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.
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