PARIS OLYMPICS 2024: What you need to know right now
Adds hurdles, race walk relay, amateur marathon, hockey player arrest, updates wrestling
PARIS, Aug 7 (Reuters) -There are 23 gold medals up for grabs at the Olympics on Wednesday, the bulk of them being given out in athletics and others in sailing, artistic swimming, boxing, skateboarding and speed climbing, among other sports.
Here's what you need to know about the Olympics on Wednesday:
HURDLES
Puerto Rico's Jasmine Camacho-Quinn opened her Olympic 100 metres hurdles title defence by posting the fastest time in the heats, as all the favourites moved onto the semi-finals.
Nigeria's world record holder Tobi Amusan and American Masai Russell are among those trying to knock her off the throne, while Cyrena Samba-Mayela is among France's brightest hopes for an individual track gold.
RACE WALK RELAY
Spain's two-times world champions Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez took the gold medal in the mixed marathon race walk relay by nearly a minute at the Paris Games on Wednesday as the event made its Olympic debut.
COCAINE?
A player on the Australian men's hockey team was arrested in Paris and is being held in custody, the Australian Olympic Committee said on Wednesday, after reports in French media said he had been detained in possession of cocaine.
NIGHT MARATHON
Amateur runners will get the opportunity to complete the same Olympic marathon course as the athletes in Paris on Saturday but with the added excitement of running at night on a well-lit route that passes through the city's iconic monuments.
MARATHON SWIMMING
The familiarisation session for the marathon swimming event in the Seine river went ahead as scheduled on Wednesday as water quality tests met thresholds, after being cancelled on Tuesday due to concerns over water pollution.
NOT A JOKE
When Jacky Godoffe floated the idea of setting a fixed route for competitive speed climbing to the sport's international governing body in 2004 it was laughed off as a joke.
Fast-forward 20 years and the universal route that the trailblazing French climber conceived then will mark a moment in history at the Paris Games, becoming the stage for the first-ever Olympic medals to be handed out in speed climbing.
WEIGHT
Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat was disqualified just hours beforethe women's 50kg freestyle final at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday after failing to make weight, the Indian Olympic Association said.
Phogat had been set to lock horns with Sarah Hildebrandt of the United States for the gold medal. The disqualification means she will not receive a medal of any colour.
SAILING
Fickle Mediterranean winds set up tense finales to three Olympic sailing events on Wednesday, when officials will also try to wrap up the men's and women's dinghy medal races as well as the mixed dinghies and multihulls.
The men's and women's dinghy sailors waited for hours for the breeze to stabilise on Tuesday, only to see the flags raised indicating that their medal races were abandoned.
GOAT IN THE BOAT
New Zealand paddler Lisa Carrington, known back home as the "GOAT in the boat" (Greatest Of All Time) and her country's most successful Olympian, gets her quest for an individual kayak sprint gold under way at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
Reuters Olympics coverage home https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/
Explainer: Olympics schedule, map, medals table, sports guides https://www.reuters.com/graphics/OLYMPICS-2024/EXPLAINER/byprqrwmqve/
Compiled by Ingrid Melander, Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Christian Radnedge
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