What to watch at the Rio Games on Sunday
Day 9 of the Rio Games features medal action in track and field, gymnastics, tennis, golf, fencing and more. Here are some things to watch:
Track and field
The title of world’s fastest man goes on the block when Jamaican Usain Bolt, American Justin Gatlin and the other sprinters take to the track. The 100-meter final follows three rounds of semifinals.
Bolt won his first heat of the games in 10.07 seconds Saturday. He’s still a favorite for an unprecedented third straight gold, despite a sore hamstring that forced him from the world championships last month.
Gatlin took Saturday’s fastest time in the heats.
Andrew Fisher, a Jamaican who competes for Bahrain, Jamaican Yohan Blake, Americans Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell and Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre also qualified for the semis.
The 400 final is shaping up to be a titanic showdown between LaShawn Merritt, Kirani James and Wayde van Niekerk.
Defending Olympic champion James ran the fastest time of the heats Friday. Merritt is the 2008 champion and van Niekerk is a South African who surprised those two to win the world championships last year.
Women take to the track for the 400 semifinals. Shaunae Miller, of the Bahamas, has the fastest time in the event this year. Competition in the finals should include Americans Allyson Felix and Phyllis Francis.
For the first time in an Olympics, triplets will compete in an event. The Luik sisters from Estonia are part of the marathon field.
Gymnastics
Olympic all-around champion Simone Biles goes for her third gold in Rio when she competes in the women’s vault final. The 19-year-old already has two golds during the games after leading the “Final Five” to the team title and becoming the fourth straight American woman to win the all-around last week. Biles’ biggest challenge will come from Russia’s Maria Paseka, who upset Biles at the 2015 world championships.
Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, competing in her record seventh Olympics, will also try to reach the podium. The 41-year-old captured silver on the vault in Beijing in 2008.
Two other members of the “Final Five” will attempt to add to their medal haul.
World champion Madison Kocian posted the top score during qualifying for the uneven bars. Gabby Douglas, the Olympic all-around champion in 2012, is also in the final, as is defending Olympic uneven bars champion Aliya Mustafina of Russia.
British teammates Louis Smith and Max Whitlock will square off in the pommel horse final. The field also includes American Alex Naddour and Ukrainian Oleg Verniaiev, who was a narrow second to Japan’s Kohei Uchimura in the men’s all-around last week.
Americans Sam Mikulak and Jake Dalton posted the top scores during qualifying for the floor exercise. Uchimura and Brits Whitlock and Christian Thomas are also in the group of eight finalists.
Tennis
The final day of tennis is headlined by the gold medal match between Britain’s Andy Murray and Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro. Rafael Nadal plays Japan’s Nishikori Kei for the bronze.
The women’s doubles gold will either go to Martina Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland or Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia.
It’s an all-American mixed-doubles final when Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock.
Golf
Britain’s Justin Rose made two eagles in the opening five holes Saturday on the way to a 6-under 65, giving him a one-shot lead over Sweden’s Henrik Stenson going into the final round at Olympic Golf Course.
Basketball
The U.S. men’s team plays France and they’re being dogged by questions over where the dominating team of years past has gone. The U.S. has had two straight close games, against Australia and Serbia. France routed Venezuela on Friday.
The U.S. women play the Chinese. The Americans were out of synch Friday against Canada, but turned up the defense and still won.
Beach volleyball
Women’s quarterfinals start are Sunday.
Boxing
The men’s light flyweight final bout has Uzbekistan’s Hasanboy Dusmatov against Colombia’s Yurberjen Herney Martinez. Dusmatov on Friday beat American Nico Hernandez, who will get bronze and end a medal drought for the U.S. that stretched to 2008.
Fencing
The men’s epee team gold medal match is Sunday. Individual gold medalist Sangyoung Park will start his day against Hungary.
Track cycling
In the velodrome, defending gold medalist Jason Kenny meets Callum Skinner in an all-Brit final in the men’s sprint. The medals will give Britain four golds and five overall through the first six events of the 10-event program.
Wrestling
Wrestling might look like a brand new sport to the casual viewer when it makes its Olympic return Sunday when Greco-Roman grapplers take to the mat.
The world’s oldest sport underwent major changes after being forced to apply for reinstatement to the IOC in 2013.
Matches now feature two 3-minute periods with cumulative scoring, a move designed to stop wrestlers from sitting on a lead as they often did under the old best-of-three format.