Continuation of a successful series of gymnasts and Kolesnikov's first gold: what to expect on the sixth day of the Tokyo Games

On the sixth competitive day of the Tokyo Olympics, 18 sets of awards will be played, and the Russians will have many chances to compete for medals in several sports at once.

The main event of the day, without exaggeration, can be called the personal all-around competition in artistic gymnastics, where the Russian team will be represented by Angelina Melnikova and Vladislav Urazova.

In the team tournament, domestic athletes performed a real miracle, outstripping the American women and becoming Olympic champions for the first time in 29 years.

Therefore, the fans have the right to expect them to repeat the success, especially since the main contender for gold in this discipline, Simone Biles, refused to participate.

In her absence, Melnikova will count on victory, and Urazova, most likely, will compete for silver or bronze.

However, Russian women should not relax either.

They can compete with another American Sunisa Lee and Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who unexpectedly shot in qualifications.

It should be added that the last time a domestic gymnast climbed to the highest step of the podium in the individual all-around was in the same 1992.

Then Tatyana Gutsu won.

Russian foil fencers will certainly fight for gold.

In the team tournament, the main stake will undoubtedly be placed on the silver and bronze medalists Inna Deriglazova and Larisa Korobeinikova, who became the second in this discipline at the Olympics before last.

Although the younger Marta Martyanova and Angelina Zagidullina will also not be content with the role of statistics.

In the quarterfinals, they will meet with the Egyptians, and the Italians, French and American women, led by Lee Keefer, with whom they can meet already in the semifinals, will try to challenge their claims to victory.

Russian swimmers perform in Tokyo with varying success.

However, on Thursday, Kliment Kolesnikov will have every chance to please the fans, who set a new European record in the semifinal 100m freestyle (47.11 seconds).

The debutant of the Olympics has already won the silver medal of the Games, so now he will certainly try to replenish his collection with gold.

His main competitor will be the American Caleb Dressel.

This confrontation will be all the more interesting because in the final both athletes will swim along adjacent lanes.

A less impressive performance in the semifinals with the 200m breaststroke was demonstrated by Anton Chupkov, who qualified for the final from the penultimate place.

However, this is what can spur him on to fight for the highest award in the crown discipline.

Svetlana Chimrova also made it to the final of the 200-meter butterfly swim, but it will not be easy for her to resist the favorites - Zhang Yufei, Regan Smith, and Brianna Throssell.

Also, Russian women will hardly be able to repeat the success of men in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay.

Already in the preliminary heats, they looked much worse than their rivals from Australia, the USA and China.

In shooting, medals will be played in trap discipline.

The Olympic champion of Athens Aleksey Alipov, as well as Daria Semyanova and Ekaterina Subbotina have good chances of success, but the qualifications will show the real balance of power.

In rowing, the only medal contenders from Russia will be Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oryabinskaya in the doubles competition.

In this form, domestic athletes have not reached the final since 2004, so their very participation in the decisive start is a sensation.

However, the girls clearly gained speed and are not going to give up - in the semifinals they showed the fifth time, and the lag behind the British women who took third place was less than a second.

Judokas will compete for medals in two weight categories - up to 78 kg for women and up to 100 kg for men.

Alexandra Babintseva will meet with the representative of the Congo Marie Branser, and Niyaz Ilyasov - with the winner of the fight Miklos Tsirienich - Yevgeny Borodavko.

At the same time, in the quarterfinals, the native of Bataysk can go to the world champion Jorge Fonseca.

Alsu Minazova will try her hand at solo canoes.

In qualifying, she showed only 14th time, so in this event, reaching the final will be a success for her.

As for other sports, the individual championship will continue in archery, within which matches of the 1/32 finals will take place.

Silver medalists of the team tournament Ksenia Perova and Svetlana Gomboeva will face Australian Alice Ingley and Dutch Gabriela Schlusseru, respectively.

Both should have no problem reaching the next round.

The current world boxing champion Gleb Bakshi will have his first fight in the 1/8 finals.

The Russian is called one of the main contenders for a medal in the middle weight category, but already at this stage he will have a meeting with a difficult opponent - the bronze medalist of the 2017 World Championship Troy Eisley.

And heavyweight Ivan Veryasov will face off against the lesser-known Cameroonian Maxim Yenyong Nieyo.

On Thursday, competitions will start in one of the most extreme Olympic disciplines - BMX.

Russia will be represented here by Yevgeny Kleshchenko, Natalya Suvorova and Natalya Afremova.

Domestic athletes can hardly be attributed to the elite of this sport, but motocross has never been predictable, so both favorites and dark horses have chances.

The start of the reigning Olympic champions in handball turned out to be extremely unsuccessful. The draw with Brazil was followed by a devastating defeat at the hands of Sweden. On Thursday, Alexei Alekseev's charges will try to rehabilitate and improve their position in Group B, rising from fifth place. They will be opposed by another team clearly below its level, Hungary. In case of defeat, the Russians will practically not be able to count on reaching the playoffs. In addition, another failure threatens to change the head coach right during the tournament, which clearly will not add confidence to the athletes in future matches.

The Russian volleyball players have suffered one defeat in the group stage and won one victory and are still in fifth place, allowing them to enter the elimination stage.

However, on Thursday they will play with one of the strongest teams - China, their fate will directly depend on this match.

In beach volleyball, the current world champions Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy will play their next match with the Latvian national team.

At the moment, both duos have won one victory each, so the winner of this meeting will not only take first place in Group B, but will also ensure himself a direct access to the playoffs.

The men's rugby sevens tournament has come to an end, and now women are entering the fight.

On Thursday, the Russians will meet with strong British and Kenyan women.

Then the most dangerous rival, New Zealand, awaits them, so in both matches they need only victory, otherwise they can not count on the continuation of the struggle.

A single tennis tournament is heading for its denouement.

In the quarterfinals, Karen Khachanov will have to test the winner of three ATP tournaments, Hugo Jumber.

His compatriot Daniil Medvedev will have a slightly more difficult time, whose rival will be the sixth seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno-Busta, who has gained a good move this season. 

Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina will compete for the final, and therefore guaranteed medals, with the strongest Czechs Barbara Kreichikova and Katezhina Sinyakova, seeded first. Vesnina will also play in the mixed category. Her duet with Aslan Karatsev will meet with Poles Iga Sviontek and Lukasz Kubot. The Russians have already made a small sensation in the first round, beating the Frenchmen Christina Mladenovic and Nicolas Mayu, so the current rival may be quite tough for them. The second Russian duo, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrei Rublev, should not have any problems in a match against local tennis players Ena Shibahara and Ben McLachlan.