Rice wins first gold as Australia starts campaign
Roar Rookie By Mohammed Patel, 11 Aug 2008 Mohammed Patel is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- 2008 Olympics, 400m freestyle, Australia gold, Australian Boomers, Basketball, Beijing, Beijing 2008, Beijing Olympics, Boomers, China, freestyle, Grant Hackett, Libby Trickett, medley, Olympics, Stephanie Rice, swimming, world record
Glamour girl Stephanie Rice has broken the 400m IM world record to win Australia’s first gold medal. In a fierce contest, Rice shrugged off fears that her performance would suffer after a recent split with former boyfriend, and team-mate, Eamon Sullivan.
“When the pressure is on, I know that everything I have trained for and practiced for is coming to that point in time,” Rice told media after the race.
“I could not have asked for a better race.”
See pictures of Rice after her win
But it wasn’t all good news for the Australian Dolphins.
The women’s 4×100 freestyle team had high hopes of gold, but after a sluggish start from opener Cate Campbell, Australia was left chasing the pack in eight place.
Alice Mills put in a respectable performance, but it was a dual effort by Melanie Schlanger and Libby Lenton that put Australia back into medals contention to claim bronze.
In the men’s 400m freestyle, Grant Hackett’s hope of a medal was relinquished after he finished sixth in the event.
The veteran and team captain led for the first 150 metres, but couldn’t keep up with the pace of 18-year-old Korean, Park Tae Kwon who took the lead, winning in 3 min 43.84 seconds.
Meanwhile, the Australian Boomers basketball team face an uphill battle after losing 97-82 to Croatia in their opening game.
Matt Nielson (13) and David Barlow (12) contributed for the Boomers, but Croatia was almost infallible, scoring 12 of 16 three-pointers.
In their next encounter, the Boomers will face reigning Olympic champions Argentina, before playing Russia, Lithuania and Iran.
After day two of the games, Australia lies seventh in the overall medal tally. Host nation China is currently first.
Click to view the full medal tally.
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August 11th 2008 @ 1:42pm
Spiro Zavos said | August 11th 2008 @ 1:42pm | Report comment
What are the odds that Stephanie Rice gets back together with Eamon Sullivan after the Beijing Olympics as the golden couple, a gift to all the women’s and celebrity magazines.
August 11th 2008 @ 1:59pm
Mohammed Patel said | August 11th 2008 @ 1:59pm | Report comment
I think they are high. The way they’ve been acting in Beijing seems like they are still extremely close – even for friends.
As for your comment Spiro, about giving a “gift to the celeb mags,” I’m sure that gift (if it eventuates) would come at a reasonable price.