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• “The favourite is Thompson”-Boldon highlights Jamaican champion as man to beat in 100m in Paris

  Trinidadian four-time Olympic medallist Ato Boldon has named Jamaican sprinting sensation Kishane Thompson as his favourite to take 100m gold at the Olympic Games in Paris.

  Thompson, 23, is currently the world leader in the event after running a personal best 9.77 to win the 100m title at the JAAA/Puma National Senior Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston in June.

  The MVP Track Club-trained sprinter also produced times of 9.82 and 9.84 in the heats and semi-finals, respectively, at those national championships and, most recently, ran 9.91 shutting down to win at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary on July 9.

  “Thompson is the favourite,” Boldon said in an interview with LetsRundotcom on YouTube on Friday.

  “I know Noah (Lyles) is the World champion. I think Noah made it a little bit more interesting by running that 9.81 into a headwind which kind of almost converts to a 9.77 but there’s no way you can look at the way in which Thompson ran that 9.77 and just go ‘Oh Noah will beat him.’ Noah has his hands full with that guy,” Boldon said.

  Blazing speed acknowledged, one thing that Thompson lacks that his other competitors don’t is experience competing at the highest level of the sport with this being his first time representing Jamaica at any level.

  If there is anything to prevent Thompson from delivering on the form that he’s shown so far this season, Boldon believes that would be this lack of experience on a stage like the Olympic Games compared to his peers.

  “There are things which I see people completely ignoring. Kishane Thompson has not been under the microscope of Olympic favourite. Rounds are a great equalizer. Noah has the medals that he does because of how well he runs rounds. Is Noah suddenly a lock for the silver? No but he does have his hands full,” he said.

  “There are others who are going to be in the 100m that are used to the pressure and pressure is a big thing. If he’s able to pull this off, you write books about stuff like that,” he added.

   Thompson's quest for Olympic glory will begin in the heats of the men's 100m beginning on Saturday' August 3.

   

• Peaty ready to 'attack' Paris Olympics in search of gold medal hat-trick

  Adam Peaty insists he arrives in Paris ready to "attack" a third-straight Olympic triumph in the 100m breaststroke

  Peaty, who is a 16-time European Champion, won his first gold medal for Team GB in 2016, the first by a British male in 24 years, and has held the title ever since. 

  He became the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title in Tokyo, and is eyeing a hat-trick of titles. 

  The 29-year-old also holds the world records in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke, yet getting to the Paris Olympics was far from straightforward. 

  From 2014 to 2022, Peaty was unstoppable, breaking the 100m record on five occasions while also claiming several world, European and Commonwealth titles. 

  But with the world at his feet, things came crashing down. In fact, was it not for this Olympics, he may never have returned to the pool.

  “If it wasn’t for the Olympics I don’t think I’d be still swimming,” Peaty told Eurosport. “I’m going to attack for this title, not defend.

  “I think I’ve cracked the code of balance, but also being able to train really hard for very long periods of time, knowing when I burn out or I’m pushing too hard, and listening to my team at the same time.

  “So I think this is my favourite time to train but I also had to take three or four months off from the sport completely because I burned out.

  “It cost me that kind of training period, but without that I would have just done the same old stuff and probably wouldn’t have even made it to the Olympics or the Olympic qualifiers, because I’d have completely burned out from the sport.

  “People see the end result, they’ll see you race or compete at the end of the day, but they won’t see the years and years and years of hard mornings, hard evenings, thousands of metres, gym sessions in the freezing cold.

  “People don’t see that stuff, they only see the 1%, if that. It’s 0.1%.”

  But in Peaty's absence, a new force has taken the pool by storm, with China’s Qin Haiyang establishing himself as the dominant force.

  Haiyang won the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke at the 2023 World Championships, becoming the second-fastest man in 100m history behind Peaty.

  Peaty returned to claim bronze at the World Championships this year and then won the British trials in April in a time of 57.94s.

  “I’ve been given a gift that I put myself in extreme pain for a very long time and quite enjoy it,” he continued. “Not many people can do that.

  “I enjoy the hard work because it keeps me busy. It has to be hard all the time.

  “That’s the most powerful thing. You don’t do it for the Olympic glory, you don’t do it for the medals, you do it to recognise the gift that you’ve been given.

  “If I know I’ve worked the hardest and I get to the start line at the Olympics and I couldn’t have done anything more that gives me peace, because win or lose you’ll be happy because you’ve enjoyed the journey.”

• Djokovic thrilled by prospect of 'one last dance' with Nadal

  Novak Djokovic is thrilled by the prospect of meeting Rafael Nadal for "one last dance" at the Paris Olympics, if the Spaniard overcomes an injury setback to feature at Roland-Garros.

  Thursday's men's singles draw saw Djokovic paired with Australia's Matthew Ebden in the first round, with Nadal taking on Marton Fucsovics.

  The legendary duo – who have won 46 grand slam singles titles between them – will meet in the second round if they both advance through their openers this weekend.

  Djokovic and Nadal have previously faced off on 59 occasions, with the Serbian winning 30 of those contests but losing four of the last six, the most recent being a Nadal victory in four sets in the 2022 French Open quarter-finals.

  Nadal's participation at the Games was thrown into doubt when his coach Carlos Moya said he had suffered a "setback" on Thursday and required 48 hours of rest.

  If Nadal – who is widely expected to retire later this year – does make the tournament, Djokovic is looking forward to the prospect of facing him for a 60th time.

  "Obviously he hasn't played much. His ranking dropped, so there was always going to be that possibility of me meeting him in an early round and there we go," Djokovic said.

  "It's going to be a spectacle, definitely, if we get to meet. We will spread some fireworks on the court, like the good old times. 

  "I hope we get to meet because it will probably be one last dance for the both of us."

  Djokovic is set to appear at his fifth Olympics in the French capital, the joint-most by any male player since the sport returned to the Games in 1988 (with Yen Hsun Lu).

  He is the player with the most matches played (19) and joint-most matches won (13, level with Roger Federer) at the Olympics since 1988.

  However, his best result at the Games remains a Bronze medal at Beijing 2008, when he was beaten by eventual gold medallist Nadal in the semi-finals.

  Djokovic lost the bronze medal match to Pablo Carreno Busta at the delayed Tokyo Games three years ago, also losing to Juan Martin del Potro at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.