British medal watch
Lizzie Armistead came home second in a thrilling women’s
road race cycling to win Britain’s first medal of London 2012. Armistead was
pipped to gold on the line by Dutch rider Marianne Vos. Later in the day,
Rebecca Adlington took the bronze medal in the women’s 400m freestyle with a
strong finish. She actually swam faster in this final than she did to win the
gold in the same event in Beijing.
Kat Copeland and Sophie Hosking put in an excellent performance
to beat the fancied New Zealand crew comfortably in the women’s lightweight
double skulls event. They are now straight into the semi-finals. Their male
counterparts, Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, also won their heat with a strong
effort. The defending champions in that event are now also through into the
semi-finals. In the sailing finn class, Ben Ainslie began the day with a great
second place finish in the first race of the competition, and followed it up
with another second in the second race. Both times he was beaten by Danish
sailor Jonas Hogh-Christensen.
Tina Cook and William Fox-Pitt both received strong scores
in the dressage section of the three-day eventing. Zara Phillips also posted a
good total in front of her mother Princess Anne, grandfather the Duke of
Edinburgh and husband Mike Tindall. Alongside Mary King’s effort from
yesterday, Great Britain is strongly placed in both the individual and team
events. Beth Tweddle put in a breath-taking performance on the assymetric bars to
ensure qualification for the final of that event. Tweddle has announced that
she will retire after London 2012. The women’s team also scored highly, and
will take a place in the team final.
Great Britain’s men’s football team managed to defeat the
UAE despite a temporary scare when their opponents levelled the scores at 1-1
in the second half. Ryan Giggs opened the scoring with a back-post header from
Craig Bellamy’s cross. But Rashed Eisa found a hole in the Team GB defence to
equalise. Scott Sinclair re-established the lead after the UAE keeper failed to
deal with another Bellamy cross, before Daniel Sturridge got on the end of a
through-ball on a quick break, and lobbed the keeper to make it three. Team GB
now only need a draw to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Robbie Renwick has reached tomorrow’s final of the men’s
200m freestyle, while Liam Tancock was third-fastest in qualifying for the
final of the 100m backstroke. In the women’s 100m backstroke, Gemma Spofforth
ensured her qualification for the final after a solid swim. Meanwhile Team GB’s
women’s hockey team started their campaign with a comfortable 4-0 win over Japan.
The women’s beach volleyball pair came from one set down to defeat the Canadian
team 2-1 in their first match. But the men’s basketball side started with a
defeat at the hands of Russia.
Top news
Neymar scored a magnificent second-half free-kick from 30
yards as Brazil came from behind to defeat Belarus in the men’s football. That made
the game 2-1, but Brazil went on to add a third in injury time, after a lovely
run and back-heel from Neymar, leaving Oscar to make a nice finish into the
corner. The USA basketball team, filled with NBA all-stars, came through its
first match against France with a 98-71 victory. Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City
Thunder top scored with 22 points. Maria Sharapova has made her way through to
the second round with a comfortable victory over Israeli player Shahar Peer.
In the pool, Dana Vollmer got the night off to a fast start
with a world record in the final of the women’s 100m butterfly. Another world
record fell in the men’s 100m breaststroke final as Cameron van der Burgh took
the gold medal. The much-anticipated men’s 4x100m freestyle relay was won by
France after a collosal swim by Yannick Agnel on the final leg, coming from
behind to pip Ryan Lochte. France beat out the star-studded Americans who
settled for silver and Australia who went without a medal.
South Korea ensured another archery medal with gold in the
women’s team event. They narrowly beat underdog China, who had been ranked
seventh out of twelve going into today’s play, in the final on the last arrow.
South Korea has won this event in every Olympics since it was introduced,
appropriately at the Seoul Games of 1988.
Unsung Heroes
China’s Guo Wenjun retained her women’s 10m air pistol title
at the Royal Artillery Barracks. The Beijing gold-medallist qualified in first
place but had to come from behind in the final event, pipping France’s Celine
Goberville at the end.
American shooter Kim Rhode has won her fifth Olympic medal
in consecutive games after winning gold in the women’s skeet. It is the third
time she has won a gold medal. She is the first American to achieve the feat of
five medals at consecutive games in an individual event.
Kazakhstan’s weightlifter Zulfiya Chinshanlo set a new world
record in the women’s under 53kg weightlifting event. She became the first
person in that category to lift 131kg in the clean and jerk. The nineteen
year-old failed in her next attempt, at 135kg, but takes home the gold medal.
Disappointments
Judoka Colin Oates missed out on a medal in the under 66kg
category after two defeats. Oates started the day with two wins, including a
late nail-biter against the highly-fancied Mongolian Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar.
But he lost in sudden-death extra-time in the quarter-final to Lasha
Shavdatuashvili of Georgia. He was still in with a chance of bronze, but lost
his first match in the repechage to Jun-Ho Cho of South Korea in controversial circumstances.
American world-champion all-round gymnast Jordyn Wieber has
failed to qualify for the Olympic finals after finishing as the third-ranked competitor
from the USA. Countries are limited to two gymnasts in any single event.
Spain suffered a second defeat, this time 1-0 at the hands
of Honduras, which puts them out of the tournament. Spain also lost to Japan
which means they now cannot reach the knock-out stages. They dominated they
second-half against Honduras but were unable to break down their opponents’
resolute defence. Earlier in the day, Uruguay was defeated 2-0 by Senegal in the
men’s football tournament, despite the victors being reduced to ten men in the
first half. Moussa Konate scored two goals, one either side of Abdoulaye Ba’s
sending-off, before half-time. They now need to beat Team GB in their final
match to reach the later stages.
Other news
Fabian Cancellara may struggle to
defend his men’s time trial title after picking up an injury in the road race.
The Swiss misjudged a bend and went flying into crash barriers whilst leading a
breakaway group in Saturday’s race. He also asked spectators to stand further
back from the edge of the road during races.
Uzbekistan’s gymnast Luiza Galiulina has been suspended
after failing a drugs test.
Paula Radcliffe has
been forced to pull out of the women’s marathon due to injury. Radcliffe
criticised a story in the Daily Mail which broke the news before Radcliffe had
confirmed her decision.
Great Britain’s women’s football defender Ifeoma Dieke is out of the tournament
after suffering knee ligament damage in yesterday’s victory over Cameroon.
Dunia Susi is expected to be called up as a replacement.
Andy Murray blamed
a flickering scoreboard behind the court for distracting him as he lost
early points in his match against Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
The much complimented Olympic cauldron failed
on one of its final rehearsals, its designer has revealed. Workers spent
the night before the ceremony trying to fix a malfunction so that the cauldron
was fully operational for Friday’s extravaganza. The engineers kept the issue
secret from the designer, who was only told after the successful lighting on
Friday.
And finally…
Hammadou Djibo Issaka, a rower from Niger, has become a
crowd favourite at Eton Dorney for his effort in the men’s single skulls.
Issaka finished over a minute and a half after the winner in the repechage, but
the underdog was cheered home
by the British crowd.
A man who
was seen sunbathing on his roof during aerial shots of the men’s road race
on Saturday has become an internet sensation.
Twitter users have
been blamed for disrupted the BBC coverage of the women’s road race cycling
today, after electronic updates failed to be sent to the commentary box.
Updated medal table
Great Britain have made their first appearance in the medals
table with a silver and a bronze good enough for 16th position after
two days of events. China have increased their lead, with six golds, whilst the
USA are now on three golds. A host of countries follow on two golds, including
Kazakhstan and North Korea.
Tomorrow’s big events
18 year-old Tom Daley and his partner Pete Waterfield go for
gold in the men’s synchronised 10m platform diving event in the pick of
tomorrow’s action for Team GB. Meanwhile the three-day eventing reaches its
second stage with the cross-country event. There’s another swathe of medals
available in the pool tomorrow evening with Liam Tancock going in the 100m
backstroke being Britain’s best hope, plus the men’s team gymnastics comes to a
conclusion with Great Britain looking strong after qualifying in third.
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