Key posts
- Over and out for day six of the Games
- By the numbers: How Australia’s 4x200m rewrote history
- Robinson knocks out fellow Aussie in tense quarter-final
- Sakakibara races into BMX semi-finals
- What happened while you were sleeping
- Australia snag double relay gold in Olympic record time
- Great Escape: Hockeyroos pinch a draw with one second on the clock
- McKeown makes it looks easy in seamless backstroke semi
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What happened while you were sleeping
By Daniel Lo Surdo
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Over and out for day six of the Games
And that’s all she wrote from us here in Sydney. Billie “Big Energy” Eder is due for a nap and I was ready for an extra eight hours before we started. And James Polson? Well, who knows.
But another very handy day of Olympic action has kept us going, even with just the one gold medal from our all-conquering 4x200m women’s relay team.
Jemima Montag was the feelgood story overnight with a rally to claim bronze out of nowhere in the 20km walk, while Jack Robinson is our only remaining surfer in action after another day at Teahupo’o.
He’ll push for a medal either way when the semi-finals get under way in the next few days after knocking out compatriot Ethan Ewing, and Tyler Wright also fell by the wayside.
The Hockeyroos pinched a late draw against heavyweights Argentina and Aussies Saya Sakakibara, Lauren Reynolds and Izaac Kennedy are all through to the semi-finals as well.
Over to our comrades down in Melbourne to hold the fort, we’ll be back for more fun and/or games tomorrow.
Follow the Day 7 action here.
Every Medal, Every Moment of the Olympic Games
Stream live & free on 9NowThe gold-medal gamble that’s already backfired – and it could get worse
An ambitious move to stack Australia’s rowing men’s eight with three Olympic champions in hope of finally securing an elusive gold medal in the blue riband event faces its judgment day on Saturday after the much-hyped team scraped through to the final.
The bold decision by rowing selectors earlier this year, opting to shift Tokyo gold medallists Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alex Purnell from the four to chase gold in the eights in Paris, has already come at a heavy price, with Australia’s long-time success in the former ending after they missed a podium for the first time in 16 years on Thursday.
Starting with the “Oarsome Foursome” in Barcelona in 1992, Australia had only missed medals once in the event the crew finished dead last in the final at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium course on Thursday. The United States took gold, followed by New Zealand, with world champions Great Britain relegated to bronze.
Alex Hill, the only remaining member of the Tokyo team who was also part of the silver medal-winning crew in Rio, played down any suggestions the selection had backfired after his own disappointing finish. He also backed the men’s eight to improve on their sketchy form ahead the final.
“They’ve got really good athletes in that crew and I’ve got no doubt they’ll turn it around when they go out and race again,” Hill told reporters. “Obvious they’re not where they want to be but let’s just see what happens. I have confidence in them.”
Read the full story here.
By the numbers: How Australia’s 4x200m rewrote history
For 16 years, Australia have tried and failed to win a women’s 4x200m freestyle gold. Since the last, at Beijing 2008, the medals have been silver, silver and bronze respectively.
But when your heat time was almost seven seconds faster than the rest of the field, and you are subbing in the individual 200m freestyle gold and silver medallists just for the final, the odds appear to be heavily in your favour.
And so it came to pass on Friday morning AEST, when Mollie O’Callaghan led off the blocks and Ariarne Titmus anchored the quartet with style to secure Australia’s fifth gold medal in the pool.
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Lani Pallister and Brianna Throssell held the momentum to build the platform for an Olympic-record time of 7:38.08.
It was the second-fastest of all time in this event, and followed a head-turning heat from Pallister, Throssell, Jamie Perkins and Shayna Jack earlier in the day. With an eventual finish 2.78 seconds ahead of all comers, it ended as the biggest winning margin in Olympic history.
Read the full story from Emma Kemp here.
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Montag pays tribute to grandmother who fled Auschwitz
Jemima Montag’s determination to go on was never questioned. Not here. Not in the city her grandmother fled to from the death camps of Auschwitz after World War II to find refuge on her way to Australia.
Montag carries that personal history with her whenever she walks, tinkling lightly on her wrist. It’s a bracelet made for her and her family members, previously her grandmother’s necklace, cut into three.
But there was a special poignancy about today, winning a bronze medal in the women’s 20 kilometre walk in a course under the Eiffel Tower that literally had her walking in the footsteps of her grandmother.
“This is the city that my nana and her father sought refuge [in] after the Second World War,” Montag said.
“I was feeling extra levels of strength and resilience today. She passed on all of those amazing traits to my dad, who’s passed them on to my sisters and me, and boy today took all of those things.
“It was hot, the course was [10 laps of a] 1km [loop] with a dogleg, cobblestones, noise that was so loud where the crowd was, and different women were making different moves.”
Read the full story here.
Snoop hits the hoops
Last Australian woman falls as Teahupo’o goes to sleep
Reigning world champion Caroline Marks is closing in on Olympic gold after ending Tyler Wright’s Teahupo’o run in a low-scoring quarter-final.
US star Marks prevailed with two low scores amounting to just 7.77, but it was enough to push past a gallant Wright, who could only manage 5.37 in scrappy two-three-foot waves.
Teahupoo’s dwindling conditions made for slim pickings at the world-famous break. Marks’ opening 4.00 score was the only wave of note in the first 15 minutes of their quarter-final, with Wright registering only a 1.00 in the same period.
A 3.5 kept her in the low-scoring fight against Marks, but the American held priority as the heat ticked down and kept picking off small waves as Wright waited for the knock-out ride that never eventuated.
Compatriot Jack Robinson is now the only Australian left in either the mens’ or women’s competition after Ethan Ewing also bowed out at the quarter-final stage.
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Biles teases critics after winning gold ... again
It’s one of the biggest stories of the day: Simone Biles claiming her second gymnastics gold of the Games.
After her victory on Friday morning (AEST), her sixth Olympic gold, she put on a necklace. It was a diamond-encrusted goat, to please her fans and tease those critics who hate it when Biles, who is the greatest gymnast of all time, actually lays claim to that title.
It wasn’t an easy victory. Even GOATs can wobble. She followed her breathtaking first vault with a mistake in the uneven bars, leaving room for the woman she has described as her scariest rival, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, to eclipse her.
Just a fraction of a point separated them until Biles unleashed a breathtaking floor routine that brought the crowd to its feet and cemented her sixth Olympic gold, her second in 48 hours, adding to the honours that make her the most decorated gymnast of all time.
You can read the full story here.
Robinson knocks out fellow Aussie in tense quarter-final
Australian gold medal favourite Jack Robinson has marched past Ethan Ewing in a tense heat that left the latter stranded by a Teahupo’o lull with a semi-final spot on the line.
Robinson’s 15.33 to 13.00 win over his teammate came as Ewing forlornly watched the horizon for a wave that never came in the final five minutes, sealing Robinson’s to contest for a medal against Brazil’s Gabriel Medina.
Robinson opened meaningful proceedings after a pair of throwaway waves for both he and Ewing, the West Australian peeling off a very competitive 7.33 with one of the few genuine barrels getting through in the heat.
A quick aside too: Robinson is from WA and grew up surfing there until his late teens. Any Queenslanders trying to claim him – and there are plenty – are kidding themselves.
Ewing, who is a genuine banana bender from Stradbroke Island, answered in kind with an overhead barrel and carving top turn for an 8.33 and the lead.
After Ewing’s follow-up 4.67 Robinson answered back with a critical 8-point ride to take a narrow lead, and that was all she wrote.
Watch: Throssell bows out of Olympics with gold
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Aussie stars fight for a semi-final spot at Teahupo’o
Righto, we’ve got Aussie high-flyers Jack Robinson and Ethan Ewing duking it out at Teahupo’o for a start in the semi-finals - Robinson is the slight favourite in this one given his prowess on the wave.
It’s a 30-minute heat and both surfers have impressed so far in this event, and Ewing is returning to Teahupo’o after breaking his back on the same wave last year.
The winner will take on formidable Brazilian Gabriel Medina after he accounted for countryman Joao Chianca 14.77 to 9.33 just now.
Elsewhere in the semis, local Tahitian Kauli Vaust remains the man to beat after he moved past Frenchman Joan Duru.
Peruvian Alonso Correa has ridden the Olympic surfing’s controversial seeding format all the way to a semi-final appearance against Vaust.
Correa has never surfed on the World Championship Tour (surfing’s top professional echelon) but has beaten several lower-tier surfers on his way to challenging for a medal given greater seeding priority was given to second-tier Olympic qualifiers via ISA events.
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