• Also: UAE's Yaqoub Al Saadi finishes fifth in 100m backstroke heat
The National’s sports team is helping you keep up to date with what is happening in Rio while most of us in the UAE were sleeping. Here is today’s Daily 5.
1. Swim good
It was a star-studded second day of the Rio Olympics, highlighted by Michael Phelps adding to his historic haul of medals and Brazil's football team adding to their recent history of embarrassing themselves in front of their home fans.
Phelps built upon his all-time great legacy with his 19th gold medal as part of the United States’s 4x100 freestyle relay, but even more impressive on this day were US swimmer Katie Ledecky and Great Britain’s Adam Peaty.
Ledecky easily won the women’s 400m freestyle while shaving almost 2 seconds off her world record. Peaty gave Britain their first medal in Rio by setting his second world record in as many days and winning the gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Full roundup from the day in the pool.
2. Neymar, Brazil disappoint again
The Rio Olympics are Brazil’s second major world sporting in two years, having also hosted the World Cup in 2014. It’s hard to forget the sight of disgusted football fans as the hometown team giving up 7 goals to Germany in the semi-finals two years ago, but the country’s first gold medal — again in front of their own fans — in football would have gone a long way to wash that bad taste away.
Two straight games without a victory, including a scoreless draw to Iraq on Sunday, isn’t exactly the way to go about that.
Brazil is tied for second place in Group A and needs a win over Denmark to advance and avoid another embarrassment. The country boasts the tournament’s best player in Neymar, who hopes to justify his absence from Barcelona with a gold medal for his home country. Anything less than gold will probably be a disappointment, but they need to win a game before they can even think about gold at this point.
3. Other highlights from Day 2
• Argentina tennis star Juan Martin del Porto had a rollercoaster of a day. First he got stuck in a lift and was rescued by his own country's handball team (which then lost to Denmark), then he knocked out World No 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round of the men's singles tennis tournament. The match ended in a heart-warming moment at midcourt, as Djokovic showed great sportsmanship by embracing an overwhelmed Del Potro.
It’s the second straight Olympics in which Djokovic has been foiled by Del Potro, as the Argentine also knocked out the Serb in the bronze medal game in London in 2012.
• In perhaps just as big of a shock, Venus and Serena Williams suffered their first ever defeat in Olympics doubles.
• In men’s basketball, Pau Gasol and Spain were upset by Dario Saric and Croatia.
• The United States leads in the medal count with 12, followed by China with 8, Australia with 6 and Italy with 7. We're keeping track of all the gold medal winners.
4. Tweet of the day
American Olympics broadcaster Andrew Siciliano succinctly put Phelps into context.
By my count, there are 58 countries competing in Rio that have never won an Olympic medal of any kind.
5. Video of the day: Qatar handball debuts with win
Qatar’s men’s handball team beat Croatia 30-23 in the country’s debut in the sport. For Marko Bagaric, who played for Qatar but is originally from Croatia, it was a day of mixed emotions capped by a victory for his new country.
“The worst feeling was during the national anthem. Ah, but what can I do?” Bagaric told the Associated Press. “Qatar gave me the opportunity to play in the Olympic Games. It is the dream of any sportsman.”
BeIN Sports has highlights from the match:
