August 6 Tokyo 2020 Olympics news and results

Annika Schleu's horse was definitely not a 'Saint Boy.'

It all started so well for the German athlete.

After the opening two rounds of the modern pentathlon -- the 200m freestyle swimming and fencing -- the 31-year-old led the standings and had strong hopes of a medal.

However, her hopes were extinguished during the riding event as her horse, Saint Boy, refused to cooperate with her wishes.

Horses are assigned to athletes in a draw in modern pentathlon.

Despite her attempts to get him to try to jump, the horse was having none of it, with Schleu reduced to tears on the back of Saint Boy.

“I talked to the (owner of her horse) and she said just gallop in and let him go," Schleu said afterwards. "I tried but he did not want to go. I just started crying.

“I did not expect to make him go and that was the reason I was crying.

"I felt the horse lacked confidence. But I tried my best.”

It resulted in elimination for the German with just the laser run -- the staggered-start race-to-the-finish event that combines laser shooting and running -- to go.

And despite starting the final event fifth, 15 seconds behind leader Uliana Batashova, Team GB's Kate French claimed a brilliant gold, finishing over 15 seconds clear of second-placed Laura Asadauskaitė of Lithuania.

French was accurate with her shooting and quick with her running to take the first gold medal of her career, setting a new overall Olympic record of 1,385 points along the way.

There was a thrilling finish to the men's sprint event on Friday, as Harrie Lavreysen finished just fractions ahead of his Dutch teammate Jeffrey Hoogland to claim an exciting gold medal.

In the best-of-three sprint race final between the two compatriots, Hoogland won the opener by just +0.012 seconds, with Lavreysen claiming the second by an equally small margin, just +0.015 seconds.

And in the deciding race, it was tight and cagey between the pair, with tactics taking precedence over speed during the opening lap.

It almost got too tight, as their bikes almost came together midway through the second lap.

However Lavreysen, 24, was able to get himself just ahead on the final lap, narrowly edging to victory, winning his second gold of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Poland's Aleksandra Miroslaw smashed the women's speed climbing world record on Friday as the sport continues to excite at Tokyo 2020.

The 27-year-old raced to the top of the 15 meter wall in 6.84 seconds, bettering the previous record of 6.96 set last year by the Russian Olympic Committee's Iuliia Kaplina.

The record came in the first leg of the women's combined sports climbing final, with athletes still to compete in the other two disciplines: bouldering and lead.

Miroslaw's climb shot her to the top of the standings but with climbers currently tackling the bouldering leg, Slovenia's Janja Garnbret has begun dominating as many expected she would.

View from Tokyo: Dark clouds have now gathered behind the climbing wall, which had been bathed in light, as night descends at Tokyo's Aomi Urban Sports Park.

It's providing a dramatic backdrop to the women's combined final -- the first time this event has ever been staged at the Olympics.

Like the men's combined final on Thursday, plenty of volunteers and members of staff have assembled in the stands, while several members of the public have also gathered outside the venue to try and get a glimpse of the action.

Germany’s cycling director Patrick Moster has been suspended until the end of the year over reported racist remarks he made during the men’s individual time trial at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, according to world governing body Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

On July 28, Moster was heard shouting at his rider Nikias Arndt: "Get the camel drivers, get the camel drivers, come on,” Reuters reported.

The following day, the UCI had decided to provisionally suspend Moster as his remarks were “discriminatory and contrary to basic rules of decency.”

The UCI released another statement Friday, saying Moster has acknowledged his remarks and agreed with the suspension, during which he is banned from participating in any competition authorized by the UCI, a Continental Confederation or a member National Federation, until December 31.

Germany's cycling federation has removed him from international competitions for an indefinite period.

"The UCI condemns all forms of racist and discriminatory behaviour and strives to ensure integrity, diversity and equality in cycling," the UCI's statement read Friday.

Two members of the Belarusian athletics team who tried to forcibly send sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya home on Monday will return to Minsk, the Belarus National Olympic Committee said Friday. 

Timanovskaya was due to compete in the women's 200 meters on Monday but defected to Poland after alleging that representatives of the Belarus national team tried to send her back home against her will.

Athletics head coach Yuri Moisevich and team official Artur Shumak had their Tokyo 2020 accreditations removed on Friday and were asked to leave the Olympic Village, following an International Olympic Committee (IOC) disciplinary hearing on the incident. 

“In the interest of the wellbeing of the athletes from Belarus who are still in Tokyo and as a provisional measure, the IOC canceled and removed last night the accreditations of the two coaches,” the IOC said in a tweet on Friday.

Responding to the IOC decision, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus said the two coaches would soon return home to Minsk, where they “reserve the right to appeal this decision.”

“At the moment, the investigation is still in process ... in the near future the coaches will return to Minsk. However, they reserve the right to appeal this decision,” the NOC statement said. 

“We are ... in close cooperation with the IOC to clarify all the circumstances of this decision. The NOC of Belarus fully defends and will continue to defend the interests of all Belarusian athletes and coaches from any forms of discrimination,” it continued. 

Keeping up with the action in the women's Madison cycling race in the Izu Velodrome was a tough task for viewers. The handovers and the sheer number of cyclists on the track over the 120 laps made for gripping viewing.

With huge groups of riders converging at points, it inevitably led to some big crashes between riders.

Ireland's Emily Kay and Shannon McCurley were a victim of one of the races' crashes, failing to finish after a coming together with a rider from Italy.

An even bigger crash took place just a few laps later, taking down a rider from Belgium, Poland, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. The Netherlands received a warning for an ill-adjudged handover.

But there was still one more crash to come -- a changeover between the Belgians went wrong and it ended up with an Australian rider sent sprawling.

Amid all the chaos, Team Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald were able to dominate and claim an impressive gold.

The pair finished on 78 points, while Denmark finished in the silver medal position on 35 points. It was a bronze for the Russian Olympic Committee with 26 points.

As a result, Kenny became the first British woman to win five Olympic gold medals.

As one of the youngest medalists in Olympic history, 12-year-old Japanese skateboarder Kokona Hiraki took the silver medal in a sport she started when she was just five.

Competing at the Games, Hiraki said she didn’t feel the pressure during competition.

“I wasn't nervous at all and enjoyed the Olympics,” she told CNN’s Selina Wang. “It’s fun just to ride on a skateboard.”

Standing side-by-side on the podium with bronze medalist Sky Brown and gold medalist Sakura Yosozumi, Hiraki said she just wanted that moment to encourage people to try the sport she loves.

“Skateboarding is something difficult but enjoyable. I want people to try it,” she said.

As for what she wants to do next, she says she first wants to see her grandparents, but then she’s got bigger ambitions.

“I want to be the coolest skater in the world. Also, I want to participate in the Paris Olympics.”

Julio La Cruz defeated the Russian Olympic Committee's (ROC) Muslim Gadzhimagomedov in the men's heavyweight final on Friday to cement Cuba's boxing dominance at Tokyo 2020.

La Cruz put in a commanding performance to beat the reigning world champion on a unanimous 5-0 decision to earn Cuba's third boxing gold medal -- and fourth overall -- of these Games.

Cuba now leads the Tokyo boxing medal table ahead of the ROC, which has six medals overall but just one gold.

“There was a lot of attention on the fight as [Gadzhimagomedov] is the current world champion, but my team and trainers gave me a lot of confidence that I could win the fight, and they were right," La Cruz told reporters.

“I’ve got two (Olympic) Games gold medals now, but Paris (2024) is only three years away. I’ll go the next Olympics and try to win a third gold medal for my country,” he added.

Cuba has one more chance to add another gold medal to its tally when Andy Cruz takes on American boxer Keyshawn Davis in the men's light category final on Sunday.

Tokyo reported 4,515 Covid-19 cases on Friday, following a record day of more than 5,000 cases on Thursday, which was its highest-ever daily increase since the pandemic began.

Japan reported 15,249 cases nationwide on Thursday.

Nearly 41.5 million people have been fully vaccinated as of Thursday, roughly 32% of Japan's population, according to the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, at least 387 cases have been linked to the Tokyo 2020 Games, and in a press conference on Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he did not believe the Olympics was the cause of the rise in infections.

“The flow of people in Tokyo’s downtown has not increased compared to the time before the opening of the Olympics," Suga said. "I don’t think Olympics has led to the increase of infection."

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