ROWING:
Men’s Single Sculls – In the A Final, the grueling sub-7 minute bout was full of “OMG!” New Zealand’s Drysdale was at times in third place with half a boat behind the Croatian leader, Martin. But by the 1500m mark, Drysdale was leading by nearly a boat. No lead was safe in this race, Martin made a sprint push in the last 300m to challenge. It came down to a photo finish!
0.001 separated gold from silver, and it was New Zealand who took the win by a hair! That makes it back to back Olympic Gold medals for Drysdale. Czech Republic’s Synek grabbed the bronze.
Women’s Single Sculls – Australian Kim Brennan, who hasn’t lost a single sculls race since 2014, unsurprisingly took the Gold medal. USA’s Stone and China’s Duan followed with Silver and Bronze.
Women’s Eight – Canada had a fast start out of the block and led the race for the first 1000m, but the other teams turned on their jets to pull back into contention. USA pulled far ahead to take their third consecutive rowing title, GBR was two seconds behind for Silver (their first medal in Women’s 8). Romania took Bronze. Canada ended up in 5th.
SOCCER – MEN’S QUARTER FINALS
Germany cracked Portugal 4-0, Brazil beat Colombia 2-0, Nigeria advances over Denmark 2-0 and Honduras kept South Korea at bay 1-0.
SWIMMING
Women’s 50m Freestyle – Denmark’s Pernille Blume took the top honours by 0.02s over Simone Manuel. Belarus’ Aliaksandra Herasimenia took the bronze.
Men’s 1500m Freestyle – Italy took home the Gold and Bronze, while USA took the Silver. Canada’s Ryan Cochrane finished in 6th place.
Women’s 4×100 Medley – In the final women’s indoor swimming event of Rio, it looked like Canada was pushing their way onto the podium. But, in the end, USA took the gold, Australia silver, and 0.01s later, Denmark touched for Bronze. Canada finished 5th.
Men’s 4×100 Medley – USA set an Olympic record to take the Gold. GBR won silver, Australia Bronze
TENNIS
The Olympics are really interesting. Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig (unseeded) got in the way of Kerber’s gold medal hopes in the women’s tennis final. Puig won 6-4, 4-6, 6-1)!
TRACK:
The Olympics are about to get even more exciting!
Steeplechase heats – Canadian record holder Genevieve Lalonde set a new national record and qualified for the Final! Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s Diro threw her shoe away after being held up and then having someone stepping on her heel. She had 2.5 laps remaining and DID continue with only one shoe on!!! She has qualified for the final based on performance (which, I don’t quite understand beyond the fact that the officials look at the circumstances affecting runners and take action from there).
Heptathlon – Belgium’s Thiam, GBR’s Ennis-Hill, and Canada’s Theisen Eaton rivaled each all day.
After today’s events (Long jump, Javelin Throw, 800m), this was the exact order of their final standings. Canada will be taking home another Bronze! Way to go Brianne!
Women’s 100m – This event happened so fast that I didn’t even know I was watching the final!
A new Olympic champion was crowned, and the successor to Jamaica’s Fraser-Pryce. While Fraser-Pryce still took Bronze, the future of Jamaica women’s track, Elaine Thompson, took the Gold Medal, with USA’s Tori Bowie won silver. 0.03 seconds separated Bronze and Silver.
BADMINTON:
Women’s singles – In preliminary action, Michelle Li took down Laura Sarosi of Hungary (21-11, 21-8).
BEACH VOLLEYBALL:
Bansley and Pavan, undefeated in the preliminary round, took on their fellow Canadians Broder and Valjas in the Round of 16. B&P took B&V in straight sets (21-16, 21-11) although the first set started out close. Next up, B&P will have a tough fight with Germany.
On the Men’s side, it was unfortunately the end of the road for the men’s team Schalk and Saxton as they were defeated in straight sets (21-12, 21-15) by Netherlands’ Brouwer and Meeuwsen.
TRACK CYCLING:
Women’s Team Pursuit – GBR set a world record already in the first round, then went on to face Team USA in Gold Medal matchup.GBR defeated the USA by 2s, and Canada beat New Zealand for the Bronze medal.
DIVING
Women’s 3m Springboard – Today was the semifinal. Both Pamela Ware and Jennifer Abel have qualified for the final tomorrow (Sunday) at 3pm EST.