August 6 Tokyo 2020 Olympics news and results

The Norwegian beach volleyball tandem of Anders Mol and Christian Sorum has won gold in men’s beach volleyball.

It’s Norway’s first-ever medal in beach volleyball. The country has won three gold medals at these Games, and six in total.

Mol and Sorum defeated the Russian Olympic Committee’s Viacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovskiy 21-17, 21-18.

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan took home bronze earlier Saturday in Japan. It’s also Qatar’s first Olympic medal in the event.

Olympic organizers said Saturday they had identified 22 more Covid-19 cases linked to the Games.

None of the new cases identified were athletes.

Since July 1, 409 coronavirus cases linked to the Games have been identified.

Outside of Olympic competition, Tokyo appears to be struggling to contain the pandemic. The Japanese capital remains under a state of emergency, and cases surged to record levels this week.

Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win the gold medal in the marathon final on August 7.

Kenyan runner Peres Jepchirchir has won gold in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics with a time of 2:27:20. Countrywoman Brigid Kosgei earned the silver medal. 

Kenya increased its Tokyo haul to eight total medals, with Jepchirchir winning the nation’s third gold.

American Molly Seidel secured a surprise third place finish to claim the bronze medal, finishing less than 30 seconds behind Jepchirchir. Seidel, who television commentators said was running just her third marathon ever, secured the United States’ 99th medal of these Olympics. Seidel’s first-ever marathon came at the US Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta in 2020. 

The start of the race had been moved forward one hour out of concern for the athletes’ safety due to forecasted high temperatures in Sapporo.

Team Canada celebrates after receiving their medal for Womens Football.

As the Olympic Games in Tokyo wind down, 23 gold medals were won on Friday. You can track the medal count here.

Here’s who walked away champions.

Athletics

Beach Volleyball

Boxing

Cycling Track

Football

Hockey

Karate

Modern Pentathlon

Sport Climbing

Table Tennis

Wrestling

USA's Gable Steveson celebrates winning the 125kg freestyle wrestling gold medal in dramatic fashion over Georgia's Geno Petriashvili on August 6.

USA’s Gable Steveson defeated Georgia’s Geno Petriashvili to win the gold medal in the men’s 125kg final on Friday. 

Trailing 8-5 with just 10 seconds remaining in the match, Steveson staged a dramatic comeback, scoring five points – the last on a move coming with under just a second left on the clock – to capture the gold medal in a movie-like ending.

The Georgian corner challenged the call without success, as officials confirmed the last-second victory, even adding a point for a final score of 10-8. 

The 21-year-old, who celebrated with his signature backflip, reacted to the last-second victory saying, “I looked at the clock, and it was like point three. And I was like, ‘No way!’ My head was just like flush with everything, my face was like, stunned.”

After the win, Steveson was asked what he was going to do with the $250,000 USA Wrestling awards its competitors for winning gold, he said, “I’ll buy my mom a Louis Vuitton purse. She’s back at home breaking a sweat watching me wrestle, so she deserves something nice.”

Steveson is the first American freestyle heavyweight to win the gold since Bruce Baumgartner in 1992. 

Petriashvili won the silver, while Amir Hossein Zare of Iran and Taha Akgal of Turkey each earned a bronze. 

The Olympics have already been plagued by one tropical system when Nepartak made landfall during the first week. Now another, Tropical Storm Mirinae, is set to impact the final weekend. Events such as rowing were postponed two days due to the storm. 

The center of the storm is expected to pass just southeast of Tokyo on Sunday morning.

For now, it looks like the majority of the rain will be Saturday night into the first half of Sunday. Some showers and scattered storms could linger into the evening for the closing ceremony. Winds will be a bit gusty, especially the first half of Sunday, but it shouldn’t be too bad as Mirinae is expected to remain a mid-range tropical storm.

The Closing Ceremony takes place Sunday at 8 p.m local time (7 a.m. ET).

Heat, humidity and tropical systems have been the nemesis of athletes during these Olympic Games, and the closing weekend will bring more of the same.

While heat and humidity in July are common, these levels were above average. Tropical systems can also happen in July, but traditionally the peak months in Japan are August and September. 

Why this is a dangerous combination: It’s not just the temperatures but also the humidity. When both are high, conditions can be oppressive for athletes.

When your body gets too hot, you sweat to cool off. But if the sweat cannot evaporate, the body cannot regulate its temperature. You need evaporation in order to effectively cool your body. 

When the relative humidity is high, the rate of evaporation from the body decreases, according to the National Weather Service. In other words, the human body feels warmer in humid conditions.

To find cooler temperatures, the Olympics marathon events are taking place this weekend in Sapporo. Sapporo, about 500 miles north of Tokyo, can be as much as 40 degrees Fahrenheit cooler.

Here’s Saturday’s forecast for the women’s marathon:

Teammates celebrate with Canada's Julia Grosso after she scored the winning goal against Sweden in the gold medal football final on August 6.

It took two periods of extra-time and drama-filled penalties, but Canada’s Julia Grosso buried the game-winner against Sweden to capture the first-ever gold medal for the country in women’s football. 

Stina Blackstenius scored the first goal to put Sweden ahead in the first half. Canada drew level on a Jessie Fleming penalty in the second half to force the game into extra time. 

After two hard-fought extra periods, it came down to the wire in the penalty shootout, but Sweden’s Jonna Andersson had her attempt saved, opening the door for Grosso’s winner. 

The match was the first-ever women’s football Olympic final to be decided by penalties. 

With the gold, Canada’s Quinn becomes the first out trans and non-binary athlete to win a medal. 

The United States’ women’s team defeated Australia in the bronze medal match on Thursday. 

USA's Allyson Felix reacts after winning the bronze medal in the 400m on August 6.

After winning bronze in the 400 meter race and becoming the most decorated female track and field Olympian of all time, Allyson Felix is reflecting on her journey to Tokyo – through motherhood and a pandemic.

Felix, who is 35-years-old, said that winning a medal as a mother was something she felt like she could accomplish.

Felix said that she is “not too wrapped up in winning more medals” but was just focused on coming back to the Games to compete.

“Earlier today, I looked through some of the videos again of things that we had taped when I was in hospital with ‘Cammie’ (her daughter Camryn), and on the comeback trail – those really, really hard moments – and that’s what I tried to tap into,” she said.

Being an older athlete, Felix said she was trying to be more vulnerable and transparent during this Olympics. She said that is something that is not shown as much, particularly with older athletes, so she wanted to share some of her own struggles.

“I think, a lot of times, I tied my work to what happens at these championships and I didn’t want to do that this time around,” Felix said. “Obviously, I always run for gold but I just wanted to have joy no matter what happened tonight.”

From left, gold medallists China's Fan Zhendong, Ma Long and Xu Xin pose with their medals during the team table tennis medal ceremony on August 6.

China’s Xu Xin, Fan Zhendong and the legendary Ma Long defeated Germany’s Patrick Franziska, Timo Boll, and Dimitrij Ovtcharov, 3-0, to win the gold in the men’s team table tennis final. 

Ma won the last match against Boll – 11-5, 11-9, 11-13, 11-7 – to clinch the gold for China.

With the victory, Ma wins a record fifth career gold, the most ever for a table tennis athlete. 

Germany wins the silver medal, while host nation Japan won the bronze. 

Italy's Filippo Tortu, bottom, finishes first in the 4x100 meter relay final on Friday.

Italy has won the men’s 4x100m relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by the narrowest of margins.

Headlined by newly crowned world’s fastest man Lamont Marcell Jacobs, the Italians finished .01 seconds in front of Great Britain to win the gold medal in a time of 37.50 seconds. 

The gold medal is the fifth for Italy in track & field at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

Great Britain captured the silver medal in 37.51 seconds, while Canada finished in third in 37.70 seconds for the bronze.

Tortu crosses the finish line ahead of Great Britain's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.