August 4 Tokyo 2020 Olympics news and results

The Italian riders produced a stunning comeback to beat world champions Denmark in the men's team pursuit final to take the Olympic gold medal on Wednesday.

Led home by 2020 time trial world champion Filippo Ganna -- who former Team GB rider Chris Hoy described on the BBC as a "human motorbike" -- Italy clawed back more than 0.8 seconds, a huge gap in this event, over the final few laps.

With two laps to go, the Italian riders were still trailing by more than half a second, but eventually finished 0.166 seconds ahead of Denmark in a world record time of 3:42.032.

Incredibly, that is almost EIGHT seconds faster than Team GB's winning time at Rio 2016.

This is the eighth win for Italy in this event, but the first since the 1960 Rome Games.

It's been an eventful couple of days for Denmark in the velodrome, after rider Frederik Madsen crashed into Team GB's Charlie Tanfield on Tuesday.

Madsen was then pictured standing over Tanfield and heard swearing at him, despite being the one responsible for the crash, before storming off the track.

Australia took the bronze in the men's team pursuit after New Zealand rider Regan Gough crashed out, allowing the Aussie team to lap the Kiwis and end the race early.

US Olympic fencer and bronze medalist Race Imboden says he wore a black X-symbol on his hand as he posed with his bronze medal as a "demonstration."

"The X is a symbol of solidarity. Some of the athletes communicated and decided upon this symbol to show solidarity for each other and support the oppressed," Imboden wrote in an Instagram story on Wednesday.

"For me, I personally wore the symbol as a demonstration against Rule 50. In support of athletes of color, Ending Gun violence, and all the athletes and who wish to use their voice on the platform they've earned," Imboden added.

Imboden won the fencing bronze medal in the men’s team foil on Sunday.

"I also wish to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the IOC, and all of the organizations who profit so immensely off the athletes and have yet to hear their call for change," the athlete said.

Imboden previously demonstrated at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, in 2019 when he took a knee during the playing of the national anthem.

At the time, he tweeted that he felt that the “shortcomings” of the United States -- racism, the need for gun control, the mistreatment of immigrants, and “a President who spreads hate” -- dimmed the pride he felt winning gold and bronze medals as a member of the US team.

Great Britain’s Hannah Mills became the most successful female Olympic sailor in history as she won gold alongside Eilidh McIntyre in the women’s 470 class event in Tokyo on Wednesday. 

Mills, who carried the British flag at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony alongside rower Mohamed Sbihi, had previously won 470 silver at London 2012 and 470 gold in Rio 2016 alongside Saskia Clark.

Along with McIntyre, Mills dominated the 470 event in Tokyo, winning two races and only twice finishing outside the top four.

The pair headed into the final medal race knowing they only needed to finish seventh or higher in the field of 10 to clinch gold.

Mills and McIntyre secured a comfortable fifth place to win Great Britain’s 14th gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Poland’s Agnieszka Skrzypulec and Jolanta Ogar took silver, with France’s Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz securing bronze.

France had lodged a protest against the final result -- the protest, though, was subsequently dismissed.

Tokyo reported 4,166 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, its highest daily increase since the pandemic began, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. 

Wednesday's figure tops its previous record from Saturday when the capital reported 4,058 new cases.

At least 327 cases have been linked to the Tokyo 2020 Games as it goes ahead with its 12th day of official competition.

The Tokyo metropolitan area is currently under a state of emergency, in effect until August 31.

Sydney McLaughlin said the track in Tokyo was giving athlete's an extra boost after smashing her own women's 400m hurdles world record on Tuesday.

The American took gold with a run of 51.46 seconds, beating her rival Dalilah Muhammad, who took silver in a time of 51.58.

McLaughlin set the previous world record back in June this year but both her and Muhammad went under that time in Tokyo.

Her result bore similarities to Karsten Warholm's world record run in the men's 400m hurdles on Monday.

She also credited her world beating performance to staying in control of her emotions and not letting external factors distract her from her goal -- something which many athletes have said they've struggled with due to the unprecedented circumstances.

India won its third medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday, when boxer Lovlina Borgohain claimed bronze in the women’s welterweight semifinal.

Borgohain failed to advance to the gold medal bout after losing to Turkey’s Busenaz Surmeneli.

The other two Indian athletes to medal in Tokyo are Mirabai Chanu, who bagged silver in the women's 49kg weightlifting competition, and P.V. Sindhu, who won bronze in women's singles badminton.

With more Indian athletes in contention for the podium in wrestling and hockey later today, the country is aiming to surpass its best Olympic haul of six medals at London 2012.

India has fielded a surprisingly small number of competitors in Tokyo considering it is the world's second-most populous country.

A lack of funding and proper infrastructure have prevented India from becoming an Olympic powerhouse. And most of the country's best athletes opt to play cricket, by far the subcontinent's most popular sport.

However, the number of Indian Olympians has, in recent years, risen steadily as the government invests more in sports and athletics.

A fifth person from Greece's Olympic artistic swimming team -- a team official -- has tested positive for Covid-19, according to Tokyo 2020 spokesman Masa Takaya.

The other four Covid-19 cases are swimmers from the team.

"As of yesterday, five of the 12 Greek artistic swimmers and team officials who were staying at the Olympic Village had tested positive for COVID-19," Takaya said in a regular press briefing Wednesday.

"Of the seven who tested negative, some have already been designated as close contacts, while the status of the others is still being determined," Takaya added.

The team was moved out of the village and into a quarantine facility Tuesday.

The team had to withdraw from its team event and artistic swimming duet event, ending Greece’s artistic swimming presence in Tokyo 2020, according to the Hellenic Olympic Committee.

"We wish them a speedy recovery," Takaya said.

Australia's Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman says he is "deeply disappointed" with the "unacceptable" behavior of the Australian football and rugby teams on their flight home from Tokyo.

"I just said that they did have excessive alcohol consumption, that they were loud and disruptive to other members of the flight, and that they failed to respond to requests made for them to do whatever they needed to do on the flight," Chesterman told reporters.

"At least one person" had been sick in the plane toilet, "leaving that inoperable for the remainder of the fight," he added.

Football Australia and Rugby Australia, the sports' governing bodies, have started formal investigations into the behavior of their athletes, Chesterman confirmed.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) will wait for the conclusion of those investigations before proceeding.

Chesterman added:

The US women’s basketball team, the top team in the world and winners of the past six Olympic gold medals, advanced to the semifinals Wednesday with a 79-55 win against world number two Australia.

Breanna Stewart had 20 points in the first half and would finish with 23 on the day to lead Team USA.

This quarterfinal clash between the two teams Wednesday was a rematch of the gold medal games from the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. The Americans have won gold in this event in every Olympics since 1996 and currently have a 53-game win streak in Olympic play, dating back to the bronze medal game in 1992.

Up next for the US will be Serbia, which defeated China 77-70 earlier in the day.

The other quarterfinals still to come Wednesday are Japan vs Belgium and Spain vs France.

Australia, competing in this Olympics without their best player, Liz Cambage of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, will leave Tokyo without a medal. The Opals had to take a tougher route to get to the quarterfinal stage after losing early in preliminary play. Cambage withdrew ahead of the Olympics when the team was preparing in Nevada, citing mental health.