Paris Olympics day six: Opals to face Canada, hockey teams hope to stay on winning path - MASHAHER

The first week of the Paris Olympics is almost over and Australia is at fourth place on the medal table with seven gold, six silver and three bronze medals.

Notching up that position on day six of the Games will mostly rely on our performance in the pool, as other scheduled events are preliminaries or group stage matches.

Opals in need of a win against Canada

In women’s basketball, Australia will take on Canada, with the win being almost non-negotiable for Sandy Brondello’s team if they want to keep their hopes of staying in Paris beyond the group stage alive and well.

Their unexpected 62-75 loss to Nigeria has thrown a wrench in their plans and now they will need to dig deep to secure a place in the quarter-finals.

The Canadians are in a similar situation after losing their first game 54-75 to hosts France, and the losers of this match will likely be packing their bags early.

However, as one of the two best third-ranked teams, there’s a small chance Australia could advance despite a loss.

Field hockey teams to book their quarter-final tickets

The men’s and women’s field hockey teams, the Kookaburras and the Hockeyroos, have been performing exceptionally well at the Paris Olympics, with only a single loss between them.

The Kookaburras, who are coming off a loss to 2020 gold-medallist Belgium, will want to get the better of New Zealand, who are coming fourth in their pool.

Australia’s Thomas Craig (left) facing pressure from Juan Catan of Argentina during their match on day one of the Paris Olympics. Source: Getty / Alex Pantling

Meanwhile, the so-far-undefeated Hockeyroos will face a tough challenge, going head-to-head with Argentina, who finished second at the previous Olympic Games in Tokyo and currently share the top pool spot with Australia.

More glory may come from swim team

Ten of the 16 medals Australia have won so far at the Paris Games have come from the swim team.

They’ll want to keep that momentum going once again early on Friday.

Abbey Lee Connor and Liz Dekkers will be hoping for a good spot in the women’s 200m butterfly final.

In the women’s 200m backstroke heats, Kaylee McKeown and Jaclyn Barclay will compete for a place in the final.

In the men’s 50m freestyle heats, Ben Armbruster and Cameron McEvoy will size up their chances for a spot in the semis.

What else is happening?

The Australian 3×3 basketball team will play two games for their pool today, one against China and another later on against the USA, hoping they can build on their opening-day win over Germany.

The golf event will also begin today, with Australia being represented in the preliminaries by Jason Day and Min Woo Lee.

Australia will hope for a good result from its men’s and women’s rowing teams, who are set to participate in several events, including the four finals.

In boxing, Monique Suraci will be looking to advance from the preliminaries in the 50kg category, while the men’s and women’s beach volleyball teams also have matches for their respective qualifying rounds.

Source Agencies