Men’s park skateboarding final opponents take note: don’t get in Kieran Woolley’s way! Wasn’t it a big run by Australia’s Peter Bol in last night’s 800m final? To set the pace and cling on for fourth was a performance of great merit. Top bloke to boot. Deserves everything good that comes his way. Men’s triple jump final: early days at the National Stadium but setting the pace at this stage is world No 3 Pedro Pichardo of Peurto Rico with a hop, skip and a jump of 17.61m. Team USA pair, world No 2 Will Claye (17.19m) and Donald Scott (17.15m), have found their groove early to be sitting in second and third spot respectively. But there is a long way to go in this event. Men’s park skateboarding: USA’s Zion Wright has joined compatriot, world No 1 Heimana Reynolds, on the scrapheap of this event after Pedro Barros became what is likely a third Brazilian to qualify for the final with a run of 73.00 in the final heat. But in better news for Team USA, Cory Juneau has snuck into eighth spot with a first run of 71.08. Australia’s Keegan Palmer will have to do better than his first run of 64.04 but he has two more runs to remedy that. Women’s beach volleyball: Australia are through to the final after a comprehensive straight-sets victory over Latvia in the semis at Shiokaze Park! Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy have grown in confidence as the event has progressed and they were ruthless here, holding their nerve in a tight 23-21 opening set before blowing the Latvians away 21-13 in the second to book their spot in the gold-medal contest. There they will face Team USA’s April Ross and Alix Klineman, who earlier today crushed Switzerland in straight sets. Men’s park skateboarding: the quality just keeps getting better and better at Ariake Park and the third heat has seen a shake-up at the head of the leaderboard. Brazil’s Luiz Francisco is now top of the tops with a run of 84.31, marginally ahead of Australia’s Kieran Woolley (82.69) in second. Woolley didn’t put a foot or wheel wrong in his very first run and is now assured of a spot in the final. Spain’s Pedro Quintas is third, with Puerto Rico’s Steven Piniero, France’s Vincent Matheron and Spanish duo Danny Leon and Jaime Mateu close in behind. USA’s Zion Wright is clinging onto a final berth in eighth spot but the big news is world No 1, American Heimana Reynolds, is out of the event. His best run of 63.09 in the opening heat was nowhere near good enough. South African Dallas Oberholzer, at 46 almost four times the age of yesterday’s women’s silver medalist Kokona Hiraki, is coming stone motherless with a best run of 24.08. But at his advancing years he deserves a medal just for participating. I’m 46 and can barely get out of bed some mornings. Team USA’s Cory Juneau and Australia’s Keegan Palmer to come in the final heat. Women’s beach volleyball: over at Shiokaze Park, Australia have taken a 1-0 lead over Latvia in their semi-final clash, taking a tight first set 23-21. The two Australians, Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy, have enjoyed a stunning Olympics and are now so close to gold medal contention they can taste it. The score is locked at 11-11 in the second set. Women’s 4x100m relay heats: over at the National Stadium, both heats of this event have been run and won. Here’s what went down: Team GB set a new national record to win their heat in a time of 41.55. USA followed in behind with running Jamaica paying for a messy changeover to finish third. In heat two, Germany stopped the clock at 42.00, beating Switzerland and China. But all the action was in the slick opening heat. The fourth and fifth there, France and the Netherlands, look set to progress as the fastest losers and, on this evidence, Team GB will be very hard to beat in the final. Men’s park skateboarding: big, big run by Brazil’s Pedro Quintas to soar into the lead with a 79.02 effort with his final go in the second heat. The second run of 72.24 by Danny Leon was enough to place the Spaniard in second place, one spot above compatriot, Jaime Mateu. USA’s Zion Wright is sitting in fourth, just ahead of Italy’s Alessandro Mazzara, meaning world No 1, American Heimana Reynolds, is now sixth place. With two more heats to go and just the top eight to go through to the final, Reynolds is in for an anxious wait. Australia’s Kieran Woolley to come in heat three. Thanks Tom and good morning/day/evening, all. Wowee, day 13 in Tokyo has got the lot. If you can’t find something today to get the juices flowing, you’re probably on the wrong blog. But many of you (myself included) will be counting the seconds until Australia face the might of USA in the men’s basketball semi-finals – there are about 15,300 to go, give or take, so not long to wait. But plenty – and I mean plenty – to keep us occupied until then, including Australia in the semi-final of the women’s beach volleyball. Which is just about to start. So let’s get cracking. With the day in full swing, I’ll hand over to the cool head and typing fingers of Adelaide’s finest, Scott Heinrich. Enjoy. Men’s park skateboarding: More Spanish brilliance! Jaime Mateu is now in second with a score of 69.18. Italy’s Alessandro Mazzara goes up into fourth after his run of 65.25. That pushes the world No 1, USA’s Heimana Reynolds, down into fifth place. And he faces a nervous wait to make the final... Men’s park skateboarding: We have a new leader! Spain’s Danny León puts in a breathtaking, aggressive run in heat two for a score of 72.24. He has one more run to go – and there are another 10 skaters to come but he looks like a good chance to stroll into the final. USA’s Zion Wright and Heimana Reynolds are in second and third so far. The top eight over the four heats make the final. Women’s beach volleyball: The US pair of Alix Klineman and April Ross are guaranteed at least a silver medal after beating Switzerland’s Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré 2-0 in the semi-final. Next up are Australia’s Mariafe Artacho and Taliqua Clancy, They’ll be playing Latvia’s Anastasija Kravcenoka and Tina Graudina. Canoe Sprint Men’s K1 200m: GB’s Liam Heath has qualified for the final after finishing second in his semi-final. In fact, it was the second fastest time of both semi-finals, behind Hungary’s Kolos Csizmadia. Another Hungarian, Sandor Totka, had the third-best time. “I just spent the last half-hour reviewing the Guardian “Olympic Pictures of the day” from Opening Ceremony to today,” says Marc Plaisant. “My view of the pandemic olympics has changed completely. First I could have cared-a-less, but since I’ve haven’t missed an opening ceremony since 1984 I watched the opening ceremony with a ‘keep the record going’ attitude. I ended up hooked and have not looked back. If you and your co-bloggers would, please remind your readers to review the daily pictures. So many emotions bubbled up (good and bad). My fave so far cyclist Kiesenhofer winning Womens Road race, all on her own and no backing team.” I loved the skateboarding yesterday for the kids’ glee but the swimming was consistently excellent - particularly the tactics in the mixed relays. Decathlon: The leader, Canada’s Damian Warner, steamed home in heat three of the 110m hurdles and increased his lead over the pack. The standings are now: 1) Damian Warner (Canada) 5767 points 2) Ashley Moloney (Australia) 5605 points 3) Pierce Lepage (Canada) 5454 points 4) Kevin Mayer (France) 5327 points 5) Garrett Scantling (USA) 5309 points The fast track may be helping those who do better in the sprints than the field events. But no matter, Warner is putting in a brilliant performance and will take some catching. Men’s park skateboarding: Four heats of five skaters in the prelims with the top eight overall going into the final later today. So where you finish in your heat is not that significant - you could finish fifth and still go to the final if your score is good enough. Anyway, after two runs of heat one, the world No 1 Heimna Reynolds is struggling a little - with a 44.29 his best score, which won’t be good enough for the final in all probability. Let’s see what he does on his third run ... and he gets a 63.09 . Hmmm, the experts reckon anything over 75 as your best score from your three runs will get a skater into the final. The heat finishes with these top three: 1) Zion Wright (USA) - 67.21 2) Heimana Reynolds (USA) - 63.09 3) Andy Anderson (Canada) - 60.78 There are still 15 skaters to come and none of those men will feel assured of a place in the final. Decathlon: The world record holder Kevin Myer puts on a strong showing in the 110m hurdles, winning his heat. The overnight leader Damian Warner goes in heat three, so we’ll see how things stand after his run. Right. A few more events are about to start now. We have the decathlon 110m hurdles, Switzerland v USA in the women’s beach volleyball semi-finals and the qualifying for the men’s park skateboarding. The women’s event yesterday was one of my highlights of the Games so far. Not just because of the skill of the athletes, but because the kids – and they were mainly kids – looked genuinely happy for each other’s success. At their age, I’d have stormed off with my skateboard as soon as anyone did better than me (which would be very quickly). Here’s a little more on yesterday’s action: “Morning Tom!” cries Jonathan Perry. “It’s before 9am here in Tokyo and I’m dripping with sweat after taking part in the less-than-Olympic event of putting the bins out. “So here’s a question - is any action going to be taken against Tokyo for the obvious lie in their host city application about summer being ‘mild and sunny and perfect for sport’? Or against the IOC for taking the claim on face value and not bothering to google ‘summer temperatures in Tokyo’? I assume not, but surely there should be some kind of penalty for blatant untruths in ones application?” Yeah, Tokyo may have been a little flexible with the truth in their application. But surely the rich dudes who run the IOC had been to Tokyo in the summer during one of their freebie trips? Although I imagine the aircon in their five-star hotel was excellent, so maybe they didn’t notice the heat. And here is what we can expect from Team USA in the hours ahead. Just a hunch, but I think they will win some medals. 10.05pm EDT: men’s shot put final Ryan Crouser, the 28-year-old American who holds the world record in both indoor and outdoor shot put, has a great chance at his second Olympic gold. Crouser won the shot put competition in Rio de Janeiro, where he set an Olympic record, and at the US trials in June, he set a new world record with a 23.37m throw. Crouser had the best throw in the semi-final by a margin of more than half a meter. Two other Americans, Payton Otterdahl and Joe Kovacs, earned berths in the final, too, grabbing the last two qualifying spots. 10.55pm EDT: men’s 110m hurdles final Both Americans competing in the men’s 110m hurdles won their respective semi-final races; Grant Holloway finished with just a slightly faster time than Devon Allen. Holloway is the reigning world champion in the event, and Allen made the US team for Rio and finished fifth in the event. Each has a solid chance to medal. 6am EDT: women’s pole vault final Katie Nageotte, 30, is competing in her first Olympics after missing the team by two spots in 2016. She set an Olympic trials record with her vault in June, and Morgann Leleux Romero finished second behind her there and also secured a spot in the final in Tokyo. Sandi Morris, the American who won silver in Rio, won’t get a chance to defend her medal after she was injured when her pole broke in a qualifying round. 2.35am EDT: men’s featherweight boxing final bout Duke Ragan defeated Ghana’s Samual Takyi on Monday to earn a spot in the gold-medal bout, where he’ll face Albert Batyrgaziev of Russia. Ragan, 22, is 4-0 as a pro, with one TKO; these are his first Olympics, and he turned pro in 2020. Batyrgaziev, 23, also turned pro last year and is 3-0 since. He’s won all three bouts in TKOs. Should Ragan take gold, he’ll snap the US’s streak of 17 years without a boxing gold at the Games. 4am EDT: women’s soccer bronze medal match Yes, these Olympics have felt like a turning point for the USWNT, which lost their opening group stage game to Sweden, 3-0. The women coasted to a 6-1 victory over New Zealand after that, but in the three games since, the going’s been tough, and they ultimately lost, 1-0, to Canada in the semi-final Monday. In the bronze medal match, the US face Australia, the team they played to a 0-0 draw in the group stage. A win, and the women will salvage a medal. Highlights for Australia on Day 13? Oh boy, do we have highlights for you. The Kookaburras go for gold against Belgium while the Boomers meet the mighty Team USA in the men’s basketball semi-finals and the Matildas also play the US in the women’s football bronze medal match. Basically, the best US-Australia tension since that thing with Johnny Depp and his dog. More here (on the sport, not Depp. For the dog stuff, click here): Niall O’Keeffe writes in: “Great excitement in Ireland as our boxer Kellie Harrington aims for gold at 6am UK/Ireland time,” he says. “Great story as she comes from the inner city of Dublin which is often in the news for the wrong reasons. But her hood and the entire nation are behind her! We don’t win many medals so big deal for us!” In that case, I’ll print your email. Which I just did. Women’s golf: Madelene Sagström of Sweden is -2 after two to start her second round and she tops the leaderboard on -7. In second, Aditi Ashok of India is one-under for the day and -5 overall. USA’s Nelly Korda, the reigning USA PGA champ, is in third on -4, but has yet to start her second round. Men’s marathon swimming: And Germany’s Florian Wellbrock wins gold by a long, long way. A completely dominant swim - and he’s still only 23. There is more competition for silver though: Hungary’s Kristóf Rasovszky just holds off the 800m freestyle silver medalist, Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy, for second. USA’s Jordan Wilimovsky, the Netherlands’ Ferry Weertman (the 2016 champ), GB’s Hector Pardoe and Australia’s Kai Edwards all finish well down the pack. Men’s marathon swimming: The swimmers are heading into the sun now in the final stretch. The only hope for Wellbrock’s opponents is if he is temporarily blinded and starts heading out to sea. Men’s marathon swimming: Yep, Wellbrock said he was going to break early and he has broken, rather than is broken. He leads Hungary’s Kristóf Rasovszky by 16.3 seconds and the gold is all but his with 500m to go. He was up at 3am this morning to prepare, but looking at him he could have had more of a lie in. Men’s marathon swimming: Wellbrock has led this race for pretty much the entire way, and the 23-year-old is starting to stretch away from the field. A magnificent performance in very warm conditions. Going full pelt for nearly two hours in what amounts to warm bath water can’t be too much fun - but think of the poor guys who don’t even get a medal. Gregorio Paltrinieri looks like he’s out of the medal race but he won silver in the 800m freestyle earlier in these Games, so will have a nice prize to take home. Men’s marathon swimming: We are on the final lap and a little less than 1500m to go. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock leads Hungary’s Kristóf Rasovszky by 4.6 seconds. France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier, who won bronze in 2016, is in the same position this year and is 13.7 seconds behind with Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri 16.3 off Wellbrock in fourth. It’s Wellbrock’s race to lose now with only Rasovszky having a decent chance of catching him. I am enjoying the fact that the TV graphics can’t fit in Marc-Antoine Olivier, so they just call him “Olivier” like he’s a Brazilian footballer or a concept artist. Preamble Hello out there. A busy day ahead in Tokyo - here’s my colleague Martin Belam with what may tickle your fancy... Key events for Day 13 All events are listed here in local Tokyo time. Add an hour for Cairns, subtract eight hours for Aberystwyth, 13 hours for Baltimore and 16 hours for Los Angeles. 🌟If you only watch one thing: 7pm Hockey – Australia and Belgium are going to battle it out in the final for gold. Australia last won it in 2004. Belgium have never won, but will be aiming to go one step better than their silver in Rio 🏑🥇 6.30am Marathon swimming – it’s 10km of open water for the men, and I’m still tired from watching the women swim it late last night/early this morning 🥇 7.30am Golf – day two of the women’s competition. 9am-10.50am and 9pm-10.50pm Beach Volleyball – the women’s semi-finals are in the morning, the men’s semi-finals are the late night session. 9am-3.05pm and 7pm-9.45pm Athletics – the main attractions in the stadium include the men’s triple jump final and men’s shot put final in the morning, when we also get the men’s 110m hurdles final at 11.55am. In the evening session, it is the women’s pole vault final and the men’s 400m final is at 9pm. Throughout the day there’s more heptathlon and decathlon, and those conclude with the women’s 800m heats and the men’s 1500m which round off the day 🥇 9am-12.30 Skateboarding – the men go in the park event 🥇 9.30am-1.05pm Canoe sprint – there are finals in the men’s kayak single at 11.42am, the women’s canoe single 200m at 11.57am, the women’s kayak single 500m at 12.29pm and the last race of the day is the men’s kayak double 1000m at 12.55pm 🥇 1.15pm and 8pm Basketball – the men’s semi-finals. Team USA v Australia to start with, then the evening game is Slovenia v France. 3pm Diving – the final of the women’s 10m platform 🥇 3.30pm-6.50pm Track cycling – Thursday’s action features the women’s keirin final at 5.45pm and the conclusion of the men’s omnium at 5.55pm 🥇 4.30pm Race walking – it’s the one where you end up shouting at the television: “Just run! Or walk! But not this! What even is this?” It’s in Sapporo to try to make it cooler for the men, who go over the 20km distance 🥇 5pm Football – USA v Australia for the women’s bronze medal 🥉 5pm and 9pm Handball – the men’s competition is at the semi-final stage: France v Egypt first then Spain v Denmark. It’s dead good. You should give watching it a go. 5.30pm, 6.30pm and 9.10pm Sport climbing – it is medal time for the men 🥇 You can find our full interactive events schedule here. As well as letting you find out what is coming up, it also gives you the currents scores of the sports currently in action. As it stands With five medals today for Team GB and three for Australia, you imagine that officials at both national Olympic committees must be pinching themselves to be above Not Russia in the emoji table this deep into the Games. Here’s how it stood at 10.50pm Tokyo time: 1 🇨🇳 China 🥇 32 🥈 22 🥉 16 total: 70 2 🇺🇸 USA 🥇 25 🥈 31 🥉 23 total: 79 3 🇯🇵 Japan 🥇 21 🥈 7 🥉 12 total: 40 4 🇬🇧 Great Britain 🥇 15 🥈 18 🥉 15 total: 48 5 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 15 🥈 4 🥉 17 total: 36 6 ◽️ Not Russia 🥇 14 🥈 21 🥉 18 total: 53 7 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 8 🥈 8 🥉 16 total: 32 8 🇫🇷 France 🥇 6 🥈 10 🥉 9 total: 25 9 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 6 🥈 9 🥉 15 total: 30 10 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 6 🥈 8 🥉 9 total: 23