1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Olympics: Day 11 round-up

Michael Da SilvaAugust 17, 2016

On day 11 of the Olympics, Simone Biles ended her Olympics on a high, Germany's Kristina Vogel won gold in track cycling and Usain Bolt cruised in the 200m heats.

https://p.dw.com/p/1JjQF
Rio Momente 09 08 Gymnastik Simone Biles
Image: Getty Images/L. Baron

Biles signs off with another gold

Simone Biles put the finishing touches on one of the greatest Olympics by a gymnast, capturing her fourth gold of the games with an electric performance in the floor exercise on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old American completed an extraordinary stretch that included a team gold for the "Final Five" as well as individual golds in the all-around and vault and bronze on balance beam. Her five medals tie the most for an American female gymnast in a single Olympics and her four golds tie an Olympic record shared by four others.

"It's been a long journey," Biles said. "I've enjoyed every single moment of it."

Vogel claims gold for Germany in the velodrome

Germany's Kristina Vogel edged Becky James of Britain by four-thousandths of a second to win the women's Olympic track cycling sprint gold medal.

James, who also won silver in the keirin, was the fastest qualifier but two-time former world champion Vogel used all her experience to prevail in the best of three leg final.

"I saw Becky at the finish line so I was thinking that I had silver, but then I saw the screen and there was a 'one' before my name -- that was ahhhhh, yeah crazy," added the new champion.

Chaotic finish in open water swimming

Ferry Weertman won a ferocious battle for the men's 10km open water swimming gold at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday, edging Spiros Gianniotis in a frantic photo finish to cap a Dutch open water double.

Rio Olympia 2016 Marathon Schwimmen 10 km Ferry Weertman
Ferry Weertman, left, won a ferocious battle for the men's 10km open water swimming gold.Image: Reuters/T. Melville

Weertman's triumph by the narrowest of margins - both he and Gianniotis were credited with a time of 1hr 52min 59.8sec - followed teammate Sharon van Rousendaal's victory in the women's race off Copacabana beach on Monday.

But his win bore little resemblance to van Rouwendaal's victory by a margin of more than 17 seconds.

Jamaica land another sprint gold

Jamaica's Omar McLeod produced a flawless performance to win the gold medal in the Olympic 110m hurdles onTuesday.

McLeod raced home in 13.05sec after smoothly clearing each of his 10 hurdles as the battle for silver and bronze unfolded behind him.

Cuba-born Spaniard Orlando Ortega took silver in 13.17sec with Dimitri Bascou of France third in 13.24sec. A little earlier, Kenya's Faith Kipyegon left her rivals in her wake with a powerful final lap in the women's 1500m final.

Bolt cruises

Usain Bolt stepped up his quest for a third straight Olympic sprint sweep with a relaxed win in the 200m semi-finals, coasting home in 20.28sec, easing up long before the line.

Olympia Rio 2016 Leichtathletik Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt stepped up his quest for a third straight Olympic sprint sweep with a relaxed win in the 200m.Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Thuillier

Bolt, who easily won the 100m title on Sunday, said a relatively long rest before the semi-finals and final meant he would "have enough energy left to definitely try" to beat his 2009 world record of 19.19 seconds.

Mixed fortunes for the hosts

It was third time lucky for Brazilian boxer Robson Conceicao when he won Olympic gold in the lightweight division at his home Games on Tuesday.

Olympia Rio 2016 Boxen Robson Conceicao
Robson Conceicao dominated Sofiane Oumiha of France 3-0 in the gold medal bout.Image: Getty Images/C. Petersen

Conceicao dominated Sofiane Oumiha of France 3-0 in the gold medal bout with the judges scoring favouring him 30-27. 29-28, 29-28.

The 27-year-old Conceicao was eliminated in the early stages of the 2008 and 2012 Games, and had previously never won a major title before his Rio success.

However, Brazil's women footballers suffered defeat by Sweden on a penalty shootout, ending the gold medal dream of star player Marta. Sweden won 4-3 in the shootout and will face Germany in Friday's final.

Hambüchen ends Germany's gymnastics drought

It took four Olympics but flamboyant showman Fabian Hambüchen was finally leaping with joy after he soared past his rivals to become the first German gymnast in 20 years to strike gold with an electrifying routine on the high bar on Tuesday.

Olympia Rio 2016 Reckturner Fabian Hambüchen feiert Gold
"That gold was the only medal which wasn't mine until now but I made it, I'm just overwhelmed."Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Stache

"It's just indescribable right now," said Hambüchen who now has a full set of Olympic horizontal bar medals after picking up silver in 2012 and bronze in 2008.

"I said before that this would be my last competition, and to finish it like that is just a dream come true.

"That gold was the only medal which wasn't mine until now but I made it, I'm just overwhelmed."

Badminton heartache for China

China missed out on Olympic women's doubles badminton gold for the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Games on Tuesday when Tang Yuanting and Yu Yang lost in the semi-finals.

They went down to Denmark's Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen in a 21-16, 14-21, 21-19 thriller.

"We were thinking about the medal and that is really stupid to do," said Rytter Juhl. "It was 19-20 and I said to Christinna, 'Come on, now we take it'."