BUENOS AIRES 2018: Australia added two silver medals to its Youth Olympics tally on Day 9, with Joshua Cowley finishing second in the long jump and Jaylah Hancock-Cameron second in the 1500m/cross country combined.
The pair continued the incredible form of the track and field team, which has netted a gold and four silvers in the past 48 hours.
Cowely jumped a massive Personal Best, and in a surprising quirk, despite coming second, Cowley is the new Youth Olympic Record holder, with his 7.82m made with a legal +1.5 wind. Cuba’s Lester Lescay’s 7.89m (which secured him the gold over Cowely by 1cm) was achieved with +4.3 wind making it ineligible for records. Read the full wrap HERE.
In other athletics results, Elizabeth Moss narrowly missed out on a medal in the women’s high jump, finishing fourth with a combined total of 3.60m (1.78m in Stage 1 and 1.82m in Stage 2).
Luke Young finished his campaign in the 1500m/cross country double in 5th overall, with Jamie Hiscock also finishing 5th in her steeplechase/cross country combination after a tough cross country leg.
Rochelle Vidler threw 56.45 in the hammer throw to finish 10th overall on combined scores. 800m runner Anthony Vlatko ran a 1.54.34 in today's stage 2 heat, finishing 8th overall on combined times.
The Australian track and field team wraps up their Buenos Aires campaign tomorrow with Tom Throssell in the 400m Hurdles
Jenaya Massie has finished 11th in the Kayak Obstacle Slalom at Urban Park. Massie had a nervous start to the day, finishing the first qualification heat ranked 16th in in a time of 1:30.34, putting her through to the repechage.
She improved by over two seconds in the repechage, to finish in fourth place in a time of 1:28.08 and qualified through to the round of 16.
Massie came up against Zola Lewandowski of Germany - who had qualified fourth in the qualification heats - in the head-to-head knockout round. Massie pushed her all the way to the last few turns, before Lewandowski took the win in a time of 1:22.21.
While the result drew an end to her YOG run, Massie recorded her fastest time of the day in 1:27.58 and was congratulated by Lewandowski on the finish line.
“She said ‘wow, you’re doing so well’ and she is a slalom paddler, so she’s used to doing all these turns and paddling with a flat blade and turning the boat, so to hear her say I’m doing a great job was really encouraging.
“I’ve been training in an old flat plastic boat made for down water, and going around the normal kayak cans at Lake Kawana [on the Sunshine Coast], so definitely not similar with what we’re racing here, so I’m happy with how I’ve performed.”
Living up to its name, Urban Park drew a big crowd today for the women’s basketball shoot-out competition. The unique event saw 36 athletes have 30 seconds to score as many baskets from 10 balls, with the top four athletes having another shot in the final.
Australia’s Sara Rose-Smith represented the green and gold in the competition, placing 11th overall after scoring four baskets in 24.4 seconds.
The highlight of the event was Argentina’s Sofi Acevedo converting nine of her 10 shots in 25.2 seconds as the first athlete in the qualification round in front of a roaring home crowd. Unfortunately the fan favourite wasn’t able to maintain the consistency in the final and France’s Mathilde Peyregne took the victory with 9 shots.
There was also a men's dunk contest, where teams attempt to outdo each other with ally-oops, windmills and tomahawk dunks to the delight of the packed crowd. The locals did get a victory in this contest with Argentinian Fausto Rugesga managing to just pip Russia’s Nikita Remizov for gold, on a countback score.
Emma Lawson started her Buenos Aires boxing campaign with a bang, easily defeating Nigeria’s Fatimo Aramokola in the lightweight category to advance to tomorrow’ semi-final against Thailand.
Men’s Super Heavyweight Jai Dennis took on the current Junior World Champion, Russia’s Dronov Aleskei and pushed him for all three rounds before Aleskei eventually took the victory. Dennis will box for fifth place against Samoa on October 17.
Women’s 3m springboard diver Alysha Koloi had a strong opening dive, putting her in second place at the start of the qualification round. However, she unfortunately clipped her heel on the platform during the third dive and was unable to compete at her usual standard, being forced to end her YOG campaign prematurely.
Kate Sayer placed 8th in her Floor routine in the women’s final Artistic Gymnastics competition, with a score of 11.900. The 15-year-old ends her YOG campaign with 8th in the All-Around competition, 7th on Vault, 8th on Floor, 10th on Uneven bars and 14th on Beam.
Out at Technopolis Park, Spaniard Eli Canales brought an end to Laura Paeglis’ archery campaign, defeating her 6-2 in the women’s recurve 1/16 elimination round. Canales scored 105, while Paeglis wasn’t too far behind on 98.
Paeglis’s Aussie teammate Jason Hurnall was also defeated 6-4 by Paraguay’s Alejandro Benitez, however there was only 1 point separating the pair with Hurnall scoring 132 to Benitez’s 133.
Australia's mixed golf pair of Karl Vilips and Grace Kim were unable to replicate their individual golfing heroics, finishing their mixed team strokeplay tied for 9th at 4-over after three days of play.
olympics.com.au
