On Monday, Russian athletes reaped a good harvest of medals at the London Olympics - six.
But unfortunately, there was not a single gold one among them.
Gymnast Denis Ablyazin won silver in the ring exercise, and Sergei Kamensky became the second in rifle shooting from three positions from 50 meters.
Bronze went to another representative of artistic gymnastics Angelina Melnikova in floor exercises, as well as Greco-Roman wrestlers Sergei Emelin and Sergei Semyonov.
The fourth set of awards of this dignity was taken by cyclists Daria Shmeleva and Anastasia Voinova in the team sprint on the track.
At the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, they received silver in this event, and later won the world championship and four times the continental championship.
In Tokyo, they were expected to fight for gold with the Germans Leah Friedrich and Emma Hinze.
However, the Chinese women Bao Shan Zhu and Zhong Tianshi unexpectedly intervened in it.
They left their rivals no chance in the first round, setting a world record, and just got the opportunity to fight with Germany for victory.
The Russians with the third result could only claim bronze.
Fortunately, in the fight for third place, Shmeleva and Voinova overtook the representatives of the Netherlands and won the OI medal in the team sprint for the second time in a row.
In many ways, athletes from the Celestial Empire have risen to the top step of the podium.
“Just a couple of months ago, everyone said that our main competitors were German women.
I reminded: "You forgot about China."
I had no doubt that they would prepare a strong girl in a pair for the Olympic champion in Rio.
But when I saw their result today, I was still surprised, ”the official Telegram channel of the ROC quotes Voinova as saying.
In team events, the day turned out to be ambiguous for the country.
On the one hand, the handball players won a tough victory over Spain - 34:31 and advanced to the playoffs from second place in the group.
This allowed them to get into rivals in the quarterfinals not the strong national teams of the Netherlands or Norway, but quite passable Montenegro.
Also, one cannot fail to note the achievement of the reserve goalkeeper Victoria Kalinina, who at the end of the meeting was marked by an effective throw on someone else's goal from her own half of the site.
But the volleyball players were frankly disappointing.
In the last round of the group stage, they had to beat Turkey in order to take a higher place and avoid a meeting with Brazil in the first round of the playoffs.
But Sergio Busato's wards suffered an offensive defeat in five sets - 2: 3.
The beginning of the match did not bode well for the team.
She calmly won the first game by four points.
However, in the future, the girls began to have difficulties.
They actually gave the second set to their rivals, having lost a handicap of six points.
In the third, which was already in an equal fight, they wavered in the ending.
In the fourth game, the Russians finally got together and left no stone unturned from their counterpart - 25:15.
But they did not have enough strength for the decisive, and the Turkish women seized their chance.
The fight on the court was such that the setter Cansu Ozbay lost several teeth after a collision with a partner in an attempt to save the ball.
Thus, Russia suffered an optional, but well-deserved defeat and at the last moment dropped to fourth place.
Now the national team will still have to meet with Brazil.
But the beach volleyball players on Monday delighted the fans.
Ilya Leshukov / Konstantin Semyonov and Vyacheslav Krasilnikov / Oleg Stoyanovsky confidently made it to the quarterfinals of the men's tournament.
The first did not leave a chance to cousins from Chile Marco and Esteban Grimalt - 21:16, 21:16.
The second also in two sets dealt with the Spaniards Pablo Herrera and Adrian Gavira - 22:20, 21:17.
Next, Leshukov and Semyonov will have to meet with the Norwegians Anders Mol and Christian Serum, who are in second place in the world ranking.
The duets' paths have already crossed in the group, and then the Russians turned out to be stronger.
Krasilnikov and Stoyanovsky will once again face off against the Germans Julius Tole and Clemens Wikler, whom they beat in the 2019 World Cup final.
The athletics tournament has gained momentum, and in the near future the country may receive the first medal winners.
So, the vice-champion of the planet-2017 Valery Prokhin reached the final in discus throw with the 11th result (75.80 m).
The reigning world champion in pole vaulting Angelica Sidorova repeated his achievement.
In qualifying, she stopped at 4.55 m.
However, the competition at the Olympic Stadium on Monday was better remembered for its weather disasters.
It was raining heavily in Tokyo, and the organizers, it seemed, were not ready for this.
The stewards could not do anything with the water collected in the sectors and tried to remove it with towels.
As a result, the runners found themselves in unequal conditions.
Some had to start on flooded paths.
And Sidorova's colleague Sandy Maurice, representing the United States, in the course of one of the attempts broke a pole and from a sufficiently high height almost fell outside the mats.
In such conditions, it would be logical to postpone the competition, at least in some events, so as not to risk the health of the participants, but the owners did not agree to this.
Synchronized swimming was not without problems.
There, during the qualification of the free program for the duets, the DJ turned off the music during the performance of the domestic pair Svetlana Kolesnichenko / Svetlana Romashina.
It turned out that the composition belonged to other members.
However, this did not affect the result of experienced Russian women.
They scored 97.9000 points and confidently took first place, ahead of the representatives of China by almost one and a half points.
“We have already laughed.
Of course, it was not funny at that moment.
We did not flinch, it spurred us on, gave adrenaline and drive, gave strength and energy ", - quotes the words of Kolesnichenko" R-Sport ".
In rowing and canoeing, at the beginning of the week, qualifying starts in four events took place at once.
The Russians took part in all of them.
In the women's 200m kayak, Svetlana Chernigovskaya (41.540) made her way to the semifinals.
In a kayak-two 500 m, Kira Stepanova and Varvara Baranova showed the second time (1: 47.874) and went directly to the semifinals.
In men, only Maxim Spesivtsev continued his performance on the 1000m kayak, who won the quarterfinal race with a score of 3: 44.136.
Also on Monday, the qualification took place for divers on a three-meter springboard.
Luck smiled only at the experienced Evgeny Kuznetsov, winner of the Olympic Games in London, who took seventh place.
But his young compatriot Nikita Schleikher failed the selection and was only on the 24th line out of 29.
Weightlifting competitions were remembered for Laurel Hubbard's unsuccessful performance.
An athlete from New Zealand became the first transgender person in history to take part in the Olympic Games.
Some feared that a man who changed sex would have a purely physical advantage over women.
However, in the final of the weight category over 87 kg, Hubbard did not manage to compete for medals.
She failed all three attempts.
At first Laurel tried unsuccessfully to take a weight of 120 kg, and then - 125 kg.
Moreover, in the second, the weightlifter coped with the task, but two of the three judges considered that she bent her elbow.
She did not make it to the next part of the competition.
Perhaps Hubbard was thwarted by severe psychological pressure.
It is no coincidence that from the very beginning of the OI she complained about the excessive attention of journalists.
After the final, Laurel declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the history of the Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya continues to develop in Japan.
The day before, she complained that they wanted to return her to her homeland by force for criticizing the local federation, and admitted that she was afraid of imprisonment.
As a result, the athlete did not sit on the flight to Istanbul, and the IOC took her case under its personal control.
According to the press service of the committee, Timanovskaya spent the night in a hotel near the airport in complete safety.
At the same time, two European countries announced their desire to host Christina.
Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulganek offered the sprinter an entry visa.
And the Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Pavel Jablonski promised to protect her and ensure the continuation of her career.
As a result, the athlete received a humanitarian visa from Poland.
Meanwhile, the IOC did not apply sanctions to the NOC of Belarus "until the situation is clarified."
And the CAS rejected the athlete's request to overturn the decision of the national Olympic committee to remove her from the Olympics.
The court's verdict notes that she was unable to prove her case.
The words of the American swimmer Ryan Murphy also caused a serious resonance.
After the 200m backstroke final, won by Evgeny Rylov, his opponent expressed concern that the swim was probably "not clean".
After the representative of the US national team said that he was provoked by journalists.
On Monday, he reiterated that he did not make references to any specific countries, and also complained about the difficulties of translation.
“On the same day I spoke with Rylov, and then with Kliment Kolesnikov.
I would like the rivals to respect me, so after our conversations I felt a lot better.
I made sure that the guys do not hold evil.
I had no intention of somehow belittling their achievements.
As soon as I found out that my words had been conveyed incorrectly, I immediately contacted Rylov, "Match TV quotes Murphy as saying.
And, perhaps, the saddest event of the day was the touching post of the Swiss jockey Robin Godel in memory of his Jet Set horse, which died during the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
In Japan, an animal suffered a ruptured ligament while passing an obstacle in a forest belt.
She received emergency medical attention, but the injuries were incompatible with life.
“Jet was an extraordinary horse and once again he did a great cross. He left doing what he loved to do most: gallop and jump over obstacles, ”Godel wrote.