David de Pina gives Cape Verde her first Olympic medal
Photo : David de Pina (l) and his Uzbekistan opponent, Hassanboy Dusmatov during their quarter-final bout
Cape Verdean boxer, David de Pina was forced to settle for a bronze medal after losing his men’s 51kg semi-final bout against Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekhistan by unanimous decision.
De Pina had made history by securing a first Olympic medal for his island nation but was unable to reach the final against an opponent who was seeded second in the competition.
The 27-year-old was Cape Verde’s flagbearer during the opening ceremony of the Paris Games on the Seine.
Meanwhile, Cameroon-born Cindy Ngamba guaranteed the Refugee Olympic Team their first medal in history after comfortably winning her women’s 75kg quarter-final in Paris.
Ngamba, who moved to the United Kingdom aged 10, beat France’s Davina Michel with a unanimous points decision to reach the last four and win at least bronze.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Nigeria reached the quarter-finals of the women’s basketball competition with a 79-70 win over Canada.
D’Tigress are the first African side, male or female, to reach the last eight of an Olympic basketball tournament.
American Lyles wins Olympic 100m gold in dramatic photo finish
American Noah Lyles won the Olympic men’s 100m title by five-thousandths of a second from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in a dramatic photo finish at Paris 2024.
Showman Lyles overhauled his rivals in the second half of the race to triumph by the finest of margins in a personal best 9.79 seconds.
That was the same time as Olympic debutant Thompson, who led for most of the race, but Lyles produced a spectacular finish to successfully begin his bid for a potential four golds at these Games.
The United States’ former world champion Fred Kerley took bronze in 9.81, edging out South Africa’s Akani Simbine for the podium.
After a lengthy wait behind the start line to a backdrop of dramatic music in a frenzied atmosphere at Stade de France, all eight finalists finished within 0.12 seconds of Lyles in a remarkable race.
Such was the standard of the final ; which Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes and Louie Hinchliffe failed to reach. Italy’s reigning champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs was run out of the medals and another Jamaican rising star, Oblique Seville, finished last in 9.91.
In the end it was Lyles, an athlete who thrives on the sport’s grandest stages and who won three golds at last year’s World Championships, who sprinted away in celebration once the official result appeared on the big screen.
The 27-year-old repeatedly rang the victory bell by the side of the track after establishing himself at the pinnacle of the sport, before he targets further success in the 200m and relay events.
