Rio Olympics: Day 4 round up

While Singapore celebrated her 51st birthday, the world's best athletes were competing against each other half way around the world in Brazil.

Here's our round-up of the best stories out of Rio de Janeiro if you were too busy with National Day festivities to keep up with the action on Day 4 of the Olympics.

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THE GOLDEN ONES

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PHOTO: AFP

Another swim, another gold medal for that man Michael Phelps.

Well, two actually.

The US legend extended his lead as the most decorated Olympian in history by landing his 20th and 21st gold medals at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Phelps won the 200m men's butterfly to exact revenge over London 2012 gold medallist Chad le Clos, who finished fourth, before anchoring the US 4x200m freestyle relay team for his second gold.

The 31-year-old has two more events in the pool - the men's 200m individual medley on Thursday morning (Aug 11, Singapore time) and the men's 100m butterfly on Friday, where he'll be up against Team Singapore's very own Joseph Schooling.

Maybe Phelps is stopping all of his rivals in their tracks with his pre-match death stare (which was directed at none other than a shadowboxing le Clos)...

 

 

Over in the women's 200m freestyle, Katie Ledecky claimed her second gold of her campaign after narrowly beating Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom.

The 19-year-old from Washington DC will become only the second woman to win a hat-trick of freestyle Olympic golds, after Debbie Meyer's feat in 1968, should she defend the 800m title she won at the London 2012 Games.

PHOTO: REUTERS

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TEAM SINGAPORE IN ACTION

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PHOTO: REUTERS

Day 4 was a bit of a mixed bag for Singaporean athletes.

Paddlers Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu were both eliminated from the table tennis women's singles at the quarter-final stage while Joseph Schooling missed out on the men's 100m freestyle when he finished eighth in his semi-final.

Still, there were positives as Schooling rewrote the 100m freestyle national record in the heats by clocking 48.27 seconds while sailor Colin Cheng made a bright start to his Rio campaign by placing ninth after two races in the Laser fleet.

PHOTO: AFP

While rower Saiyidah Aisyah finished last in her single sculls quarter-final race, she remains on track for her target of a top-20 finish.

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THE UNDERDOGS

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PHOTO: REUTERS

Japan have stunned the rugby world yet again - this time with a victory over New Zealand in the rugby sevens.

In scenes reminiscent of their famous Rugby World Cup victory over South Africa, the Brave Blossoms came from behind to snatch a 14-12 triumph over the All Blacks.

To make matters worse for New Zealand, star man Sonny Bill Williams was ruled out for the rest of the Olympics after suffering an ankle injury during the game.

Over at the Carioca Arena 1, Brazil pulled off a shock in basketball with a last-ditch 66-65 win over Spain.

With just over 2 seconds left of the clock, Marcus Vinicius Marquinhos sent home fans into delirium as he followed up on a missed shot.

If only the hosts' footballers had the same kind of gumption...

PHOTO: REUTERS

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SERENA SHOCKER

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PHOTO: REUTERS

Staying on the topic of Olympic upsets, the tennis competition witnessed the exit of yet another star name.

Women's world No. 1 Serena Williams was eliminated in the third round of the women's singles by Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who won 6-4, 6-3.

Like men's world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who was eliminated from the men's singles on Day 2 by Juan Martin del Potro, Williams left the Olympics Tennis Centre in tears.

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CHINA'S NEW SOCIAL MEDIA STAR

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PHOTO: AFP

While Michael Phelps' impression of a Sith Lord broke the Internet, another swimmer was winning the World Wide Web over with her quirky facial expressions.

Meet China's Fu Yuanhui, who clinched the bronze medal on Day 3 in the women's 100m backstroke.

Her animated answer and unbridled joy after finding out from an interviewer that she had swum faster than she had imagined has been making the rounds on social media and winning fans over since.