Tokyo 2020: Bradly Sinden and Chelsie Giles win first Team GB medals; John Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau forced to pull out

Sinden and Giles open Team GB account

Thirteen years after he was inspired to dream big by the sight of his fellow Doncaster native Sarah Stevenson winning Olympic bronze in Beijing, Bradly Sinden came within eight seconds of securing Great Britain’s first gold medal of the Tokyo Games in the men's taekwondo -68kg final.

In a dramatic repeat of Lutalo Muhammad’s last-gasp agony five years ago in Rio, Sinden had gold at his mercy as he led by two points with eight seconds remaining before a head-kick by Ulugbek Rashitov gave gold to his Uzbek opponent.

Sinden had blazed through the preliminary stages in the Makuhari Hall, before digging out an epic semi-final comeback over China’s Shuai Zhao to march into the men’s -68kg final on his Olympic debut.

But he faced a test too far in Rashitov, a little-known 19-year-old who had accounted for South Korea’s top seed Lee Daehoon in his second contest, and whose impressive level-headed approach enabled him to rally at the death for a 34-29 triumph.

It was a tough loss to take for Sinden, who said: “It’s a bit hard when you get silver. When you’re in the bronze medal match and you win, you get to celebrate because you’ve won the bronze and you get to celebrate when you win gold.

“Silver is in that wishy-washy part. I’ll definitely reflect on it after I’ve had a bit of time off, and be proud of what I’ve achieved, especially in those last five years, coming from no ranking points to becoming world champion and so close [today].

“The gold medal was mine and I did make a mistake and the Uzbekistani picked up on it. He’s a good player and well played to him.

“It is a hard one to take but sometimes, from losing, you get the better learning from it, and I will be taking that learning curve into Paris (2024) with me.”

Sinden’s defeat meant he failed to add to the world title he claimed in Manchester in 2019, and also left Great Britain still waiting to crown a first male Olympic champion in the sport.

Sinden had produced a devastating series of performances to reach the final on his Games debut, racking up 92 points in successive stoppage wins over New Zealand’s Tom Burns and Hakan Recber of Turkey.

In the semi-final, he found himself seven points down midway through the final round against Zhao, the reigning -57kg Olympic champion, before bursting back in the final minute to secure a 33-25 win.

Put into context, even Sinden’s lowest score of his opening three bouts surpassed that of any other athlete in his competition until Rashitov’s belated burst.

Unlike his previous contests, Sinden struggled to gain the initiative and trailed by five points at the end of the first round, an advantage Rashitov twice briefly extended to seven in the second.

However, just as he had in his semi-final, Sinden buckled down and a head kick right at the end of the round saw him claw the deficit back to a fully retrievable four at 14-18.

Two trunk kicks brought Sinden back to level in the first part of the second round and Sinden looked to have seized the advantage when he turned his former deficit into a four-point lead.

In a frenetic final half-minute, first the Uzbek regained a two-point advantage before Sinden swung the bout back in his direction going into the final 10 seconds.

In a unerring repeat of Muhammad’s last-gasp heartbreak in Rio, Sinden’s hopes of gold were ended with eight seconds left on the clock when a head-kick from Rashitov effectively sealed his dramatic victory.

Muhammad was one of the first to acknowledge Sinden’s near-miss, telling the BBC: “I can fully empathise, I know what he’s going through. I think we all thought he’d won it at the end.

“It just hurts because he was so close to becoming Olympic champion. But he will come again, and after that performance it’s safe to say he will win Olympic gold in the future.”

Chelsie Giles collected Great Britain’s first medal of the games and revealed afterwards that winning bronze in the country where judo was founded was “extra special”.

The Coventry judoka overcame Macedonia’s Arbresha Rexhepi and Morocco’s Soumiya Iraoui in the women’s -52kg category on Sunday before losing to home favourite and eventual gold medallist Uta Abe at the quarter-final stage.

But the repechage offered the 24-year-old an alternative route to a podium place and she duly grasped the chance, defeating Belgium’s Charline van Snick and then Switzerland’s Fabienne Kocher by Ippon at the Nippon Budokan.

Her debut Games was therefore one to remember for Giles, who bagged her first Grand Slam gold medal in Israel earlier this year, and she believes the achievement is even more unforgettable because it took place in Japan.

“It feels very special to do it in Japan,” she said. “It’s an amazing arena, the atmosphere was amazing and to do it where judo started makes it extra special.

“I felt really good in the warm-up and I was taking each fight as it came. It went really well, I believed that I could do it and my coach has always believed I can do it and it showed in my performances.

“I never underestimate any of my fights, I think that’s when mistakes are made, so I go into the fight knowing what they do and knowing what I’m capable of doing.

“With my best performance I know I can beat some of the top players and my performances showed that.”

It has not been the most auspicious start to a Games for Team GB, with Yorkshire swimmer Max Litchfield going close as he agonisingly finished fourth in the men’s 400 metres individual medley final.

Jade Jones was widely expected to get Britain up and running but the Welsh taekwondo star, the two-time defending champion in her -57kg category, fell to a shock loss in her opening bout with Refugee Team athlete Kimia Alizadeh.

While Giles may not have been tipped by many to get her nation’s first gong, that was not through a lack of skill on her part. Ranked 10th in the world, she showed remarkable composure throughout Sunday.

Most of her family members may be stuck in the UK but she was being cheered on by brother and training partner Josh, who spoke to their father immediately after watching the standout moment of his sibling’s career so far.

“I think my dad’s probably been crying,” Giles added. “My brother just said ‘well done’. He’s proud.

“It’s special because no one else was able to come out so I was still able to have a member of the family here with me. He’s been a very big support and I’m lucky to have him as a brother.”

Giles’ conqueror Abe defeated Italy’s Odette Giuffrida in the semi-final and then France’s Amandine Buchard, the top seed in the final to capture gold, emulating her brother who reigned supreme in the men’s -66kg event on Saturday.

On her only defeat, Giles added: “A small mistake cost me the match, but I was happy with the rest of the performance. She’s a great fighter and well done to her for the final.”

Biles books finals berth

Simone Biles booked her place in all four apparatus finals but the United States were overshadowed by the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee in women’s team gymnastics qualifying in Tokyo.

Biles won four gold medals in Rio in 2016 and is in a strong position to repeat the feat as she topped the list of qualifiers for the all-around final and also achieved the leading individual score on vault.

But a series of uncharacteristic stumbles elsewhere meant the defending champions trailed in second place at the end of the session, while Great Britain qualified for the team final in sixth place.

Biles said: “Obviously there are little things we need to work on, so we’ll go back and practise and work on that, just so we can do our best performance at team finals, because that’s what matters.”

Sixteen-year-old twins Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova booked their respective places in the all-around final, whilst the latter also qualified for the individual floor final in fifth place.

Jessica Gadirova said: “I’m speechless. It was incredible and there are so many words that I don’t even know that could just describe how I’m feeling.

“An Olympian at 16 is like, ‘what the hell?’ – it’s just so crazy to even think I could be an Olympian this young, just to have the dream of using that word and being under the Olympic rings and competing at the highest level.”

Team GB stars impress in early rounds

The British trio of Luke McCormack, Charley Davison and Benjamin Whittaker eased to victories in their respective preliminary rounds at Tokyo 2020, as did India’s Mary Kom as she goes in search of an elusive Olympic gold.

McCormack, whose twin brother Pat is competing at welterweight, got the better of Manish Kaushik of India via unanimous decision in the men’s lightweight division to set up a last-16 bout against dangerous Cuban Andy Cruz.

Davison, meanwhile, brushed aside Morocco’s Rabab Cheddar 5-0 in the women’s flyweight competition, while Whittaker also had a comfortable unanimous decision win over Colombia’s Jorge Vivas in the men’s light-heavyweight category.

Davison will next take on China’s Chang Yuan while Whittaker goes up against Egypt’s Abdelrahman Salah.

Nine years after winning bronze at London 2012, Kom was back in Olympic headgear and she comfortably outpointed Miguelina Hernandez of the Dominican Republic to join Davison in the second round of the women’s flyweight event.

Ahead of her next bout against Colombia’s Ingrit Valencia, when asked what motivates her to keep going, the 38-year-old said: “I have all the medals in my hand.

“Olympic medal (bronze) from 2012, Commonwealth Games gold, six-time gold at World Championships. It’s not easy to count them, but the difficult part is continuously winning and performing, it’s not easy.

“But what is left that is still not in my hand, that’s the Olympic gold medal. That is what is driving me and pushing me to carry on.”

Defending champion Charlotte Dujardin produced an inspired performance as she cruised into Wednesday’s Olympic individual dressage final.

Dujardin, gold medallist at London 2012 and in Rio, scored 80.963 per cent aboard major championship debutant Gio to complete a clean sweep of British qualifiers.

Her double Games winner Valegro was retired after Rio but Dujardin continues to work her magic, finishing second in Group F behind Germany’s Isabell Werth and joining her team-mates Carl Hester and Charlotte Fry to compete for individual medals.

The trio also comfortably secured a place in Tuesday’s team final, going through as second-best qualifiers, and they appear on course for a third successive Olympic medal following gold in London and silver five years ago.

Meanwhile, Adam Peaty remains on course to become the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title as he reached Monday’s men’s 100 metres breaststroke final with the fastest time of 57.63. There were no medals for the Brits in the pool on Sunday, with Max Litchfield fourth in the men’s 400m individual medley final for the second Olympics in a row.

Big guns forced to withdraw

World number one Jon Rahm and last year’s US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau have been forced out of the Olympics after they both tested positive for Covid-19 prior to travelling to Tokyo. The pair were due to make their debuts in the Games when the men’s event starts on Thursday at Kasumigaseki Country Club and would have been among the contenders to claim a podium position.

Andy Murray’s bid to defend his Olympics men’s singles tennis title ended before it began when he withdrew ahead of his first match with a minor thigh strain to focus on his men’s doubles campaign with Joe Salisbury.