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!
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.
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
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