Tokyo Olympics: Canada’s women’s rowing eight secures gold; Penny Oleksiak comes up short

Latest Olympic highlights

OLYMPIC EVENTS FOR JULY 29

• Swimming: Penny Oleksiak has placed fourth in women’s 100m freestyle. Oleksiak had the fifth fastest time of the 16 swimmers in Thursday’s two semi-finals for the 100m freestyle, swimming another season-best time of 52.86 seconds and finishing third in her race. Placing fourth she’s missed a chance at becoming Canada’s most-decorated Olympian ever. That feat was almost reached last night when Canada came in fourth at the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay along with Summer McIntosh, Kayla Sanchez, Rebecca Smith.
• Rowing: Canada’s women’s eight has secured its first gold medal since Barcelona 1992 at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway beating out New Zealand and China to claim the top spot.
• Trampoline: Two-time gold medalist Rosie MacLennan has missed the podium in the women’s trampoline at the Tokyo Olympics. Rosie MacLennan made history five years ago in Rio to become the first Canadian athlete to successfully defend a title at the Olympics but the feat of the first time ever trampoline three-peat remains untouched. Still, she’s the first Canadian woman to win two gold medals in an individual event at the Summer Games.

OFF THE FIELD

• Simone Biles & Sunisa Lee: Sunisa Lee, the youngest member of the U.S. gymnastics team grabbed gold in the women’s individual all-around gymnastics final after Simone Biles dropped out of the event over mental health concerns. Biles’ sponsors, including Athleta and Visa, are lauding Simone Biles’ decision to put her mental health first and withdraw from the gymnastics team competition during the Olympics. Lee won the all-around to secure the title for the U.S. for a fifth straight Olympic Games.
• COVID-19: U.S. pole vaulter Sam Kendricks has been ruled out of the Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19. Tokyo has been seeing record COVID-19 numbers as the games unfold in Tokyo, with two more Olympic-related COVID-19 cases landing people in hospital.
• Booing during China’s nation anthem: Hong Kong police said on Thursday that they are launching an investigation into booing of China’s national anthem during a shopping mall broadcasting after the city’s first Olympic gold medal win in 25 years earlier this week.

Get the Olympic highlights in your inbox every day with our newsletter, or follow @globeandmail on Twitter for breaking news. Here are yesterday’s Olympic highlights in case you missed them.

More Olympic updates for July 29

• Rowing: Caileigh Filmer and Hillary Janssens – a duo of Olympic rowers from B.C. – have brought home Canada’s fifth bronze medal of the Tokyo Games in women’s pair. They finished with a time of 6:52:10, behind the gold medal team from New Zealand and the Russian silver medalists. Tonight, Canada’s Women’s Eight competes for a medal (9:05 p.m. ET).
• Beach volleyball: Canadians Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes remain undefeated after their first three games in Tokyo. The pair of medal contenders will move on to the knockout rounds which kick off on July 31.
• Track: Bishop-Nriagu, the world silver medalist and Canadian record-holder finished fourth in her heat of the women’s 800 metres and didn’t advance to the semi-finals.
• Golf: Canada’s Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes are tied at 2-under 69 after the first round of men’s golf at Tokyo Olympics.
• Judo: Canada’s Shady El-Nahas lost the bronze-medal judo match to Jorge Fonseca, finishing fifth overall.
• Volleyball: Canada has improved its chances of moving to the quarter-finals in men’s volleyball with a win over Venezuela. Canada won Friday’s match, taking all three sets to improve its record to 2-2 in preliminary rounds.

The Olympic experience

Nathan VanderKlippe spoke to bronze medalist Caileigh Filmer after her podium finish with teammate Hillary Janssens in women’s pair rowing. Filmer discussed “going internal” with Janssens to maximize their performance on the water. It’s not a bad analogy for a Games characterized by isolation.

From The Globe’s Olympic Team

Keep up with the latest behind-the-scenes stories and images from the Olympics in our reporters’ notebook from Tokyo.

Tokyo Olympic events to watch tomorrow, July 30

• Diving: Pamela Ware and Jennifer Abel compete in the 3m springboard (2 a.m. ET)
• Soccer: Canada’s women’s soccer team takes on Brazil in the quarter final (4 a.m. ET)
• Athletics: Mohammed Ahmed will race in the men’s 10,000 m final (7:30 a.m. ET)
• Swimming: Friday morning the heats for the men’s and women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay begin (7:48 a.m. ET) with teams from Canada in both. Friday night, Kylie Masse hopes to race in the finals for women’s 200-metre backstroke. (9:37 p.m. ET).
• Check the full Olympic schedule for the latest event times and competitors.

The Tokyo Olympics: Essential reads

What athletes and teams should Canadians look out for? Consult our guide.

Penny Oleksiak bears the hopes of a nation in Tokyo – and that’s just fine with her. Rachel Brady spoke with the now six-time medal winner before the Games began

How did Canada’s swimmers use data to get stronger? Grant Robertson and Timothy Moore explain.