ANOTHER HISTORICAL DAY!
RUGBY MEN’S SEVENS:
It was a big day in Rugby. Fiji continued their romping streak and crushed Japan 20-5 in the first semifinal. Great Britain edged out South Africa 7-5 in the second semi. The Blitzbokke would go on to redeem themselves with a commanding win over Japan 54-14 to take the Bronze medal. Fiji was hungry for the COUNTRY’S FIRST EVER OLYMPIC MEDAL, and….it showed. GBR didn’t know what hit them as Fiji won 43-7. My favourite try was near the end when the Fijian picked up the Brit, nearly dropped him past the try line. Fiji managed to grab the ball, and touch it, over the fallen Brit for the final try. What a great tournament by Fiji, probably the most consistent team of the tourney.
ARCHERY:
South Korea continued their dominance, this time capturing the Gold Medal in the Women’s Individual as well as the Bronze. Germany took Silver.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL:
Men’s – Saxton and Schalk took to the court for their final prelim today. They lost in 2 sets to Cuba and their fate was left in the hands of Brazil. A win by Brazil over Latvia put the Canadian duo in third place in their Pool.
There are 6 pools. Top two per pool go to the Round of 16. Of the Third place finishers, the top 2 go to the Round of 16 and the remaining 4 compete in the Lucky Loser round. The two winners make up the final 2 teams for the 16. The Lucky Losers played tonight!
Saxton and Schalk came out fast against Poland, quickly separating themselves by several points. Poland would retaliate to make it interesting in a match full of athletes running WAY off court to save rogue bumps. In the end, Canada won in 2 sets (21-19, 21-18) with the final point being an Ace.
On the Women’s side, both Canadian duos Broder/Valjas and Bansley/Pavan showed their expertise, polishing off their German and Egyptian opponents 2 sets each. We will see both teams in the Round of 16. Bansley/Pavan won their pool, and Broder/Valjas came second in their pool. (I hope they have some evening matches so that I can watch!)
GYMNASTICS:
The Women’s Individual All Around proved to be very tight, artistic race. The American favourite Simone Biles did indeed take the gold medal (including a 15.9 / 16 in the floor routine), but the competition was a lot closer than expected! Simone’s teammate Alexandra Raisman provided healthy competition finishing with a silver, only 2.1 points behind. Russian Mustafina was less than 2 points behind Raisman for Bronze and finishers 4, 5, 6, were all within 0.6 points of Bronze. That list included Ellie Black who finish 5th 0.367 points behind Bronze. Black’s finish was the highest for a Canadian ever!
ROWING:
The Rowing event has been plagued by choppy water and postponed races, but finally, today they could paddle and lots of Canadian qualifications for various medal finals!
Canada Women’s 8 made their Final (Saturday).
Lightweight Double Sculls – Canadian Women Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee will compete Friday morning
Men’s Four – Conlin McCabe, Kai Langerfeld, Tim Schrijver, and Will Crothers will also compete Friday for Canada
BOXING:
Canadian Arthur Biyarslanov, the Chechen Wolf, the 2015 Pan Am Gold Medalist, was victorious in his Olympic opener Jordan’s Obada Alkasbeh. He takes on Germany’s Artem Harutyunyan on the Round of 16 tomorrow.
http://olympics.cbc.ca/video/vod/the-olympians-arthur-biyarslanov.html
Keep an eye out for Mandy Bujold tomorrow in the Women’s Fly division (45-51kg)
TABLE TENNIS (Men’s Singles Final):
China took Gold and Silver; Japan took Bronze
TENNIS:
I didn’t see it, but all I can tell you is that Nestor was PISSED! Pospisil and Nestor will have to settle for the Bronze medal match after a horribly officiated game (so I hear and read). There were no challenges allowed because (apparently), the match was relegated to a small court with no replay system.
BASKETBALL:
Again, some tight games! On the women’s side, Turkey defeated Belarus 74-71; on the Men’s, Croatia downed Brazil 80-76. Canadian Women take on USA tomorrow at 2:30pm.
TRACK CYCLING:
Velodrome action is underway! GBR took the men’s Team Sprint and set an Olympic record with a time of 42.440s; New Zealand grabbed Silver with 42.542s!
SWIMMING:
Canada’s Santo Condorelli competed in the semis for both the men’s 50m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, but unfortunately was shy of qualifying for the Finals. Passionately, he dropped an F bomb at the end of the 50m knowing he probably didn’t have a good enough time to move on.
Women’s 200m Breaststroke – Japan’s Kaneto won Gold handedly over Russia’s Efimova who left it a bit too long to come from behind (her usual strategy). China took Silver. Canada’s Kierra Smith came in 7th but was on par with her best time.
Men’s 200m Backstroke – USA – AUS – RUS (set a Euro Record)
Men’s 200m IM – Phelps won his fourth Gold in a row in this event (first person to do this) and made sure to wag his fingers and let everyone know. We know! Japan’s Hagino completed his 3-medal set for Rio (this time, it was a Silver to match his Gold and Bronze)), China’s Wang won Bronze.
Women’s 200m Breaststroke – Kierra Smith finished 7th in the final. About 1s separated the 3rd and 8th place swimmers. Japan took gold, with Russian Efimova taking Silver, and China Bronze.
100m Women’s Freestyle *MEDAL ALERT*:
WOW is all I can say! What a race. Cate Campbell of Australia led for a large portion of the race, but lost steam in the last 25m. Canadian-backed Penny Oleksiak was trailing in 7th at the flip and torpedoed her way to the front of the pack, gaining on and then surpassing the Aussie with each stroke. Over in Lane 3, Simone Manuel was doing the same thing. They touched at the same time, the computers were a bit confused for a moment, showing Penny with a ‘1’ and Simone with an “OR” (and of course, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in third, her 3rd medal of the game). Then… it was clarified: a GOLDEN TIE! Both swimmers were elated. Both gold medalists. Both new Olympic Record holders. Both making history. For Simone, she became the first African-American woman to win gold in an individual swimming event. For Penny, she broke Canada’s gold medal swimming drought. It has been 24 years since Mark Tewksbury won the Gold in Barcelona for the Men’s 100m Backstroke. She also is the youngest athlete to ever win a Gold medal in Canadian history, she’s the holder of the most Summer Olympic medals by a Canadian, and she’s not far behind Cindy Klassen’s record of 5 medals (the most by a Canadian Athlete, Summer or Winter).
As an aside, can we all agree that Penny is the most humble 16 year old (perhaps, a typical Canadian)? Every time she wins, she has no idea what she has accomplished! She puts it all out there, goes hard and has her eyes in her lane only. You can tell she’s already feeling great simply being in the Final and relishing every moment, then, when she has caught her breath and finally looks up at the board, she’s genuinely delighted. Same with Simone Manuel – what a wide-eyed/mouthed smile. Way to go girls! (Group hug on the podium was the best)
While we’re at it, it was interesting to hear that Penny didn’t even qualify for Pan Am 2015!
And finally, will Canada bring the Penny back into circulation? (I can’t be the only one thinking that).
Have fun in Grade 11 this fall, Penny!
LEGO Credit: Team KYL and YVO (YVO also went to the Lego store today. It’s like she knew we needed swimmers’ faces)