Australia picked up two more medals on day 11 with a gold and a silver in sailing but suffered heartbreak in the women’s basketball.
ATHLETICS: In the morning session, Dani Samuels has achieved her best ever performance in an Olympics, finishing fourth in the discus at the Rio Olympic Stadium today. The triple Olympian, who finished ninth at the 2008 Beijing Games and 12th at the London 2012 Games, saved her best for last, recording a top throw of 64.90m on her sixth attempt. Genevieve Lazcaze, Eloise Wellings Madeline Heiner-Hills made it into the 5km final, while Ryan Gregson ran well to make the 1500m final. Luke Mathews (men’s 1500m), Alexander Hartmann (men’s 200m) and Michelle Jenneke (women’s 100m hurdles) will not progress past the heats.
In the evening, Kathryn Mitchell snuck in the Javelin final in 12th placein 61.63m. It was a painful end to a brave effort by Kim Mickle to be at the startline. She dislocated her injured shoulder on her third throw and was taken to hospital. She has fought so hard to be fit for these Games. She was 22nd and Kelsey-Lee Roberts who has also had a tough year with injuries was 24th in qualifying. In the long jump Brooke Stratton qualified for the final (6.56m) while Chelsea Jaenesch was 17th with 6.41m. Also in the field Brandon Starc couldn't find his best form in the Olympic final finishing 15th with one clearance of 2.20m.
On the track Ella Nelson ran a sensational personal best of 22.50 seconds – a personal best by 0.3 of a second.. In a remarkable Olympic debut the 22-year-old finished 9th and just out of the final. Lauren Wells, a semi-finalist at the London 2012 Games, gave it everything but missed a place in the women’s 400m hurdles final. Running from Lane 1, Wells finished seventh in her semi-final in a time of 56.83.
BASKETBALL: Australia’s heartbreak in team sports has continued with our women’s basketball team going town 73-71 to Serbia in a nail-biter that went down to the last second of play. The Australian team led by nine early in the third quarter but the persistent Serbians fought back, knocking Australia out of the competition.
CANOE/KAYAK: Murray Stewart narrowly missed out on a K1 1000m medal after holding a narrow lead with 250m to go but he couldn’t hold off the challenges finishing fourth. While Alyce Burnett and Alyssa Bull finished eighth in their A-Final, a solid performance from the young duo on Olympic debut. Earlier in the day, Martin Marinov contested the B-Final of the men’s C1 1000m and finished in eighth.
CYCLING – TRACK: On the final day of track cycling it was a rollercoaster for the last Aussies to race. Both Annette Edmondson and Matthew Glaetzer posted great races earlier in the day to put themselves in medal contention in the omnium and keirin respectively. But in the final neither mustered the momentum required to ride into podium position. Edmondson had the fastest individual time trial of the day and finished second in the flying lap, but at the end of the sixth and final event she ended in eighth position. Glaetzer placed top two in his first keirin heat but was edged out to fourth in the second round, forcing him in to the seventh-16th final where he finished 10th. Patrick Constable finished fifth in his first round keirin heat putting him in to the repechage where he again finished fifth.
DIVING: Australia’s Grant Nel has finished 15th in the men’s 3m springboard after the semi-final round at Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre in Rio.
Nel, who had a disrupted preparation with a back injury will not qualify for tomorrow’s final but was satisfied with his results.
EQUESTRIAN - JUMPING: Australia has bowed out of the team’s show jumping competition. While Matt Williams and Valinski S had the Aussies off to the best possible start with a clear round, penalties from other combinations and an elimination for Scott Keach saw the team finish in 13th position. Team member Edwina Tops-Alexander and Matt Williams still remain in the individual event.
OPEN WATER: Jarrod Poort almost stole a dramatic 10km marathon open water race at Copacabana. The 21-year-old sprinted away from the gun, catching the 26-strong field by complete surprise, to open up a lead of almost a minute after the first of four 2.5km laps. He was caught with only 800m to go, finishing 21st.
SAILING: Australia started the day in spectacular fashion with a gold medal to Tom Burton in the final of the men’s laser race, picking up the first sailing medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Only an hour later cousins and Olympic debutants Lisa Darmanin and Jason Waterhouse claimed silver in the Nacra 17.
