London 2012 Olympic Games: Day Fifteen Review

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