02-08-2024 Breakfast Bites FIJI & PACIFIC SPORTS NEWS Podcast S10E32 #TeivovoSports #TeivovoDigital

Kia ora, Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula, Aloha and Welcome to Season 10 Episode 32 of Breakfast Bites, by TEIVOVOdigital.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on Friday morning 02 August 2024.
 
Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the blue continent, where it is partly cloudy and 20 degrees Celsius at 5am.
 
In the Paris Olympic Games Women’s Rugby 7s: “Our coach said to us if we don’t win a medal, we might not have a program next year, and so that really stuck with me, those words, and so we delivered.”
 
USA Women’s Rugby star Ilona Maher told CNBC after helping Team USA upset Australia to earn a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics Women’s Rugby 7s, the first in program history.

Following the win, Michele Kang, owner of several pro sports teams, including the Washington Spirit announced a US$4Million donation for USA Rugby 7s. 

Maher, who has become an internet sensation since the beginning of the Olympics, said she hopes the donation can help improve the team, especially because many rugby 7s players in the past needed to balance their playing careers with full-time jobs.

The 27-year-old has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in business administration, but she said she hopes to play rugby for the rest of her life.

Also at the Olympic Games today – Belgian athlete Jolien Vermeylen said she would rather not think about the quality of the water.
 
“As I swam under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think too much about,” Vermeylen said.

Another Belgian triathlete said, “We are just puppets in a puppet show.”

This after the equivalent of a month’s rain fell over 36 hours in Paris, overwhelming the city’s sewerage system, despite a recent 1.4 billion euro upgrade, leading to discharges of untreated waste water that sent E.Coli bacteria levels spiking.

And there are 18 gold medal events in Paris today:
·       Artistic gymnastics: Women individual all-around final
·       Athletics (track and field) Men & Women’s 20km race walk final
·       Basketball, Basketball 3X3, Beach volleyball, BMX racing and Boxing continue prelim rounds
·       Canoe slalom: Men’s K1 finals
·       Fencing: Women’s foil team medal finals
·       Golf: for Men starts today
·       Handball and Hockey continue pool games
·       Judo: Men’s 100kg medal rounds
·       Rowing: Men coxless four finals
·       Sailing: Men & Women’s skiff medal races
·       Shooting: Men 50m rifle finals
·       Surfing in Tahiti reserve day again as they wait out the storm
·       Swimming: Men 200m back finals, Women’s 200m breast final, Women’s 4x200m free relay final
 
In Paris Olympic Games Basketball Women group phase: USA 87-74 Belgium, France 75-54 Nigeria, Australia 70-65 Canada and Germany 75-64 Japan.
 
In Rugby League: Papua New Guinea Kumuls star and Wests Tigers Centre, Justin Olam is looking at a lengthy spell on the sidelines after being sent off for a high shot on Cowboys second rower Heilum Luki last night.
 
With Olam gone, the Cowboys went on to win easily 48-30 at Leichardt Oval.
 
In Football: Paris Olympic Games Men’s Football Quarterfinals tomorrow: Morocco vs USA, Japan vs Spain, Egypt vs Paraguay and France vs Argentina. Women QFs USA vs Japan, Spain vs Colombia, Canada vs Germany and France vs Brazil.
 
In Boxing: After just 45 seconds and a single punch, the boxing world’s divide is only set to grow even wider, after Imane Khelif, who along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting was disqualified from the world championships last year, won her Round of 16 fight in stunning fashion.
 
Khelif, a woman, won her fight yesterday against Italy’s Angela Carini, landing a right hand, followed by a flurry of punches.

After a stoppage...