Tokyo Olympics LIVE updates: Belgium edge Kookaburras for gold, Moloney wins first Aussie athletics medal for Tokyo in decathlon

France made their move in the third quarter, taking a 10-point lead and locking down Slovenia via the defence of NBA defensive ace Rudy Gobert who has been blocking and rebounding strongly inside.

Evan Fournier and Nando De Colo took the game to the Slovenians while France built their lead but some late buckets from Slovenia cut the lead down again.

Jaka Blazic has fired up for Slovenia and he is up to 12 points.

The French have a 73-70 lead with eight minutes to play. The winner will play Team USA for the gold medal, the losing side will play Australia for bronze.

Steven Gardiner has won the gold medal in the men’s 400 metres. The man from the Bahamas started beautifully, ran strong through the back straight and then held steady to finish in 43.85 seconds.

He won it clear ahead of Colombia’s Anthony Jose Zambrano in second who ran 44.08 and Grenada’s Kirani James in 44.19.

Gardiner, the world champion at the 400 metres in 2019, had never won an individual medal at an Olympics before tonight.

He won bronze in the 4x400-metre relay in Rio. America didn’t get a medal, their two runners finished fourth and fifth.

France are looking to wear down the Slovenians although the jury is out whether the plan will work as Slovenia leads 44-42 at half-time in their men’s basketball semi-final.

Slovenian NBA superstar Luka Doncic (12 points) was kept to just two points that quarter but he still had three assists and his running mate Mike Tobey along shooter Klemen Prepelic kept the Slovenians in touch.

France has a lot more offensive weapons than the Slovenians and this could come into play in the second half with established NBA players Ruby Gobert, Guerschon Yabusele and Evan Fournier on seven points each while former NBA guard Nando De Colo has seven of his own.

The second half has plenty of promise, let’s see who can go the distance.

Australia’s Ash Moloney is third going into the final event of the men’s decathlon.

That will be the 1500 metres, at 10.40 AEST this evening.

Moloney was second heading into the second-last event, the javelin, but since it ended just now he has moved down to third.

Fellow Australia Cedric Dubler is well off the pace in 20th place overall.

Our athletics reporter Michael Gleeson is trackside in Tokyo: “This will come down to the last event of the decathlon to decide the medals. Moloney can still overtake and get back into silver with a big 1500 metres.”

Belgium have won the Olympic gold after beating Australia 3-2 in the shoot-out competition that came after scores were locked at 1-1 after regulation.

It had extraordinary drama. Barely weeks after the Euro2020 soccer competition final was decided on penalties, hockey had its turn on its biggest stage.

Very rarely will you see a video review used to determine whether one of the penalties needs to be retaken, but that was what happened with Australia’s final shot. The Kookaburras were given the chance to retake a missed shot that had already sent Belgium into raptures, thinking they had won gold. But on the replay, the green and gold were again off target and the Red Lions could celebrate again.

All 13 members of Australia’s Olympic men’s rugby sevens team have been given a formal warning following “excessive drinking” on their flight home from the Games, as Rugby Australia prepares to launch a review of both sevens programs that could lead to significant cuts.

However, RA insists no rugby players were responsible for damage on the boozy flight, nor did they vomit in a bathroom while drinking with representatives of other sports.

Read the full story here.

Fresh off making the 1500 metres final, the second Australian man to do so tonight, Stewart McSweyn says he wants to get quicker when he is racing for a medal. He is considered a genuine chance.

There will be two Australians in each of the men’s and women’s finals after Jessica Hull and Linden Hall qualified for the women’s final yesterday. It is the first time since 1956 there will be two Australian men in a 1500 metres final, McSweyn having qualified with Oli Hoare.

“I am pleased. The big goal was to get through. Auto-qualify is good,” McSweyn told Seven after coming fifth in his semi-final.

“I gotta get better for two days time. That’s the big focus. Happy to tick that box and get to the finals where the medals are handed out.

“I like taking it on. I will take the final on if I can.

“I am fit, I am ready to go and I think I can get better.”