The challenge of the Great and the overcoming of Dalaloyan: what to expect from the Russians on the third day of the Tokyo Games

On Sunday, Russian athletes won the first gold of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and on Monday they will try to replenish the piggy bank with new awards of the highest standard.

At the same time, in several forms at once, domestic athletes can truly go down in history.

For example, this applies to artistic gymnastics, in which the final in the men's team all-around event will take place.

In this discipline, the country has not known victories at the Olympics since 1996, when the team, led by the legendary Alexei Nemov, overtook China and Ukraine.

True, in 2019 Artur Dalaloyan, Nikita Nagorny, Denis Ablyazin, Ivan Stretovich and David Belyavsky brought Russia the first ever gold in the world championship.

They now have the opportunity to repeat their success in Tokyo.

In qualifying, our four took third place, slightly behind the Japanese and Chinese.

The main struggle will start with them.

True, the health condition of Dalaloyan can become a serious problem for Valentina Rodionenko's charges.

Just a few months before OI, he suffered an Achilles rupture, but managed to recover.

In Tokyo, Arthur has expectedly difficult times, for example, he did not reach the final on any single apparatus.

The fans and swimmers will try to please.

They have never won an Olympic Games at all in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.

The maximum result is the silver of the same Atlanta, when Alexander Popov led the domestic four to medals.

Now Vladislav Grinev, Andrey Minakov, Vladimir Morozov and Alexander Shchegolev will try to follow in his footsteps.

However, the main favorites in this form are the Americans, who did not know equals at the last championship of the planet.

But immediately after them the Russians finished.

It will be extremely difficult for them to level the handicap, however, as you know, there is always hope for a miracle.

In another water sport, Alexander Bondar and Viktor Minibaev will compete for awards in synchronized diving from a ten-meter platform.

The main rivals of the experienced duo will be the current Olympic champions Cang Yuan and Chen Aisen.

Moreover, Aisen in Rio de Janeiro performed with another partner, but then took Yuan in a pair, who won gold on a three-meter springboard.

We cannot discount the British Tom Daley and Matthew Lee, who beat the Russians at the last European Championship.

The fans will traditionally wait for medals in fencing.

Representatives of this sport have already brought silver and bronze medals to the country.

Only the highest dignity awards are lacking.

And on Monday the team will have excellent chances in the women's saber fencer tournament.

Here, both the most experienced 36-year-old Sophia Velikaya and the young star Sofia Pozdnyakova claim to win.

The representative of Ukraine Olga Harlan will try to prevent them.

The 30-year-old native of Nikolaev has many awards to her credit, but there is still not a single Olympic gold in the individual tournament, like Velikaya.

Moreover, their paths have repeatedly crossed at major competitions.

So, in 2016, Sophia turned out to be stronger than her rival in the OG semifinals - 15:12.

She took revenge in the decisive confrontation of the World Cup.

Now, Harlan's chances for gold are to some extent preferable, since she won the KM in the saber three times in a row (2018-2020).

The daughter of the President of the ROC Stanislav Pozdnyakov, who in 2018 at the World Cup in Wuxi made a splash and took first place, cannot be disregarded.

Moreover, in the final, the young fencer was stronger than the Great.

But there is no need to wait for an award for men in the epee competition, because three athletes born in 2000 arrived in Tokyo at once.

But the fans will have the opportunity to worry about the twin brothers Anton and Kirill Borodachev.

Traditionally, you can expect decent results from domestic athletes in martial arts.

So, in taekwondo in the weight category up to 80 kg, the debutant of the Olympics Maxim Khramtsov has a good chance to climb the podium.

By the age of 23, he has already won the World Cup and twice the European Championship.

Moreover, the victory at the championship of the planet was the first in the men's division for the country.

In addition, in Tokyo, the young man was lucky with the draw.

All the main rivals hit the other half of the grid.

This actually opens the way for Maxim to the final.

But judokas were not lucky when choosing opponents.

Musa Mogushkov in the weight category up to 73 kg in the first fight will have to face the first number and the silver medalist of the Olympic Games and World Championships Rustam Orudzhev from Azerbaijan.

And Daria Mezhetskaya (up to 57 kg) in the second round can hit the four-time world champion Tsukashi Yoshidu.

Shooting turns out to be quite medal-intensive for Russia in Tokyo. It is enough that Anastasia Galashina brought the country the first award - silver, and Vitalina Batsarashkina rose to the highest step of the podium. On Monday, Natalia Vinogradova will try to replenish the team's piggy bank in the skete. She qualified well enough, showing the fourth result and knocking out the maximum number of points in two of three attempts. At the same time, in this form, domestic arrows at the Olympic Games were content with only one silver - in 2000.

Competitions in team sports will continue on Monday. The Russian men's volleyball team will play the second match in the tournament. In the first, Tuomas Sammelvuo's wards beat Argentina with some difficulty - 3: 1. Now they will face a key confrontation with the current Olympic and World Cup bronze medalists, the Americans. It is curious that five years ago, in the match for the third place in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the United States met with the national team. The Russians were close to victory and were leading in sets 2: 0, but managed to give three games in a row and were left without awards.

The women's water polo team is also facing a tough rival - Hungary.

The coach of the team Andrey Belofastov, after a tough victory over China with a one goal difference, emphasized that the Magyars are much higher in the class of representatives of the Celestial Empire.

On the other hand, the Russians recently beat them in the World League - 14:13.

Finally, a tennis competition flares up in Tokyo.

The new week will open with confrontations of the second round.

Five representatives of our country have reached this stage (Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Elena Vesnina - for women, Daniil Medvedev - for men).

Vesnina will also play together with Veronika Kudermetova.

All domestic athletes should easily pass on.

For example, the second racket of the planet Medvedev will face off against the little-known Indian Sumit Nagal, who occupies only 160th place in the ATP ranking.

In turn, Pavlyuchenkova will play with the average German Anna-Lena Fridzam. Aleksandrova will meet with the "dark horse" Nadia Podorskaya from Argentina, who sensationally made her way to the semifinals of Roland Garros in the fall of last year. Perhaps less fortunate than the others experienced Vesnina, who received the 58th racket of the world from Italy, Camila Giorgi, as her opponents. In addition, Elena, paired with Kudermetova, will face a duel with Kike Bertens and Demi Schürs (Netherlands) in doubles.