After our swimmers gassed it on Day 3, on Day 4 it was the turn of our equestrian riders to snatch shameful bronze from the jaws of gold. Sitting in the gold medal position with just the show jumping to come, the Aussie riders knocked off a handful of posts in the final jumping rounds to drop from Gold to Bronze. The agony was doubled as Chris Burton, who led the individual standings - knocked off enough posts himself to slip from Gold to 5th. He was so bad he was over taken by his team mate Sam Griffiths, who finished 4th. In the teams events France and Germany took the gold and silver respectively.
It was a mixed night for Australia in the pool. Hot favourite, Cam McEvoy qualified for the Mens 100m final but was beaten by defending Olympic Champion, Nathan Adrian, in his semi final in a time almost a second slower than what McEvoy swam at the Australian trials. Things look more promising for Kyle Chalmers who recovered from a slow start to storm home and win the 2nd semi - unlike a lot of the Aussie swimmers he looks like a real racer who shouldn't fold under pressure. Maddie Groves also qualified as the fastest swimmer for the Women's 200m Butterfly final tomorrow. Speaking of racers, Emma McKeon put in a huge swim in the Women's 200m freestyle. She exploded out of the gates, leading through the first 100m and holding on to Bronze behind superstars Katie Ledecky (gold - USA) and Sarah Sjostrom (silver - Sweden). But the highlight had to be the GOAT, Michael Phelps won his 20th gold medal in heart stopping fashion taking the Men's 200m Butterfly by just 4 100s of a second. He later added a 21st as the yanks took the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle relay. Australian missed bronze by half a second after pulling Cam McEvoy out of the race to save him for tomorrow night's 100 - he better bloody win now as it has otherwise cost us a medal!
The Men's sevens split their opening pool games - losing to France and beating Spain. With a match against South Africa to come, who we haven't beaten all year, they now face an uphill slog to try and qualify for the quarters. But at least they didn't lose to Japan like the kiwis did!!! Sam Stosur was knocked out of the Women's tennis by Germany's Angelique Kerber - but she has always been a specialist in failure so this is no surprise. The Kookaburra's continued our pathetic hockey performances - losing 1-0 to Belgium - again looking completely ineffective in the final third. A rare bright spark were the Matilda's who thumped Zimbabwe 6-1 to qualify for the soccer quarterfinals as one of the two best third placed teams. While the Opals went to 3-0 in the Women's basketball with a win over France.
Out at the rowing - Australia's gold medal hope in the Women's Single Sculls, Kylie Brennan, bounced back from her shock heat defeat on Day 1 to qualify fastest for the semi-finals on Thursday. Still - the aura of invincibility that surrounded her heading into these Games has surely been broken.
In other news - I believe the diving pool is actually fermenting:
Social Media Call Of The Day
@FillWerrell
Just been watching Olympic Ladies Beach Volleyball and there's already been a wrist injury...but I should be ok by Monday.
Medal Tally
1 - United States - 9-8-9
2 - China 8-3-6
3 - Hungary 4-1-1
4 - Australia 4-0-5
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