Athletes from the grand duchy have been competing in several disciplines at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games over the weekend.

In the women’s cycling road race, Christine Majerus placed 20th, with Austria’s Anna Kiesenhofer providing one of the surprises of the Games so far by claiming the gold medal. Majerus told RTL that she had managed her own race fairly well, until she made a mistake and failed to take a drinks bottle on the final circuit, which led to her suffering from minor cramping. “It was a shame I couldn’t improve my result from the last Games [she placed 18th in Rio 2016]. But I always said that if I could give 100% of what I was [physically] capable of, I would be happy. That was the case, so it has been a good day.”

Veteran table tennis player Ni Xia Lian, competing in her fifth Olympics for Luxembourg, lost surprisingly to 17-year old South Korean Yubin Shin in the second round of the women’s singles competition.

Nicolas Wagner, the first Luxembourger to compete in the dressage at an Olympic Games, placed 25th out of 59 in qualifying on his horse Quater Back Junior, and has missed out on competing among the top 18 riders in the final.

Stefan Zachäus finished the triathlon in 44th place, seven minutes and 17 seconds behind gold medallist Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway.

Gold in Cyprus

Away from the Olympics, Luxembourg’s women’s basketball team won gold in the European small nations tournament in Cyprus at the weekend. Having comfortably qualified for the final with victories over Kosovo, Cyprus and Malta, the Luxembourg ladies beat Ireland 69-59 to claim gold. The team, coached by Marius Dziurdiza, dominated the match in the second half. Nadia Mossong (who had already won gold with Luxembourg in 2006) with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Lisa Jablonowski with11 points, were the star players.