The Latest: Australian rider recovering from velodrome crash

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):

1:45 p.m.

The Australian women’s pursuit team was back at the Olympic velodrome one day after a harrowing crash sent rider Melissa Hoskins to the hospital on a stretcher.

Hoskins was released a few hours later but remained at the athlete’s village Tuesday to rest her sore hip while Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Amy Cure and Georgia Baker put in a workout.

There are five riders on a pursuit team but only four compete at a time.

Their coach, Gary Sutton, said Hoskins was in good spirits and still hopes to compete in the Rio Games. Team pursuit qualifying is Thursday and the semifinals and finals are Saturday.

Ankudinoff and Cure were bandaged for their workout. Edmondson and Baker appeared to avoid injury.

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1:45 p.m.

American judoka Travis Stevens has made it to the semifinals of the men’s 81-kilogram judo division at the Rio Olympics after winning his preliminary three fights on Tuesday morning.

Stevens dominated his matches with an aggressive style and won two of them automatically by ippon, one with a match-ending throw and the other by pinning down his opponent for 20 seconds, which also instantly ends the bout.

Stevens finished fifth at the London Olympics and recently won the World Master’s tournament in May, which features only the world’s top 16 judo athletes

He will face top-ranked Georgian Avtandili Tchrikishvili in the semifinals. If Stevens advances, he is guaranteed at least a silver.

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1:40 p.m.

Netherlands women’s volleyball captain Maret Balkestein-Grothues will not play in Wednesday’s third group match against Italy because of an ankle injury she received in a five-set loss to the United States.

Coach Giovanni Guidetti told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Balkestein-Grothues might need more than four or five days to recover, a blow for a determined Dutch team that has played spectacular volleyball thus far at the Rio Olympics.

Balkestein-Grothues posted on Twitter Tuesday that her bone wasn’t broken but it was difficult to say what the exact damage was.

The Netherlands pulled off an upset against No. 3 China in Saturday’s opener before pushing the top-ranked Americans to five sets Monday. Balkestein-Grothues was hurt in the fourth set and didn’t return.

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1:40 p.m.

Geraint Thomas will join British teammate Chris Froome in the Olympic time trial.

Thomas was added to the start list Tuesday, one day before the race, after several riders were forced to withdraw with injuries sustained in the road race. Among them were Australia’s Richie Porte and Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, both of whom broke bones while crashing on a descent.

Thomas also crashed in the race and said “my hip took a pretty big shock, but other than that my legs are feeling good and I’m looking forward to racing again on Wednesday.”

Froome is considered a favorite in the time trial, though Thomas is no slouch in competing against the clock. He was part of two track team pursuit squads that won Olympic gold.

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1:25 p.m.

Double-clear showjumping rounds helped France win eventing gold in equestrian.

Nicolas Astier rode Piaf de b’Neville and Thibaut Vallette was on Qing du Briot for the win. France also included Mathieu Lemoine on Bart L. They finished with a score of 169.0, 3.8 ahead of Germany, which was bidding for a third straight Olympic title.

It is France’s second ever Olympic gold medal in eventing after victory in Athens in 2004.

Germany had started the day in fourth but superb double-clear rounds for reigning World Champions Sandra Auffarth and Opgun Louvo, Ingrid Klimke and Hale-Bob OLD, and Olympic champion Michael Jung and Sam FBW propelled the team to silver.

Australia slipped to third after Christopher Burton put two rails down. Sam Griffiths went clear but Stuart Tinney had 16 jumping and one time penalties.

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1:10 p.m.

Sonny Bill Williams was helped off the field with an injured left ankle during New Zealand’s shocking 14-12 loss to Japan in its first game of rugby sevens at the Olympics.

The 12-time world series champions and one of the leading contenders for the first rugby medals awarded at an Olympics in 92 years, the New Zealanders struggled against the high-energy team from Japan.

Williams, the highest-profile player in the tournament and a two-time World Cup winner in the traditional 15s rugby, had limited impact on his Olympic debut. He went into a tackle just after halftime and stayed on the ground. He held up his hand and limped off with the help of medical staff.

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12:55 p.m.

UPSET ALERT: Japan beats medal favorite New Zealand 14-12 in opening round of Olympic rugby sevens.

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12:35 p.m.

Cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten’s face is still black-and-blue after her horrific crash late in Sunday’s road race, but at least, she has a smile on her face again.

The Dutchwoman Tweeted a picture of herself on Tuesday marked by scars and swellings and tape to the left side of her face.

“Hard to deal with my disappointment but also proud about our performance,” Van Vleuten said.

Van Vleuten crashed hard during the descent toward the finish line when she led the race. She lay motionless on the curb until medics got to her and was taken to hospital. Despite the heavy crash and three minor back fractures, she was not expected to have lasting damage.

Instead of her winning, the Olympic title went to her teammate Anna van der Breggen.

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12:30 p.m.

China’s Lijia Xu has some serious work to do if she’s going to defend her gold medal in the Laser Radial class in the Olympic sailing regatta.

Xu was disqualified from her fourth-place finish in the second race Monday, tumbling from first overall to 23rd.

Acting on a protest by Paige Railey of the United States, the jury determined that Xu performed her penalty turn too late after she fouled Railey approaching the windward mark.

The disqualification moved Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands into the lead going into Tuesday’s two races. She won silver in 2012. Railey moved up one spot to sixth.

British sailing star Ben Ainslie was in a similar position in Athens in 2004. He lost in the protest room early in the regatta but sailed nearly perfectly the rest of the way to win the gold medal in the Finn class. Ainslie finished his Olympic career with four straight gold medals and five medals overall.

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12:20 p.m.

A Brazilian judge has ordered Olympic organizers to allow peaceful protests inside venues after several fans were escorted out of stadiums for holding up anti-government signs.

The ruling Monday night by a federal judge threatens fines of up to $3,200 for anyone violating the court injunction.

Some Brazilians attending Olympic events have been holding up signs and wearing T-shirts saying “Fora Temer,” a call for the removal of interim President Michel Temer. A video shot on a cell phone that has been shared widely shows heavily-armed commandos forcibly removing one such protester from the stands of an archery event.

The International Olympic Committee bans political statements during the games. But the court ruling said nothing in special legislation passed ahead of the games restricts peaceful protests that don’t disturb competition.

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12:05 p.m.

The boxing tournament is down to one professional. Italian fighter Carmine Tommasone became the second of the three professional fighters who decided to compete in the Olympics and lose.

Italian fighter Carmine Tommasone became the second of the three professional fighters who decided to compete in the Olympics and lose. Tommasone lost a unanimous decision to Cuba’s Lazaro Alvarez in a lightweight bout.

French-Cameroonian fighter Hassan N’Dam was ousted over the weekend.

Thailand’s Amnat Ruenroeng is the lone pro left and he fights Tuesday night.

The 32-year-old Tommasone, who won his first Olympic bout, wasn’t exactly the kind of professional the International Boxing Association (AIBA) had hoped to compete when it decided earlier this year to allow any boxer to attempt to qualify for the Olympics.

The big-name boxers never materialized in Rio.

Tommasone never found his stride against Alvarez, a three-time world champion in two classes.

“I consider them professional amateurs,” Tommasone said. “They are professional players of three rounds. I tried to adapt to the three-round matches but it was difficult to adapt.”

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11:50 a.m.

One of the most popular rituals at the Copacabana beach volleyball venue comes after each match, when the winning team signs a game ball and throws, hits or kicks it into the stands.

As expected, the souvenirs are quite a prize for a lucky fan.

But after Canada’s victory over Brazil to open Tuesday’s morning session, a Canadian fan going after the ball fell on top of a Brazilian woman. The crowd reacted, but no one appeared to be injured.

Canadian players Chaim Schalk and Ben Saxton expressed their apologies after the incident. According to astronaut Julie Payette, a member of the national delegation and witness to the incident, the Canadian man gave the ball to the Brazilian.

“We’re Canadian,” Payette said, shrugging her shoulders.

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11:40 a.m.

Bertrand Roine won the world handball championship with France in 2011 but on Tuesday he was playing against his old partners for the controversial and cosmopolitan Qatar team.

The gas-rich Middle Eastern nation has assembled a team of players from all over the world, but it wasn’t enough to beat reigning Olympic champion France.

A rematch of last year’s world championship final produced the same result as France took the victory, beating Qatar 35-20 with seven goals from Luc Abalo.

Qatar’s strategy of naturalizing veteran players from other countries, who now make up most of the team, has brought rapid improvements but also accusations it is fielding a world select rather than a true national team.

Both Qatar and France can still advance to the quarterfinals.

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11:30 a.m.

Montenegro’s Olympic Committee says its official and two others have been robbed at gunpoint and their car has been hijacked on a highway leading from a Rio de Janeiro airport.

A statement said Tuesday that the incident happened Monday evening when a car hit the vehicle, with “armed robbers” taking away all personal belongings of the three Montenegrins. The official vehicle belonging to the International Olympic Committee was also taken away.

The statement says “very brave action” by the Montenegrins “prevented an incident with even worse consequences and no one was injured.”

After the incident, the Montenegrin committee has advised its competitors not to venture outside the sports venues.

A protest note was sent to the Brazilian foreign ministry.

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11 a.m.

Hungarian-born Szandra Szogedi made history when she stepped onto the judo mat at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Tuesday.

Except that it was for Ghana. Szogedi became the first-ever female judoka to represent the African nation, after obtaining Ghanaian citizenship through her husband.

Facing Brazilian Mariana Silva in the first round, Szogedi, 27, also had to deal with a very partisan crowd shouting support for her opponent. After less than two minutes, however, the fight was over: Silva took Szogedi down and caught her in a stranglehold. Although Szogedi said she didn’t want to submit, once she started to lose her vision, she was forced to tap out.

After the fight, a tearful Szogedi said she was “gutted” and that training four years for so little time on the mat was devastating.

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10:55 a.m.

Kenyan police have arrested the country’s Olympics track and field manager and are seeking orders from a court to hold him in custody for an extra week to complete investigations.

Michael Rotich was ordered to return home from the Olympics in Brazil after he was caught in a sting by reporters from Britain’s The Sunday Times newspaper. The paper said Rotich offered to provide the reporters, who were posing as coaches, advance warning of doping tests in return for a 10,000-pound ($13,000) bribe.

The prosecution argues that Rotich will interfere with investigations if he is free.

Rotich is the chairman of Athletics Kenya in the North Rift region, the home of the bulk of Kenya’s middle and distance athletes

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10:30 a.m.

Abdulaziz Alshatti, the lone independent fencer in the Rio Olympics, has been knocked out after an early loss.

Alshatti is from Kuwait, whose Olympic Committee was suspended by the IOC in 2015 for “undue government interference.” Because of that the ban, Alshatti’s only chance to earn a trip to Rio was a last-chance Asian qualifying event in April in which only the winner advanced.

Alshatti took first in a stunning result.

But he couldn’t match that performance in Brazil.

Alshatti had the backing of a small crowd that appeared to sympathize with his plight. But Hungary’s Andras Redli survived a furious late rally from the hard-charging and flamboyant Kuwaiti, winning 14-13 in epee.

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10:10 a.m.

Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand beat Czech rival Ondrej Synek in the quarterfinals of the men’s single sculls as the two masters of the event faced off for the first time in Rio.

Drysdale and Synek have dominated the single sculls in recent years, with world record holder Drysdale winning Olympic gold in London and Synek clinching all three world championship titles since then.

It was Drysdale who was the fastest as the two men raced in the same quarterfinal heat on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, beating the Czech by four seconds to finish in 6 minutes, 46.51 seconds. Both advanced to the semifinals.

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AP Summer Games website: http://summergames.ap.org