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Tom Bell

World records lit up the small hours at the Paris Olympics, with track and field providing the highest point and the cycling velodrome raising the speedometer.
There was that lesser-spotted thing, a medal for China in athletics, but in a second week when Hong Kong’s podium hopes are less numerous, one stand-out possibility was extinguished.
Those who were awake may wish they had gone to bed thinking the city’s table tennis players were still in the fight, but alas, they are not.
Let us talk you through it.

Much to discus
One of the few track and field athletes in the running – or rather the throwing – for China was Bin Feng. She competed in the discus, in which a heavy disc is hurled from inside a circle 2.5 metres in diameter.
The 30-year-old from Shandong arrived as a contender, having been world champion in 2022 and struck Asian Games gold in Hangzhou last year.
And she delivered in the final, even if Valarie Allman of the United States was always earmarked for a second successive triumph.
Allman was dominant, winning with a longest throw of 69.50 metres and three other throws also good enough for victory. Bin’s furthest of 67.51m tied with Sandra Elkasevic of Croatia, but China celebrated silver by virtue of a better second-best throw.
Few Asian nations are expected to feature on the Stade de France podium. Bin ensured hers made its presence felt.
Vault from the gods
It is unusual for a thrower or jumper to put all the runners in the shade, but Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is unusual.
The men’s pole vault final was always expected to be his domain. Such is the Swede’s dominance of this curious discipline that it was more a case of how high he would deign to go in victory, having improved the world record eight times before.
World bests in field events set at the Olympics are extremely rare, though, so when one transpired here, delirium ensued.
The Stade de France has been a son et lumiere delight already, and Duplantis revelled in it, making sure of his second straight gold with 6.00 metres, then ticking off the Olympic record with 6.10m.
Twice he knocked the bar off at 6.25m, before raising it – and the roof – on the final attempt.

“An out-of-body experience,” he called it. “The biggest dream since I was a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd.”
Wasting no time
World records provided the talking points at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, too.
Track cycling began on Monday and really got going after midnight in Hong Kong as the women’s team sprint best was lowered not once but five times.
There are three riders per team, with one dropping out after each lap, leaving one v one for the final circuit. It’s fast and furious – just not always quite to this degree.
First, Great Britain overwrote China’s old mark with 45.472 seconds. About an hour later, Germany lowered it to 45.377. Five minutes on, New Zealand undercut that with 45.348. A further five minutes and Britain had it back via a 45.338.
There was scarcely time for each to take a photo with the scoreboard before it was showing a new record, not theirs.
It goes without saying that a further hour later, Britain’s trio of Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane broke it yet again, in fact smashed it, with a 45.186 as they beat New Zealand’s Rebecca Petch, Shaane Fulton and Ellesse Andrews to the gold.
Phew.

Euro 2024 rematch
The men’s football finalists are known after Spain beat Morocco 2-1 and France saw off Egypt 3-1.
That sets up a repeat of the European Championship semi-final last month, won by the Spanish – albeit with senior players rather than the under-23 squads involved here.
The French had not made it to the gold match in 40 years, but staging an Olympics has a habit of raising a host nation’s game.
Medal chance gone
Doo Hoi-kem, Lee Ho-ching and Zhu Chengzhu had good reason to be ambitious in table tennis’ women’s team event.
Three years earlier to the day, a Hong Kong squad comprising Doo, Lee and Minnie Soo Wai-yam had won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
Seeded sixth and facing 15th-ranked Sweden in the round of 16, it did not go according to plan at the South Paris Arena.

Doo and Lee took the opening doubles match, but Zhu and Doo lost in the next two singles matches. Zhu, so often a rescuer of lost causes, pulled it back to 2-2. However, Lee, a four-time Olympian, lost the last.
The route to the podium was blocked by third seeds South Korea in a tough-looking quarter-final. But the Koreans had departed early in Tokyo and Hong Kong had beaten their conquerors Germany that time.
This was perhaps Hong Kong’s final opportunity to add to the city’s medal tally. And it is gone.
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Mondo Duplantis of Sweden in record-breaking form. Photo: Reuters

Bin Feng throws during the discus final at the Stade de France. Photo: Reuters

Mondo Duplantis of Sweden is pumped up during the pole vault final. Photo: Reuters

(From left) Great Britain’s Emma Finucane, Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell win gold. Photo: Reuters

Doo Hoi-kem serves during the team round-of-16 clash with Sweden. Photo: AFP

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China’s He Bingjiao (left) holds a small pin of the Spanish flag in her right hand while standing on the podium next to An Se-young (centre) and Gregoria Mariska Tunjung: Photo: Xinhua

Spain’s Carolina Marin is comforted by her coach Fernando Rivas after conceding her women’s singles badminton semi-final match. Photo: AFP

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South Korea’s An Se-young celebrates after beating  China’s He Bingjiao during their women’s singles badminton gold medal match. Photo: AP

China’s He Bingjiao plays a shot during her women’s singles badminton final against An Se-young. Photo: AFP

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Sport

Paris Olympics 2024

Athletics

China

Hong Kong

Table Tennis

Pole vaulter electrifies Stade de France, where there is also a rare medal for China, but Hong Kong’s genuine podium hope is extinguished


Pole vaulter electrifies Stade de France, where there is also a rare medal for China, but Hong Kong’s genuine podium hope is extinguished.


Tokyo

While you were sleeping