A DOUBLE BRONZE KIND OF DAY FOR CANADA!
RUGBY – WOMEN’S SEVENS
Bronze medal for Canada! After a 17-5 loss to Australia in the semis today, Canada definitely did not want to finish 4th place, and furthermore, wanted redemption on the shutout that GBR held them to in the prelims.
Solid and exciting game by Canada resulted in a 33-10 win! Awesome way to kickoff this new, fast-paced Olympic sport!
In the Final, Australia beat New Zealand 24-17, but you have to hand it to NZ, they played right to the end and scored a try for the final play.
BASKETBALL – It was a great day in basketball for the Canadian Women, led by Kia Nurse with 25 points. Canada trailed Serbia heading into the 4th quarter, but poured it on. The last few minutes, the teams traded the lead point-by-point and also traded a few fouls (holding your breath on every throw!). With a 68-67 lead, Canada ran the clock down as best they could until Nurse found Miah-Marie Langlois who dropped the three to seal the victory 71-67! Canada still has 3 games left in the Preliminary round (Aug 10, 12, 14, Senegal is next, followed by USA and Spain).
For all you NBA fans, Lowry only had 5 points in the USA win over Venezuela (113-69) on the men’s side.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
There were several close matches today that went to a third set. The two Austrian men’s teams were especially hard at work today as they upset both Brazil (21-23, 21-16, 13-15) as well as the USA (18-21, 18-21).
Canadian Men Binstock and Schachter took to the beach vs. Italy also taking it to a long three set game full of skyball serves (the server puts a spin on the ball and ‘uppercuts’ the ball high into the air, making it difficult to receive and set up a play) and huge blocks. The tie-breaking set went in favour of Italy 15-11 (21-18, 14-21).
Currently, China is giving USA a run for their money in Women’s comp.
DIVING
Men’s synchronized 10m Platform took place today. China continued their reign of diving (they have a goal to sweep the Olympics). Chen Aisen and Lin Yue beat out the competition by nearly 40 points! USA took silver, followed by GBR’s Tom “not a kid anymore” Daley and Daniel Goodfellow.
FENCING
Sabre – point scored when the opponent is hit above the belt
Epee – point is scored when the tip touches any part of the body
Foil – point is scored when the tip touches the opponent’s torso or groin
Women’s Individual Sabre final was today. Russia took Gold and Silver (tight match, 15-14) and Ukraine took Bronze.
Despite exiting in the Round of 16, US fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad made history by becoming the first American to compete with a hijab. She was faced with what else? Enormous support!
FIELD HOCKEY
More prelim – Canada’s men’s team lost 3-1 to Argentina.
GYMNASTICS
Men’s team event – In the long time rivalry between Japan and China, Japan came out on top this time for the GOLD MEDAL! Russia edged out China by 0.300 points. Team USA brought a lot of “Bro”-ing to the gym and turned anything artistic into a frat house. They were excited to be there – so excited that it resulted in several errors that unfortunately dropped them way out of contention.
HANDBALL
More preliminary play with many tight games (Women’s: Russia over France 26-25; Norway over Spain 27-24)
JUDO
In women’s 57kg, Brazil’s Rafaela Silva defeated Mongolia’s Dorjsuren to win Brazil’s first Gold Medal of the games (and first Gold medal on Brazilian home soil – which makes sense as Rio is the first South American host of the Games)! She leapt into the crowd as they embraced her. What a moment! Silva became involved with Judo as an activity to help pull her out of a troubled teenage period.
Men’s 73kg champion was Japan’s Ono over Azerbaijan’s Orujov.
ROWING
Let’s just put it right out there. Canada does not have a men’s 8 boat this year. The decision was made to split the team and attempt to capture more medals (there’s probably more to it than the public is told).
Men’s Lightweight Four – Canada had to race the repechage (which in this case is like a quarterfinal; the top teams from the heats received a ‘bye’ into the Semifinals while the four last place teams had to race each other to qualify for the semis). It was an emotional loss for the Canadians who did not have the best start out of the block.
Men’s (Open Weight) Four – Canada placed fourth overall in the heats to move directly into the semis.
Women’s Pair – Canada will row in the repechage.
Men’s Eight – GBR finish top in the heats with Germany also qualifying directly for the final.
SWIMMING
Women’s 200m Freestyle – Brittany MacLean was trailing in 8th on the 2nd last leg, then picked it up on the final length to finish 5th.
Men’s 200m Freestyle – South Africa’s Chad le Clos dolphin kicked out to a very early start and led for 185m, but his explosive start caused him to die off towards the end. Yang Sun of China kept chasing and eventually took the Gold Medal by 0.55s. Despite setting an African Record, Chad will have to settle for Silver unless Yang Sun tests positive for a banned substance (again). USA’s Conor Dwyer took Bronze.
Women’s 100m Backstroke – Another Bronze for Canada! 20 year-old Lasalle, ON resident, Kylie Masse was in fourth position at the flip, but chased China’s Fu Yuanhui, ending in a tie for 3rd place! Fu was slightly ahead of Masse but had a poorly timed final stroke. Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu picked up her second Gold medal with a time of 58.45s. Second place went to USA’s Kathleen Baker (58.75), and Masse and Yu touched 0.01s later at 58.76s!
Men’s 100m Backstroke – USA continued their 20 year streak as Ryan Murphy took the Gold medal and set an Olympic Record. China’s Xu and USA’s Plummer took Silver and Bronze respectively.
Women’s 100m Breaststroke – Canada had Rachel “Two Thumbs Up” Nicol in the final, but it was USA’s Lilly King who edged out Russia’s (banned, not banned, banned, quietly reinstated athlete) Efimova for the Gold (this is likely the only time I will have cheered for the US). USA’s Katie Meili took the bronze (and I’m sure they are in the locker room right now saying it was actually a ‘silver’) – Lilly King and other swimmers have been quite vocal about the inclusion of Efimova, so I’m just glad she didn’t win Gold and there doesn’t have to be a huge asterisk on this event. Great work King, you did your job well – you trash talked, then you brought it!
Women’s 200m IM – Semis were tonight, we’ll see 19 year old Sydney Pickrem in the finals tomorrow!
TABLE TENNIS:
Canada’s lone competitor Eugene Wang was knocked out by Hong Kong’s Wong Chun Ting in the third round.
LIFE-SIZED TENNIS:
Bouchard was showing the assertiveness that we were first introduced to her with as she led 4-2 on World #2 Kerber (Germany), but lost 6-4 and 6-2. Bouchard still has doubles.
In Men’s doubles, Nestor (can’t believe he is still playing!) and Pospisil won in two straight sets over Portugal to move on.
INDOOR VOLLEYBALL:
The most exciting match of the day was Women’s USA vs Netherlands. NED was up 2-1 and came back to win 3-2!
WEIGHTLIFTING:
Women’s 58kg – Thailand took Gold (240kg) and Silver (232kg); Chinese Taipei took bronze at 231 kg
Men’s 62kg – Colombia (Gold – 318kg); Indonesia (Silver – 312kg); Kazakhstan (Bronze – 305kg)
LEGO Credit: Yvonne Tsang