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Max Hartung (right) in the battle for bronze
Photo: Oliver Weiken / dpa
From a German point of view, the fifth day of the competition provides at best clouded joy: where gold and silver shine in dressage and the German team can cheer for medals in judo, diving and, for the first time since 2008, the swimmers again, an incident of racism during the time trial Competition of cyclists for horror.
The German footballers at least only disappointed athletically, for them the Olympic tournament is over after the group stage.
Internationally, the withdrawal of Simone Biles from the all-around gymnastics competition is the topic of the hour, among tennis players the high temperatures in Tokyo caused (successful) protests.
Von Bredow-Werndl and Werth gold and silver dressage singles
Is it a changing of the guard on horseback?
In the freestyle final, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on mare Danara (91,732 points) prevailed against the grande dame of dressage sport Isabell Werth on Bella Rose (89,657 points).
After gold in the team competition together with the seven-time Olympic champion Werth, it was the first individual Olympic title for von Bredow-Werndl.
The bronze medal went to Charlotte Dujardin from Great Britain on gelding Gio (88,543 points).
German cycling official: Open racism, live on TV
The competitive sports director of the Association of German Cyclists, Patrick Moster, caused a scandal on the sidelines of the time trial competition.
Moster shouted the phrase "Get the camel drivers!" To the German athlete Nikias Arndt, while Azzedine Lagab from Algeria and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier from Eritrea drove in front of Arndt.
The expression could be heard clearly during the ZDF broadcast.
Moster later apologized for his racist remarks, Arndt distanced himself from the functionary on Twitter and sharply condemned his words.
In terms of sport, the German cyclists did not make headlines.
When the Slovenian Primož Roglič won, Maximilian Schachmann was 15th, Arndt was 19th. In the women's race, Lisa Klein was 13th, gold went to Annemiek van Vleuten from the Netherlands.
Kuntz's rump group flies home - in good company
The DFB selection would have needed a win in the last group game to make it to the quarter-finals.
However, the team of coach Stefan Kuntz had to be content with a 1-1 draw against Ivory Coast: Eduard Löwen could only compensate for an own goal by Benjamin Henrichs with a free kick.
So follows Silver in Rio, the preliminary round at the games in Japan.
But world champions France and Copa America winners Argentina also have to pack their bags - even if the titles of the major soccer nations are misleading: after all, Olympic soccer is an U23 tournament, and one that is not part of the FIFA event calendar.
As a result, the clubs did not have to make their best players available to the national teams as they usually do; Germany and France in particular traveled with poorly assembled teams.
It is therefore not surprising that the quarter-final pairings are as follows: Spain - Ivory Coast, Japan - New Zealand, Brazil - Egypt, South Korea - Mexico.
Heat frenzy on the court
Alexander Zverev has so far played strongly on the tennis courts in Tokyo. With 6-4, 7-6 against the Georgian Nikolos Bassilaschwili and an outstanding service game, especially in the first set, the number five in the world was the first German since Tommy Haas in Sydney 2000 to reach an Olympic tennis quarter-finals. However, Zverev, who later lost to the Americans Richard Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren 3-6, 6-7 (4-7) in doubles with Jan-Lennard Struff and missed a semi-finals, visibly took part in temperatures of over 30 degrees in Tokyo to fight the heat.
He was not the only one: More and more athletes had complained about the extreme external conditions during the Olympic tennis competitions.
The Russian Daniil Medvedev even complained that he could "die" if he had to continue playing on the court.
The protest was successful: From Thursday, the tennis matches are to take place later in the day instead of in the midday heat.
Then the athletes should cool down as much as the minds.
Pressure and games
Simone Biles is one of the most colorful sports personalities of today. The US gymnast set standards with her versatility as well as the level of difficulty of the elements she did squeaky clean. But instead of her skill, Biles impresses with these games with the fact that, despite the attention and public expectations that weigh on her, she takes a break to process the mental stress of being a sport star. On Thursday, the 24-year-old will skip the all-around final, whether she will do the finals on the individual devices is still open. Biles' handling of pressure allows the athlete to grow into a completely new role model. For her step back, the top athlete received encouragement from all sides - from Michael Phelps or Michelle Obama, for example.
The end of the swimming misery and the comeback of the treasure divers
For the first time since Britta Steffen's Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008, the German swimmers can again celebrate a medal: Sarah Köhler secured bronze in the victory of US-American Katie Ledecky in the 1500 meter freestyle.
The medals of the diving duo Patrick Hausding and Lars Rüdiger have the same color: From the three-meter board, the two secured third place in the synchronized competition with a strong last jump.
Internationally, the Australian Ariane Titmus won her second gold medal in these games in the 200 meter freestyle, as did the Japanese Yui Ohashi in the 200 meter medley.
Both had already won over twice the distance.
In the men’s race, the Hungarian Kristof Milak dominated the 200 meter butterfly, but was annoyed by missing his own world record.
Short and sweet
Another Olympic premiere discipline has its first champions: in 3x3 basketball, the Americans prevailed on the one hand, the Latvians on the other hand and won historic gold medals.
The even faster basketball variant is only played on one basket and was part of the Olympic program for the first time.
But classic basketball was also played on Wednesday - with a German sense of achievement: against the secret favorites from Nigeria, national coach Hendrik Rödl's team won 99:92 and has further chances of advancing before the final group game against Australia.
On the other hand, the German handball players had to cope with a setback.
Despite catching up in the meantime, there was a 29:30 defeat against France, which did not deprive the German team of the quarter-finals, but a comfortable starting position before the final group matches against Norway and Brazil.
Dimitrij Ovtcharov, on the other hand, is already very close to the medal.
Against the Brazilian Hugo Calderano, with whom the former world number one in table tennis plays together in Russia at Fakel Orenburg, Ovtcharov fought his way back several times and won 4: 2 (7:11, 5:11 after a 2-0 set deficit) , 11: 8, 11: 7, 11: 8, 11: 2).
On Thursday (9 a.m. CEST), defending champion Ma Long from China is waiting in the semi-finals, so Ovtcharov is at least playing for bronze.
Judoka Eduard Trippel is already decorated with precious metal: The 24-year-old only had to admit defeat to European champion Lascha Bekauri from Georgia in the weight class up to 90 kg.
Most recently, Ole Bischof won a medal for the German judo men with his Olympic victory in London in 2012.
The hockey women are considered to be the medal guarantors.
The “Danas”, short for “women's national team”, have so far been harmed in Tokyo too.
After a 4: 2 (2: 0) over Ireland and three wins from three games, the team of national coach Xavier Reckinger is early in the quarter-finals.
The German saber fencers went empty: Max Hartung, Benedikt Wagner and Richard Hübers, who stood in for the injured Matyas Szabo, were defeated by the Hungarians in the battle for bronze with 40:45.
With archer Lisa Unruh and the German women's double foursome, other smaller and larger medal hopes missed the top ranks.
Apart from the sporting activities, the quarantine conditions for athletes infected with the coronavirus caused a stir.
Six Dutch Olympians had to fight for several hours in the quarantine hotel with a sit-in strike in the lobby to get some fresh air.
The measures included not even being allowed to open the windows.
Skateboarder Candy Jacobs described the conditions as "inhuman".
cev / dpa / rtr / sid