Brazil's Cunha wins women's Olympic marathon swimming

Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil won the women's 10-kilometre Olympic marathon swimming event in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Cunha touched first in one hour, 59 minutes, 30.8 seconds, finishing nine-tenths of a second ahead of defending champion Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands. Van Rouwendaal took silver in 1:59.31.7.

Kareena Lee of Australia earned bronze in 1:59.32.5.

Cunha won her first medal in her third Olympics. She was 10th five years ago in Rio de Janeiro and fifth in the 2008 Beijing Games.

"We arrived here wanting, as much as you can, this medal," Cunha said. "I said to my coach to win this race will be very difficult for my opponents because I want it so hard, so much, and I'm really well prepared."

Vancouver's Kate Sanderson placed 18th with a time of 2:04:59.1.

The seven-lap race began at 6:30 a.m. in an attempt to beat the searing heat and humidity.

The air temperature during the latter stages of the race was 30 degrees Celsius, with 74 per cent humidity that made it feel like 35 degrees. The water temperature was 29 degrees, under the allowable limit of 31 degrees.

The Odaiba Marine Park course in Tokyo Bay featured a backdrop of skyscrapers, the Rainbow Bridge and the nearby floating Olympic rings.

Alice Dearing, the first Black female swimmer to represent Britain in the Olympics, finished 19th. She made news before the Games with her bid to wear an extra-large cap designed specifically for thick and curly hair.

FINA rejected the cap, citing no previous instances in which swimmers needed "caps of such size and configuration."

Cuba's Lopez wins boxing light heavyweight gold

Arlen Lopez has won his second Olympic boxing gold medal for Cuba, beating Britain's Benjamin Whittaker in the light heavyweight final at the Kokugikan Arena.

Lopez outclassed the defence-minded Whittaker to win the fight on four of the five judges' scorecards. Cuba had never won gold at light heavyweight in its decorated Olympic boxing history until Julio Cesar La Cruz claimed the title in Rio de Janeiro.

Lopez is the second Cuban boxer in two days to win a second gold medal in a different weight class by beating a British fighter after Roniel Iglesias achieved the same feat Tuesday. Lopez won the middleweight division in Rio.

Russian athlete Imam Khataev and Cuban-born Loren Alfonso of Azerbaijan won light heavyweight bronze medals.

Australia wins 2-person dinghy sailing event

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan of Australia have won the two-person dinghy event at the Tokyo Olympics.

Belcher won gold at the London Olympics in 2012 in the 470 class and combined with Ryan to win the silver medal at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Belcher and Ryan only had to finish the last race without penalty to clinch the gold medal.

Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom of Sweden won the silver medal and Spain's Nicolas Rodriguez Garcia-Paz and Jordi Xammar took bronze.