Paris Olympics: Controversy and Sprint Dominance

Organizers of the Manchester Road Race, led by elite athlete coordinator Jim Harvey, are actively recruiting top international runners — notably U.S. 10,000m Olympic trials winner Weini Kelati — because the course’s uphill sections favor marathon-strength athletes and attract a world-class field. The Dutch remain dominant in the men’s Olympic team sprint, with Harrie Lavreysen, Roy van den Berg and Matthijs Büchli holding the world (41.225s) and Tokyo Olympic (41.369s) marks; qualifying begins Aug. 5 with finals on Aug. 6 at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Great Britain’s Alex Yee surged on the final lap to win the men’s triathlon in 1:43:33, passing New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde late after the race had been postponed earlier because of unsafe Seine water conditions. Controversy has erupted in the Solomon Islands after marathoner Sharon Firisua — who has never run a 100m — was nominated by her NOC for a universality wildcard in the women’s 100m, drawing criticism from local athletics officials and prompting a threatened resignation from the country’s leading sprinter. Early in the Paris Games Team USA leads the medal table with 20 medals (three gold, eight silver, nine bronze), and full event schedules and coverage are being published across outlets and official Olympic pages.