A quick recap of the second five days of competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games, from a decidedly Australian perspective!
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
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