NCAA College Football 2012: Week One Australian TV Guide UPDATED

The first week of the new NCAA Football season cannot come quickly enough, after an off-season beset with scandal. It's nice to finally be anticipating some action on the gridiron rather than in the NCAA offices or courtrooms across the country.

College GameDay appears, at least in the first few weeks, to be split on Australian TV as it is in America. The first hour, on ESPNU in America (hosted by newcomer Samantha Steele), is on ESPN2 and the remaining two hours (Fowler, Corso, Herbstreit, Howard) on ESPN, leading straight into the first midday game.

So, without further ado, the Week One guide to NCAA Football on Australian television.

All times AEST

Friday August 31

College Football Live [5.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]

(9) South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt [9.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]

Texas A&M vs. Louisiana Tech [9.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD] - Game Postponed!

Washington State vs. Brigham Young [12.15pm; ESPN/ESPN-HD]

Saturday September 1

College Football Live [5.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]
College Football Live [9.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD]
(24) Boise State vs. No. 13 Michigan State [10.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD]
College GameDay - Cowboys Stadium; Arlington, Texas [11.00pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD]

Sunday September 2

College GameDay - Cowboys Stadium; Arlington, Texas [12.01am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]
Ohio vs. Penn State [2.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]
Northwestern vs. Syracuse [2.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD]
(23) Florida vs. Bowling Green [5.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]
Boston College vs. Miami-FL [5.30am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD]
(8) Michigan vs. (2) Alabama [10.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]
(14) Clemson vs. Auburn [9.00am; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD]
Arkansas State vs. (5) Oregon [12.30pm; ESPN2/ESPN2-HD]

Monday September 3

College Football Scoreboard [5.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]
Kentucky vs. (25) Louisville [5.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]

Tuesday September 4

College Football Live [9.00am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]
(16) Virginia Tech vs. Georgia Tech [9.30am; ESPN/ESPN-HD]

The Winds Of Change - A Novel Of The Great War (Excerpt)

Part One: 1913

Chapter One

December 1913

The black stallion thundered up the steep hill, following the narrow trail through the thick tangle of alpine gum trees, heading for the distant ridge. In the saddle, eighteen-year-old Jack Campbell let loose a whoop of unbridled joy, adrenalin surging through his body as he gripped the reins in one hand, the other ensuring that the wide-brimmed Akubra hat he wore over his close-cut fair hair remained in place, the wind ripping at it, trying to lift it off his head.

Sunrise had only occurred a few minutes before, darkness still dominating in the rugged scrub, yet the golden light of the new day sat like a halo on the ridge towards which Campbell’s surging horse, aptly named Streak, was rapidly coming upon. He had been riding since the first slither of light, knew that once he gained the height of the ridge the gorgeousness of a high country sunrise would be there in all it’s glory for him to enjoy once more.

It was the first morning in the last four that Campbell had been able to come out and ride, for an early-summer rain storm had swept through the region, soaking everything and everyone in it’s path, nearly-continuous rain for three straight days, and while the countryside definitely needed the torrential precipitation – these days, entire country seemed in a perpetual state of drought – it had frustrated Campbell, for his daily activities had mostly been restricted to work indoors, or dashing from one undercover to the next, trying not to get completely saturated in the process. It hadn't exactly been horse riding weather.

As usual on a good morning, Campbell had been awake before dawn, rolling out of bed and leaving the modest dwelling he shared with his mother – his father, Bruce, had died five years earlier; Campbell seemed to find about a hundred reasons each day to miss him each and every day – and into the saddle very soon after, ready for an early-morning ride to remind himself of how lucky he was to live where he did. Despite the death of his father, Campbell felt very blessed to have grown up in the community in which he had.

Like every other day, Campbell was dressed in what had become the unofficial uniform of the Australian stockman: check-patterned shirt, tan pants, hand-made riding boots and the long, waterproof jacket, reinforced across the shoulders to protect against the elements, and cut especially to be worn on horseback. Crammed on his head, at all times while outdoors, was a wide-brimmed Akubra hat, as sturdy as his boots and jacket, and another safeguard against the cold and the heat. The only difference between summer and winter was the warm sheepskin jacket that came out during the colder months and either a long- or a short-sleeve shirt depending on the season, flannelette or not.

Behind Campbell, a chestnut-coloured mare struggled gainfully to close the widening gap, the other rider the same height as Campbell and just as skilled, yelling good-natured insults as he fell back even further, perhaps twenty or thirty yards between them. Campbell loved the thrill of the race, dug his heels into the horse’s flank, doing it without any great malice, and felt the powerful stallion digging deep to find that the new reserve of speed that he’d been hoping for, the late burst of strength that always seemed to be there. It seemed that the horse did it before he’d made his less-than-subtle suggestion, and that was fine by Campbell. His favourite sort of horse was an intuitive one.

Coming up over the crest of the ridge, the tree line left behind, suddenly a wide-open view that stretched for miles in every direction, there was a victory of sorts in that, and it was also where Campbell reined in his horse for a well-deserved rest. There was a victory in being the first to clatter wildly over the ridge, first to be bathed in a flood of golden sunlight often momentarily, before beginning the downward decent, a slope as steep as the one the two horsemen had just come up, though more dangerous from top to bottom, unseen holes, uneven rocks and other nasty traps that could hobble a horse as quickly as a mountain storm could roll in.

This morning, though, the high point, a treeless stretch of the high, narrow ridge – all the roads and almost-roads in this upper altitude area were either leading to old bush huts, long since become relics, or trails for moving prime Snowy Mountains cattle above or below the snowline depending on the season – was where Campbell stopped. He leaned forward, patting the stallion’s flanks, breathing a few words of encouragement while staring out at the endless bush, the rugged yet beautiful landscape that was now drenched in early-morning sunlight so bright that Campbell had to shield his eyes with his free hand, the sound of the birds, the smell of gum trees, the fabric of the only place Campbell had known in his eighteen years.

Streak had pulled up well after a tough early-morning ride, for which Campbell was immensely glad. This black stallion was the best horse he’d ever ridden, a wonderful mix of speed and stamina, the offspring of a rural racetrack champion from across the border in Victoria, a horse he’d identified as a restless mountain-bred colt and, with some help, had caught, tamed and trained, to the point where he was very much the envy of so many riders in the district. Streak had been his first great triumph on the way to what Campbell hoped was a long and successful career as a horse breaker.

Moments later, the chestnut mare came to a sudden stop, the animal breathing hard, almost as hard as it’s rider who plucked the Akubra from his head, running a hand through a thick shock of black hair as he took in the majestic view and allowed himself a moment to take a few deep breaths of the warm mountain air, crystal clear and good for the heart, unlike the city air, so choked with pollution and other things neither man wanted to think about.

A quick breather was in order. The two riders had come almost straight up for the last twenty minutes, a tough ride over rugged, uneven and potentially dangerous territory, particularly when it was still very wet underfoot, but the two men were veteran horsemen, with advanced skills that belied their relative youth, and had ridden over far worse in their time, in far worse weather than there was this morning.

“There’s something wrong with you, mate,” Campbell decided, grinning as he slipped from the saddle, watching the other rider appraise his horse. “You must be getting old or something.”

“Oh yeah?” Harry Price, also eighteen, and wearing almost-identical clothing to his best friend Campbell, challenged good-naturedly, dismounting from his house, patting it’s sweat-soaked flanks. His mare was called Banjo, in deference more to the famous bush poet A.B. ‘Banjo’ Patterson than the instrument. The two were best friends. “Last I checked, Jacko, I’m actually a month younger than you.”

The two had been friends for as long as either could remember, which meant that the winner of their every-morning race got to tease the loser mercilessly for the rest of the day. That was the grand prize. Today, it was Campbell's. “What’s your excuse for losing the race the last three days we’ve come up here?”

Price had a ready response and an even more ready grin. “Clearly I’m at my best when the weather’s cold. It’s bloody hot today.”

“It’ll get worse, I reckon,” Campbell decided, nodding. There was very little cloud, and the sun already made the distant landscape shimmer. Summers were as hot as winters were cold in the mountains. “Seems like winter only finished last week and we’re already getting around to sweating to death.”

Far beneath the ridge on which the two men stopped to rest themselves as much as their mounts – it was a hard, physical ride out of the valley, a tough test for any rider who came from the plains or, worse, the city and thought they could best the mountain stockmen – was the roaring Snowy River, tracking up from Victoria, across the state border and into New South Wales. The border a barely-recognised imaginary line in a valley, in a part of the country where it was very possible to walk from one state to the next without really knowing it, and without really caring, either. 

The river, swollen due to prolonged rain that had saturated the ground with regularity, particularly in the last few days, and made working the land a muddy and frustrating enterprise for weeks since, was the most recognisable part of the region, thanks to the words of A.B. ‘Banjo’ Patterson’s famous tails of the colt from old regret who’d gotten away and the ride to get the colt back. If Campbell heard that poem one more time, he was liable to shoot the person who was reciting it. There was more to the Snowy Mountains than that one piece of literature, and anyone who knew the region knew that.

Water glinting spectacularly as it was kissed by the early morning sun, the Snowy River cut a wide path through the steep valley. On mornings like this, when visibility was perfect, it was easy for Campbell to see why so many had been captivated by Patterson’s words. Along the left side, also fairly visible despite the sun’s glare, was the stagecoach trail that led deeper into the mountains in both directions, built into the steep bank as close to the river as possible.

Although the railway passed through the high country on the way to and from Melbourne, it hadn't yet been cut into the deepest parts of the Snowy Mountains, so the venerable and famous Cobb & Co. stagecoach company still provided transport for those seeking the smaller towns and settlements in the region. There was a main route through the mountains from Cooma on the northern side, in New South Wales, across the Victorian border and all the way to Melbourne, and a series of secondary routes that featured less frequent services, and stretched deep into the high country.

The creation of the rough road for the Melbourne service out of the rugged nothingness of the upper high country nearly thirty years before had been nothing short a triumph of engineering and a triumph, too, of the workmanship of the high country men who had combined to open up the depths of their region to visitors from all over the country, shedding blood and sweat in the process. Campbell doubted that men from any other part of Australia would’ve had such success. High country men were the toughest.

In the history of the Snowy Mountains, the grand opening of the first stage coach rode through the deep wilderness was one of those important days that no one would forget. For Campbell and Price, that moment carried with it a little more personal importance: both their fathers had been a part of the process, spending many nights away from home – the work hadn't stopped because of the snow season; if anything, the men had worked harder than before – earning their stripes. Their sons, now, wanted to earn their stripes in some similar endeavour. When they weren’t breaking horses and careening through the countryside on horseback, of course.

If there was a better view in this neck of the woods, Campbell hadn't seen it – and he’d seen more than his fair share of the Snowy Mountains on both sides of the border. The Victorians weren’t a bad bunch, some brilliant horsemen amongst them. In fact, there were many similarities between them and the New South Welshmen to their north, and no great rivalry between the two states. It was with Queensland that every self-respecting New South Wales resident had a problem, that titanic struggle, on the football field, cricket pitch, in the equestrian ring and on bush trails like this one, breakneck races, that had been going for as long as Campbell could remember, and longer, too.

Nestled in the trees, somewhere down in the steep valley carved out by the passage of water over literally trillions of years, was the tiny, sleepy mountain town of Island Bend in which Campbell and Price had been born, raised and educated. Now, their schooling but a distant memory, they worked on the outskirts at a cattle station, talented horse-handlers who spent long days driving cattle across the mountains, breaking in wild horses and working the land to provide a living. They basically did whatever they were told.

So many generations of Australian stockmen and bushies had come before them, doing the hard work that the countryside demanded. There would be similar work to be done for decades still, Campbell was sure. To him, not working the land seemed about as likely to happen as man setting foot on the moon, basically unthinkable. The arrival of automobiles and more advanced machinery aside, he was sure that there would always be meaningful work for a man and his horse, always places where motorcars just couldn’t reach, some work that machines just couldn’t do.

Working the land and riding a horse was a family rite of passage. Both men’s fathers and grandfathers had earned a solid living doing similar work, building the Snowy Mountains beef exportation trade, and neither Campbell nor Price could imagine doing anything else with their lives. It was an honest way to make a quid, and, more importantly, it let them spend most of their days on horseback, riding the high ridges, tracking across the ranges, enjoying spellbinding views of the high country, all while being paid for it. Under those pleasant circumstances, it was tough to be anything but happy.

“Your mare’s working out well, mate. She was a good buy.”

“Doesn’t have that extra burst of speed that yours seems to keep hidden til the end,” Price replied. He’d seen his friend tame the stallion and mould it into a perfect mount. “But I like her. No hesitation, you know? She just flies up these hills.”

Campbell chuckled at that. “If only she could, mate. Flying up here’s about the only bloody way you’d beat me at the moment!”

London 2012 Olympic Games: The Review

The Review - 16 days of competition at the Games of the Thirtieth Olympiad, London 2012

Day One:

The Opening Ceremony was as fantastic an event as I've seen since Cathy Freeman stole the show on that amazing night in Sydney in 2000. Everything was epic, from the music to the fireworks to the Queen and James Bond in Buckingham Palace, Danny Boyle crafted a superb masterpiece. It was good to see that the actual lighting of the flame was done in a manner that departed from the norm. Instead of famous former Olympic athletes or other sportsmen - I can't understand how people could imagine that David Beckham might've gotten the nod - it was ignited by the future of British sport, which was a nice touch, and will be long remembered. 

Congratulations to China and their shooter Siling Yi who won the first gold medal of the Games of the 30th Olympiad, in the Women's 10m Air Rifle at the Royal Artillery Barracks. That's a wonderful accomplishment.

GOLD AUSTRALIA!! The girls in the 4x100m freestyle relay broke an Olympic record (3:33.15) and took home our country's first gold medal! Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Britany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger, welcome to Australian sporting immortality! Schalnger's final leg was perfect. Go Aussie!! Pulsating call by Ray Hadley. Say what you will about his non-sporting radio broadcasts, but he brought the moment into Australian lounge rooms beautifully. So great to hear that Australian national anthem ring out!!

The men's cycling road race didn't quite go to plan for Team Great Britain, who tried and tried and tried and ultimately failed to control the 250km event that was run at a furious pace through the streets and parks of London. The final sprint towards Buckingham Palace that Team GB wanted never materialised, the race never run the way they wanted it to be run. Really, who could've imagined that the medal places would be filled by riders from, in order, Kazakhstan, Colombia and Norway, when it seemed like Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish were poised to deliver a gold-silver blow for the locals.

Michael Phelps and his quest for immortality got off to a shaky start at the pool on the first night of finals, finishing 4th in the Men's 400m Individual Medley. It was another American, the quickly-emerging Ryan Lochte who won, checking out halfway through the race and wasn't headed after that. He was on World Record pace during the first half of the event, but swimming on his own without any meaningful competition probably squashed that chance. Still, an impressive swim from the American, who the experts say might be just as good as Phelps. Watch out for him in four years time? Watch out for him in the next few days. It'll be great to see a neck-and-neck Phelps vs. Lochte race like we saw Hackett vs. Thorpe in Sydney.

Twenty-year-old Sun Yang can lay claim to breaking the the first WR of the London 2012 swimming competition, winning the men's 400m freestyle with the reigning world champion Taehwan Park coming in second. That was a story in itself, the North Korean having earlier been sensationally disqualified from his heat and then, even more sensationally, later reinstated for the final. There was no shortage of pool-deck drama on the opening day.

Stephanie Rice had a Michael Phelps moment, not exactly showing her best - or at least the best that we've become used to seeing - in the women's 400m Individual Medley. Although she was up in the lead early on, she faded badly, coming home in sixth, well adrift of the wonderful USA vs. China battle that ended with 16-year-old Chinese swimmer Shiwen Ye smashing the world record,  with her Chinese compatriot LI Xuanxu in third. Very good start in the pool for the Chinese team.

Australia got one over Great Britain - never a bad thing, especially in the current sporting climate with them beating us regularly in just about everything - with the Opals, favourite for gold in women's basketball, doing their work nicely, recording a 74-58 win over the home team. Business as usual for the Opals, with Lauren Jackson scoring 18 and Suzie Batkovic grabbing 10. Of course, the more stern tests for the ladies are yet to arrive.

Day Two:

 

For all intents and purposes, Day One was a better one for Australia than Day Two.

New Zealand scored a nice goal inside the first two minutes of their clash with Australia's Hockeyroos and the Aussie girls, who always seemed one nice pass away from really threatening the New Zealand goal, succumbed to our cousins from across the Tasman for the first time in Olympic competition. It might've been much worse for Australia had their goalie, Toni Croft, not made a number of brilliant saves to keep the final score to a more flattering 1-0 defeat. The blue turf and pink sidelines with yellow hockey ball was certainly an interesting look.

It wasn't much better for the Australian men's basketball team, with the Boomers falling to Brazil 75-71 in their opening game. That first-up loss may well mean a quarter final contest with the formidable and daunting Team USA, and it was a loss very much brought about by turnovers and execution issues, particularly in a disastrous third quarter. The last-gasp comeback, spearheaded by NBA star Patty Mills and Joe Ingles wasn't quite enough, and next up, medal contenders Spain. Really would've loved to have seen Andrew Bogut out there. He might've been the difference between a narrow loss and a narrow win. Even so, the Boomers campaign is not, as has been suggested in some circles, "in tatters.". That's just defeatism. Considering Australia has but one NBA player on it's roster - Mills - we punch above our weight.

Finally, the Team USA Men's Basketball team got into action, taking on France - it seems quite a day for USA vs. France contests - and the not-quite Dream Team did it in style, easily besting the tricolour nation 98-71 after a stop-start first half. Kevin Durant led all scorers with 22, while Kobe Bryant started slowly, scoring only ten points. Probably a good game to shake off the cobwebs and get the tournament rolling. Make no mistake, this team will win the Gold medal. I honestly can't see anyone coming close, let alone beating them.

And the British complain about Australians being whingers and whiners? Well, Mark Cavendish, you might not have won the men's cycling road race on Day One, but you certainly excelled in the press afterward, blaming the Australians for stopping you from winning the host nation's first gold medal. Silly me, Mr Cavendish, I had no idea that it was the fault of the Australians. I figured that it was the Kazakh, Colombian and Norwegian riders who finished 1-2-3 who were actually the ones at fault for you not winning a medal. Shut up, man. Just shut up.

The Missile, James Magnussen, really had a misfire, and the Australians, red-hot favourites for gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the pool tonight, finished a very disappointing fourth. I suppose most of the country was entitled to think that we were, if not dead-set certainties, certainly reasonably good things after Magnussen's heat swim and the boys coming into the team for the finals, but it wasn't to be, with the French coming from nearly another postcode to beat America on a pulsating final leg that reminded me of the same event in Sydney. You know, when Garry Hall Jr. promised that he'd smash us like guitars. At least the Americans didn't get gold. Masterful last leg by the French, and a well-deserved medal. Magunssen was speechless after the race, and rightly so. It wasn't our finest moment.

Better news in the pool for Australia: Christian Sprenger, about to give swimming up eighteen months ago because he'd lost the drive to train, scored a surprise silver medal in the 100m breaststroke behind the flying South Africa, Cameron Van Der Burgh, who broke a world record in a time of 58:46. And Alicia Coutts came home for the bronze in the women's 100m butterfly behind gold medal winner Dan Vollmer of the United States, who also broke the World Record, swimming 55:98.

Australia's medal tally after Day Two: 1 Gold, one Silver, one Bronze. Total: 3. Rank: 8

 

Day Three:

 

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.

 

Day Four:

 

These Olympics are flying past, and even though Australia hasn't done as well as we'd hoped - but about as well as media reports suggested we might do - there's this undeniable pulling power associated with the Olympics. We are sad, of course, that our own athletes aren't going so well and involved in a veritable gold rush, but there is so much sport, even obscure stuff, and people, at least according to Twitter, Facebook, message boards and word of mouth, are lapping it up. I know I am! It's great, and having it only once every four years helps preserve the excitement of the event.

My biggest take-away out of the early days of competition comes from the pool. Australia seems to do wonderfully in heats and semi-finals - Seebohm, the men's 4x100m final, Bronte Barratt to name just a few - and then bomb out something shocking in the finals, when it really counts. If only there was some way that this trend could be reversed. Sub-par effort in the heats, just make the final, blitz then when you're going for it all. Remember Atlanta 1996? Kieran Perkins barely made the 1500m final, but absolutely brained them when it counted. There's a blueprint if ever there's been one.

Congratulations to Bronte Barratt, who finished third in the final of the women's 200m freestyle final behind the American Allison Schmitt and the Frenchwoman Camille Muffat. America and France beating us in the pool? It's been like a broken record for much of this swimming meet. Regardless, a good swim by Barratt, and another medal to keep Australia hovering inside the Top 15 on the overall table.

Oh hey, that guy, James Magnussen! You might've heard of him. They called him The Missile until a few days ago, and then you might've heard jokes about how The Missile misfired and all of that. Well, despite, or maybe because of, the country's reaction, that man has seemingly run the gauntlet of emotions since failing to do anything particularly spectacular in the first final of his first Olympics, the 4x100m freestyle relay, and came out on the good side. He wasn't exactly feted by the masses after a somewhat sluggish heat swim in the men's individual 100m freestyle event, but now that The Missile's through to the final as the fastest qualifier, you can bet that the nation's love affair - and particularly that of the media contingent - is back on. Good for the kid. His acceleration was incredible, and I have a feeling he'll be installed as favourite, for all that that means. I'm apparently in the minority here, because I hold the opinion that we need to support our athletes, regardless. I mean, the guy had a bad swim. He didn't disgrace our country by urinating on the Horse Guards or anything along those lines. Give him a break. Looking forward to the final. A win really shuts some people up.

Congratulations to Alicia Coutts, who picked up another Silver medal for Australia at the pool, coming home behind the emerging Chinese sensation Ye Shiwen - remember her, the sixteen-year-old swimmer whose 100m individual medley freestyle split was faster than that of American champ Ryan Lochte - in the women's 200m Individual Medley. Australia's Stephanie Rice finished fourth. Coutts was right in the hunt in the final lap, but the incredible finishing speed of the Chinese swimmer in the last half-lap of the evebt unfortunately meant she had to settle for second place. If this girl, Ye Shiwen, is completely clean, she's an amazing phenomenon.

It must be said - and it is something that I didn't think would be said - but the great American Michael Phelps isn't the same swimmer that we saw in Beijing four years ago. Sure, he's broken a record, snatching up his 18th Olympic medal, and is still a brilliant swimmer, but even in his pet events, the American superstar doesn't look quite as polished and smooth so far this Olympics. Case in point, the final of the 200m butterfly, which used to just about belong to Phelps. He can lay claim to the four fastest times in history and his world record in that event is more than one second faster than the second-best performer in history. That's just crazy, but it didn't help him in the final this morning, where he was beaten by the South African, Chad le Clos, who came like there was no tomorrow, a scintillating final lap - unless you were Phelps, then you probably didn't like it all that much - to win Gold, with the Japanese swimmer Takeshi Matsuda in third. Who knows? Maybe the incredible weight of expectation has finally gotten to the guy. He and The Missile should get together for a chat!

Once again, the Australian men's basketball team have fallen, this time 82-70, and this time at the hands of Spain, a team filled with a bevvy of NBA players and favourite to reach the Gold medal game but, of course, to finish with the Silver behind the mighty Team USA. The Boomers had the same problems in this game as they did against Brazil, their Olympic opener. They had problems shooting from beyond the arc and clearly lacked another NBA-caliber big man. Still, a brave effort from the Boomers, who seem to go missing for long stretches - Spain opened up the second quarter on an 8-2 run - which you just cannot do against quality opposition. Joe Ingles and Brad Newley were highest scorers for the Boomers with 12. Patty Mills, still sporting the bright yellow sneakers, was a force, too. Just not quite enough talent to match it with the big boys of world basketball, unfortunately.

If you think Channel Nine's TV coverage has been bad, NBC, who insist on tape-delaying all the big events to show hours later in prime time, had an embarrassing gaffe last night. The final ad in the last block before the final of the women's 100m backstroke was a promo for the following morning's "Today" show, which, the ad said, would feature an interview with Gold medal-winning backstroker Missy Franklin. The Gold medal winner of the race that was about to be broadcast on the network after that block of advertising. I don't get how NBC can continue to hold back events when social media spoils results on a regular basis. It's weird that one of the biggest nations in the world still doesn't get the big Olympic events live as they happen.

Really enjoying the London 2012 Results iPhone app. Keeps me up to date with everything going on around the Olympics, and the times can be tailored either for London time or your local time, making catching events on TV much easier. Nice work.

Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze. Total: 6. Rank: 12. Still 9 places ahead of Great Britain.

 

Day Five:

 

We have to talk about it right at the very top. It was the most anticipated individual race of the swimming program at the London 2012 Olympic Games - and turned out to be the most exciting of all, even more so than the women's 4x100m freestyle relay on Day One - but James Magnussen's bid for some sort of revenge for the much-discussed men's 4x100m freestyle relay in the men's 400m freestyle final fell short by the shortest and most agonising of 0.01 seconds, about as close as it can get in swimming. What will make The Missile even more frustrated is that he looked for all the world like becoming an Olympic champion with about two strokes to go. I even thought he had it in the bag with one stroke to go, but was touched out by the American, Nathan Adrian, who also swum a wonderful race, both men managing to mow down the pace-setting Cielo of Brazil late in what can only be described as an epic race.

The interesting thing now that Magnussen has won a "lowly" (insert some sarcasm here) Silver will be the reaction by Australia, and particularly by certain sections of the media who've jumped on him, on Leisel Jones and some other athletes - including Chinese swimmers - over the last few days of competition and, in the case of the supposedly-overweight Jones, before the Olympics had even begun. There will be frustration and disappointment, I'm sure, but I honestly think any criticism will be unfair. Magnussen, as anyone who watched the race could tell, left everything out there in the pool, gave it every little ounce of strength he had and came up short by the shortest and most morale-sapping margin imaginable. A Silver medal at the Olympic Games is nothing to sneeze at, despite what was expected of the man. It's much better than most of us will ever be able to do, including those who'll right the predictable stories about the death of Australian swimming. Ho hum.

There has been some chaos in the badminton ranks, if you can believe that, with a eight competitors ejected from the Games in disgrace following what seems to be a match-fixing racket, which has left the sport rather red-faced. Interestingly, the Badminton World Federation chief, Thomas Lund, said he was "sorry" rather than "embarrassed" by the episode. Really? I'd probably be embarrassed that my federation had to expel from the Olympic Games the top seeds (the Chinese pair), four South Koreans and an Indonesian pair for deliberately throwing games. Honestly, this is probably the most press that the sport of badminton has ever gotten in the mainstream media.

Opals coach Carrie Graf is in the news, suggesting that some teams strategically lose games. In this instance, it may be that a team manipulates it's own results to avoid having to play, say, the powerful Team USA in the quarter final round. If Australia loses one more game in the group matches, they may avoid that very fate. At the same time as she broke this news, Graf was quick to add that Australia endorsed such tactics. She also said that she didn't think it undermined the sport. I think it does, the sport and the Olympic movement both. Athletes should be out there to win.

Thankfully, after their last start loss to France in overtime, the Opals edged out Brazil 67-61 thanks to an 18-point haul from the captain and Australian team flag-bearer, Lauren Jackson, who was ably supported today by the usual suspects, including Liz Cambage (17 points) and Suzy Batkovic (11 points). The buzzer-beater hero from the last game, Belinda Snell, was reasonably quiet with just the 5 points. Let's hope that the French game was but a minor blip on the radar. 

Finally, the host nation has a Gold medal. It must've been the longest and most frustrating wait imaginable for the British public, who have supported their athletes incredibly well in the opening few days of the London Games, but the wait is over. The Team Great Britain women's pairs rowing crew of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning are now assured their place in British sporting immortality. Must've been a massive relief, considering many observers were sure that Cavendish or Wiggins would deliver a first-up Gold medal in the Men's road race on Day One of competition. Congratulations to Australia's Kate Hornsey and Sarah Tait who came home to finish Silver, as much an opening act for the big-time rock stars as there's been in these Olympics.

Then there was another, with Bradley Wiggins, fresh off his Tour de France triumph, won his fourth ever Olympic Gold medal, taking out the men's road cycling time trial, to make this a wonderful day for the host nation. Wiggins won by a mammoth 42 seconds and the British rider Chris Froome came home in third. All in all, a pretty solid day. From an Australian point of view, it's a great shame that Cadel Evans wasn't able to race in this one.

Australia's men's hockey team is rolling nicely. Boy, did the Kookaburras do the job well, dismantling a good Spanish team - albeit one with a few key players out - to the tune of 5-0. There were three goals in the first half and two in the second, Orchard, Turner, Butturini, Ockenden and Ford scoring for Australia. Were it not for some excellent work in the net by the Spanish goalie Francisco Cortes, the score could've ballooned right out. In every facet of the game, the Kookaburras were impressive. Jamie Dwyer remains one goal shy of becoming Australia's all-time leading goal scorer.  Hopefully it can happen in the team's next game vs. Argentina.

Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 5 Silver, 2 Bronze. Total: 9. Rank: 15

 

Day Six 

Sad news on and off the Eton Dorney course for Australia's rowers, the saddest being the arrest of rower Josh Booth. The rower from Melbourne University was apprehended by local law enforcement for allegedly damaging a storefront window in a village to the west of London. Frighteningly for the Australian, following his arrest, he was taken to a police station where he hit his head after fainting. That necessitated a trip to a local hospital where he was treated and then released into the care of Australian team staff. Not surprisingly, our team boss Nick Green will re-issue a stern warning to our athletes about the rights and wrongs, and of how best to represent their country, our country. This isn't a good look for Australia.

A better look for Australia is the performance of the men's coxless four, led by the legendary and evergreen superstar Drew Ginn, who went down to hosts Great Britain by barely a whisker in their greatly-anticipated semi final match-up at Eton Dorney. Both boats will progress to the final, and if you believe those in the know - certainly, I'm no rowing expert - Australia rowed the 2000m course with some sort of control, ensuring that they have plenty more in the tank to draw from when the final comes around. This was as good a race as expected. That British crew is going to be tough to beat, but what a win it would be if the Aussies could pull it off. Interesting stat: it's been all Australia and Great Britain in the men's coxless fours, the two countries combining to snare all the gold medals in this event since Barcelona 1992, back in the heyday of the Oarsome Foursome.

Congratulations to Michael Phelps, who won gold with a scintillating swim in the men's 200m Individual Medley final, narrowly missing out on the World Record, and beating home compatriot Ryan Lochte. As if it was ever in doubt, Phelps can now finally be feted as one of the greatest swimmers of all time - statistically, at least, the very best there ever was - and America can celebrate, too, the emergence of Lochte, who has had a very solid Olympic program. The future is bright for Team USA swimming. The interesting thing now will be what Phelps decides to do as far as his career is concerned. Retire? Push on to Rio 2016? Time will tell. He has 20 Olympic medals, 16 of the Gold, so is there really that much incentive to come back?

While not as surprising as missing out in the 100m freestyle final - by absolutely the smallest margin imaginable - The Missile, James Magnussen, has failed to qualify for the final of the men's 50m freestyle dash, to be run on the last night of swimming finals. In better news for Australia, Eamon Sullivan, a rather quiet figure in the lead-up to these Olympics as opposed to four years ago in Beijing, snuck in, tying for seventh fastest in a time of 21.88. He'll need to go substantially faster to medal, but he's in there with a shot.

Crazy first day at the track cycling competition, with the queen of British cycling Victoria Pendleton, whose battle with Australia's own Anna Meares, was tipped to be one of the hottest and most contested in Olympic history, disqualified from the women's team sprint final for an illegal changeover with a team-mate. As if that wasn't enough, in the final of the same event between China and Germany, China won but were later relegated for an illegal ride, giving Germany the Gold. Australia's Meares and Kaarle McCulloch beat the Ukrainian duo for a Bronze medal, but, much like in the pool, this wasn't the start we expected. A medal yes, but not the colour the nation had anticipated.

Better velodrome news for Great Britain on the men's side, with Sir Chris Hoy leading Team GB to gold and a new World Record in the men's team sprint, having also broken a WR in their semi final race. For Australia, so often the bridesmaid at these Olympics, the best our team of Shane Perkins, Scott Sunderland and Matthew Glaetzer, could manage was fourth, losing the ride-off for bronze to Germany. If Day One is but a sign of things to come at the velodrome, I can hardly wait for the rest of competition.

Australia's men's basketball team, the Boomers, finally got their first win of the London 2012 campaign, recording a comfortable 81-61 win over China after dropping contests vs. Brazil and Spain previously. As in those first two games, our lone NBA star Patty Mills led the way with 20 points, continuing a wonderful Olympics for the pint-sized rocket, and was in this game finally able to make those three-point shots sit and sink. Mills was ably assisted by David Anderson (17 points, and a masterful job shutting down the Chinese big man Jianlian Yi, the 212cm centre) and Joe Ingles, who netted 13 points to go with 7 rebounds and 7 assists. A much-needed win for Australia, who have Great Britain next. Hopefully we'll win that and even our record at 2-2. Win against Team GB and beat Russia in the final pool game and we should avoid a dreaded quarter final round date with the mighty Team USA.

The Hockeyroos took on Team USA and managed to squeeze out a hard-fought 1-0 win to keep their medal hopes well and truly alive as the pool games start to come to an end. The crucial score came in the shadows of half time, a laser of a shot by Anna Flanagan, and the defence stood up from there, another stand-out performance from Toni Cronk, who's been nothing short of stellar in goal this tournament.

Congratulations to Australia's Jessica Fox, who delivered us another Silver medal, in the women's K1 canoe slalom.

It's getting pretty rough being an Australian at these Games. After a slow start, Great Britain have 5 gold medals to their name and even our cousins from across the Tasman, the New Zealanders, struck gold today. Australia remains mired on one solitary gold, with more silver medals coming in this Olympics than I can remember.

Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 7 Silver, 3 Bronze. Total: 11. Rank: 16

Day Seven

This has been a very interesting Olympics, at least proving that the issue of "tanking" transcends the AFL. It's happened in badminton, there's been some suggestion that it's happening in basketball - to avoid meeting Team USA too early - and now the most startling observation of all comes from a British cyclist, Phillip Hindes who happily admitted that he crashed in the qualifying rounds of the men's team sprint on night one of track cycling at the velodrome. It was in the men's team sprint that Britain won gold, led by Sir Chris Hoy, but on their second attempt after Hindes crashed early on in the third.

"We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart. I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really..."

That was what Hindes, a German-born athlete to switched allegiances to Great Britain, said in the post-race press conference, and it's disappointing. Basically, he's admitted to some amount of cheating. British officials, of course, have claimed that Hindes' words were "lost in translation" but that's crap. Absolute crap. They're not going to admit otherwise, are they? I find it very hard to lose any of that in any sort of translation. Let's see here: the British had what they deemed to be bad start so Hindes crashed early on, and his team-mates called for a restart by raising their hands. Because it happened early enough in the race, it was granted. That's an interesting loophole. On the second go-around, they set the fastest qualifying time en route to the gold medal that is now at least a little tainted. This is as blatant as it's gotten...well, almost, because, of course, some Chinese, Indonesian and South Korean badminton players were sent home from London for match-fixing, but still, it's a joke that this can happen and that the medal stands. What happened to the Olympic ideals? Someone at the IOC or the international cycling federation needs to look into this. It absolutely casts a level of doubt on Team Great Britain's amazing ride. What controversy at the Velodrome on the first night!!

Congratulations to Australia's preeminent male hockey player, the legendary Jamie Dwyer who netted his 180th international goal in the Kookaburras game vs. Argentina this morning. That tally makes Dwyer, a gold medal winner at Athens 2004, 3-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist and five-times named the world's best hockey player. Fantastic achievement for a real superstar of the sport. Hopefully that personal milestone will be topped off by Kookaburras gold at London 2012. In something of a boil-over, the highly-fancied Australians were held to a 2-2 draw by Argentina, thanks to some wonderful work in goal from their keeper Vivaldi. The Kookaburras had their chances to put the game away, but unfortunately didn't.

Apparently Emily Seebohm - and, more enthusiastically, her brother - have been involved in something of a Twitter war with a young Australian fan in the aftermath of her tears following a silver-medal winning swim in the 100m backstroke. This in the wake of Seebohm admitting that her devotion to social media has adversely affected her performance in the pool. My money's on Australian swimming introducing a total ban on social media when Rio 2014 rolls around. It seems to be a distraction our swimmers just don't need.

Disgraced rower Josh Booth, arrested earlier in the week for damaging a number of store fronts around the Eton Dorney regatta course, is being sent home from London immediately, discharged from the rowing team. The twenty-one-year-old personally apologised to the owners of the businesses in the village of Egham and also paid for their damage but, for Booth, the damage was done. It continues an alarming trend these Olympics of Australians making headlines out of the arena of competition.

While Victoria Pendelton, the undisputed queen of British cycling at the moment, blew away the competition in the women's kieren to win her first gold medal of the London 2012 Olympics, Australia's Anna Meares had a disastrous night, relying on a photo finish result to ensure that she didn't finish stone motherless last. Arguably, it was a bigger story as far as the landscape of women's track cycling goes than Pendleton's win, which wasn't exactly a shocker. This wasn't what we had expected from the hotly-anticipated Pendleton vs. Meares duel, which should - barring another night like the one that will likely haunt the Australian champion for quite some time to come - really ramp up in the women's  individual sprint. In an Olympics where Australian gold hasn't exactly been flowing freely, Meares is still one of our best non-swimming/"second week" chances for gold.

Formerly a middle distance runner, Kim Crow scored an Olympic silver medal in rowing's double scull discipline last night with her team mate Brooke Pratley, finishing behind - surprise, surprise - the Great Britain pair of Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger. Silver seems to be the story of these Olympics for Australia, the old adage of being so close yet so far. Tonight is the big one for Crow, who's rowed an incredible program this Olympic regatta, seemingly thriving on the pain of competition. The Olympic single scull final may very well yield gold for Crow. She's right in the hunt. It could be an amazing rush of sheer ecstasy rather than pain tonight if she can do what so many Australians have had trouble doing these Olympics: finish on the top step of the podium.

The Opals had a solid, and hard-fought win against Russia 70-66 and a chance at both finishing atop their pool and avoiding an early match-up with the powerful Team USA outfit are both alive, but it was the slam-dunk by Liz Cambage, the first such dunk at the London 2012 Olympics, that had everyone talking. The 203cm player ignited the crowd with the power move, and with the win, the Australians may just have rejuvenated their Olympic campaign after the shock loss to France earlier and all the talk of losing some more games to possibly avoid meeting the USA team too early on.

Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 9 Silver, 4 Bronze. Total: 14. Rank: 19

 

Day Eight

 

The swimming competition ended on Day Eight with no Australians in finals after Bronte and Cate Campbell fell out of the women's 50m freestyle at the semi-final stage on Day Seven, and Jared Poort missed out on a spot in the men's 1500m freestyle, an event so long dominated by great Australians Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett. Unfortunately, that means that Australia will fail to score an individual gold medal at an Olympic Games for the first time since 1976. While the Aquatic Centre has been the scene of a gold rush for America and China and others, for Australia it's been a pool of nightmares, and you get the feeling that the team will be very happy to pack up and never see that particular 50m of blue water again. There is, then, plenty of work to do in the next four years before the world meets again in Brazil for Rio 2014. I certainly don't envy Australia's head coach Leigh Nugent his work.

On the final day of competition, the Australian women scored a silver in the 4x100m medley relay and the men, in their version of the same event, came home in the bronze position. Not a surprise to see Team USA win gold in both. They've had a mighty campaign, spearheaded by Franklin, Phelps, Lochte and co. Japan took silver in the men's race and bronze in the women's, ensuring both events had the same podium finishers. A rather fitting end to a silvery campaign for the Australian swim team. So close, yet so far, it seems.

Interesting to see that the divisive Nick D'Arcy and his gun-toting companion Kenrick Monk have been given a reprieve and will now remain in the northern hemisphere for the duration of the competition, despite being told that they would be sent home in disgrace following a photo of the two men posing with some serious weaponry in an American gun shop appeared on Facebook - hasn't social media been an interesting topic these Olympics!! - and attracted no small amount of controversy. Of course, D'Arcy is no stranger to that. Thankfully, the AOC will not permit either athlete to remain in the Olympic Village. Instead, it's rumoured, the pair will use the opportunity to holiday in Europe with friends and family.

Today might've been the last time Australia sees it's rowing ironman, the great Drew Ginn, in competition. The men's fours - better known in previous years as the Oarsome Foursome - finished a valiant second (a silver medal? What else is new there?) behind the all-conquering British, who've had the regatta of their lives and dreams, and after the race, Ginn signalled that this might be the end for him, his fourth Olympics. Three times a gold medallist in the greatest competition on the face of the earth, Ginn will go down in Australian sporting history with the other members of the Oarsome Foursome, famous names like Nick Green and James Tomkins and Mike McKay.

Slowly but surely, and with very little fanfare, the Hockeyroos are putting themselves right in the thick of the medal races. An opening game loss to New Zealand seemed to have put an end to their chances of finishing amongst the medals before the campaign had really begun, but from a slow start seems to be a fast finish. The girls haven't lost since, recording victories over world No. 3 Germany and then the United States. Today, it was a gritty 1-0 win against South Africa, which sees the Hockeyroos now handily sitting atop their pool. A win or a draw against Argentina in the final pool game should keep them there.  Impressive effort for a team not expected to figure in the medals at all this Olympics.

Another medal at the Eton Dorney regatta for Kim Crow, who took the bronze in the women's single scull final a day after netting a silver in the women's double scull final with rowing partner Brooke Pratley. For all those who doubted that Crow could achieve success in both the single and double discipline...Humble Pie queue starts right here. Crow's regatta has been one of the bright spots of the Australian Olympic campaign thus far. For a change, the gold medal was won by Miroslav Knapkova from the Czech Republic, rather than a Brit.

Silver to long jumper Mitchell Watt who, in what's becoming a horrid trend, was beaten by an athlete from Great Britain in the men's long jump final. Watt, favourite in some people's eyes, jumped 8.16m, while the winner, Greg Rutherford, managed 8.31m. It was some sort of night for the host nation, who claimed three gold medals in the space of one heady hour at the Olympic Stadium. Breaking news: the locals are having one incredible Olympic campaign. Reminds me of Australia in Sydney 2000.

More breaking news: the velodrome is fast, and the British track cycling team is riding in some sort of superhuman fashion. Another day, another world record for the locals, this time in the women's team pursuit, where the hosts defeated America in world record time after breaking a WR in qualifying yesterday. Australia's team, after narrowly missing out on a chance to ride off for gold, were pipped at the post by Canada, finishing fourth after winning silver in the same event at the World Championships in Melbourne earlier this year.

Finally, an Australian has beaten a their Great British counterpart at the London 2012 Olympic Games! Okay, it's happened a few times, but seldom when the medals are on the line, and when it does happen, it's worthy of a mention. The Boomers have done it for us this time, recording a comfortable 106-75 victory over the hosts. Our men have one final pool game - against Russia - in the race that everyone wants to win: the race to avoid a death-match with Team USA in the quarter finals.

This one from the Pages of Stupid: Kim Collins, sprinter and flag bearer at the London 2012 opening ceremony for St Kitts and Nevis, has been dumped from the heats of the men's 100m sprint by his own country, apparently because he was - shock horror - found in a hotel with his wife/coach. There are some other theories out there, some being purported by the St Kitts and Nevis team, but regardless, it seems a little bit over the top. As Collins noted on the Twitter, even men in prison are allowed visits from their wives. It's been a rough games for the small nation, with one of their female sprinters sent home after a potential drug violation.

Australia's medal tally: 1 gold, 12 silver, 7 bronze. Total: 20. Rank: 19 

 

Day Nine

 

The concept of "tanking" has reared it's ugly head once more, with Russia's women's basketball team looking rather blase in it's loss to France in their final pool game of the Olympic tournament. After Australia had beaten Canada, the Russians seemed to capitulate, losing 65-54 in a game that is sure to, and, already has, raise some eyebrows, given that the Russians, who had a 5-point lead after one quarter, then failed to score six points in the second. Now, they find themselves finishing third in the pool, which means, in the cross-over elimination stages, they won't have to play either Australia or the United States of America until a potential gold medal match. Sure, the Russians could've just been having a bad day, but with all the previous talk of tanking and of teams actually doing it - see badminton, for example - it's almost a certainty that the performance in the second quarter will be scrutinised and analysed everywhere and by everyone. Australia, on the other hand, have less than a favourable draw. Make the semi finals, and it seems that they'll take on the Team USA women.

''I think people need to start understanding that it's not easy to win an Olympic gold medal and there's absolutely nothing wrong with a silver medal. I was copping questions in the mixed zone [from media] last night, and the first question I got was 'Is it a disappointing result?' The team's happy, I'm happy, the head coach is happy. I've got thousands of messages back home that they are happy. ''The only people that aren't happy are you guys, so you need to wake up"

24-year-old, silver medal-winning long jumper, Mitchell Watt to the Australia media. Well, he pretty unloaded a bomb there. It was well-said, and overdue, too. It's about time that the Australian media starts to celebrate these silver medals - second-best in the world, after all, is a pretty fantastic achievement - rather than try to coax athletes who've given their all on the greatest sporting stage in the world, sometimes as the culmination of a lifetime of training, effort, pain and sacrifice, to say to a microphone that they are disappointed in a result.

Sure, gold is the benchmark, and Australia has been very good at picking up those in recent times, but I think a lot of people, the doom-and-gloom crew, are forgetting that a silver medal is a pretty solid achievement, too, especially in the case of someone like James Magnussen, who was narrowly, narrowly touched out for gold. Here's an idea: let's start celebrating those athletes wearing the green and gold who get to stand on any step on the podium rather than suggesting that second is a major disaster that might cause an athlete to go into hiding in shame instead of returning Australia. So far as I'm concerned, any Olympic medal is a good one. Am I disappointed we haven't won more gold? Sure, like most Australians, probably, but at least a brace of silvers is better than bronze or nothing at all. The Australian way of looking at the bright side of things seems to have fallen apart. Let's celebrate what we have, not what we didn't get.

Talking of gold, it seems that our sailing team are headed for the top step of the podium. Tom Slingsby has just about guaranteed himself a gold medal after winning both races in the single-handed Laser class on Saturday. He only needs to finish seventh or better in the final race tomorrow to outscore his nearest challenger. Australia's 470 class pairing of Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page won their double as well on Saturday, and reinforce their lead. It's possible that Australia will collect 3 or 4 golds, with possibilities for overall victory in the Elliott match racing class and the 49er skiff class.

The men's 100m final at the lightning-fast athletics track at the Olympic Stadium has all the hallmarks of being a classic. Sure, the race itself won't take much more than 10 seconds for the field to cross the finish line, but there promises to be plenty of drama and intrigue in that short space of time. America's Justin Gatlin is the fastest qualifier (9.82) but it was Usain Bolt who had everyone talking, the reigning Olympic champion pretty much jogging through the last few meters after shutting off the jets with about 70m in the books. It was an ominous effort and a frighteningly easy one, too. Bolt has showed that he's rightly the favourite heading in. It should be an epic event. Don't discount the world champion over 100m, Yohan Blake, also of Jamaica, the young man, perhaps heir to Bolt's crown. But they all appear to be chasing Bolt. The world record might be in danger. As this track meet has already

The Kookaburras, gold medal favourites at this Olympics, are making their London campaign rather interesting. After squandering a 2-0 lead to Argentina in their last game, the Australian men did the same against Great Britain, giving up a dominating 3-0 lead, the game ending tied at 3-3 after the locals didn't have a goal on the board six minutes into the second half. At least it wasn't a loss, and you can bet the Australian coaching staff won't be happy with the second-half collapse. The Kookaburras now need to record a win or a draw against Pakistan in their final pool game to ensure they make the finals.

Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 12 Silver, 7 Bronze. Total: 20. Rank: 23

 

Day Ten

Perhaps the best day for Australia at these Olympic Games

Gold, Australia!! Day Ten delivered Australia it's second gold medal - and the first individual one - of the 2012 campaign. It took a while to happen, a lifetime, it seems, after the women of the 4x100m freestyle relay won gold on night one of competition, but a second gold has been added to Australia's tally. It was awarded to Tom Slingsby from Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast, and he won it in the Laser class of single dinghies at the seaside town of Weymouth. Not only London 2012 history for Slingsby, but Australian Olympic sailing history for he becomes the first individual gold medal winner in sailing since our country first sent a sailing team to the Olympics in 1948. Congratulations, Australia's newest sporting hero!!

It gets better on the water off of Weymouth for our sailors, where Australia’s pairing of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen secured an unassailable lead in the 49er skiff class. Another gold medal for Australia coming up tomorrow. Haven't our sailing team, unheralded at the start of these Olympics, really come up big and pulled it out of the fire for Australia? Nice to see some gold in the water, even if it's not in the pool, as we'd expected, but on the ocean instead.

The Boomers are into the quarter finals with a death match against Team USA to come. But it was their final pool game against the previously-undefeated Russians that provided perhaps the highlight of the tournament for Australia's men. Down by two points with 4.1 seconds to go, our NBA star Patty Mills stepped up to the plate, draining a three-pointer that, honestly, never looked like missing, to give the Boomers an 82-80 win. The result, either way, would have made no difference to the make-up of the playoff rounds, but this was a famous victory and there's nothing like a good win to take int your next game, especially if your next game is against the might of the United States of America.

Australia's men's volleyball team, the Volleyroos, had a similarly epic win, defeating, rather comfortably, the third best team in the world, the Polish outfit, in what's already being called the best win in Australian volleyball history. The Poles, on the way to the medal rounds, you'd think, were beaten by our boys, who will now need to rely on other results to determine if they'll make it through to the quarter final round. Even if they don't, this was famous win, and coming just after the Boomers win vs. Russia, it made it into a pretty solid day on the team sports front for Australia.

Alos making it a good day was Sally Pearson's performance (12.58 seconds) in the heats of the 100m hurdles. She ran the fastest time ever in the heats at an Olympic games over that distance, and looked easily the best runner in the field, despite her saying in later interviews that it wasn't as good as she had hoped. Devastating scenes for Pearson's rival from Jamaica, the 37-year-old Brigitte Foster-Hylton, who hit the third hurdle in a later heat, thus taking her out of the running for the final and the medals. The Jamaican threw herself down onto the track in agony, and was just about inconsolable. That's the tough, heart-breaking side of Olympic competition. On the up side, Pearson is looking good. Jane Fleming said she thought Sally might break a World Record in the final. Personally, I'll settle for a gold medal. As I'm sure most Australians, and Pearson herself, will. Anything above and beyond that is just icing on the cake. Go Sally!!

Commiserations to Australia's Michael Diamond. Our shooter crumbled in the most tragic of ways, giving up a lead with five shots remaining in the men's trap final to finish in fourth place. Making the fourth place finish harder to stomach for Diamond, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was the fact that he shot a flawless and world record equaling 125-from-125 clay targets in the qualifying rounds. But consecutive mis-shoots in the closing stages of the final unfortunately sealed his fate. Hopefully Diamond will be back in Rio 2014.

Australia's medal tally: 2 Gold, 12 Silver, 8 Bronze. Total: 22. Rank: 19

 

Day Eleven

Another golden day for Australia - almost a goldrush!!

GOLD, Australia!! Anna Meares did what many others have tried and failed to do: she dethroned Queen Victoria Pendleton, winning the women's sprint title, taking the bestof-32 final, 2-0. A straight sets win!! It was the big and most anticipated race of the women's track cycling meet at these Olympics, though the parochial home crowd who have seen Pendelton's immense greatness time and time again at the Veldorome, would have gone home upset, because the British cyclist could not beat Meares this time around, her last Olympic appearance, their head-to-head race in the final - the final that everyone had hoped for - was filled with drama, Pendelton originally being named victor in the first of three matches to decide the title. But it was Meares all the way, the first result overtuned after a look at the video, and the Australian went on to win the second, clinching a memorable gold medal and breaking British hearts in the process.

GOLD, Australia!! It was a close-run thing. Actually, it was an incredibly close-run thing - think Nathan Adrian over our own James Magnussen at the pool in the men's 100m freestyle final and you're on the right track - but Sally Pearson is an Olympic champion now, having won the tightest of tight races in the final of the women's 100m hurdles, narrowly pipping the defending Olympic champion from America, Dawn Harper, despite the American having a major dip at the end. For drama, this was second-to-none. The result went to a video review, which handed Pearson the win and the gold medal, and, even better, an Olympic record, 12.35. Not quite the world record that some had predicted - the rain in London, heavier at that time than it has been all Olympics long - likely put an end to that - but another gold medal for Australia. Congratulations, Sally Pearson! You've done our country so proud. And congratulations to Harper, barly beaten at the line, but a wonderful role model for a gracious and sporting second-place finisher. That's the Olympic spirit right there.

In other developments at the track, Usain Bolt, holder of Olympic gold in the 100m final earlier this meet, easily winning his heat of the 200m as he seeks to take home the prestigious 100/200 double. It was a relaxed run from Bolt, who takes the fifth fastest time into the semi finals, yet critics will be wary of discounting him. After all, there were questions asked of his speed ahead of the semis and final of the 100m and look how that turned out: he absolutely blizted the field. Bolt's Jamaican compariot Yohan Blake was fourth-fastest overall, winning his heat.

At the women's basketball, Australia's resident superstar/Olympic flag bearer, Lauren Jackson became the all-time women's leading scorer during Australia's quarter-final win over China. The Opals suffered an early scare, relying on an avalanche of scoring, led by Jackson and Liz Cambage, in the third quarter and some more in the final stanza, to win the game 75-60 and book a semi-final date with the mighty Team USA. This was what many expected to be the gold medal game, but it will come one round early. And Lauren Jackson, as decorated a female basketball player as there has ever been, will be right in the hunt for the one prize that has, thus far, eluded her: Olympic gold. The Opals will have to be better against Team USA than they were against China if that dream is to remain alive.

After starting fast and finishing absently against Argentina and then Great Britain, there were questions asked by the critics about the Australian men's hockey team's favouritism for gold at London 2012. Well, I'd say that the Kookaburras have answered all the questions lingering over them, absolutely putting Pakistan to the sword in their final pool game, running out resounding 7-0 winners that saw them finish atop Pool A. It was a necessary win, and it was a flashy win. Chris Cirello scored two, Mark Knowles tallied off of a penalty shot and the old master, the superstar Jamie Dwyer, netted another to extend his record as Australia's all-time highest goal scorer. Now, the Australians face Germany in a semi final in two days time, and go into it with a much better mindset than

Sadly, no such luck for Australia in the women's waterpolo competition, with the Stingers unfortunatelly falling 11-9 to the United States in overtime of their semi final contest. There's only one thing to be said here: thank God it wasnt the British who beat us! Australia will now face the loser of the Hungary-Spain semi-final in the third-versus-fourth play-off, with the winner to play the US for the gold.

Australia's medal tally: 4 gold, 12 silver, 9 bronze. Total: 25. Rank: 11

Day Twelve 

GOLD, Australia!! The sailing team have really come through for Australia out at Weymouth and Portland, picking up the gold medal slack, and catapulting their sport into the mainstream. Today, it was the turn of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, who had an unassailable lead - and thus an easy last day, the day of the medal race - in the 49er skiff class. It's been quite a meet for the Australians out on the coast, a couple of hours drive from London. They join the already-feted Tom Slingsby as Australian gold medal winners in sailing and they join the list also populated by Anna Meares and Sally Pearson, all of them individual gold medal winners at London 2012. Well done, guys!

Not that it was in much doubt, but Jamaican pair Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake are through to the final of the men's 200m, and neither athlete raised much of a sweat. It must be an ominous and even demoralising feeling, running in the lanes on either side of these two men, seeing how easily they are doing it - when Bolt looks around to see what's going on around him, you know he's barely operating at 80% - in the Olympic semi finals, and dreading what sort of speed they're keeping up their sleeve for the final. Surely they're favourites to go 1-2 and probably will, barring any sort of disaster. Bolt ran 20.18, and Blake 20.0, but neither man ran a full race, coasting to the end. The upcoming final will be nothing short of epic.

Easy as you like for Australia's pole-vaulting superstar/Olympic champion, Steve Hooker. He cleared the qualifying mark - 5.5 meters - on his first attempt, where many others around him didn't. It must've come as a relief to Hooker, who last year, after his most recent international competition, admitted that he'd lost the nerve to jump. It's a tremendous leap of faith to soar through the air with the aid of what seems like nothing more than a flimsy pole. Hopefully, now that he appears to be back, another Olympic medal awaits.

We knew it was going to happen, and happen it did. The Boomers are out of the men's basketball competition. It came at the hands of the mighty Team USA - barring a major calamity, the gold medallists at London 2012 - but it wasn't a total capitulation and it didn't come without a serious fight by the Australians, that fight led by Patrick Mills, our only NBA star currently, with 26 points. It's been a golden Olympics for Patty, highlighted by the sensation buzzer-beater to defeat Russia in the last pool game. In the wash-up, it'll be said that Australia are perhaps just two or three NBA-caliber players away from being serious contenders. If only Andrew Bogut wasn't injured. That said, with our roster lacking those players from the best league in the world, did very well to reach the quarter final round.

Day Thirteen

Gold, Australia!! Our K4 kayak crew won the gold medal over the 1000m distance at Eton Dorney this morning, some sweet redemption for a crew and a boat that were overwhelming favourites at Beijing 2008 yet failed to make the final. From agony then to ecstasy today, the crew won by half a boat length over the Hungarians and the Czech Republic boat to wipe away four long years of second-guessing in the best possible way. They are taking gold medals home to Australia! Congratulations to the crew of Dave Smith, Tate Smith (no relation), Murray Stewart and Jacob Clear.

History at the Olympic Stadium today with the world's fastest man over 100m confirming what so many suspected: that he is also fastest over 200m. It was the night when the world celebrated and feted Usain Bolt. The flamboyant, speedy Jamaican star crossed the finish line with a finger to his lips, as if to silence anyone - and there were a few - who thought that his time was over, that it was now the time of his younger team mate, Yohan Blake. Not quite yet. Maybe in Rio 2014, but not here and not now. Not when he can ease off at the top of the straight and still run a 19.32. That's just superhuman.

As if Bolt's run wasn't amazing in of itself, he led home a remarkable, dominating, crushing 1-2-3 for Jamaica - Yohan Blake just behind, as in the 100m final, and Warren Weir in third - that will surely spark wild celebrations in the island nation so famous for producing men of incredible speed on the flat track. It was a memorable end to the final that everyone had been waiting for since Bolt looked so good defending his 100m crown a few days ago. Bolt has become the first man ever to win the 100m and 200m gold medals at consecutive Olympic games. More than that, this was the first time two individual track titles were successfully defended at successive Olympic Games since Finland’s Lasse Viren won the 5000m and 10,000m in the Munich and Montreal Games in 1972 and 1976. Usain Bolt is, without a shadow of a doubt, an Olympic legend now. There can be no argument of that now.

Australia has suffered hockey heartache at London 2012, the Kookaburras falling 4-2 to Germany in another game where they led - 1-0 and 2-1 - before a late-game collapse saw the Germans score 3 unanswered goals to hand defeat to the Australian men at the semi final stage for the second consecutive Olympiad. For much of this tournament, it has been late-game collapses that have cost the Kookaburras, despite having scored more goals than any other team at this tournament. They were handily up on Great Britain and Argentina previously, only to have those teams roar back into the contest, both games ending in draws. There was no such redemption for the Kookaburras today, Germany taking a 4-2 win into the Olympic final. As for Australia, they now play either Holland or Great Britain in the bronze medal play-off. Definitely not what the team and our country had been hoping for. Hopefully the team regroups to bring home a medal.

It seems that neither basketball team, men or women, can get past the might of Team USA at London 2012. The Boomers lost yesterday in their quarter final match-up with the world's most powerful basketball nation, and it was the turn of the Opals today, another disappointing end to a campaign for gold, and the end of an era, with many veterans including Kristi Harrower, either already decided upon retirement or seriously considering it. Even Lauren Jackson, the Opals star, was non-committal when asked about her chances of playing in Rio 2014.  A shame if it's the end for Jackson, given that Olympic gold is about the only height she hasn't scaled in an incredible basketball career. The US has now won 48 games in a row at the Olympics and have beaten Australia the past 16 times the teams have met. The Australians will play for bronze on Sunday.

Silver for our youngest Olympian, 16-year-old diver Brittany Broben, who finished second to a diver China in the 10-metre individual final and will sometime soon continue her Year 11 studies at Marymount College on the Gold Coast, and will be able to lay claim to being the only girl in school who took time off for the Olympics and, more importantly, the only student who has won Olympic silver. Fantastic effort!!!

Bronze for Australia's female water polo team, the Stingers, in overtime after the game seemed over in regulation, before the ball was poached from seemingly-safe Australian hands by the Hungarians, who managed to score an incredible goal inside the final second of regulation. Thankfully, the Stingers held their nerve in the fifth frame and secured the bronze with a 13-11 win. Congratulations, girls!!

Australia's medal tally: 6 gold. 13 silver. 10 bronze. Total: 29. Rank: 10

 

Day Fourteen

GOLD, Australia!! Our sailing team is having an incredible London 2012 Olympic Games. First it was Tom Slingsby, then the 49er crew and now it's the turn of Mal Page and Mat Belcher to take the top step of the podium at Weymouth, as Olympic champions in the 470 class. The pair were assured of at least a silver medal, given their lead heading into the medal race. Croatia won the race but the Aussies did enough to secure the gold medal. For Page, from the Middle Harbour Yacht Club in Sydney, it was his second, winning Olympic gold in Beijing 2008, which means he becomes the first Australian sailor to win back-to-back gold medals.

From wonderful to heartbreaking. Australia's great medal hope in men's pole vault - and the defending Olympic champion - Steve Hooker has crashed out of the competition in London, a day after looking smoothly ominous. Today, it was a different story. He abandoned his first jump mid-air, ran through onto the mat on the second, another foul, and managed to get up on his third effort and just for a second it looked as though he would clear, but instead he landed on the bar, to bring it down with his hands. Such a shame for a great Australian, who had those well-documented problems with the "yips" recently. He exited the Olympic final with straight misses at his entry height of 5.65m.

A silver sort of day for the Australians at the BMX cycling events - where have we heard that before these Olympics? Only every day, it seems - where Sam Willoughby survived the wildly, rough-and-tumble debut of the sport at an Olympic Games, and will go home with a silver medal to his name, and will always be a part of the history of the Olympics now, the second-best competitor in the sport's Olympic first go-around. Not such good news for Caroline Buchanan, who finished fifth in her final, and was almost inconsolable afterward.

Australia' gold medal diver from Beijing 2008, Matthew Mitchum, has cruised into the semi final of the 10m platform event, finishing ninth in something of a low-key effort that sees him about one hundred points behind the top qualifier, China's Qiu Bo. The defending Olympic champion was 10th heading into his final dive of the qualifying rounds, but saved the best until last, scoring 84.60 for his back 2 1/2 somersaults with 2 1/2 twists.Mitcham’s compatriot, 17-year-old Queenslander James Connor, finished 20th, not high enough up the list to make it through to the semis.

Quite incredibly, the Australian men's 4x100m relay team has qualified for a star-studded final to feature the likes of Team USA, Jamaica and others. It was largely thanks to a brilliant and possibly anger-fueled final leg from Josh Ross, the man refused the chance to run the individual 100m final by Athletics Australia - one of many controversies involving our runners and the governing body - before the Olympics. Australia, who last made the final of the 4x100m in the Athens games, clocked 38.17s, equaling the Australian record. They were the seventh fastest qualifiers for the final. The way things happen in relays, especially at the baton change, now that the team's in it, a medal is a long shot but definitely not out of the question. We've seen some wild moments already in the relays, and, of course, there was Steve Bradbury at the Winter Olympics. If the team can have a clean race, they might just surprise a few people.

Australia's medal tally: 7 gold, 14 silver, 10 bronze. Total: 31. Rank: 9. 

 

Day Fifteen

 

And so we come to the penultimate day of competition at London 2012...

Congratulations to Australia's Jared Tallent, who has claimed silver in the men's 50km race walk, his pet event, after a seventh in the 20km event earlier in the Olympics. Still, that elusive gold medal remains out of reach for the Australian, who was 26 seconds behind the eventual winner, Russia's Sergey Kirdyapkin, with 5km to go, but somehow realised that his challenge would be for naught, and instead protected his silver position, finishing 54 seconds back of the winner, and coming across the line with arms raised in triumph, clearly a happy man. Now that is the sort of image we need to project to Australia: a competitor absolutely stoked by finishing second and getting his hands on an Olympic medal, no matter that it wasn't gold.

They've done it. Jamaica, not only men's 4x100m relay Olympic champions once again, but they have absolutely obliterated the world record and Usain Bolt has his third gold medal of the London 2012 Olympics, to sit nicely alongside individual gold in the 100m and 200m sprints. This was as good a relay run as the world has ever seen. Good changes, a lightning-fast last leg from Bolt, who pulled away from American Ryan Bailey, and took Jamaica home to a new world mark, an astonishing 36.94 seconds for 400 meters of a track. Bolt now has his second consecutive 3-gold haul at an Olympics. That and the record are incredible things to imagine. Yet the world has done more than imagine it, we've seen it before our very eyes, thanks to that incredible team from what must now be acknowledged as the world's best sprinting nation. For further proof, see these Olympics.

Congratulations to Australia's 4x100m relay team, anchored by Josh "The Boss" Ross who qualified for the final this morning - no mean feat in of itself - after a massive last leg in the semi that nearly, oh so very nearly, netted a podium finish. In the Big Show, they ran a respectable eighth across the line, which turned into seventh after the disqualification of the Canadian team. It was about as much as we could've expected, and though seventh doesn't seem all that much, you could just about throw a blanket over the rest of the field behind the rampaging Jamaicans and Americans. The Australians, on one of the biggest stages at any Olympic Games, were far from disgraced. So, congratulations to Ross, Anthony Alozie, Isaac Ntiamoah and Andrew McCabe. Making an Olympic final in that illustrious company is something to tell your grand kids about!

Commiserations to Australian diver, Matthew Mitcham. The hero of Beijing, gold medalist in the individual 10m platform event has missed out on the final in London 2012. Mitcham, the only non-Chinese diver to win a gold in Beijing, was 11th heading into his sixth and last dive. 12 of the 18 from the semi final would progress to the medal round. Unfortunately, his score for his final dive was not enough and he agonisingly finished 13th. Mitcham cried on the pool deck afterward. Two of our heroes from Beijing, first Steve Hooker and now Mitcham, miss out on repeating their efforts four years later.

Two bronze medals on the penultimate day of competition for Australia, to the Kookaburras and Opals. The Kookaburras did something that not many of our athletes have been able to do at London 2012: beat the host nation, coming away with the bronze after a 3-1 win at Riverbank Arena, scoring two late goals to put the game beyond doubt. The Opals beat Russia to the tune of 83-74 to send out some of the Old Guard with an Olympic medal. Not the colour that either of these teams wanted from London 2012 - the Kookaburras, particularly, were warm to hot favourites to stand on the top step of the podium here - but a medal nonetheless, and that's something definitely to be proud of!

Channel Nine's coverage has been well-documented for being nigh on terrible, and it's clear that Australia's head sailing coach has called the network's decision to switch away from ts live Olympic broadcast of the men's 470 class medal race before it was won by Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, our third gold medal of the sailing competition, "unacceptable." Page and many others via Twitter instantly voiced their dismay at Nine's decision. It's the second time this has happened to Page, when Channel Seven showed the end of his gold medal-clinching race in Beijing also on replay. This time around, the end of the race was shown on replay, but it spoils the moment, especially when the entire event ran live on FOXTEL. Another Channel Nine bungle. An Olympic Games broadcast to forget for Australians without pay television. Why did Nine go away from the race? Hmm...must've had some swimming replays to show.

Better news for Malcolm Page, with the back-to-back Olympic gold medalist will be Australia's flag bearer at the London 2012 closing ceremony tomorrow, given the honour by chef de mission Nick Green, who said of Page: "He's a quiet leader, a good leader of the team. He goes about his business in a thorough, professional manner. And by leading by example he's a role model, particularly in the sailing community." Green added that this honour went some way to recognising the work Page has done behind the scenes at these Olympics. Sounds like a good choice!

Speaking of the London 2012 closing ceremony. Apparent starters for what's being billed as a celebration of British music and, by Lord Sebastian Coe, as a bit of a party: Muse, the Spice Girls and George Michael. Muse will be awesome. Not sure how I feel about the Spice Girls, especially given that they haven't been together as a group in some time. It'll be Michael's first performance since life-threatening illness last year. 

Australia's medal tally: 7 gold, 16 silver, 12 bronze. Total: 35. Rank: 10

 

Day Sixteen

 

The last day...

It was perhaps the most guaranteed gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games - and in previous Olympics, too - and it's gone, as expected, to Team USA. It was the men's basketball and the team of NBA superstars has delivered, beating out Spain 107-100 in a hard-fought game and, in it's aftermath, LeBron James hailed the current version of the "Dream Team" as one of the best basketball teams ever. Maybe not quite as good as that first incarnation of the American men's team that featured, amongst others, Jordan, Barkley and Bird, but certainly a very good one, with Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant alongside the man known as King James. The Spanish were very good, but could not quite match the firepower that the Americans could put on the court, and the final margin was closer than what I expected. All credit to Spain.

For Kobe Bryant, his final Olympics ends as so many knew it would: with another gold medal. It's his second, to go handily with a World Championship title, 5 NBA crowns - and maybe another, given the blockbuster trades his team, the Los Angeles Lakers have made during this off-season  - and, of course, a bank account balance that gets bigger by a figure well north of $20 million each year. Oh, and if you believe those rumours, he might have Steph Rice, too.

And so ends the Games of the thirtieth Olympiad and perhaps the best Olympics ever - I can't believe that I'm writing this - in London. It's an Olympics that's been marked by amazing performances by incredible athletes and people, from Usain Bolt and Mo Farrah on the track to Michael Phelps in the pool, the afore-mentioned Team USA men's basketball team, the British rowers, the British cyclists led by Sir Chris Hoy, Andy Murray at the tennis to name just a few.

For Australia, it hasn't quite been the Olympics that we expected. Already, Swimming Australia has announced a high-level review of the team's performance, led by former gold medalist Suzie O'Neill, in the wake of a meet that yielded not even a single individual gold medal, almost unheard of for Australian swimming of recent times. Let's not forget, though, that James Magnusson came awfully close to winning gold, and there were other Aussie swimmers who weren't far away, either. It will be interesting to see how things transpire in Rio 2014 for a swimming team on whom there will be extraordinary pressure.

On the track, it was a different story, with Sally Pearson taking gold in the 100m hurdles, Jared Tallent bringing home a silver in the men's 50km walk and, on the last night of track competition, our men's 4x100m relay team featured in the star-studded final, that forty seconds of fierce sprinting that saw Jamaica smash the word record by half a second. For those four boys, just being in that field was a massive achievement in of itself.

In the wash-up, it will be said that our sailors and track athletes saved Australia from finishing outside of the top ten in medals. Tom Slingsby and Malcolm Page, our closing ceremony flag bearer in 2012, will forever be a part of this country's sporting lore. There was the heroics of Anna Meares, taking down 'Queen' Victoria Pendleton in the women's sprint on the last night of track cycling competition at the incredibly fast velodrome, where world records fell like there was no tomorrow. Meares' race against Pendleton and, it seemed, an entire country, was an amazing achievement.

Certainly, it will also be suggested that the Opals and Kookaburras threw away chances to win gold or silver, but bronze medals are nothing to sneeze at. At the same time, the Boomers provided us with a great moment - Patty Mills' three-pointer to beat Russia - and so did the Opals, when Belinda Snell knocked down an impossible buzzer-beater to send their contest against France into overtime.

It's been a wonderful Olympics!! Winning less gold than usual has made each triumph seem that much sweeter.

This blog has exploded during the sixteen days! Thanks for reading, for commenting, for the Tweets and e-mails. It's all greatly appreciated!! Enjoy the Closing Ceremony! Go Australia!!