Recaps of WEDNESDAY’S OTHER OLYMPIC EVENTS

weightlifting

Kazakh wins gold but faces doping questions

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Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan was a surprise gold medalist in weightlifting on Wednesday, but immediately faced questions over doping.

Rahimov, who only returned from a doping ban last year, and the rest of Kazakhstan’s team had almost been excluded from the Rio Olympics entirely after repeated failures in retests of doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The country stands to lose five gold medals from those games.

Kazakhstan was allowed to compete because those doping cases were not fully processed in time for the games, the International Weightlifting Federation has said.

In a sport in crisis over doping, Rahimov’s world record-breaking performance in the 77-kilogram class Wednesday is unlikely to silence the critics, not least bronze medalist Mohamed Mahmoud of Egypt, who said he found Rahimov’s dramatic improvement since his ban suspicious.

rugby

Fiji, Japan to square off in semifinal round

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Osea Kolinisau and his world champion Fijians face enormous expectations in the Olympic rugby sevens semifinals.

They will face a Japanese team that itself has already far exceeded expectations by reaching the medal rounds.

Kolinisau scored a crucial try in Fiji’s 12-7 win over New Zealand on Wednesday in a quarterfinal match between the two teams widely expected to be playing for gold.

Japan played a remarkable role in the tumultuous pool stage that had New Zealand on the verge of failing even to reach the playoffs in rugby’s return to the Olympics after 92 years.

The upheaval started with Japan’s stunning 14-12 win over the New Zealanders on Day 1, a result etched in history as the biggest upset in rugby sevens. The Japanese followed that up with a narrow 21-19 loss to Britain and win on Wednesday over Kenya before a 12-7 quarterfinal win over France

It leaves the Fijians as favorites to win their country’s first Olympic medal. Kolinisau knows that only one color will satisfy Fiji, where rugby sevens is the national sport.

“The public back home is a crazy rugby nation,” Kolinisau said. “Every time the Fiji team comes out, they always expect a win. We’ve been under the pump a lot the last few years.”

fencing

U.S. takes silver in men’s sabre

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The United States saw a pair of fencers put themselves in position to win unprecedented gold medals at the Rio Games.

Neither came through.

But simply getting to the finals helped show how far the Americans have come in a sport where they’ve long struggled.

Third-ranked Aron Szilagyi of Hungary beat upstart U.S. fencer Daryl Homer to win gold in men’s sabre Wednesday.

Despite the loss, Homer earned the second silver medal for the American men’s fencing team in Rio, joining Stanford’s Alexander Massialas.

“We’re trying to raise the visibility of the sport,” Homer said. “We are very competitive with each other, and it’s great. I love that.”

Homer’s impressive final touch gave him a thrilling 15-14 victory over Iran’s Mojtaba Abedini in the semifinals and put him within a win of the first gold for the U.S. men in the modern era.

Wire reports