Australia’s Olympians could secure up to four gold medals on day seven of the Paris Games, with the athletics track and field events getting underway in the French capital on Friday.
Sailor Grae Morris has already secured a medal for the Australian team, with the men’s windsurfing finals commencing at 10.23pm AEST.
After a flying start to her Olympic campaign, Saya Sakakibara is eyeing what would be an emotional medal in the BMX racing, with Izaac Kennedy and Lauren Reynolds joining her in the semi-finals.
Australian duo Matthew Ebden and John Peers have their men’s doubles semi-final at 8pm.
The Boomers will take on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Greece to keep their Olympic dream alive, while the Kookaburras face India in the men’s hockey.
The Stingers come up against Canada in the women’s water polo before double gold medallist Jess Fox returns alongside her sister Noemie in the kayak cross time trial.
And if that’s not enough for you, Australians will also feature in boxing, golf, athletics and trampoline gymnastics events.
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AUSSIE ROWERS TAKE HOME BRONZE
Rowers Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre have won Australia its 19th medal at the Paris Olympics, finishing third in the women’s pair final after a thrilling fight to the end.
The Australian duo qualified for the final after a seesawing semifinal which saw them surge from behind in the last 500m to finish ahead of Team USA by 1.45 seconds.
The final was just as much of a nailbiter, at least in the scrap for silver, with the Dutch leading from start to finish and never looking in any real doubt of giving up top spot.
The fight for silver between Australia, Lithuania and Romania though went down to the wire.
The Netherlands were in front early, with Morrison and McIntyre battling Lithuania for silver in the initial stages of the final.
The Dutch led by two boats’ length at the halfway mark while Australia had a buffer of nearly two seconds over Lithuania for second at that point.
In the end, the Netherlands cruised to victory as Romania ended up being the biggest threats to Australia’s hopes of taking home silver, finishing strong to just pip Morrison and McIntyre.
3X3 BASKETBALL: AUSSIES CONTINUE HOT STREAK TO CLAIM SPITEFUL CLASH
Australia’s 3×3 basketball team has continued its impressive run of form, comfortably accounting for Azerbaijan to claim its fourth consecutive win.
Marena Whittle was hot from beyond the arc, while the athletic Ally Wilson was quintessentially busy in a physical — at times spiteful — clash to inspire the Gangurrus to a 21-12 victory.
The Aussies will play Spain later tonight. A win will put them in a strong position to qualify for the semi-finals as the top two sides in the pool automatically progress to the final four.
TRACK EVENTS: HIGH JUMPERS SOAR… AS 1500m AUSSIES COME UP SHORT
Daniel Golubovic was first in action and started out with a time of 11.32 in the men’s decathlon 100m for 791 points, which ranked him sixth, or second-last, in his heat. Norwegian Markus Rooth topped that heat with a time of 10.71.
Tokyo bronze medallist Ash Moloney, meanwhile, was the other Australian taking part in the men’s decathlon heats and made a strong start to the 100m event but fell away late to finish fifth with a time of 10.56, which scored him 961 points.
Canada’s Damian Warner, who holds the world record in the 100-metre decathlon event, recorded the fastest time in the heats (10.25) to score 1035 points.
Soon after him, Tokyo silver medal winner Nicola Olyslagers and 2022 high jump world champion Eleanor Patterson started their Paris campaign with the women’s high jump qualification.
Both women decided to skip the 183cm height and instead went straight for 188cm, easily clearing that mark.
Oliver Hoare was the next in action, competing in Round 1 of the men’s 1500m, although he dropped off in the final lap and will instead have to go to the repechage round.
Hoare, the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, started strong to take a share of the lead alongside Kenya’s Brian Komen but finished 13th.
“Tough going for the Aussie,” Gerard Whateley said in commentary.
Tamsyn Manou, meanwhile, wondered whether the Australian decided at a latter part of the event to conserve energy for the repechage.
“It looked like Ollie, he got checked so many times,” she said in commentary.
“If you had a camera on him that whole last 300 metres, he was checked and checked again.
“… I feel like in Ollie’s head mentally at one point he just went, ‘I’m not going to use any extra energy here because I’m off the back. I’m going to just run it through so I can put more energy in the repechage’.”
Stewart McSweyn also struggled, initially leading the charge before dropping down to finish 11th with a time of 3:36.55, meaning he too with join Hoare in the repechage.
Adam Spencer finished his 1500m heat 10th in what is his Olympics debut and is also heading to the repechage.
AUSSIES IN ACTION — DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS
All times AEST
5pm — Men’s Golf: Round 2 (Jason Day, Min Woo Lee)
5.30pm — Women’s 3×3 Basketball: Australia vs Azerbaijan (Gangurrus)
6.05pm — Athletics: Men’s Decathlon 100m (Ash Moloney, Daniel Golubovic)
6.15pm — Athletics: Women’s High Jump Qualification (Nicola Olyslagers, Eleanor Patterson)
6.55pm — Athletics: Men’s Decathlon Long Jump (Ash Moloney, Daniel Golubovic)
7pm — Swimming Heats (Kaylee McKeown, Ariarne Titmus, relays)
7.10pm — Athletics: Men’s 1500m, Round 1 (Adam Spencer, Oliver Hoare, Stewart McSweyn)
7.42pm — Women’s Rowing: Pair Final A (Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre)
7.50pm — Athletics: Women’s 100m, Round 1 (Ella Connolly, Bree Masters)
8pm — Men’s Tennis: Doubles Semi-Final, Australia vs USA (Matthew Ebden and John Peers)
8.30pm — Women’s 3×3 basketball: Australia vs Spain (Gangurrus)
9.15pm — Men’s Hockey: Australia vs India (Kookaburras)
9.30pm — Men’s Basketball: Australia vs Greece (Boomers)
10pm — Women’s Water Polo: Australia vs Canada (Stingers)
10.23pm — Men’s Sailing: Windsurfing Finals (Grae Morris)
11.30pm — Men’s Canoe Slalom: Kayak Cross Time Trial (Tristan Carter, Timothy Anderson)
12.40am — Women’s Canoe Slalom: Kayak Cross Time Trial (Jessica Fox, Noemie Fox)
1.54am — Men’s Boxing: 92kg Quarterfinals, Australia vs Uzbekistan (Teremoana Teremoana)
2.10am — Athletics: Women’s 5000m, Round 1 (Isobel Batt-Doyle, Lauren Ryan, Rose Davies)
3.45am — Athletics: Women’s 800m, Round 1 (Abbey Caldwell, Catriona Bisset, Claudia Hollingsworth)
4am — Cycling BMX Racing: Semifinals (Izaac Kennedy, Saya Sakakibara, Lauren Reynolds)
4.30am — Swimming Finals (Cameron McEvoy, Kaylee McKeown)
4.48am — Women’s Boxing: 57kg Round of 16, Australia vs Poland (Tina Rahimi)
5.35am — Cycling BMX Racing: Finals (Izaac Kennedy, Saya Sakakibara, Lauren Reynolds)
Source Agencies
