Belgians at the Olympics: Flipkens beats Venus Williams, Dennis Goossens qualified for the rings final

There is a commonplace in sport: to make a good match it takes two people. On Saturday evening, the splendid Rio Central arena was the setting for a magnificent tennis encounter between little Kirsten Flipkens (62nd in the world / 1m65) and the former world No.1, the American Venus Williams (1m86) , Olympic champion in Sydney in 2000, and still 6th in the world at 36 years old. « It was a bit like David against Goliath », commented after the meeting our representative. And as in the Bible, it was David who ended up slaying Goliath.

Flipkens emerged from this memorable 3:13 1st round duel: 4-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (7/5). « It was already a dream for me to be present at the Games (she had missed the previous two due to injury). I am 30 years old, it was now or never. And here I am eliminating one of the medal candidates . » « Beating such a champion, former Olympic champion, on such a center court, with such an audience, was thrilling from start to finish. »

Faced with the power of the great American, the frail Campinoise deployed a panoply of superb shots: short crossing passing, passing along the line, lob, amortized half-volley, slices and a string of sensational amortizations that were right of the too predictable game of the eldest of the Williams. The Carioca public was not mistaken to such an extent that they took up the cause of the representative of Team Belgium.

« At 2-3, in the first set, when I made a drop shot, the public took my side. I had never been supported by an audience like that », explained « Flipper ». « I had to find solutions because from the baseline it was not playable. »

« In the 3rd set, when I was trailing 1-4 and 3-5, I just told myself to enjoy it. This match is one of the most memorable of my career on the same level as the quarter-final won against Kvitova at Wimbledon (in 2013, editor’s note) ».

« There, I want to take advantage of this moment because tomorrow there will be another match (in doubles with Yanina Wickmayer) », still confided a Kirsten Flipkens physically marked by the meeting, but nevertheless radiant with her pretty snub at the sports logic.

In the 2nd round of the singles, Flipkens will meet the Czech Lucie Safarova (WTA 28) who eliminated the Italian Karin Knapp (WTA 113) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Dennis Goossens is qualified for the rings final

Gymnast Dennis Goossens qualified on Saturday for the rings final in men’s artistic gymnastics at the Rio Olympics. The 22-year-old sportsman writes the history of this sport at Belgian level, because he will be the first gymnast from the « flat country » to appear in an Olympic apparatus final. Dennis Goossens came into action in Rio in the first of three groups of gymnasts taking part in the qualifications. But it was necessary to wait for the results of the 3rd group, later in the day on Saturday, to know its classification on the rings.

With the 7th score of the competitors on this apparatus, in 15.366, the Belgian places himself for the final, reserved for the 8 best scores with a maximum of two athletes per nation.

China’s Yang Liu qualified « first », with a score of 15.900. Frenchman Samir Aït Saïd, who was seriously injured when landing a jump, is included in the list of qualified, with the 6th score (ahead of Goossens), but will not be able to take part in the final, which will take place next August 15 at 7 p.m. (Belgian time).

This year, Goossens had already recorded good results, winning a bronze medal on rings at the World Challenge Cup in Cottbus and a 7th place in the final of the European Championships in Bern, last May.

Hannes Obreno, winner of his series, qualified for the quarter-finals of the single sculls

Hannes Obreno easily qualified for the rowing single sculls quarter-finals at the Rio Olympics on Saturday on the Lagoa waters.

The 25-year-old from Bruges won his series, the 3rd out of the six on the program with a time of 7:09.06 to cover the 2,000m. He beat Poland’s Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (7:12.43) and Argentina’s Brian Rosso (7:22.69).

The top three qualify directly for the quarter-finals scheduled for Tuesday. The other rowers must go through the repechages.

The gold medal for Greg Van Avermaet

The Flandrien had a very solid race and was the fastest at the end of the nearly 240 km race – the start and finish of which were set in Copacabana – ahead of the Dane Jakob Fuglsang. Bronze went to Poland’s Rafal Majka who finished five seconds behind the Belgian

Van Avermaet proved to be very responsive throughout the course and was at the front about 70 km from the finish. The leading group included some prestigious names such as Vincenzo Nibali, Rafal Majka, Geraint Thomas and Sergio Henao. 20 km from the line, Nibali, Majka and Henao took the key to the fields.

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The Red Lions won against Great Britain

The Red Lions (FIH 6) made a perfect start by beating Great Britain (FIH 4) 4 goals to 1 on Saturday in their first match of the Olympic hockey tournament, in group A. Jérôme Truyens (6th ), Tanguy Cosyns (33rd), Simon Gougnard (35th, penalty corner) and Cédric Charlier (56th) scored the Belgian goals, Nickolas Catlin (28th) had provisionally equalised. The Red Lions started the game very well. From the 2nd minute, they inherited a penalty-corner. In the absence of specialist Tom Boon, Gauthier Boccard tried his luck, but it ended up next. The opener fell in the 6th minute, by Jérôme Truyens, who had recovered a ball lost by the defense. Cédric Charlier (11th) and Sébastien Dockier (14th) were still dangerous, but the score remained 1-0 at the end of the first quarter.

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Kimberly Buys fails at semi-finals

Kimberly Buys was eliminated Saturday night in the 100m butterfly semi-final. The one who had beaten in the series, the same morning, her own national record over this distance, finished 8th and last in the second semi-final, in a time of 58.63. She therefore did a much worse time than her 57.91 in the morning, which had allowed her to progress to the semi-finals with the 13th time of the 45 entered. The Brabo swimmer had however indicated after her performance in the heats that she felt that her Games could already be considered successful with this qualification and the national record.

In the evening, she finally recorded the 15th time of the 16 semi-finalists, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom advancing to the final with the best time, an Olympic record, in 55.84.

Kimberly Buys, 27, finished 19th in the 100m butterfly at the London 2012 Games.

Charline Van Snick eliminated in the 2nd round

Cruel disappointment for Charline Van Snick who was eliminated in the second round of the Olympic judo event in the -48 kg category, late Saturday morning in Rio de Janeiro. The reigning double European champion, who won a bronze medal at the London Games in 2012, lost on yuko (after 1:29 of the fight on harai-makikomi) against the reigning Olympic champion, the Brazilian Sarah Menezes. She finished the competition in 9th place. « The yuko I’m not entirely sure (that it was valid). It may be a little quick to give. She was still strong on her stomach, » said her coach Fabrice Flamand after the fight.

Yanina Wickmayer beaten in the first round

Yanina Wickmayer lost to Czech Barbora Strycova in the first round of the tennis tournament on Saturday at the Rio Olympics. The Czech won 7-6 (6), 6-1 in 1 hour and 52 minutes of play. Yanina Wickmayer, 26 years old and 36th in the WTA, therefore faced Strycova, 21st in the world and 16th seed. The Belgian was broken in the 5th game but reacted directly by equalizing at 3-3. After missing two set points, 5-3 then 6-5, Wickmayer was forced into a tie-break. Despite a new set point, she finally conceded the set, 8-6 in the tie-break.

Strycova then unfolded in the second set, winning it 6-1 in 36 minutes of play. Too irregular with 39 errors for 21 winning strokes, the Belgian saw her Olympic tournament come to an end in the first round.