You can’t help but be excited by the sensational day of competition on Sunday at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The new sports of Skateboarding and Surfing will make their historic Olympic debut, with plenty of Australian interest in both.
The first medals will be won in the pool with the Aussie swimmers hot off Saturday’s heats, our Women’s cyclists will have their turn in the Road Race and Shooting finals are not to be missed. Plus, our team sports will be looking for early wins. The Boomers, Hockeyroos and Sharks start their campaigns with the Kookaburras, Olyroos and Spirit all looking to add another for another win to their 2020 tournaments.
Australian athletes will be doing us proud in 21 sports on Sunday 25 July.
Badminton
The second day of badminton competition at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza will involve three Australians. Gronya Somerville and Simon Leung will contest their second Mixed Double Group Stage match. The Australians almost caused a huge upset on Day 1, taking the first set from the number 4 seeds before falling 1-2. Wendy Chen will make her second Olympic appearance in the Woman’s Singles as she takes on Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in the Group Stage. The Dane was a quarterfinalist at the 2019 World Championships. This match is scheduled for 3pm (AEST).
Basketball
The Boomers start their Olympic campaign against Nigeria from 4.20pm (AEST) at the Saitama Super Arena. The teams squared off against each other in Las Vegas on July 14th during the pre-Olympic exhibition games, where the Aussies thumped the Nigerians 108-69. The Boomers will look to repeat history in Tokyo.
Beach Volleyball
Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar will start their quest for an Olympic medal when they face the Cuban pair of Lidiannis ‘Lidy’ Echeverria and Leila Martinez in their first pool match in Tokyo. The Australians are ranked fifth in the world and will be looking for a strong start to their campaign on Centre Court at Shiokaze Park from 1pm (AEST).
Boxing
Victorian 24-year-old Harry Garside Lightweight (57-63kg) will make his Olympic debut in his opening bout against John Ume of Papua New Guinea. Garside, the Commonwealth Games champion, is the first of five Australian boxers to enter the ring at the renowned Kokugikan Stadium. He’ll be in action from 8:50pm (AEST).
Canoe Slalom
Two-time Olympic medallist Jessica Fox will hit the Tokyo 2020 Olympic rapids at Kasai Canoe Slalom on Sunday in the kayak single (K1).
Fox will be joined by Tasmanian Daniel Watkins, who is competing at his first Olympic Games. Watkins will be the first Australian on the Tokyo Olympic canoe slalom start when he contests the canoe single (C1). Racing starts at 2pm (AEST) with two heats scheduled in the men’s C1 and women’s K1 on Sunday. The faster time of the two runs giving the qualification result to progress through to the next round.
Cycling
A powerful Australian team of Grace Brown, Tiffany Cromwell, Sarah Gigante and Nicole Spratt will contest the Women’s Road Race on Sunday. Australia has an impressive history in this event with Kathy Watt winning in 1992 and Sara Carrigan in 2004. Spratt won the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships and is the most likely contender for a podium finish. Only the Netherlands (4) has won this event more times. The race starts at Musashinonomori Park and finishes at Fuji International Speedway. The race starts at 2pm (AEST).
Equestrian
The duo of Simone Pearce and Kelly Layne will take to Equestrian Park in the second day of Dressage qualifiers. Pearce will ride with Group D while Layne is slated for Group E. The top two finishers from each group will automatically qualify for the individual final with the six next highest-ranking riders also moving on. Aussies will begin at 6pm (AEST).
Football
The Olyroos are back in action following their fantastic 2-0 win over Argentina to open the Olympic Tournament. The Australians will meet another football powerhouse in Spain, who secured a point in their first fixture of the Tournament courtesy of a nil-all draw with Egypt. A win over Spain will secure Australia’s position at the top of the so-called group of death. Graham Arnold’s team will be in action from 8:30pm (AEST).
Gymnastics
Georgia Goodwin and Emily Whitehead will contest the Artistic Gymnastics Qualification on Sunday at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. Both women are making the Olympic debut. Goodwin claimed silver in the Individual All-Around event, and bronze in the Uneven Bars and Team Event at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
Hockey
Both Australian hockey teams are in action on day 2 at the Oi Hockey Stadium. The Hockeyroos open their Tokyo 2020 campaign on Sunday morning with a tricky assignment against Spain at 11am (AEST). The Australians coached by Katrina Powell are an unknown entity on the world stage due to a lack of international matches.
The world number one Kookaburras take on fifth ranked India at 7:30pm. The Australian men had a good hit-out against Japan on Day 1, to win 5-3 over Japan.
Judo
Nathan Katz at his second Games will be on the mat against experienced Juan Postigos from Peru, who is contesting his third Games. Nathan competed at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games alongside brother Josh to become the first Australian brothers to compete in Judo at the same Games. His mother competed in the Seoul 1988 where judo served as a demonstration sport for woman. His father, Robert, coached that team in 1988 and his sons in 2016. The Men’s 60kg round of 32 begins at 12:00pm (AEST).
Rowing
Tomorrow will see Australia in action in the repechage of the Women's Quad and the semifinal of the Women's Doubles. Australian rowing action begins at 10:30am (AEST). Due to weather disruptions expected early next week, Sunday will see the final rowing events before competition resumes on Wednesday.
Sailing
The eleven days of scheduled sailing competition commences on Sunday (Day 2). The Aussie crews will be looking to get off to a strong start building off their history making success from the Rio 2016 Games. The medal races will be held on the last five days. Australia will be contesting eight of a possible 10 sailing classes. Action begins at 1:00pm (AEST).
Skateboarding
The wait is over for skateboard fans, as the sport makes its Olympic debut at 930am (AEST) on Sunday. There are five Aussie riders on the Team and 31-year-old Shane O’Neill will have the honour of being Australia’s first competitor in the Men’s Street. O’Neill has been riding since he was 10 and now the former World Champion gets his Olympic shot.
O’Neill competes in heat 2 of qualification which starts at 9.30am AEST. The top eight riders will qualify for the final with the medals decided from 1.25pm.
Street skateboarding courses are designed to replicate real life urban terrain and consist of features including stair sets, rails, gaps and ledges. Competitions are made of two components -a timed “run” where they perform a sequence of tricks during their allotted 45 seconds and a “best trick” section consisting of five separate attempts to perform tricks of their choosing.
Shooting
Medals are up for grabs at the Asaka Shooting Range with both the Women’s 10m Air Pistol and the Men’s 10m Air Rifle in contention on Day 2. Men’s and Women’s Skeet qualifications will also be underway with Laura Coles making her Olympic debut and Paul Adams looking to advance at his second Games. Competition begins at 10:00am (AEST) with the Women’s 10m Air Pistol.
Softball
The Aussie Spirit are up first at Yokahama Baseball Stadium on Sunday against the might of USA. The Americans have won their first three contests. While the Australians have one win from their first three games following their loss to Canada on Saturday. Action begins at 11:00am (AEST).
Surfing
History will be made at Tokyo 2020 as surfers represent their nations and pursue medals on the Olympic stage for the first time ever. The first heats of Olympic Surfing competition are schedule to start on Day 2 at Tsurigasaki Beach in Chiba, Japan.
The Australian team comprise of seven-time World Champion Stephanie Gilmore, perennial World Tour standout Sally Fitzgibbons, Pipeline Master Julian Wilson and Gold Pro Champion Owen Wright. The men’s heats are scheduled from 8am (AEST) with the women’s scheduled from 11:20am.
Swimming
Following a great opening session for the Australian Swim Team on Saturday night, we’ll see the first full day of swimming action with the finals and semis in the morning and the heats in evening.
Australians will feature in three of the four finals on the first session from 11:30am (AEST) on Sunday at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre. Brendon Smith is the fastest qualifier in the 400m Individual Medley after breaking the Australian Record in the heat – his first Olympic swim. Jack McLoughlin and Elijah Winnington will start from lane 2 and 6 respectively in the hotly contested 400m Freestyle Final. The Australians are favourites to defend their Women’s 4x100m Relay Olympic title, and they are poised to break their own World Record in the last race of the morning.
Before swimming the relay final, Emma McKeon will swim the 100m Butterfly semis. McKeon broke the Australian Record in Saturday’s heat. Western Australian Brianna Throssel will be joining McKeon in the semis. In the evening from 8pm (AEST) there will be six events with plenty of Aussies in action.
Taekwondo
Stacey Hymer will be Australia’s representative on day two of competition, when she takes on Canadian third seed Skylar Park in her first bout in the 57kg class. The Australian is seeded 14th and will be looking to cause an upset. Australian Taekwondo action begins at 1:40pm (AEST).
Tennis
A huge day for the Australian tennis players at Ariake Tennis Park with nine Aussies in action. World no.1 Ash Barty starts her singles campaign with the opening match on centre court at midday (AEST), after a strong doubles win with Storm Sanders on Day 1. Ajla Tomljanovic also plays her singles first round and James Duckworth his first round. In the doubles Ellen Perez/Sam Stosur, John Millman/ Luke Saville, John Peers/ Max Purcell open their campaigns.
Water Polo
The Aussie Sharks start their Olympic campaign against European powerhouse Montenegro at 4:30pm (AEST) for their Group B match at the Tatsumi Water Polo Centre. Rhys Howden and Richie Campbell will take to the pool for their fourth games, with captain Aaron Younger looking to lead the way at his third Games.
Andrew Reid
