BUENOS AIRES 2018: Australia's female swimmers were on fire on Day 2 of Buenos Aires 2018, securing Australia its first medals of the Youth Olympic Games.
The first Aussie medal went to 16-year-old Michaela Ryan, with bronze in the women’s 200m butterfly.
A flurry of medals followed Ryan’s performance, with 50m breaststroke silver to Chelsea Hodges, 100m backstroke silver to Kaylee McKeown and silver for Team Australia in the women’s 4x100m medley relay. Read the full swimming recap, including thoughts from all our medallists, HERE.
The men’s beach volleyball duo of Mark Nicolaidis and James Takken kicked off their YOG Campaign with a 2-1 victory (21-14, 16-21, 15-13) over beach volleyball powerhouse nation Brazil.
The rowers also had a very successful day on the water with both Cormac Kennedy-Leverett and Taylor McCarthy-Smith winning their two heats to comfortably advance to tomorrow’s quarterfinals.
“I felt really good today, got my first race out of the way, that one's always the worst and came away with a good time and good place going into the next heats as well,” McCarthy-Smith said.
“I felt even better in my second race and came away with another good time so things are looking good for tomorrow, so I'm excited.
“Tomorrow I'm aiming for another win, I'll race as fast as I can, but won't give it all out in the semi then head into the final. I'm aiming for a medal but trying to go in with no expectations but to do the best that I can,” she said.
For the boards and kites today at sailing, it seemed like a few days in one as the fleet was challenged by changeable conditions and stormy fronts on the murky waters of the Rio de la Plata.
In conditions very different to Australia, our sailors only got one race in as they tried to keep up with the erratic conditions, with Aussie pair Evie Haseldine and Will Cooley finising in the middle of the pack in seventh.
In the windsurfing it was a 'pumpfest' as the light winds prevailed and tested sailors ability to create their own wind using the force and finesse of their bodies. Both Alex Halank and Hailey Lea came in 16th in their respective windsurfing events today.
The wind is looking more promising for all classes in the coming days as all classes look to catch up on more racing.
Over on the hockey pitch at Youth Olympic Park, the men’s Hockey 5s defeated Bangladesh 4-3, while the women’s Hockey 5s were narrowly defeated 3-4 by Namibia.
In roller speed skating, Giselle Stogdale finished fourth in her 500m quarterfinal, and combined with her 4th place quarterfinal result in the 1000m from Sunday, the 17-year-old finished 11th overall in the combined event.
Similarly, Stogdale’s Aussie Teammate Alex Myint finished fourth in his 500m quarterfinal and again in the 1000m event, giving him an overall combined placing of 14th.
It was a tough day on the triathlon course for 17-year-old Josh Ferris, who finished 18th overall. Although he didn’t get the final result he was looking for, he was stoked with the support in the crowd from his entire family who flew over to Argentina to cheer him on.
“I’ve always said the hard part is getting here, anything after that is a bonus,” Ferris said. “I’m stoked to have finished but I’m semi-happy with my performance, but things happen out there on the race course that you have to deal with and you have to take it as it comes.”
“It was so great to have my family out here as that extra support. Just before the race starts you go and give them a hug and say thank you for all they’ve done.”
New Zealand’s Dylan McCullough convincingly took the victory, after leading the race from the starter’s gun. Australia’s Ferris and Charlotte Derbyshire – who also placed 18th in her individual event - will team up with YOG Champion McCullough and his Kiwi compatriot Brea Roderick on Thursday for the highly anticipated mixed team event.
Jessica Pickering had an excellent opeing day of Gymnastics Trampoline competition, finishing the qualifers in 2nd place, while Liam Chrsitie finished 8th, so both gymnasts are through to the finals on the 14th.
Equestrian rider Madi Sinderberry and her borrowed horse Zambo have teamed up with four other riders from the Australasia region for the International Teams Jumping event, and the team are sitting in equal first place after the opening day of competition.
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games athlete, Victoria Rossiter, easily qualified for the women’s 10m Air Rifle final after finishing fourth in qualification on a score of 624.3. Unfortunately she couldn’t quite hold that form in the finals, and was shot out on the first round to finish a commendable 8th place.
Australia’s sole badminton athlete Zecily Fung went down 2-1 (21-11, 15-21, 21-17) against Brazil’s Jaqueline Lima. Benjamin Gould also fell at the hand of a Brazilian in the men’s Table Tennis, going down 0-4 to Guilherme Teodoro.
After he was knocked out of the singles competition yesterday following a tough 3-set match, tennis player Rinky Hijikata returned to the court today for the Men’s Doubles.
He was randomly partnered with Adrian Andreev from Bulgaria, and although nervous about how he would gel with his new partner, the duo took the 6-2, 7-6 victory over Philip Henning (South Africa) and Delmas Ntcha (Benin).
There’s no resting for Rinky though, who will play again tomorrow for the mixed doubles event with Valentina Ivanov of New Zealand, before returning to the court for the fourth time in as many days on Thursday for the quarterfinal of the men’s doubles.
Ned Middlehurst waved the flag for Australia in the new sport climbing event at Urban Park. The 17-year-old finished 18th in Lead climbing, 19th in Bouldering and 21st in Speed to give him a combined placing of 21st overall.
Judo athlete Saskia Brothers won her first fight against Algeria in the round of 16, before falling to Tunisia and Turkey in the quarterfinal and repechage respectively to give he a fial placing of 7th.
Brothers' teammate Rhys Allan didn’t advance from the quarterfinals after being defeated by Romania and The Netherlands, to finish 9th.
As all the athletes made their way to bed in the late evening, Jett Gaffney was waving the Aussie flag late into the evening in the men’s 62kg weightlifting. Gaffney, who is one of the youngest in his field at only 15, snatched 88kg and clean and jerked 112kg for a total of 200kg, putting him in 12th place.
Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au
