The Latest: Refugee swimmer wins heat but won’t advance

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

2:45 p.m.

Swimmer Yusra Mardini of the refugee team competing under the Olympic flag at the Rio Games won her preliminary heat in the 100-meter butterfly.

However, that result wasn’t fast enough to advance Mardini to the semifinals on Saturday. Her time of 1 minute, 9.21 seconds was 41st overall.

The top 16 swimmers moved on to the late-night semifinals. By comparison, Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden had the top qualifying time of 56.26 seconds.

Mardini was a competitive swimmer in Syria until she left Damascus with her sister a year ago and settled in Berlin.

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2:35 p.m.

Brazil’s defending Olympic judo champion won’t be taking home another gold medal from Rio.

Despite a crowd roaring their support and stamping their feet for Sarah Menezes, the 48-kilogram gold medalist from London 2012 was defeated in the quarter finals by Cuba’s Dayaris Mestre Alvarez in a tight contest Saturday in Rio. She will compete for a bronze medal later in the day.

The four-minute match was largely scoreless, but Alvarez dominated from the beginning and Menezes had no solutions to her opponent’s relentless attacking style.

Mestre Alvarez attempted from the very start to land a dominant grip on Menezes’ uniform, using a counter-punching technique that at times resembled boxing more than judo.

A stunned Menezes left the mat in tears. She is ranked fifth and had been one of Brazil’s best hopes for a judo gold.

Mestre Alvarez was ranked 19th.

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Corrects item to show Menezes still has chance for bronze medal.

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2:10 p.m.

A bomb squad is investigating after an apparent blast shook the area near the finish line of the men’s cycling road race.

Reporters could hear a loud boom on the press tribune and felt the ground shake as the cyclists had about 70 kilometers to go Saturday.

An officer assigned to the event said it was a controlled explosion of an unattended bag. He did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak.

A half dozen military police were cordoning off the area. No one was immediately evacuated, and it did not appear that anyone was injured. The race was continuing and had not been rerouted.

There is heavy security all over the city amid concerns about safety as the Olympics begin.

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2:05 p.m.

A bomb squad is investigating after an apparent blast shook the area near the finish line of the men’s cycling road race.

Reporters could hear a loud boom on the press tribune and felt the ground shake as the cyclists had about 70 kilometers to go Saturday.

A half dozen military police were cordoning off the area. No one was immediately evacuated, and it did not appear that anyone was injured. The race was continuing and had not been rerouted.

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1:50 p.m.

The fallout from the Russian doping scandal is causing havoc at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

The start list was altered at the last minute to add a Russian swimmer.

In the women’s 100-meter butterfly, Natalia Lovtcova wasn’t listed on the initial list that came out.

But she’s now set to compete in the last of six preliminary heats along with fellow Russian Svetlana Chimrova.

Three other Russian swimmers were initially banned from the Rio Games because of their links to doping. But it appears they have been cleared to compete.

Yulia Efimova, Vladimir Morozov and Nikita Lobintsev are all listed as competitors on the Russian team.

Efimova posted on social media that she’d been cleared, while Morozov held a news conference Friday to say he would be swimming in Rio.

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1:30 p.m.

Katie Ledecky will have a shot at five medals at the Rio Olympics.

Despite finishing seventh in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. trials, Ledecky will anchor the women’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay on Saturday at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Amanda Weir will swim the leadoff leg, followed by Lia Neal, Allison Schmitt and Ledecky.

The 19-year-old Ledecky is already set to swim the 200, 400 and 800 free in Rio, as well as anchor the 4×200 free relay.

Abbey Weitzeil and Simone Manuel were the top finishers in the 100 free at the U.S. trials. They are resting up for the evening final, where they will likely be joined the two fastest swimmers in the prelims.

Dana Vollmer, who finished sixth at trials, also is a possibility. But she’s busy enough as it is, competing Saturday in the 100 butterfly.

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1:15 p.m.

A 16-year-old American who was the youngest male ever to qualify for table tennis in Olympic history has lost in the first round of the games.

Kanak Jha was beaten Saturday by Iranian Noshad Alamiyan 4-1 in the best of seven match.

Jha struggled with nerves in the first game, losing it decisively to Alamiyan, 24, but he bounced back to win the second. Jha couldn’t build momentum after that, losing three straight games. After hitting long on match point, Jha flipped his racket into the air and caught it.

He’ll be back for the team event.

Jha said after the match that he was nervous and struggled to handle the Iranian’s attacking style.

His teammate, Lily Zhang, fared better.

The Californian demolished Venezuela’s Gremlis Arvelo 4-0, a huge improvement on Zhang’s Olympic debut four years ago in London, when she lost as a 16-year-old in the first round. The 20-year-old Californian plays again later Saturday.

Zhang’s coach, Massimo Constantini, says she controlled her nerves much better than she did in London. When asked about her preparations for the next game, he said she was taking a nap.

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1:10 p.m.

World champion Japan is off to a bit of a shaky start in men’s gymnastics.

While the Japanese managed to post the top score during their subdivision in team qualifying on Saturday morning, they were uncharacteristically sloppy. Six-time world champion and defending Olympic gold medalist Kohei Uchimura fell off high bar, and world floor exercise champion Kenzo Shirai stepped out of bounds during his routine.

Uchimura recovered to lead the all-around after the first of three subdivisions with a score of 90.498.

Host Brazil seemed to feed off the energy of the home crowd. The Brazilians were second behind Japan with a team score of 268.078. Veteran Brazilian gymnast Diego Hypolito broke down in tears after posting a 15.5 on floor exercise while a sea of Brazilian flags waved from the stands.

The top eight teams advance to Monday’s team final. The top 24 all-around finishers will move on to next Wednesday’s individual final.

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1:10 p.m.

After all the talk about staying out of the water in Rio, Serbian rowers Milos Vasic and Nenad Benik found themselves immersed in it on day one of the Olympic regatta.

The Serb pair capsized — which rarely happens in elite rowing events — in the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon as choppy waters left athletes struggling to stay in their boats.

Vasic and Benik overturned about halfway through their heat in the men’s pair, which was easily won by New Zealand’s Eric Murray and Hamish Bond.

Stunned and soaked, they clung to their boat as the other three crews continued toward the finish line.

They will get another chance to advance to the semifinals though, as race officials decided to let them compete in the repechage.

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1.05p.m.

Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada is officially out of the Olympics.

He was arrested Friday on allegations he sexually assaulted two Brazilian housekeepers in the Olympic Village. Police said the possible attacks happened Wednesday. Under Brazilian law, suspects can be held for a long period while a case is examined.

With Saada out, Turkey’s Mehmet Nadir Una was declared a walkover winner and advanced to the round of 16 in the light heavyweight division.

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1:00 p.m.

Moroccan boxer Hassan Saada is officially out of the Olympics.

He was arrested Friday on allegations he sexually assaulted two Brazilian housekeepers in the Olympic Village. Police said the possible attacks by happened Wednesday. Under Brazilian law, suspects can be held for a long period while a case is examined.

With Saada out, Turkey’s Mehmet Nadir Una was declared a walkover winner and advanced to the round of 16 in the light heavyweight division.

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12:55 p.m.

The head of Russia’s Olympic delegation says a leading wrestler has been cleared to fight at the games despite a previous doping ban.

Viktor Lebedev, a two-time freestyle world champion, had been excluded under an International Olympic Committee rule barring Russians who had previously been banned for doping.

Russian chef de mission Igor Kazikov tells state news agencies that Lebedev was cleared by the IOC after that rule was struck down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The announcement continues a turbulent summer for Lebedev, who had originally refused to go to the Olympics as “a matter of honor” after being embarrassed by what he called biased refereeing in his favor at a Russian qualifying tournament.

He was later persuaded to compete in Rio by Russian officials.

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12:40 p.m.

Rio de Janeiro Games organizers have apologized to the spectators enduring long lines to access the Olympic Park on the first full day of competition.

Organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada acknowledged that “we obviously need to upgrade” the systems and have asked authorities to speed up bag checks.

Andrada said Saturday that “we apologize to everyone who is standing in the sun in lines outside the venues … we need to fix this in the next couple of hours.”

Addressing questions about official buses getting lost, Andrada said organizers would check if drivers had sufficient training.

But Andrada says “we don’t have major structural problems with transport.”

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12:35 p.m.

Score one from the Pros vs. the Joes in Olympic boxing.

Italian fighter Carmine Tommasone became the first professional fighter to win an Olympic bout after 112 years of amateur competition.

Tommasone is one of three traditional pros who will compete for gold medals. He’s joined by Cameroon’s Hassan N’Dam and Thailand’s Amnat Ruenroeng.

The International Boxing Association’s high-profile plan to entice prominent pros to Rio de Janeiro didn’t work. The stars didn’t come out to try and add some gold, silver or bronze to the green they make fighting professionally.

Tommasone defeated Mexican boxer Lindolfo Delgado via a three-round unanimous decision in a lightweight bout.

Tommasone fought roughly 14 pounds over his pro weight after qualifying in a special tournament reserved for professionals.

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12:20 p.m.

France’s Marie-Florence Candassamy has pulled off a stunning upset in fencing, knocking top-ranked Anqi Xu of China out of the women’s epee tournament in the round of 32.

Candassamy entered the tournament ranked just 49th in the world, but her aggressive fighting style had Xu on her heels. Candassamy took a 10-6 lead after the second period and clinched the blowout victory midway through the third period.

Russia’s Tatiana Logunova, ranked third in the world, also saw her tournament end with an early round defeat. And all three Americans; Katharine Holmes and sisters Courtney and Kelley Hurley, were knocked out before the round of 16.