ELBOWS UP!
WOMEN’S MTB – CROSS COUNTRY
Canadian women, Catharine Pendrel and Emily Batty, were looking for redemption. At London 2012, Pendrel crashed and Batty broke her collarbone BEFORE the competition, still competed and finished 24th. This time around, Pendrel crashed early on, but picked herself up to continue.
Pendrel picked up a Bronze medal 1:26 behind the leader from Sweden, while Batty picked up the bittersweet 4th place 2 seconds later. She’s happy for her teammate, but it sucks coming 4th! Poland won silver.
TRIATHLON – WOMEN’S EVENT
Today and the last few days, I witnessed a lot of strategy and contact in various running events like I’ve never seen before. Triathlon is no exception.
The Women’s Triathlon came down to a foot race. USA’s Gwen Jorgensen (the 2014 and 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series champion) rivaled Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig Hug (London 2012 Olympic Triathlon Champion) for the entire running portion after a grueling bike ride. It was an interesting final 1.5 laps as Spirig and Jorgensen were playing cat and mouse, zig zagging, trying to lose one another. At one point, there was a lot of yapping with a frustrated Jorgensen gesturing to Spirig and probably said something along the lines of, “You want to go? Go run! Quit stepping on my heels!”
With just over a half lap to go, Jorgensen said, “See ya later” to Spirig and went as hard as she could for the rest of the race. She ended up beating Spirig for the Gold by 40 seconds. Jorgensen’s gold medal is the first Triathlon Gold for the USA. Spirig managed to hold on for the Silver, with no less than 5 seconds later, GBR’s Vicky Holland out-sprinted her teammate Non Stanford for Bronze.
In 5th, from Chile, was Barbara Riveros. Riveros is a story that echoes the power of sport and development. With no athletes to train with in her own country, the ITU identified her as one of several athletes around the world to receive coaching and training opportunities that they would otherwise not have had. Riveros has a ton of international experience with high placings, including world cup wins.
BASKETBALL – WOMEN’S MEDAL ROUND
USA met Spain in the Gold Medal final. It was a close game to start as the teams were within a couple baskets of each other part way through the 2nd quarter. Then….USA dropped a few three pointers and blew the gates wide open. They defeated Spain 101-72.
In the bronze medal game, Serbia beat France 70-63.
CANOE / KAYAK
In the men’s K1 200m, Canada’s Mark De Jonge (Bronze in London), raced a great race performance-wise, however not results-wise, as he put it, finishing 7th. GBR took the Gold, with France behind by 0.2s, and Spain and Germany tied for the Bronze medal.
In the Women’s K4, 500m, Canada finished 8th.
MEN’S INDIVIDUAL 10m PLATFORM DIVING
The water was blue again!
China’s Chen Aisen won his second Gold of the games (his other gold in synchro). Mexico’s Sanchez ripped for a silver and David Boudia settled for Bronze this time around.
Canada’s Vincent Riendeau was only designated as a reserve for the final found after finishing in 14th in the semifinal (top 12 advanced).
WOMEN’S GOLF
It wasn’t meant to be this time around for 18-year old Canadian Brooke Henderson. She tied for 7th while South Korea’s Inbee Park took Gold, NZ’s Lydia Ko Silver and China’s Feng Shanshan in Bronze.
HANDBALL
In the Women’s Gold medal match, Russia physically manhandled France to win 22-19. The Russian goalie often came up big for her team, stunning France on a number of sure-goal situations. Norway won the Bronze over the Dutch.
MEN’S SOCCER
Gold medal game – Brazil has finally done it. Their first ever gold medal in soccer. It must have been a little extra sweet that the win came against Germany, who brutally embarrassed the hosts at the World Cup a couple years ago. This game went to a shoot out. The Brazilian goalie guessed the correct way every shot, though was not able to save any until the very last German kick. Brazil, who had scored on the first four shots, had the final shot. It was up to Neymar to be the hero. That he did! He was reduced to tears almost immediately with the win. Not a bad finish for the team that was booed through nearly the whole preliminary round.
Nigeria held off Honduras 3-2 for the Bronze medal, but definitely didn’t celebrate as though they had.
TRACK AND FIELD
Women’s High Jump – Spain’s Beitia won Gold after 20 years of competition making her the oldest ever winner of a jumping event at the Olympics. Bulgaria took Silver and Croatia the Bronze.
Men’s Javelin – Germany’s Thomas Rohler took the gold with a throw over 90m – wow, that’s nearly the whole track! Not take anything away from the decathletes, but they were throwing maximum low-60s, for comparison purposes. Kenya’s Julius Yega came Silver and Trinidad and Tobago’s Walcott took Bronze.
Men’s 1500m – It was a slow run from the start, in the context of 1500m running. Again, there was a lot of jostling. USA’s Centrowitz won the gold, the first USA champion since 1908. Algeria’s Makhloufi came Silver despite legally tripping a Kenyan and also muscling Canadian Nathan Brannen. Brannen was the lone Canadian to qualify for the final and finished 10th. New Zealand’s Willis won Bronze.
Women’s 800m – South African renewed powerhouse, Caster Semenya, set a National record on her way to the Gold medal. Burundi’s Niyonsaba earned Silver and Kenya’s Wambui edged out Canada’s Melissa Bishop in the last several meters. A heartbreaker for the Canadian as she set a new national record. She was so close to a medal after working hard to position herself in the pack and around the bends throughout the race.
Men’s 5000m – It was a repeat Golden moment for GBR’s Mohamed Farah, but a disappointment for Canada’s Ahmed Mohammed. In fourth place, it was Canada’s best ever finish in the event. He bounced back from a terrible 10,000m race, felt solid for the 5k race, endured bumping, was subject to disqualification along with Silver medal winner USA’s Chelimo and original 4th place finisher Ethiopia’s Edris, then was reinstated with Chelimo, while Edris remained DQ’ed. In the end, Chelimo got his Silver medal back, Ethiopia’s Gebrhiwet remained Bronze, and Mohammed bumped up to 4th place.
4x400m Relay – Women’s
USA took the gold medal by over Jamaica with USA’s Felix anchoring. She has won 9 Olympic medals in her career, tied for most Track medals by a US Woman.
Both USA and Jamaica finished with season’s bests.
Canada was running in 3rd for a large portion of the race but lost it on the 3rd leg. GBR took the lead and never gave it back to capture Bronze. Sage Watson ran Canada’s final leg and made up some ground, missing bronze by just over half a second.
4x400m Relay – Men’s
For the final gold of the night up for grabs
In the men’s event, Botswana put up a big fight, nearly hitting the podium. Botswana was right on USA’s heels heading into the final lap. Unfortunately, their anchor could not maintain their pace and in the last 50 meters, was passed by a surging Jamaica, as well as Bahamas and Belgium.
USA took Gold, Jamaica Silver and Bahamas Bronze.
VOLLEYBALL
In the final day of the women’s tournament, USA defeated the Netherlands for Bronze. China matched Serbia in the final, with China starting off jittery and losing the first set. They easily shook that off and took the match 3-1 with the winning point coming from a China spike after an overbump by the Serbia.
The final day of the Olympics will feature a lot of men. The men’s marathon, men’s MTB, men’s volleyball, men’s basketball. Closing Ceremonies start at 6pm EST!