It’s the 13th day in Paris and luckily it’s not a Friday or we’d be in real trouble. Still, it’s guaranteed to bring bad luck to some people, no matter what they do.
You may want to set alarms or take strategically timed naps on this day, as it will be a long day and there is a lot going on in the early morning hours that you don’t want to miss.
In fact, there’s just a lot going on in general, and while we tend to limit ourselves to five topics, nobody said we had to limit it to five events. So here’s a rundown of what’s coming up next, with the usual caveat: all times are in Hong Kong.
A rare appearance
After the heady excitement of those early days when we were all young and carefree – last week – events involving Hong Kong athletes have become as rare as a white raven.
But today Taekwondo is -68 kg, which means the ever-optimistic Lo Wai-fung gets his 15 minutes of fame.
The Hong Kong native’s attempt to add his name to the ranks of those who have achieved great things begins at 3 p.m. with a match against Yahya Al Ghotany of the refugee team.
The desire for speed
It’s not about accelerating towards the sport’s top players, but rather about slowly building up to the crescendo of noise that will likely flood the Stade de France during the men’s 200 metres.
Noah Lyles, the fastest man at these Games, will try to add a second gold medal to his account at 2:30 a.m., although many eyes will be on his U.S. teammate Erriyon Knighton, who failed the doping test. It was apparently not his fault.
But before that, Yu Wanni will get a second chance to prove that she is more than the sum of her social media accounts in the women’s 100 m hurdles repechage at 4:35 p.m., and at 5:35 p.m. the Chinese men will compete in the first round of the 4×100 m relay.
The battle for bronze
China’s dominance of the diving events at this – or virtually every other Olympic Games since the 1980s – is not arbitrary, they are simply better at it than everyone else.
So while they battle it out for gold and silver in the men’s 3m springboard final, with Wang Zongyuan looking likely to have the upper hand over Xie Siyi in this case, Britain’s Jack Laugher will be leading the hunt for bronze at 9pm.
Previously, the race for second or third place in the women’s 3-meter springboard had reached the semifinals. China’s Chen Yiwen is the favorite in this competition, in which her teammate Chang Yani is also taking part.
A remarkable Final Four
Men’s basketball has reached a point where it’s finally time to pay attention, even though the NBA All-Stars are still the clear favorites to win gold.
Serbia, featuring Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic among others, will next try to give the USA a game in the second semifinal of the day at 3 a.m.
First, however, there is a duel between Germany and France at 11:30 p.m. Since France had the two top picks in the NBA draft this year with Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr and the NBA duo Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama in their squad, it would probably not be a good idea to bet against the hosts.
The richest prize
Yes, there are more popular sports and you can argue all day about what constitutes an Olympic discipline, but being the best in the world in any discipline is nothing to be sniffed at – this is even more true when your own country rarely makes the medal table.
And now to Max Maeder from Singapore, who may be only the second athlete from the city-state in history to win gold at the Olympic Games.
The 17-year-old Formula Kite World Champion is in second place in the rankings in Marseille ahead of the medal round on Thursday at 9.40 p.m., behind Slovenian Toni Vodisek.
Not only would this success put him on a par with swimmer Joseph Schooling, who won gold in 2016, but Maeder would also receive a prize money of 1 million Singapore dollars (US$753,579), more than Hong Kong’s Cheung Ka-long or Vivian Kong Man-wai received for their victories.
The bonus round
We said there was a lot going on today and that after China took gold in diving, the weightlifters will also return to add some medals to the list.
Luo Shifang will compete in the women’s 59 kg event at 9 p.m. Also notable there is the story of Filipino Elreen Ando, who knocked Tokyo Games gold medalist in the 55 kg class Hidilyn Diaz out of her country’s squad.
The men’s 73 kg class begins at 1:30, with Shi Zhiyong in the medal round.
And last but not least: Not really, but that’s all we can do today: The Chinese men and women are back in action in the semifinals of the table tennis team competition.
The men will first play against France at 4 p.m., while the women will play against South Korea at 9 p.m.
