As it happened: Trew Australia’s youngest champ; Khelif into gold medal match; major 1500m upset; Boomers crash out

Another day, another gold, don’t you just love it. Especially when it’s our youngest gold medallist in Olympic history – 14-year-old Arisa Trew, the new women’s park skateboarding champion.

When Tony Hawk says his sport is lucky to have you, well, that’s solid gold right there.

Otherwise, we had one hell of a 1500-metre final where American Cole Hocker upstaged Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Gabrielle Thomas did it easy in the women’s 200 metres.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is through to the gold medal bout as the Games’ gender saga rolls on, Australia’s beach volleyballers are closing in on the podium as well and the Boomers are heading home after an overtime loss to Serbia.

In summary: it’s the Olympics baby, there’s always something doing. And Day 12 is no exception – keep up with all the action, led by Australia’s red-hot gold medal hope Nina Kennedy in the pole vault, right here.

Until next time.

Those attending the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Wednesday night missed an unlikely reunion between two of track cycling’s most bitter rivals: Australia’s Anna Meares and Great Britain’s Victoria Pendleton.

Meares, Australia’s impressive chef de mission, walked into the broadcast tribune where Pendleton was calling, tapped her on the shoulder and they embraced and chatted.

Anna Meares and Victoria Pendleton at the velodrome in Paris on Wednesday night.

What she told her will shock those who remember the fierce contests, the endless stories in the media, and even Meares’ own autobiography, which detailed their long-running feud.

“You were the best,” Meares told Pendleton.

As Meares told me later that night: “She undersells herself immensely. I just wanted to hammer that home: she was literally the best. And I had to be so much better to be in the competition. It’s nice we both came away from London with a gold medal each, even though it was in each other’s discipline.”

Read Andrew Webster’s full column from Paris here.

The two years before Tokyo alone would have been enough to send any cyclist into retirement. First, there was the physical and emotional toll of a thyroid cancer diagnosis. Then, after the surgery and treatment, came a torn calf. Then, an oblique injury, and finally a bulging disc in his neck.

Despite it all, Matthew Glaetzer made the Australian team for a third Games in Japan, and the ache for an elusive Olympic medal outweighed all the pain that had come before it.

But a medal did not come at the Izu Velodrome in August 2021. And with a history like Glaetzer’s – a wretched timeline of tormenting near-misses stretching back to his debut Games in 2012 – you’d forgive him for being done.

At the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome on Tuesday, right on cue, Glaetzer’s sprint team ended up in the bronze-medal race. This time, Glaetzer did not miss.

Read Emma Kemp’s full recap of Glaetzer’s thoroughly deserved breakthrough medal here.

Mijain Lopez has gone out on top.

The 41-year-old Cuban defeated Yasmani Acosta Fernandez of Chile 6-0 in the 130-kilogram wrestling final in Paris to win his fifth consecutive gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling.

He’s the first Olympic athlete to win gold in the same event at five consecutive Games, and the first wrestler to win five gold medals.

Cuban Mijain Lopez Nunez celebrates victory.Credit: Getty Images

“What’s great is the joy,” Lopez said through a translator. “It was a result that I was craving, but also for the whole world and my country. So happy to reach the Olympic elite. The reward of a lifetime of working hard with the help of everyone and my family. It is my biggest win.”

Following the match, Lopez placed his shoes in the centre of the mat, symbolising his retirement. He first appeared at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where he finished fifth. Now, he’s ready to pass the torch.

“I have a lot of inspiration for all the young people that come to me for guidance,” he said. “I have a lot of inspiration to give to the world. I would like to educate the younger generations.”

AP

Now, as esteemed colleague Christian Nicolussi likes to say whenever pitching one of his rugby league stories, we’ve got a bit of a fun one.

Cole Hocker’s 1500m upset victory won’t be forgotten anytime soon, especially now we’ve had a crack at reproducing it with funny little stick men.

A few caveats to this given our formatting limitations - the athletes have stayed in the eight prescribed lanes of a running track rather than condensing as they normally do in a 1500m race. And only the first eight runners are included along the same lines.

Cole Hocker laps up one of the more stunning gold medals of the Games.Credit: AP

It’s not perfect to the nanosecond. But we still get a very reasonable impression of exactly how and where Hocker came from for one of the great Olympic runs.

Particularly in the last few hundred metres, when he mows down high-profile rivals Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr after the trash-talking, sticker-tattoo sporting Norwegian had led for the first three laps. Like we said, fun one.

Charley Hull has been informed she cannot smoke while playing in the women’s golf this week and the Englishwoman fears the ban might hamper her pursuit of gold.

Hull went viral recently when she was pictured with a cigarette hanging from her mouth as she signed autographs for fans at the US Women’s Open. The 28-year-old laughed off the exposure, saying “everyone in my family smokes – my dad goes through 40 a day”.

Team GB golfer Charley Hull vapes during last month’s Women’s PGA Championship.Credit: AP

Hull, who describes herself as a “gym freak”, is supremely fit, but believes that puffing away helps after being diagnosed last year with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, the world No.11, will not be able to rely on tobacco relief for the 72-hole event that starts at Le Golf National on Wednesday (5pm AEST).

“Yeah, I do smoke on the course, it’s just something I do,” Hull said after her practice round for the 60-woman tournament. “It’s a habit but I won’t do it this week.” When asked why, Hull replied: I don’t think you’re allowed.”

And Hull seriously does believe it could affect her chances as she tries to do better than her tie for seventh in Rio and replicate Justin Rose’s gold in 2016 or Tommy Fleetwood’s silver on Sunday. “Yeah, I think it will,” Hull said. “Because it relaxes me a little bit. But it is what it is.” When suggested that France is an unlikely place to deny smokes, Hull responded: “Hopefully, yeah.”

Telegraph, London

Melburnians will “paint the town green and gold” to welcome Australian Olympians and Paralympians back from Paris, Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece announced this morning on 3AW.

“We want to make it a moment for Melbourne and for us all to celebrate,” he said.

On Tuesday night at a Melbourne City council meeting, Reece moved a motion to plan a welcome celebration for returning athletes. The motion was passed unanimously.

Reece said the celebration would happen after the Paralympics and would likely be at the end of August or early September.

The event will be supported by the City of Melbourne in partnership with the state government and the Australian Olympic Committee.