Not the greatest day ever, but not an entirely bad one, either.
Australia's men's hockey team, the Kookaburras, opened their Olympic campaign and after a somewhat slow start the Olympic favourites got their campaign off to the best possible start, recording a 6-0 win over South Africa in a battle of the No. 1 seed vs. No. 12 seed. The Kookaburras showed why they are favourites to win Gold in London, with the dynamic duo of Eddie Ockenden and Jamie Dwyer cutting the South Africans to shreds in the second stanza. Dwyer, one of the veterans of the team, is a class act, a superstar of the sport and showed why, netting a hat trick to propel the Australians to a shut-out victory. Can't have started much better than that.
On the flip side, the Australian women's basketball team, the Opals, suffered what can only be described as a shock overtime loss to France, which will make their quest for Gold a little more difficult. That the game progressed to the OT frame was amazing in of itself, the Opals down by 3 points right at the very end when Belinda Snell of the Bulleen Boomers in Australia's WNBL launched a Hail Mary shot from the wrong side of half-court as time expired, only to see it hit nothing but net. DAGGER! Three points, tie game, overtime. Sadly, with the unexpected loss to the French, this highlight probably won't get the same exposure that it might have had the Opals won, and that's a shame. Snell was as clutch as you like. Incredible stuff.
Well, the controversial and divisive Nick D'Arcy is on his way home from the Olympics, having failed to qualify for the final of the 200m butterfly, after a poor heat and a semi-final that didn't bring with it a better result. Sixth wasn't enough to get him into the final. Thus, the Olympic journey of a man who, in my opinion - one held by a large number of Australians and swimming observers the world over, I'm sure - is done and dusted within twelve hours and now, thanks to that incident with Kenrick Monk and the photos taken in a gun broker's store, apparently cool but, really, just stupid, he's on his way home and won't get a chance to represent his country at the closing ceremony. Rather an apt end, if you ask me. I don't believe that breaking the jaw of a fellow athlete in an alcohol-fuelled rage fits in with the Olympic ideals that the IOC try so hard to uphold. Good on FOXTEL's Ray Hadley and Rebecca Wilson for saying what so many of us are thinking during their broadcast of his heat races.
Better news from the pool, with Emily Seebohm coming home second behind the American Missy Franklin in 100m backstroke final, narrowly missing the Gold medal and blaming her obsession with social media afterward. Regardless, this was an impressive result, and a medal, not quite the colour we all wanted, but a bright moment in a swimming program where there have been more dark spots than bright thus far. The Americans swept the 100m backstroke finals, with the mammoth Matthew Grevers winning the men's race.
Though not a medal, Lethal Leisel Jones showed a few people the cue for Humble Pie, coming home a very respectable fifth in the 100m breaststroke final. For a girl some sections of the media cruelly decided was "fat" and couldn't be expected to do much of anything in the pool after a somewhat unflattering photo of her emerged in the lead-up to the London 2012 opening ceremony, she went pretty well. Good on Leisel for always showing a brave face and for proving a few critics wrong with a solid swim. Fifth in the world is far from anything to sneeze at. As happy as she was at the end of the race, you'd swear she'd won a medal.
So a Chinese doctor is pointing the figure at Michael Phelps as a possible drug cheat? Okay, my friend, you might want to look just a little closer to home. The sixteen-year-old Ye Shiwen seems to be able to swim faster than some of the best men in the world. Her final freestyle lap time of 28.93 seconds in the 400m individual medley was faster than what the flying American Ryan Lochte swum over the same distance in the men's 400 IM. Hang on...yeah. The Chinese have jumped to her defence, of course. They're not going to throw their new national sensation under the bus, but with the previous form that the Chinese have, it's no wonder people are speculating as they are.The executive director of the USA Swimming Coaches Association, John Leonard, described Ye’s performance as “unbelievable”, “suspicious” and “disturbing”. He also called the 100m of freestyle in the IM as "impossible." There might be more to play out on this story.
In rowing, the Australian men's coxless fours pretty well anhilated the competition and will be the quickest qualifier for the final with a time of 5:76.06. Our closest rival for the gold - surprise, surprise - the Team Great Britain crew seemingly held something back for the medal roumd, rowing a conservative time at around 5:50. The interesting thing is that the Aussie crew reckons they can yet get more speed from their boat. If so, watch out! The final promises to be one of epic proportions, with the Brits figuring to go quicker, too.
Australia's medal tally after Day Three: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze. Total: 4. Rank: 10. The good news? We still have more gold medals than Great Britain.
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