Paris, July 31 (IANS) After a couple of postponements and disruptions over the poor quality of water in the Seine River for the swimming section of the competitions, Cassandre Beaugrand of France and Alex Yee of Great Britain won the women’s and men’s Triathlon titles in the 33rd Olympic Games here on Wednesday.

Both came up with brilliant tactical races to emerge winners in their respective events — Beaugrand winning the first gold for France in the Triathlon.

World No.1 Beaugrand ran a beautifully tactical race to finish first with an overall timing of 1:54:55, finishing ahead of Julie Derron of Switzerland, who clocked 1:55:01. Great Britain’s Beth Potter took the bronze medal with a timing of 1:55:10.

In the men’s section, Alex Yee was trailing New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde before making a late surge in the men’s section of the event, a grueling mix of stamina and speed that involves 1.5 km swimming, 40km cycling and 10km running.

The Triathlon competitions at the Paris Olympics were finally held on Wednesday after the organisers found the water too poor to conduct the event on Tuesday. Both the races were postponed by 24 hours because the water quality in River Seine was tested too poor and had human feces, E-coli and other bacteria in higher quantities than permissible.

Thus, the women’s race was held on Wednesday morning followed by the men’s after the authorities found the water quality acceptable following tests at 3 am.

With her home crowd roaring her on, the Tokyo 2020 mixed relay bronze medallist Beaugrand sailed through the finish line and immediately collapsed in exhaustion, as did Derron in second and Potter in third.

Beaugrand’s gold is the first for France in the Olympic triathlon. Potter, who competed in the 10,000m at Rio 2016, also becomes the first athlete to compete in both sports in Olympic history.

In the men’s race, Yee was 15 seconds back with a few hundred meters to go, dropped the hammer, and went on to the shoulder of his friend and competitor Wilde, before surging past to claim gold by six seconds.

Yee became the first athlete to win the individual and mixed relay triathlon event at the Games.

For Hayden Wilde of New Zealand, it’s a tremendous silver after he claimed bronze in Tokyo. On Wednesday, he just didn’t have enough left in the tank in the last stretch to stick with Yee. Leo Bergere (FRA), in third, took the first individual medal in the Men’s Triathlon for France.

–IANS

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Paris, July 31 (IANS) India’s Lakshya Sen on Wednesday stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of men’s singles badminton at the Paris Olympics after stunning World No.4 and reigning All-England champion Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in a Group L match.

Lakshya was slow off the blocks and trailed 0-5 in the opening game. However, a flurry of points saw him first making a comeback and then pulling off a sensational 21-18, 21-12 win against the gold medalist at the 2018 Asian Games.

After the match, his mother Nirmala, who is in Paris to support her son, spoke to IANS and expressed her delight over the memorable win.

She said Lakshya made a video call to her and spoke to his father, and childhood coach, to know about his impression of the match.

“He was excited and wanted to speak to his father to know how he would react to the win. We are all happy for him and it’s due to his hard work and support of everyone, coaches and others. We have been here with him in France for the past one month. He has been training in Marseille and before that, in Bengaluru,” Lakshya’s mother told IANS.

She further said that she cooks food for him daily. “We have taken an apartment near the badminton arena and I cook food for him and send. He loves it. And sometimes he comes here for ‘champi’ (head massage). We all want him to do well for India.”

Asked if Lakshya is facing any issue in Games Village related to food, she said, “No, he just likes eating home-cooked food.”

–IANS

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Versailles (France), July 31 (IANS) India’s lone rider, Anush Agarwalla, astride Sir Caramello Old, finished ninth in Group E in the Dressage Grand Prix Individual Qualifier round of the 2024 Olympics Equestrian competitions here on Wednesday. The ninth-place finish in his group meant, Agarwalla, the 24-year-old from Kolkata who has been training in Germany since he was 17, was eliminated from the competition in the first stage.

But it was still a good enough achievement for Indian equestrian as Agarwalla became the first Indian to compete in dressage at the Summer Olympic Games after achieving the Minimum Eligibility Requirement (MER) four times to obtain a quota for the country.

Anush Agarwalla and his horse, Sir Caramello Old were awarded a total of 66.444 penalty points by the judges, which saw them finish ninth in their group. Only two competitors from each group progressed to the final of the event.

Denmark’s Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour topped Group E with a score of 80.792 while Germany’s Isabell Wirth finished second.

Dressage is the most advanced form of horse training, where horse and rider perform a series of artistic movements to music. Judges evaluate the ease and fluidity with which they move around the course.

The Chateau de Versailles (also known as the Palace of Versailles) is considered an iconic symbol in France and was home to the court of Louis XIV in 1682. It is regarded as a major tourist destination and the setup for the Olympics will be dismantled once the events taking place at the venue conclude.

By participating in the Equestrian event in Paris, Agarwalla joined an illustrious list of Indian horsemen who represented the country in the Olympics.

Fouaad Mirza represented India in Eventing at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Before him, Imtiaz Anees competed in the 2000 Sydney Games while Indrajit Lamba took the field in the 1996 Atlanta Games. Jitendrajit Singh Ahluwalia, Hussain Singh, Mohammed Khan and Darya Singh had all competed at the 1980 Moscow Games. All the previous six riders represented the country in Eventing while Agarwalla qualified for Dressage.

Agarwalla’s achievement comes close on the heels of India’s success in the Asian Games in Hangzhou where the Indian squad of Agarwalla, Divakirti Singh, Hriday Chheda and Sudipti Hajela made history by winning gold in Team Dressage.

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) Former England captain Michael Atherton believes Andy Flower will be ‘the outstanding candidate’ to become head coach of the men’s white-ball team post Matthew Mott’s departure from the role.

Flower had worked as England’s head coach from 2009 to 2014, where the side had three Ashes series wins and their first Men’s T20 World Cup triumph in 2010. Since then, Flower has made a himself as a coach who’s won various T20 franchise leagues, and even coached Royal Challengers Bengaluru to IPL 2024 playoffs.

Atherton mentioned Flower’s name while talking about who are the possible contenders to be England’s next white-ball coach. “Kumar Sangakkara is near the top of the list. He has worked with Jos (Buttler) of course at the Rajasthan Royals (in the IPL). There’s Eoin Morgan, and although he seemed to rule himself out the other day on commentary, I’ve got no doubt his name will be floated around.”

“There’s the two Australians held in high regard: Michael Hussey, who worked with England when they won the T20 World Cup in Australia a couple of years ago, and Simon Katich, who is coaching the Manchester Originals in The Hundred.”

“There’s Jonathan Trott, who has had a fantastic run in charge of Afghanistan. People speak very highly of James Foster, your old colleague and team-mate at Essex and, for me, the outstanding candidate would be Andy Flower,” said Atherton in latest episode of Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

Further talking about if England will bring back Flower to the coaching set-up, Atherton remarked, “It’s an interesting one. The broad brush rule of life is not to retrace your steps but it’s a very different time to when Andy was previously in charge of both Test and white-ball teams.”

“He has since gone on to have terrific success in franchise cricket… the role now is almost like leading a franchise, because players come in for a short period and then disappear. One of the problems for Mott was that there were long periods where the team was not in operation.”

Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, added, “If you’re asking me if Andy Flower was available and wanted to do it, he would be my personal favourite. But is that a backwards step?”

Andrew Flintoff’s name has also been taken by many as a contender for the job, but Hussain didn’t see much merit in it. “It may come slightly early for Andrew. You may argue what is on his CV to get the job? That said, I’m not sure the present regime worry too much about CVs.”

“They just do what they feel is the best for the future. He obviously has close links with Rob Key and he knows the dressing room, and has been around England Lions camps.”

He further talked about how Mott, who coached England to victory in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, got out of the role just two years into the set-up. “My first reaction is it’s a bit of a shame, but not unexpected. Ultimately you’re judged by results.”

“Results started very well, on the back of continuing the Eoin Morgan/Trevor Bayliss era… they had that immediate success, winning the T20 World Cup in 2022. But since then, it’s gone completely in the other direction. The 50-over World Cup (in 2023) was a poor, poor performance, it really was. They were so far off the mark, in terms of results and decision-making.”

Atherton too agreed with Hussain’s views. “I concur with that. The last two World Cups haven’t been good. But he goes away as one of only three head coaches to have won a World Cup with England. It’s not a completely disappointing two years but the last two World Cups you got the sense that things weren’t quite working.”

–IANS

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New Delhi, July 31 (IANS) MotoGP has signed a new contract with Invest UP, the Government of Uttar Pradesh’s agency that facilitates international investment into the state. The agreement confirms the Indian Grand Prix will be on the calendar from 2025 to 2027 inclusive. The event will continue to be held at Buddh International Circuit, which made its debut on the MotoGP calendar in 2023.

“A new agreement, signed directly with the Government of Indian region Uttar Pradesh, confirms MotoGP will return to the Buddh International Circuit for the next three seasons. With a population of over 1.4 billion people and more than 200 million motorcycles on its roads, India is a key global market for MotoGP, our manufacturers and many of the sport’s partners.

Two-wheeled transportation counts for nearly 75% of the total number of vehicles used daily,” read the statement posted on MotoGP’s website.

India also has a healthy established audience for MotoGP, with further scope to grow in coming seasons. The inaugural Grand Prix at Buddh saw more than 100,000 fans come to see history made as the world’s most exciting sport raced in the country for the first time.

This new agreement, signed directly between MotoGP rights holder Dorna Sports and the government of Uttar Pradesh provides the perfect backdrop to further the success of both the sport and motorcycle industry across the country

–IANS

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