Team USA goes for gold at several events

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Allyson Felix won her 11th Olympic medal Saturday, combining with her American teammates to finish the 4×400-meter relay in 3 minutes, 16.85 seconds for a runaway victory.The team of Felix, Sydney McLaughlin, Dalilah Muhammad and Athing Mu was never in jeopardy in this one.Poland finished second, 3.68 seconds behind, and Jamaica finished third.Felix, who became the most decorated woman in Olympic track history when she won bronze in the 400 on Friday night, now passes Carl Lewis with the most track medals of any U.S. athlete. Of the 11 medals, seven are gold.Here’s a look at how Team USA performed in other Olympic events on Saturday. Track & Field American Molly Seidel, a relative newcomer to the marathon stage, took home the bronze in the women’s Olympic marathon.She won the bronze medal in 2:27:46 of the women’s Olympic Marathon event in Tokyo.It was Seidel’s third marathon run. Seidel is the third American woman to medal in the Olympic marathon, only after Deena Kastor won bronze in Athens in 2004 and Joan Benoit Samuelson who won gold in Los Angeles in 1984, according to reports.Peres Jepchirchir led a 1-2 Kenyan finish in the women’s marathon, withstanding the heat and humidity while running through the streets of Sapporo.Jepchirchir finished in a time of 2 hours, 27 minutes, 20 seconds in a race moved up an hour to avoid the heat. A smattering of fans lining the course applauded as the Tokyo Games moved north for the marathons and race walks. Her teammate Brigid Kosgei was second.Men’s basketballNothing about the summer was easy for the U.S. men’s basketball team, and neither was the gold-medal game.The Americans expected nothing less.And in the end, their Olympic reign continues.Kevin Durant scored 29 points and joined Carmelo Anthony as the only three-time men’s gold medalists in Olympic history and the U.S. held off France 87-82 on Saturday to win the title at the Tokyo Games — ending a summer that started with sputters but closed with celebration.Women’s golfNelly Korda has given the Americans a sweep of gold medals in golf, holding on for a one-shot victory in a thrill-a-minute finish to the Olympic women’s golf competition.Korda led by as many as three shots on the back nine. In the end, she needed two putts from just inside 30 feet on the 18th hole for par and a 2-under 69.Mone Inami of Japan made bogey from a plugged lie in the bunker on the 18th hole and faced a playoff against Lydia Ko of New Zealand for the silver medal.For the 23-year-old Korda, it was another glittering moment in her dream season. She won her first major championship six weeks ago and rose to No. 1 in the world for the first time. Now she has an Olympic gold medal and leaves no doubt who’s the best in women’s golf.Xander Schauffele won the gold for the men last Sunday.Women’s water poloThe U.S. has won its third consecutive gold medal in women’s water polo, pounding Spain 14-5 in the final at the Tokyo Olympics.Maddie Musselman scored three times and Ashleigh Johnson made 11 saves as the U.S. improved to 134-4 since it won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. After falling 10-9 to Hungary in group play in its first loss at the Olympics since the 2008 final, the U.S. ripped off four straight wins by a combined score of 63-26.The U.S. joins the men’s teams from Britain (1908-1920) and Hungary (2000-2008) as the only countries to win at least three straight water polo titles at the Olympics. The U.S. is the only team to medal in each of the six editions of the women’s tournament at the Games.Maica Garcia had two goals for Spain, which also lost to the U.S. in the 2012 final. The silver medal matches the country’s best finish in the women’s competition.WrestlingThe Russian Olympic Committee’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev defeated American Kyle Snyder 6-3 in the men’s freestyle 97-kilogram final.Snyder was the Olympic gold medalist at 97kg in 2016 and is a two-time world champion. Sadulaev was the Olympic gold medalist at 86kg in 2016 and is a four-time world champion.Sadulaev led 6-0 in the final minute. Snyder scored two on a takedown and one on a step-out to make it 6-3 before Sadulaev held on.Cuba’s Reineris Salas defeated Azerbaijan’s Sharif Sharifov for bronze. Salas, 34, had never won a world title or an Olympic medal. Sharifov, 32, won Olympic gold in the 84kg category at the 2012 London Olympics and earned bronze at 86kg in 2016.In the other bronze medal match, Italy’s Abraham Canyedo Ruano defeated Turkey’s Suleyman Karadeniz 6-2.EquestrianSweden defeated Jessica Springsteen and the U.S. jumping team in a jump-off for the gold medal.Springsteen and teammates Laura Kraut and McLain Ward each moved cleanly through the shortened jump-off course and did so with a combined time of 124.2 seconds.Peder Fredricson, the final Swedish rider, needed to circle the track in 40.30 seconds or better without error and cruised to a time of 39.01 for the country’s record fourth gold medal but first since 1924. The Americans also entered this week with three golds.France had a clear line to a second straight gold when its final rider, Penelope Leprevost, took the course. Needing to finish with fewer than five points to win without a jump off, Leprevost’s horse refused twice, disqualifying her and the rest of the French team.That left the Americans and Swedes tied for the lead with eight penalties apiece, necessitating the jump-off.Springsteen, the daughter of rockers Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfia, received a silver medal in her Olympic debut.Meanwhile, as the Games wrap up, the U.S. women’s basketball team will be playing for a record seventh gold medal Saturday night. Here are some things to watch:Men’s baseballMike Scioscia is one win from matching mentor Tommy Lasorda, the only manager to lead the United States to a baseball gold medal.But host Japan, which stopped its major league season during the Tokyo Olympics, is the favorite in the gold medal game.The U.S. is a mixture of prospects mostly from Double-A, career minor leaguers and released veterans. The Americans overcame a blown ninth-inning lead in a 7-6, 10-inning loss to Japan to reach the final by beating the Dominican Republic 3-1 and South Korea 7-2.Nick Martinez will start for the U.S. The 31-year-old right-hander pitched for Texas from 2014-17, then spent three seasons with the Pacific League’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters before switching this season to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.Martinez got the opening-round win over South Korea, allowing one run and four hits in five innings with nine strikeouts. He is familiar with Yokohama Stadium from his time in Japan.Women’s basketballSue Bird and Diana Taurasi will try to lead the U.S. women’s basketball team to a seventh consecutive gold medal when the Americans play Japan in the Olympic final.Bird and Taurasi will be going for a record fifth gold — an achievement no other basketball player has ever accomplished.Japan has already assured itself the first Olympic medal in women’s basketball in the country’s history. Coach Tom Hovasse had said when he was hired a little over four years ago that his team would be playing against the Americans for gold at the Tokyo Games.His team proved him right. Women’s volleyball The U.S. seeks its first gold medal ever in women’s volleyball when the Americans take on Brazil in the finals on Sunday.The United States has won three silver medals and two bronze since 1984, but has never stood at the top of the podium at the Olympics. The Americans lost to Brazil in 2008 and ’12 and to China in 1984.U.S. coach Karch Kiraly is looking to join China’s Lang Ping as the only Olympians to win gold as a player in volleyball and also a coach. His team is led by three-time Olympians Jordan Larson and Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson, who have already won silver and bronze medals.