The first start of Efimova and the farewell exit of Salukvadze: what will be remembered for the second day of the Games in Tokyo

The second competitive day of the Tokyo Olympics was marked for Russia by winning the first gold medal. Vitalina Batsarashkina became the winner in air pistol shooting. In addition, the collection of awards was replenished with silver from Svetlana Gomboeva, Ksenia Perova and Elena Osipova in the team tournament of archers and taekwondo fighter Tatyana Minina. The fencers Inna Deriglazova and Larisa Korobeinikova could also count on the highest steps of the podium, but they had to be content with silver and bronze, respectively. Thanks to these achievements, the team of the Russian Olympic Committee rose to fifth place in the unofficial medal standings.

Another contender for the awards was Vladimir Maslennikov, performing in air rifle shooting. Despite his fairly young age, he has already won many awards, including the world title and the bronze of the past Games. This time, a native of the Sverdlovsk region passed the qualification, with 628.7 points taking the sixth place. But in the final, he came in only eighth, losing 128.6 points to winner William Shaner of the United States. Later, the athlete admitted that excitement prevented him from showing a more successful performance.

They failed to please the Russian fans and judokas, although for them everything started more than positively.

Natalia Kuzyutina, multiple medalist of the world championships and bronze medalist of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, won a landslide victory over the representative of Panama Christine Jimenez with a score of 10: 0 in the 1/16 finals in the 52 kg category.

However, already in 1/8 she lost to the Korean Da Sol Pak in a bitter struggle.

At the same stage, Yakub Shamilov dropped out of the fight for medals, performing in the category up to 66 kg.

He began his path in the tournament with a victory over the German Sebastian Seidl, but then he could not break the resistance of the Georgian judoka Vazha Margvelashvili, who eventually won silver.

And Yulia Efimova successfully started in swimming competitions.

In 1 minute 6.21 seconds, she covered the 100-meter breaststroke distance and reached the semifinals.

After the swim, the athlete said that she was counting on a more successful result.

“Before that everything was calm, today is the first day when I felt at least some excitement, even a very serious one - Olympic.

This could not but please me.

Finally, at least some feelings.

It seems to be a good time, but I thought it would be faster.

It is not clear what is wrong.

But this is the Olympic Games - until you touch the side, nothing is over, ”said Efimova.

Sports gymnasts also started their Olympic path on Sunday.

The Russian team took the first position after two disciplines.

She has 171.629 points, while her closest pursuer, the US national team, has 170.562.

In the personal all-around, the American Simona Biles is predictably leading, but Angelina Melnikova, Vladislava Urazova and Victoria Listunova are also present in the top ten, who are in third, fourth and fifth places, respectively.

One of the saddest events of the day was the unsuccessful performance of the record holder for the number of performances at the Olympics among gymnasts Oksana Chusovitina.

The 46-year-old representative of Uzbekistan failed to qualify in the all-around, dropped out of the competition and announced her retirement.

For her, the Tokyo Games were the eighth in her career.

“Now that's all.

I will not return to this.

I am already 46 years old!

I have so many things to do, it's time to make up.

I don’t want to work as a coach, this is hellish work.

I have been in sports for so many years and I know what it means to be a coach, so I don’t want to.

I want to be a happy person, ”TASS quotes Chusovitina.

On Sunday, another legend of the Games, the Soviet and Georgian athlete Nino Salukvadze, announced her retirement from the sport.

At the age of 52, the multiple world and European pistol champion became the first woman to compete in nine Olympics.

In Tokyo, she also failed to qualify, finishing 31st.

Not without a funny episode on the second day of the Olympics.

In the road cycling team race, Anna Kiesenhofer won a sensational victory, earning Austria's first highest medal at the Summer Games since 2004.

After her, Dutchwoman Annemik van Vleuyten finished, who unexpectedly began to celebrate victory after crossing the line.

It turned out that due to the lack of radio communication, she did not know about how her rivals were traveling and was sure that she was leading the peloton.

It should be noted that the only representative of Russia in this discipline, Tamara Dronova, took 39th place, 8 minutes 23 seconds behind Kiesenhofer.

Unfortunately, badminton players Ivan Sozonov and Vladimir Ivanov could not please the fans again.

Some of the favorites of the group suffered a second defeat in a row, losing to the Japanese Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe with a score of 0: 2 (13:21, 18:21).

At the moment, the Russians are in third place in Quartet B, to get out of which they need to at least beat Nigeria in the third match.

In team sports, the Russians also performed with varying success.

The men's 3x3 basketball team suffered two defeats in a row - from the national teams of Belgium and Poland with the same score of 16:21.

And the women's team first finished the match ahead of schedule, defeating the representatives of Mongolia - 21: 5, but then faced resistance from the Americans.

The Russians looked good against the background of the first number of the rating, but the decisive role was played by a greater number of mistakes.

The meeting ended with a score of 20:16 in favor of the USA team. 

“Maybe we got tired by the end of the game.

You know, when you really want to, it often doesn't work - it's all from a great desire ... Yes, the American women are the first number in the rating, but we felt that we could play on equal terms.

I cannot say that there is no certainty - it is.

We lost this match ourselves.

I am sure that our next meeting will be completely different ", - quotes the player of the Russian team Anastasia Logunova" Championship ".

As for other team sports, beach volleyball players Nadezhda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina started their journey with a victory in the preliminary round.

In the first round match, they beat Italy's Marta Menegatti and Victoria Orsi Toth with a score of 21:18, 21:15.

It is interesting that in classic volleyball on Sunday the same teams met, but this time the victory remained with the representatives of the Apennine Peninsula - 3: 0 (25:23, 25:19, 25:14).

And the Russian women's handball team began defending the title of the current Olympic champions with a draw.

The first meeting of the group stage with Brazil ended with a score of 24:24.

The coach of the national team, Alexei Alekseev, positively assessed the performance of the wards, although he admitted that he was not completely satisfied with the work of the judges.

“In my opinion, we were given a lot of seven-meter lengths, but we have to look. These are very difficult, subtle points. In every game, we set ourselves up to win, but our opponents do the same. Believe me, there will be no passing matches at the Olympics in the group stage. Each of the teams wants to fight for the playoffs, ”Alekseev summed up.