The third day of the Tokyo Olympics brought Russia three gold medals at once.
In the exciting final of saber fencing, Sofia Pozdnyakova defeated her compatriot Sofia Velikaya.
The men's artistic gymnastics team for the first time since 1996 climbed to the highest step of the podium in the team all-around.
And taekwondo fighter Maxim Khramtsov became a triumphant in the weight category up to 80 kg.
Thanks to these successes, the national team, under the auspices of the Russian Olympic Committee, came close to the top three in the unofficial medal standings.
Now she has 12 awards, of which four gold, which is two less than the Chinese who occupy the third position.
In addition, Russians Alexander Bondar and Viktor Minibaev became bronze medalists in synchronized diving from a 10-meter platform, gaining 89.64 points.
The victory in this discipline was won by the British Thomas Daly and Matthew Lee, the second place was left for the favorites of the competition, the Chinese Yuan Cao and Aisen Chen.
Despite the blot in the fifth attempt, the Russians looked much better than most of their competitors, which is evidenced by a significant gap from the fourth place, which amounted to more than 32 points.
At the same time, the athletes, who were rightfully counting on the highest awards, were not completely satisfied with their performance.
“It is very difficult to say something when there are so many questions why.
We are very pleased and glad that we have this medal.
Everything turned out how it happened - it should be so.
Thank you all for your support ", - quotes Bondar" Championship ".
After the performance, Minibaev announced his retirement in individual jumping.
The domestic foil fencer Kirill Borodachev also suffered an offensive defeat.
He confidently reached the quarterfinals of the tournament and had every chance of reaching the next stage, leading 14: 9 in a meeting with the representative of Hong Kong Ka Lun Chon.
Before the victory, he had only one step left, but the opponent first equalized the score, and then won the battle.
Another Russian Vladislav Mylnikov failed to get out of the 1/8 finals, losing to the Egyptian Alaeldin Abuelekassem 12:15.
Again, the judokas did not please the fans.
Daria Mezhetskaya and Musa Mogushkov failed to overcome the barrier of the 1/16 finals in the categories up to 57 kg and 73 kg, respectively.
At the same time, the tournament was marked by another unpleasant episode.
Sudanese Mohamed Abdalrasul took part in the weigh-in ceremony, but after the results of the draw became known, withdrew from the competition to avoid meeting with Israeli Tohar Butbul.
We will remind, earlier in the category up to 60 kg Algerian Fethi Nurin also refused to fight with Tohar Butbul for political reasons.
Russian Natalia Vinogradova managed to reach the final of the skeet shooting competition.
However, in the final, she could not impose competition on her rivals, finishing in the last sixth place, gaining 17 points and lagging behind the winner, American Amber English, by 39 points.
One of the best representatives of mountain biking in Russia, Anton Sintsov, managed to improve his result in comparison with the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and climb to 11th place.
The gold in this discipline went to Briton Thomas Pidcock.
The triathlon competition was also held on Monday.
However, the beginning of the swim almost turned into an accident.
For some unknown reason, the TV boat was in the immediate vicinity of the pier and began to turn around during the starting shot of the pistol.
Some athletes, not noticing the danger, managed to jump into the water, however, fortunately, the collision was avoided, and the organizers were forced to start the race again.
An absolutely WILD start to the men's triathlon.
A TV boat with twin outboard motors was sitting in the way as the starting gun was fired, then tried to reverse out as the athletes dove into the water.
It caused a race restart, but luckily no one was injured.
pic.twitter.com/TKkPbaWNSK
- Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) July 25, 2021
The victory was won by the Norwegian Christian Bloommenfel, who crossed the finish line clearly with his last strength.
After the end of the race, the athlete became ill, and he had to resort to outside help.
Russians Dmitry Polyansky and Igor Polyansky took only 32nd and 43rd places, respectively.
In team sports, Russian volleyball players again delighted the fans.
They won their second consecutive victory in the group stage, beating the US team 3-1, and thus practically securing their entry into the playoffs.
Having won two games in a row, they lost in the third, but then managed to pull themselves together and break the opposition.
“We won 3: 1 against a very strong team that shows good volleyball, so, of course, we are happy.
I just try to watch what is happening on the court, make decisions - and I have to be very attentive.
There are, of course, emotions inside, but you need to restrain them so that your head is clean.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t ”, - quotes the words of the head coach of the Russian national team Tuomas Sammelvuo“ Match TV ”.
Beach volleyball players did not lag behind their colleagues.
Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovsky started with triumph in the group stage, defeating Mexicans Josu Gaston Gasiola Leiva and Jose Luis Rubio Camargo with a score of 2: 1.
And Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semyonov have already won the second victory.
This time they defeated the Australians Christopher McHugh and Damien Schumann - 2: 0.
In 3x3 basketball, the Russians showed character and won two important victories at once over the Japanese and Latvians with a score of 19:16 and 19:15.
Thanks to this success, they retained their chance of reaching the playoffs, moving up to third place.
And the Russian basketball players secured their way into the relegation stage ahead of schedule.
First, they beat Romania with a score of 21:12, and then lost to France 17:14.
As a result, they ended up in third place and made it to the quarterfinals.
It is worth mentioning the incredible achievement of basketball player Luka Doncic, who became the protagonist of the match with Argentina, which ended with a score of 118: 100 in favor of Slovenia. The forward made a double-double, scored 48 points and became the most productive representative of the NBA in the history of the Olympics. Among all basketball players in this indicator, he is second only to the Brazilian Oscar Schmidt, who chalked up 55 points in 1988, in connection with which his achievement has already been dubbed the record of the century. In addition, the Dallas Mavericks player scored the most points in the Games debut.
The third day in Tokyo will also be remembered for its romantic episode. German national football team striker Max Kruse made a live proposal to his girlfriend after defeating Saudi Arabia. During the post-match interview, the footballer unexpectedly took the microphone from the journalist, showed a T-shirt with the inscription "I love you", got down on one knee and turned from the screen to his beloved who was waiting for him at home. According to German media reports, she agreed.