Day 3 Review
Australia has continued its strong performance at the Olympics with more gold on Day 3, as they hold down third on the medal tally with four gold and three bronze.
RUGBY SEVENS
Australia won the inaugural women’s rugby sevens Olympic tournament, defeating New Zealand in the final 24-17. After conceding a try, the Aussies scored the next 24 points to hold an unassailable lead with five minutes to go. It was the first Australian team’s gold since Athens in 2004 and the first women’s team gold since 2000.
ROWING
In an exciting third day at the rowing venue, three Australian crews took to the water. The men’s four won their heat to progress straight to the semi-finals on Wednesday. The women’s eight will race in Wednesday’s repechage. But the women’s quadruple sculls shockingly missed out on a place in the A-Finals by just sixth hundredths of a second. The result was somewhat unexpected since the crew had had a good lead-up to the Games, finishing with a silver medal at the final 2016 World Rowing Cup 3 in Poland, the last international racing event before the Games began. On Tuesday five Australian crews will take to the water with quarter-finals of the men’s and women’s single sculls as well as semi-finals of the men’s pair, women’s double sculls and men’s double sculls.
WATER POLO - men
The Australian men’s water polo team had a tightly-contested clash with powerhouse Hungary, drawing 9-all in their second Group A match at Maria Lenk Arena. Australia took the lead at the end of the third quarter 8-7. The big result has kept the boys’ finals hopes alive. They now sit fifth in their group with the top four proceeding to the quarter-finals. The Aussies still have games against Japan, Serbia and Greece to round out the Group A pool.
CANOE SLALOM
Despite a hiccup on the first run, K1 London Olympic Games silver medallist Jess Fox is comfortably through to the semi-finals. Fox progresses as the second fastest after a strong second run. She has a two day rest before she contests the semi-final and final on Thursday.
SAILING
The conditions on Rio’s Guanabara Bay didn’t disappoint on the first day of the sailing regatta, with tricky conditions and dying winds serving up a challenging day for Australia’s sailors. First time Olympian Ashley Stoddart finished today’s two races with an eighth and a seventh, putting her in equal fourth place and on equal points with Annalise Murphy of Ireland and Evi van Acker of Belgium. Stoddart’s results set her up in a strong position going into tomorrow’s racing, which will consist of two further races. The first Aussie to race in this year’s Olympic regatta was Tom Burton in the laser class. Burton is currently lying equal ninth overall, on equal points with Nick Thompson of Great Britain, Colin Cheng of Singapore and Charlie Buckingham of the USA. Burton finished 17th and eighth in today’s two races. Racing continues tomorrow with two further races in both the laser and laser radial classes, in addition to the Finn class commencing their Olympic regatta with two races.
BASKETBALL – Men
The Australian men's team have powered to a 95-80 victory over highly-rated Serbia to continue their best start to an Olympic campaign since 1996. The Australians followed up their opening victory over France with another gritty performance to record their second straight win and leap to the top of their pool. It was their first win against Serbia in their games at the Olympics and puts the team in a good position to progress to the quarter-finals.
HOCKEY – Women
The challenging tournament for the Australia’s women’s hockey team continued in Rio, with a second narrow 2-1 loss. In this second game Australia were defeated by USA, after an earlier loss to Great Britain. Australia now sit in sixth place in pool B, with the top-4 to progress. Australia’s remaining pool matches are against Argentina, India and Japan.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
The Australia team of Mariafe del Solar and Nikki Laird have lost a close second pool game to the Swiss pairing of Isabella Forrer and Anouk Vergé-Dépré. The Aussies went down 21-19, 16-21, 19-21. Laird is confident they have learnt from their experience to capture their first Olympic win against China on Wednesday. The Aussies remain an outside chance to progress to the finals.
EQUESTRIAN
After the second phase, the cross country, Australia have put themselves in a great position in the Equestrian three-day event competition with just one day remaining. Chris Burton leads the individual event and the Australian team are also in the lead by four penalties, ahead of New Zealand. There was disappointment for Shane Rose when with just two fences from home his horse refused the fence, with two refusals resulting in his elimination. Tomorrow’s show jumping will decide the gold medals.
JUDO
Australia’s Jake Bensted, a -73kg division fighter, has won his first bout before bowing out in round 16 at the Rio Olympics. He defeated Andrew Mlugu of Tanzania, before going down to Azebaijan’s Rustam Orujov.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Tia-Clair Toomey bowed out of the Rio Olympics after attempting a personal best lift in the first round of the weightlifting tournament. The 23-year-old from Gladstone lifted 82kg in the snatch, but just missed a personal best lift of 112kg in the clean and jerk.
TENNIS
Four-time Olympian Sam Stosur has progressed to the third round of the women’s singles, defeating Japan’s Misaki Doi in straight sets 6-3 6-4. She now faces a big test in world number two Angelique Kerber from German. Stosur’s progression is the furthest by an Aussie since Nicole Pratt in 2004 and also better her previous three campaigns. In the men’s singles John Millman exited the tournament with a second round loss to Kei Nishikori 7-6 6-4
SWIMMING
There is no such thing as an Olympic certainty and that was proven tonight when two backstroke World Champions in Mitch Larkin and Emily Seebohm failed to win a medal on Day 3. Larkin, just missed a medal by 0.03 seconds in the 100m Backstroke, clocking 52.43, while Emily Seebohm was 7th in the women’s (59.19), just edging out teammate Madison Wilson with 59.23. Both Larkin and Seebohm led at the midway points of the match.
2016 Rio Olympics – Superlatives – Day 3
Medal Tally
Australia
Gold 4
Bronze 3
Total 7
Australia is placed third on the medal tally.
Medallists – Roll of Honour
GOLD
Rugby Sevens:
Shannon PARRY
Sharni WILLIAMS
Nicole BECK
Gemma ETHERIDGE
Emma TONEGATO
Evania PELITE
Charlotte CASLICK
Chloe DALTON
Amy TURNER
Alicia QUIRK
Emilee CHERRY
Ellia GREEN
MEDALS – 29 Australians have now won seven medals for Australians
RUGBY – First Australian Team sport gold medal for 12 years and first women’s team sport gold for 16 years.
TENNIS – Sam Stosur’s progression to the third round is her best result in her fourth Olympic campaign and the highest Australian since 2004.
David Tarbotton and Sophie Onikul
olympics.com.au
