Olympics Latest: Biles withdraws from vault, uneven bars

TOKYO (AP) — The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:

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USA Gymnastics says Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the Olympic event finals in the vault and uneven bars.

She continues to be evaluated daily to determine whether she'll compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam.

Biles said she was putting her mental health first when she withdrew from the gymnastics team event after one rotation. The U.S. women won silver there. She also decided not to compete in the all-around. American Sunisa Lee won gold in that event.

MyKayla Skinner, who had the fourth highest score in vault during qualifications, will compete in vault finals for the U.S. alongside Jade Carey, who finished with the second highest score. Biles was the defending Olympic champion in the vault.

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MEDAL ALERT

The Australian women have claimed another gold at the Olympic pool.

Kaylee McKeown completed a sweep of the backstroke events with a victory in the 200-meter butterfly. Her winning time was 2 minutes, 4.68 seconds.

The silver went to Canada’s Kylie Masse in 2:05.42, with another Australian, Emily Seebohm, claiming the bronze in 2:06.17.

Americans Rhyan White and Phoebe Bacon finished fourth and fifth.

The Australians have won six women’s swimming gold medals in Tokyo and seven golds overall.

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American Caeleb Dressel has won his third gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a world record in the 100-meter butterfly.

Dressel led right from the start and held off Hungary’s Kristof Milak to win in 49.45 seconds, breaking the mark of 49.50 that he set two years ago at the 2019 world championships.

Milak, winner of the 200-meter butterfly, earned the silver with a blistering 49.68. The bronze went to Switzerland’s Noe Ponti.

Dressel’s victory came in the first of three races on his morning schedule. He’ll also compete in the semifinals of the 50 freestyle before returning to the deck one more time to anchor the 4x100 mixed medley relay, a new Olympic event that features two men and two women.

He’ll likely dive into the pool with a big deficit since he’s the only man in the field to swim the freestyle leg.

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American Caeleb Dressel will be the lone male anchor on the freestyle leg in the 4x100-meter mixed medley relay final. The event is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo.

The U.S. team will consist of Ryan Murphy, Lydia Jacoby, Torri Huske and Dressel, with the Americans swapping out all of their swimmers who competed in the preliminaries.

As the only team with a man swimming the final leg, the Americans will be facing a deficit going into the last 100 meters. They’ll leave it to Dressel to overhaul the field in a bid for gold.

ROC, Italy and China are going with the traditional order of two men and then two women. Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and Israel are going with a woman, two men swimming the middle legs and a woman on the anchor leg.

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Great Britain has won gold in the triathlon mixed relay, making it the winningest national team in the history of the sport.

The U.S. took silver and France claimed bronze in the mixed relay at Odaiba Marine Park.

Georgia Taylor-Brown, Jessica Learmonth, Alex Yee and Jonathan Brownlee made up the team that gave Great Britain its third triathlon gold and eighth overall medal, besting Switzerland’s record.

Taylor-Brown and Yee both also medaled in the individual contests earlier in the week, bringing home silver in the women’s and men’s events, respectively.

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Hong Kong’s rising star Siobhán Haughey has withdrawn from the semifinals of the 50-meter freestyle at the Olympics because of a hip injury.

The 23-year-old swimmer earned a silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle on Friday, to go with the silver she won in the 200 free two days earlier. They are the first swimming medals won by Hong Kong.

Her coach, Rick Bishop, said the injury first bothered her during the 100 free, but she kept going. She finished 15th in the 50 free preliminaries.

Hong Kong was cheering her on, excited to see success for the first time at the Olympic pool. Her two silvers are among six medals won by the country since it first competed in the Summer Games in 1952.

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Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare has been provisionally suspended after a positive test for human growth hormone. She was due to run in the semifinals of the women’s 100 meters at the Olympics on Saturday.

The Athletics Integrity Unit said Okagbare tested positive in an out-of-competition test on July 19. The AIU says it was only informed of the finding on Friday, after Okagbare had already run in the 100-meter heats at the Tokyo Games.

The AIU informed Okagbare of the finding and her provisional suspension on Saturday morning.

Okagbare won her heat in 11.05 seconds at the Olympic Stadium to progress to the semis.

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