How Africa
Here is our round-up of the key action from last night …
1. Great Britain’s women have themselves a medal
Alex Danson scored twice as Great Britain’s women secured a place in the Olympic final and a guaranteed medal.
Two goals from Danson and a third from Helen Richardson-Walsh saw Team GB emphatically see off New Zealand 3-0 in the semi-final.
The two-time defending champion Netherlands, who beat in Germany in a dramatic penalty shootout in the first semi-final earlier on Wednesday, now stand between Danny Kerry’s girls and a gold medal.
2. Usain Bolt did what he does
Usain Bolt stayed on track to complete the Olympic sprint triple-triple on a night of shocks in the men’s 200 metres.
Bolt breezed through in the fastest time (19.78secs), making time even to share a mid-race joke with Canadian rival Andre de Grasse.
But there were two major surprises with Justin Gatlin and Yohan Blake each failing to make the final.
Gatlin, the 2005 world champion and second fastest man in 2016, could manage only 20.13secs and missed out to British team captain Adam Gemili (20.08).
3. But Justin Gatlin didn’t
American Gatlin was the shock elimination from the final semi-final as Bolt, who is bidding for a historic triple triple in Rio, cruised through to win.
Gatlin, a favourite for a medal, stormed off the track following a race which also saw Bolt’s Jamaican team-mate Yohan Blake also eliminated.
And afterwards Bolt, who of course beat the American to gold in the 100m on Sunday, appeared to aim a cheeky dig at his long-time rival.
“No, seriously? Everybody is in shock, I don’t know. You can tell from the 100m that he’s getting old…”
4. We have a new force in women’s sprinting
Elaine Thompson tonight became the first woman for 28 years to complete theOlympic sprint double in the same Games.
Maintaining Jamaica’s total dominance of the sprint distances, Thompson held off Dutch world champion Dafne Schippers to win a thrilling 200 metres.
Britain’s fastest ever woman, 20-year-old Dina Asher-Smith, finished an outstanding fifth in her first olympic final.
Not since Florence Griffiths-Joyner doubled up in Seoul in 1988 has one female athlete done what Usain Bolt seems to do every Olympiad.
Thompson was humbled to follow in the spike marks of Veronica Campbell Brown, who won gold in 2004 and 2008, and serial medal winner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
“It is very special and a welcoming feel for me,” she said. “Watching Veronica Campbell Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and then putting my name there is an amazing feeling. I think my light has shined.”
5. The USA flexed their muscles
Cindy Ofili and her older sister Tiffany Porter celebrated reaching their first Olympic final together in the women’s 100m hurdles.
But their joy ended there as they were run out of the medals by a trio of Americans headed by new champion Brianna Rollins.
The strength of American sprint hurdling is such that Kendra Harrison, who broke the world record in London last month, did not even make their team.
Here Rollins led a US 1-2-3 with Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin following her home.
6. Remember the American who captured everyone’s hearts? She’s out…
The American who captured the hearts of thousands at the Olympics is out of the Rio Games through injury.
Team USA’s Abbey D’Agostino and Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand tripped over each other 3,000m into the 5,000m heats.
The 24-year-old won widespread praise for stopping to help Hamblin to her feet after the New Zealander tripped and fell, taking D’Agostino down with her.
Both women went on to finish the race, D’Agostino clearly injured, and scans on Wednesday revealed the American had completed the final 2,000m despite a torn right anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus and a strained medial collateral ligament.
