Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/712521
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 7 AUGUST 2016 51 Sport SPORTTODAY OLYMPICS American Thrasher wins first gold of Games AMERICAN teenager Virgin- ia Thrasher won the first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Saturday, holding her nerve against two Chinese Olympic champions to clinch the women's 10m air rif le event. The 19-year-old American edged out China's Du Li, gold in Athens in 2004, with an Olympic-record score of 208. Defending Olympic champion Yi Siling, also of Chi- na, took the bronze medal. Thrasher was awarded the first gold of the Games by In- ternational Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach. Competing in her first Olym- pics, Thrasher established an early lead after battling with the Russian shooter Daria Vdovina, who stumbled midway through the competition and finished fifth. Virginia Thrasher won the first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Fresh problems at Rio 2016 The good vibes from Rio 2016's vibrant opening ceremony did not take long to fade on Saturday morning as reports emerged of athletes getting lost, fans stuck in queues and a fatal shooting witnessed by international film crews AT the daily press briefing on the Olympic Park, Rio 2016 spokes- man Mario Andrada had hoped to be talking about Friday night's party at the Maracana Stadium but he was immediately forced to apologise for fresh problems. With action starting in almost 20 different sports, there are lots of empty seats at venues as spectators faced long delays to get through se- curity. "The main problem is in the pro- cess and system," said Andrada. "We have people from three uni- verses here - the national police force, military and Rio 2016 staff - and each has different processes, so it's a problem of integration. "We've moved staff to the gates and everything will be in a much better shape within the next couple of hours. "We apologise to anybody stuck in a line and hope they didn't miss the competition - we know we need to fix this." Andrada took heart from the fact that some queues at the opening ceremony were only 15 minutes long, while admitting that oth- ers took 90 minutes, and said the transport plan for getting ath- letes back to the Olympic Village worked perfectly. Buses laid on for the media, how- ever, were a little more problem- atic, with some drivers admitting that they did not know the route between the stadium and main transport hub, while there were reports of a bus taking shooters to their venue getting lost on Satur- day. The issue of crime also resur- faced with the most serious story being a man shot dead outside the Maracana Stadium after a botched robbery. The aftermath was witnessed by TV crews from New Zealand, the UK and US, with a BBC reporter telling Press Association Sport that the "awful" incident took place five minutes from the stadium. Andrada said he was unaware of the reports but would investigate. While Andrada dealt with crime and queues, IOC spokesman Mark Adams handled the now custom- ary questions about doping, with the main topics being more Rus- sians cleared to compete and criti- cism of the Brazilian authorities' pre-Games testing programme. Adams restated the IOC's belief that the decision not to ban the en- tire Russian team for its state-run doping programme was the cor- rect one, as it offered individual athletes the chance to prove their drug-free credentials, but admit- ted it was disappointing to see the Court of Arbitration for Sport rule against the IOC's attempt to keep out Russians with prior doping convictions. "It's a disappointment that CAS doesn't allow us to be as tough on doping as we'd like to be, but we respect every athlete's right to go to CAS and accept its judgement," said Adams. "We would be rightly pilloried if we went against CAS, the highest court in sport." However, the IOC had the chance to be much tougher on doping by sanctioning the Russian Olympic Committee for failing to uphold Olympic values at home, and it was on shaky legal ground in trying to punish only Russian athletes for the same offence twice. The court's rejection of this clear case of "double jeopardy" means the likes of four-time world swim- ming champion Yulia Efimova will join Russia's team but the reprieve came too late for cycling medal prospect Ilnur Zakarin. On the issue of Brazil halting its pre-Games drug-testing regime at the end of June, in both Adams and Andrada denied there was any problem, despite the World Anti- Doping Agency already saying this was "unacceptable". There were lots of empty seats around Rio venues Starting lists rewritten as banned Russians return RUSSIAN swimmer Natalia Lovtsova was reinstated at the last minute to the wom- en's 100 meters butterf ly on Saturday after appealing suc- cessfully against a doping ban, but trailed in last in her heat. Lovtsova's inclusion forced officials to hastily reissue the starting list for the event, in a sign of the turmoil prompted by a rush of last-minute ap- peals by banned Russian com- petitors. Breaststroker Yulia Efi- mova suddenly appeared in the start lists for the 100 me- ters, whose heats take place on Sunday, and Wednesday's 200m, the event in which she won an Olympic bronze med- al in London in 2012. On Fri- day her name had been absent from the field for both races. The build-up to the Rio Games has been overshad- owed by revelations of wide- spread state-sponsored doping in Russia. Under guidelines laid down by the International Olympic Com- mittee, but left ultimately to the discretion of individual sports federations, Russians with past doping convictions were ineligible to compete. But a number have success- fully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, argu- ing that once their bans have been served, they should not be punished a second time for the same offense. Lovtsova came eighth and last in the final heat of the 100m butterf ly, won by world champion Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden. She left without speaking to reporters. Efimova is likely to mount a more powerful challenge in the breaststroke events. On Friday, after learning of her reinstatement, she posted a picture of herself on Insta- gram, looking surprised and tearful, with the caption: "I'm going to the Olympics. I couldn't be more proud and relieved." Natalia Lovtsova