Wednesday turned out to be not as successful for domestic athletes as the two previous days. This time they failed to win a single gold medal. The men's and women's 3 × 3 basketball teams were defeated in the final. Swimmers Martin Milyutin, Ivan Girev, Evgeny Rylov and Mikhail Dovgalyuk took second place in the 4x200 m freestyle relay. Finally, gymnast Nikita Nagorny in individual all-around and judoka Madina Taymazova in the weight category up to 70 kg won bronze medals.
Team competitions in fencing again did not develop in the best way for Russia.
First, the last place was taken by the epee fencers, although before that they had only once been left without OI medals in this form, and then the saber fencers failed.
Their chances for awards, on the contrary, were initially considered low, as demonstrated by the personal tournament, where only Kamil Ibragimov reached the quarterfinals.
However, there was still hope that the domestic four, represented by Ibragimov, Dmitry Danilenko, Konstantin Lokhanov and Veniamin Reshetnikov, would pass Germany in the quarterfinals.
In fact, the struggle did not work out.
The Germans gradually increased the gap, and the Russians completely failed the ending.
In the last three bouts, they inflicted only four precise injections.
The final result is 28:45.
Further, the upset domestic saber fencers also lost to Egypt (41:45) and had to fight the Americans for seventh place.
But the "Stars and Stripes" refused to enter the platform, citing the injury of two people at once.
After the end of the competition, the coach of the national team Dmitry Glotov complained that the wards had not followed his instructions.
“Attack in modern fencing is always stronger than defense, and if you go on the defensive, it is harder to defend ... Perhaps, nervous tension affected, in a state of stress it seems that the path is shorter, the opponent is faster, and you start to rush and make movements earlier, and he sees it ", - quotes a TASS specialist.
In turn, Reshetnikov, who turned 35 on the day of the team tournament, did not rule out leaving the sport.
“I think I will take a short break, because the nearest starts are still far away, and then I will make a concrete decision,” the athlete emphasized.
The Russian men's volleyball team feels much more confident.
In the first two matches, she beat Argentina (3: 1) and the United States (3: 1), and on Wednesday did not leave any chances to the reigning Olympic champions from Brazil in three sets.
Some semblance of a struggle began only in the first game, which the Latin Americans lost with a score of 22:25.
They lost the other two with a difference of five points.
The best in the national team was the diagonal Dmitry Volkov, who scored 19 points.
15 - in the asset of an experienced spiker Maxim Mikhailov.
A confident performance in Tokyo practically guaranteed the team a place in the playoffs: after all, in order to solve this problem, it was enough to get into the top four of the group.
Beach volleyball representatives continue their successful performance at the tournament.
Nadezhda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina won a second victory in a row, confidently defeating the Cubans Echevarria Lidi and Leila Martinez - 21:16, 21:11.
Thanks to this success, they secured a ticket to the 1/8 finals.
For men, the problem was solved in advance by Konstantin Semyonov and Ivan Leshukov.
On Wednesday, they only put an end to their performance in the group stage, beating the Norwegians Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandley Serum and taking first place in their quartet.
The boxers also delight the country.
The day before, Andrei Zamkova and Muslim Gadzhimagomedov made their way to the quarterfinals.
Three more compatriots followed suit on Wednesday.
In men, Albert Batyrgaziev in the featherweight category sent home the representative of the Dominican Republic de la Cruz, and Imam Khatayev in light heavyweight was stronger than Kazakhstan's Bekzad Nurdauletov.
In women, Zemfira Magomedalieva coped with the world championship medalist Naomi Graham from the USA in the category up to 75 kg.
But in badminton, things are not going so well.
Sergei Sirant and Evgenia Kosetskaya suffered defeats and lost their chances to continue the fight.
The first lost to the Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, and the second - to the Japanese woman Nozomi Okuhara.
In rowing slalom, domestic athletes have low chances of medals from the outset, but at least two participants managed to make it to the semifinals at once.
Alsu Minazova took 14th place in the single canoe qualification, and Pavel Eigel took the ninth place in the kayak.
In rowing and canoeing, six sets of awards were played at once.
Unfortunately, the Russians did not make it to any of the finals.
In their absence, the largest "catch" was collected by Australia and the Netherlands, which won four medals each.
At the same time, the assets of the representatives of the Green Continent include two golds.
The only good news for domestic fans was Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oryabinskaya reaching the final in a double swing without a helmsman.
The pair showed the second time (6: 50.24).
The decisive swim will take place on Thursday.
And in the "Tokyo Aquatix Center" in the evening the swimming competition continued.
There were no medals, but a number of important qualifying heats took place.
In general, they have developed quite well for the Russians.
At a distance of 200 m on the back for men, the second result was demonstrated by the Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov, the current winner of the Olympic Games in this form (1.56.02).
Also, Grigory Tarasevich made his way to the semifinals with the fifth time (1.56.82).
At a distance of 200 m breaststroke for women, the third place was taken by 16-year-old Evgenia Chikunova, who won the fight for the right to represent the country in this discipline from Yulia Efimova herself.
Maria Temnikova is on the seventh line and also went further.
Andrei Zhilkin made his way to the semifinals at 200 m with a complex.
Finally, in the women's 4 × 200 freestyle relay, Anastasia Guzhenkova, Valeria Salamatina, Veronika Andrusenko and Anna Yegorova reached the final with the fifth result (7.52.04).
In Wednesday shooting, only the first days of trap qualification have passed.
In women, Ekaterina Subbotina performed with dignity, taking the fourth position (73) with a lag of only two accurate shots from the leader.
But the Olympic champion of Athens in this discipline, Aleksey Alipov, is only 14th so far.
In archery, the men's personal tournament was also not very successful for the country.
Galsan Bazarzhapov in the first round lost without a chance to the representative of India Pravin Jadav - 0: 6 and failed to join Elena Osipova, who had stepped into the 1/8 finals the day before.
In cycling, there were two time trial races on Wednesday.
But the Russians had practically no chance of winning a medal.
Moreover, the honor of the flag was defended by Alexander Vlasov alone.
As a result, he took 20th place out of 39.
The first was the Slovene Primož Roglich.
In women, gold went to Annemik van Vleuyten (Netherlands).
Among other events of the fifth competition day, the second consecutive victory of the Fiji men's rugby-7 team should be noted.
Ever since this sport was included in the Olympic program, the Flying Fijians have no equal.
In Rio de Janeiro, they defeated Great Britain in a decisive confrontation, and in Tokyo they beat New Zealand.
Before the rugby players got the right to compete at the Olympic Games, the country did not have a single medal.
In another team sport, basketball, attention was drawn to the defeat inflicted by American basketball players on Iran. The US national team was so angry about the defeat against France, the first for the team at the Olympic Games since 2004, that it left no stone unturned from the opponent, beating him with almost a two-fold advantage - 120: 66. And Damian Lillard implemented seven three-point shots and scored 21 points.