Olympic Updates (Aug. 5): Amine Medals, Bastien Top-10, Willis Misses Final
8/5/2021 1:58:00 PM | Olympics
• Tokyo Olympics Site | U-M Olympics Coverage
Wrestling
U-M graduate student Myles Amine scored the winning takedown with just 10 seconds remaining to rally past India's Deepak Punia, 4-2, and capture Olympic bronze at 86kg/189 pounds on Thursday (Aug. 5) at Makuhari Messe Hall. Amine is the second Olympic medalist in U-M program history, joining 1984 gold medalist Steve Fraser (90kg Greco-Roman), and the first in freestyle wrestling. He is also San Marino's first male Olympic individual medalist.
Trailing 2-1 late in the second period after a Punia takedown in the first, Amine shot in on a single leg with 30 seconds to go, brought high then finished on the mat, spinning behind to secure the go-ahead takedown and close out the match on top. Punia's corner challenged but lost to tack on another point for Amine at match's end. Punia was the 2019 world silver medalist at 86kg -- the same event where Amine placed fifth to also qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The Indian is the fifth different world medalist that Amine has defeated over the last two years.
Amine went 3-1 in the Olympic competition, with his lone loss coming in the quarterfinals to USA's David Taylor, who himself used a late takedown to defeat Iran's Hassan Yazdani, 4-3, in the gold-medal match. Taylor pulled Amine back into repechage when he made the final, and Amine earned a gritty 2-0 decision over Belarus' Ali Shabanau, a four-time world medalist, on two passivity points to advance to the medal round.
Amine and fellow graduate student Stevan Micic (57kg freestyle, Serbia) are the seventh and eighth Olympians in program history.
• Myles Amine (Freestyle 86kg): 2-0 (Bronze medal)
» Repechage vs. Ali Shabanau, Belarus (W, 2-0)
» Bronze-medal match vs. Deepak Punia, India (W, 4-2)
• Results and Video (NBCOlympics.com)
Steven Bastien (Getty Images)
Men's Track and Field
The likely final chapter of Nick Willis' legendary Olympic career was written in the 1,500-meter semifinals on Thursday (Aug. 5), while the first of what Steven Bastien hopes will be more chapters to come in his Olympic story came to its conclusion on the second day of the decathlon.
Despite running a season's best 3:35.41, Willis of New Zealand finished ninth in his heat and missed the qualification threshold for the final. The 2008 bronze and 2016 silver medalist came up short in his quest to become the first four-time male Olympic 1,500-meter finalist and, at more than 38 years of age, the oldest ever.
He settled in near the back of the pack early in the race, running along the rail to minimize the distance covered in the race. As the bell rang for the final lap, he started to move up in the field, just in time to get pulled along in a breakaway lead group as they pushed toward the finish with 300 meters to go. As the field made the turn onto the homestretch, Willis was unable to pick off two more runners to put himself in position for one of the two non-automatic qualifying spots. At the end of the day, both non-auto qualifiers came from the following heat.
When both heats' results were merged together, Willis had finished 19th overall in what will likely be the final Olympic appearance of one of the all-time greats.
The American Bastien battled through adversity and injury on the final day of the decathlon to clinch a 10th-place finish with a score of 8,236 points. He was one of three Americans in the top 10, including fourth-place Garrett Scantling and sixth-place Zach Ziemek.
Bastien opened the day with a strong 14.42 (-1.0m/s) in the 110-meter hurdles, less than a quarter-second shy of his career best in the event. The performance earned him 921 points, putting him down a couple spots to sixth in the overall standings at 5,290 points.
The day started to get away from Bastien in the ensuing events. Just as he did in day one's second event, the long jump, he fouled twice on his first two throws in the discus to leave himself in another do-or-die third-attempt scenario. He came through with a 40.77m (133-9) for 680 points -- nearly two meters shy of his personal best. The result, which was 20th-best of the 21 men in the field, dropped him to 11th in the standings with 5,290 points.
Disaster struck in the pole vault. After clearing 4.60m (15-1) on his second attempt, Bastien suffered a snapped pole during his first attempt at 4.70m (15-5). Shortly after his plant and before rocking back to generate the height of his vault, his pole broke approximately three feet from the bottom. The tremendous released tension caused him to violently lose his grip, and he came away shaking his right hand in pain. He retired from the vault competition with his 4.60m clearance -- well shy of his 4.95m (16-2.75) career best -- for 790 points, as he remained 11th overall at 6,760 points.
Despite the discomfort in his hand, he still put up a strong series in the javelin, culminating in a 58.21m (190-11) heave on his third attempt surpassed in his career only by his lifetime-best throw from the Olympic Trials. It earned him 711 points, keeping him 11th overall at 7,471 points.
He finished on a high note as he recorded the fastest time of anyone in the field in the 10th-and-final event, the 1,500 meters, crossing the line in 4:26.95. After leading early, he fell to third with 400 meters to go. He was up to second turning onto the homestretch and covered the last 100 meters in less than 15 seconds to sprint home for the victory. The performance was worth 765 points and was the second-fastest of his career.
• Nick Willis (1,500-meter Run Semifinals): 9th, semifinal 1 (3:35.41) -- 19th overall
• Steven Bastien (Decathlon): 10th (8,236 points)
» 110m Hurdles: 14.42 (921 points) | Results and Video
» Discus: 40.77m (680) | Results and Video
» Pole Vault: 4.60m (790) | Results and Video
» Javelin: 58.21m (711) | Results and Video
» 1,500m Run: 4:26.95 (765) | Results and Video
• Results and Video: 1,500m Run
Nick Willis (left, Getty Images)
Women's Water Polo
Australia 14, Canada 12
The Australian women's water polo team advanced to the fifth-place game Thursday (Aug. 5) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with an exciting 14-12 penalty-shootout win over Canada at Tatsumi Water Polo Centre. With the win, the Aussies advance to take on the Netherlands in the fifth-place game at 10 p.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 6 (11 a.m. Saturday in Tokyo).
Australia trailed 3-2 after the opening quarter but was able to tie the score at 5 going into halftime. Former Wolverine Amy Ridge evened the score in the second quarter with her fifth goal of the Olympic Games, and the two teams locked in a back-and-forth battle the rest of the way. After the Stingers and Team Canada remained knotted at the end of regulation, the two moved on to the best-of-five penalty shootout.
During the penalties Ridge found the back of the net for Australia's second goal, and the Stingers went on to convert all four of their attempts. Meanwhile, Canada had one shot hit the post and another was saved.
• Abby Andrews: 1 shot
• Amy Ridge: 1 goal, 4 shots
• Results and Video (NBCOlympics.com)
