s semifinals have been set with a monumental clash set to take place in the second semifinal between three of the fastest women on earth.

The second semifinal will see Jamaica’s three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce lining up against American reigning World champion and current world leader Sha’Carri Richardson as well as St. Lucian reigning World Indoor 60m champion and 2023 Bowerman Award winner Julien Alfred.

Fraser-Pryce was the fastest of the three in Friday’s heats with her 10.92 to finish second behind Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith in the eighth and final heat.

Richardson ran 10.94 to win the first heat while Alfred won the second heat in 10.95.

The rest of the field for semifinal two includes Gina Bass-Bittaye, Rosemary Chukwuma, Bree Masters, Patrizia Van de Weken, Imani Lansiquot and Gladymar Torres.

Jamaica’s Shashalee Forbes will contest the first semifinal against the likes of Ta Lou-Smith, who was fastest in the heats with her 10.87, 2019 World 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith and World Indoor Championships 60m silver medallist Ewa Swoboda. Zaynab Dosso, Rani Rosius, Melissa Jeffferson, Mujinga Kambundji and Boglarka Takacs complete the field in that semifinal.

Jamaica’s Tia Clayton and Trinidad & Tobago’s Leah Bertrand will contest the third semifinal. That field is completed by Daryll Neita, Audrey Leduc, TeeTee Terry, Karolina Manasova, Zoe Hobbs, Gina Lueckenkemper and Delphine Nkansa.

The top two from each semifinal will advance to the final along with the next two fastest times.

The semifinals are set to start at 12:50pm Jamaica Time (1:50pm EST) with the final scheduled for 2:20pm (3:20pm EST).

 

 

Hideki Matsuyama maintained his lead from the opening round of the Olympic Games but now shares top spot with Xander Schauffele and Tommy Fleetwood at the halfway stage.

The three are all on 11 under after the first two rounds, with the Brit enjoying a brilliant day on the course as he jumped 11 places up the leaderboard.

He carded a seven-under 64 on Friday and only failed to take an outright lead after finding the sand and failing to get up and down.

Matsuyama similarly missed his chance, hitting the water on the final hole, but he did well to only make a double as he finished with a three-under 68.

Schauffele, who is playing to retain his gold medal, had set the pace by carding a 66, one more than yesterday.

Jon Rahm has also played his way into contention (nine under), while Belgium's Thomas Detry produced the best result of the day, with his round of eight-under 63 improving him to eight under and vaulting him up 36 places into joint fifth.

Meanwhile, world number one Scottie Scheffler is down in joint-10th (six under), with Rory McIlroy one stroke further down after carding a two-under 69.

His Ireland team-mate Shane Lowry finished on an even 71 for the second day running. 

Hideki Matsuyama maintained his lead from the opening round of the Olympic Games but now shares top spot with Xander Schauffele and Tommy Fleetwood at the halfway stage.

The three are all on 11 under after the first two rounds, with the Brit enjoying a brilliant day on the course as he jumped 11 places up the leaderboard.

He carded a seven-under 64 on Friday and only failed to take an outright lead after finding the sand and failing to get up and down.

Matsuyama similarly missed his chance, hitting the water on the final hole, but he did well to only make a double as he finished with a three-under 68.

Schauffele, who is playing to retain his gold medal, had set the pace by carding a 66, one more than yesterday.

Jon Rahm has also played his way into contention (nine under), while Belgium's Thomas Detry produced the best result of the day, with his round of eight-under 63 improving him to eight under and vaulting him up 36 places into joint fifth.

Meanwhile, world number one Scottie Scheffler is down in joint-10th (six under), with Rory McIlroy one stroke further down after carding a two-under 69.

His Ireland team-mate Shane Lowry finished on an even 71 for the second day running. 

Morocco cruised into the semi-finals of the Olympic Games with a dominant 4-0 win over the United States on Friday.

Achraf Hakimi scored a stunner, with Soufiane Rahimi, Ilias Akhomach and El Mehdi Maouhoub also netting in an emphatic victory as the USA failed to mount a threat.

Nathan Harriel upended Rahimi in the box just before the half-hour mark and the forward made no mistake from 12 yards, stroking the ball just out of Patrick Schulte's reach into the bottom-left corner.

The USA should have equalised in the 59th minute but Walter Zimmermann's nod-down was skewed well wide by Miles Robinson from close range.

Just four minutes later, Morocco doubled their lead – Akhomach darted in behind to rifle Abde Ezzalzouli's drilled cross in at the near post.

Hakimi will take most of the plaudits though, with the Paris Saint-Germain star winning an aerial duel before carrying the ball from the halfway line to the edge of the box and picking out the bottom corner with pinpoint accuracy.

Harriel's sorry day continued as he was penalised harshly for a handball after a VAR check in the 90th minute, and Maouhoub emphatically fired in Morocco's fourth. 

Data Debrief: Atlas Lions roar

Tarik Sektioui could not have asked for a better performance from Morocco, as they outplayed the USA at the Parc des Princes.

They created 2.53 expected goals from their 15 shots, hitting the target with eight of those, and converted all three of their big chances.

One thing is for sure, they will feel very confident going into the final four where they will face either Japan or Spain. 

Iga Swiatek bounced back from her semi-final disappointment to win the bronze medal at the Olympic Games with a straight-sets victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

The world number one put Thursday's stunning defeat behind her in ruthless fashion, taking just 61 minutes to dispatch the Slovakian 6-2 6-1 on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Swiatek made a shaky start to the match, losing her serve on the third game to go 2-1 behind.

She found her fight soon after though, getting three consecutive breaks as she went on a five-game winning run to take the first set.

Swiatek gave barely any openings in the second, asserting her dominance once more as she put together another impressive winning streak by getting two more breaks.

On the court where she has won each of her four French Open titles, she made sure she came away with the prize on offer.

Data Debrief: Swiatek makes history at Roland-Garros

Swiatek may have been tipped by most to win gold at the Olympics, but she made sure she did not leave Paris empty-handed.

She is the first player from Poland to win an Olympic medal in tennis history, and the fourth world number one to medal since the WTA rankings were introduced.

Carlos Alcaraz stormed into the Olympic Games final with a dominant straight-sets win over Felix Auger-Aliassime on Friday.

The Spaniard wasted no time booking his place in the gold-medal match, cruising through 6-1 6-1 in just 76 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Auger-Aliassime won the first game on his serve, but it was all one-way traffic after that, as Alcaraz won the next six in a row to take the first set in just 40 minutes.

Like in the first, the Canadian won his opening service game in the second set, but he had no answers as Alcaraz produced one of his best performances of the season.

He did not face a single break point, winning the last five games in a row as he successfully earned two breaks of his own, dragging Auger-Aliassime from corner to corner with dynamic play.

Alcaraz, who has already won the French Open and Wimbledon this year, is now guaranteed a medal, and he will face either Novak Djokovic or Lorenzo Musetti in the showpiece.

Data Debrief: Is there any stopping Alcaraz?

It has already been a banner year for the 21-year-old, with two grand slams under his belt, and if he clinches gold, he will become just the second player alongside Rafael Nadal (2008) to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympics in the same year.

He is also the second-youngest men's singles finalist at the Olympic Games in tennis history, older only than Robert LeRoy in St. Louis 1904, and the youngest since tennis returned to the Olympics schedule in 1988. 

Alcaraz has won each of his last 12 matches and is now just one match away from writing even more history. 

Queen's Club announced they will be renaming Centre Court after Andy Murray following his retirement from tennis.

Murray's glittering career came to an end on Thursday in the Olympics men’s double quarter-finals as he and Dan Evans were beaten in straight sets by American pair Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz.

He announced before the Games that it would be the final tournament of his career, and he pulled off two superb comeback wins, saving multiple match points in both, to make it to the last eight.

Murray bows out as a two-time Olympic gold medallist with three grand slams. He won 739 games across his 1001 ATP Tour level matches, winning 46 singles titles.

Five of those came at Queen's Club, and shortly after his retirement was confirmed, the newly named Andy Murray Arena was announced.

"Andy is the greatest tennis player ever to come from this country and a giant of British sport," LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd said in a statement.

"His contribution to the game is immense and has bought us all so many moments of pride. He was relentless in his pursuit of excellence and had a single-minded determination to succeed.

"We are proud to name the arena at our tournament at the Queen's Club after him."

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic has led the tributes to Murray, having played him 36 times over the course of their careers.

"Andy, we were all hoping that this message will never come, but here it is," Djokovic said in a message uploaded to the ATP Tour's X account.

"I just want to say congratulations for an amazing career, multiple grand slams, number one in the world, two Olympic gold medals, a Davis Cup. You've done it all. Amazing, really.

"Congratulations to you, to your family. We go back a long time. I think we were 11 when we met the first time on the court, and we had some incredible encounters, and rivalries.

"We played finals of every single grand slam. You brought the Wimbledon title to Britain after 77 years, unfortunately, against me in the final, but it was quite a special historic moment that I cherish and was grateful to be part of.

"You can be proud of your incredible resilience and fighting spirit, the inspiration that you give to all of us after all the hardships you went through - the surgery, the restrictions in your movement.

"You still kept going, you showed everyone there is no letting go and no giving up. Kudos to you and all the best to you and your family. You deserve the best possible farewell."

Great Britain-born Jamaican Josh Kirlew was eliminated in the heats of the men’s 100m butterfly at the Paris Olympic Games on Friday morning.

The 24-year-old, who was one of Jamaica’s flag bearers at the Olympics opening ceremony on July 26, produced 54.66 for fifth in the first of five heats.

With the 16 fastest swimmers advancing to the semifinals, Kirlew’s time was only good enough for 36th overall.

 

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