Japan beat USA to win first Olympic baseball gold medal

Japan has won gold in baseball at Tokyo 2020 after beating the United States.

The hosts won 2-0 in a largely empty Yokohama Baseball Stadium.

The victory means Team Japan complete an historic double with the women's softball team already taking gold.

USA claimed silver with the Dominican Republic taking bronze.

BBC News reports the winning squad will each receive a cash bonus of 10 million yen in what is a long-awaited first Olympic gold for them in the sport.

The celebrations on the field showed what it meant to Japan, with the entire team flooding the diamond and hoisting coach Atsunori Inaba into the air.

The US has not won baseball gold since 2000 in Sydney and, prior to Tokyo, the hosts had only reached the final in 1996, where they took silver. Japan also gained bronze in 1992 and 2004.

Baseball has been an Olympic sport since 1992, but was not contested in 2012 or in Rio four years later. It will not take place in Paris 2024 either.

[Source: BBC]