PARIS – A successful day for Bulldog track and field athletes highlighted Friday’s action at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Track & Field
Rising senior Elena Kulichenko cleared the high jump bar at 1.92 meters/6 feet, 3.50 inches on her first attempt to punch her ticket to Sunday’s final in her Olympic debut. The 2024 NCAA outdoor champion and Georgia school record holder became the first Cypriot woman to advance to an Olympic athletics final.
Also making her Olympic debut, Greek high jumper Tatiana Gusin matched Kulichenko’s height of 1.92m/6-3.50 to earn her place among the 12 jumpers qualified for the final. A 2018 Southeastern Conference outdoor champion, Gusin compiled six First Team All-America honors during her Georgia career.
2018 Bowerman winner and eight-time NCAA Champion Keturah Orji began competition in her third Olympic games, soaring into the triple jump finals with a third-try mark of 14.09m/46-2.75 in the qualifiers. The American record holder will look to replicate her past Olympic success after previously placing fourth at the 2016 Rio games and seventh in Tokyo in 2021.
Denzel Comenentia threw the hammer 74.31m/243-9 on his third and final attempt to place 14th in his Olympic debut for the Netherlands.
The Estonian trio of Johannes Erm, Janek Oiglane, and Karel Tilga competed in the first five events of the decathlon. Erm sits in fifth with 4,510 points after day one while Oiglane and Tilga (4,225 pts.) are tied for 15th.
Erm, Oiglane, and Tilga will finish the decathlon on Saturday, which kicks off with the 110-meter hurdles at 4:05 a.m. ET. and ends with the 1500m at 3:45 p.m. Orji will compete in the triple jump final at 2:20 p.m.
Golf
Former Bulldog Sepp Straka is tied for 35th place at 1-under after shooting a 3-over 74 in the second round of the Olympics for Austria at Le Golf National.
Straka tees off at 4:11 a.m. for Saturday’s third round on Golf Channel and Peacock.
Swimming
Incoming transfer Ieva Maluka of Latvia finished 26th in the women’s 200m individual medley with a time of 2:15.79. Maluka, in her second career Olympics appearance, used a 33.29 backstroke split to reach second at the midpoint before finishing third in the heat.
After earning the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke final Sunday, Nic Fink could potentially compete in the men’s 4x100m medley relay prelims in the morning or the mixed 4x100m medley relay in the evening.
Coming Up Saturday
Croix Bethune and the United States women’s soccer team faces Japan in the quarterfinals at 9 a.m. on USA and Peacock.
Anthony Edwards and the U.S. men’s basketball team close out pool play against Puerto Rico at 11:15 a.m. on NBC and Peacock.
