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The Australian gold drought continued with world champion James Magnussen pipped by 1/100th of a second in the final of the 100 free by the American, Nathan Adrian.
A devastated Magnussen glided in too far from the wall and Adrian grabbed his chance to cause a major upset with 47.52 to the Australian’s 47.53.
The Australian 4×200 replay grabbed silver as well after a magnificent battle with the Americans over the full journey.
The Americans – Missy Franklin, Dana Vollmer, Shannon Vreeland, and Allison Smith – clocked 7.42.92, an Olympic record; the Australians – Bronte Barratt, Melanie Schlanger, Kylie Palmer, and Alicia Coutts – stopped the clock at 7.44.41.
Brenton Rickard finished seventh, with 2.09.28, in the final of the 200 backstroke, won in world record time by Hungarian, Daniel Gyurta with 2.07.28.
Daniel Tranter missed the 200 individual medley cut with 2.00.46, where the superstars shone – Lochte 1.56.13, Laszlo Cseh 1.56.74, and Michael Phelps 1.57.11.
But there was a hint the two Americans were foxing.
In the semis:
Melanie Schlanger was second fastest qualifier for the 100 free final tonight with 53.38 a PB, behind the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowjojo’s new Olympic record 53.05.
Australian Cate Campbell was a no-show with a severe gastro attack, and is isolated in the village.
Mitch Larkin, 19-years-old and in his first Olympics, qualified seventh for tonight’s 200 backstroke final behind the Americans Tyler Clary 1.54.71 and Ryan Lochte’s 1.55.40.
Sally Foster qualified eighth fastest, with 2.24.46, for the 200 breaststroke final. The second Australian Tessa Wallace missed out with 2.27.38.
American Rebecca Soni set a world record in the second semi with 2.20.00.
Around the venues:
Rowing, and silver in the women’s pairs for Australians Kate Hornsey and Sarah Tait. But the honours went to Great Britain’s first gold medal of the Games.
And it’s taken five days.
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning can no doubt write their own ticket for the rest of the Olympics and beyond.
The Australian women’s quad fours of Dana Faletic, Kerry Hore, Pauline Frasca, and Amy Clay just missed bronze by a second.
The Australian men’s eights finished sixth in the final, but only two seconds behind gold medallists, Germany, unbeaten for the last four years. Just 7/10ths of a second covered bronze to sixth in a rare blanket finish that had the 30,000 crowd on their feet.
Lleyton Hewitt played magnificent tennis in the first set against Novak Djokovic on Wimbledon’s centre court.
But the Croat lifted his game to win 4-6 7-5 6-1 in a highly competitive third round match between a 159-ranked player against the world number 2.
Australian women’s basketball captain Lauren Jackson’s 18 points against Brazil last night broke American legend Lisa Leslie’s all-time points-scoring record of 488 in Olympic competition.
The Opals won 67-61 for their second win in three, but weren’t impressive overall with a scrappy second half. Russia’s next won’t be a cakewalk with the Opals desperately needing to improve their shooting percentage.
No joy for the two Australians in the road cycling individual time trial.
Michael Rogers finished fifth behind Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and Shara Gillow was 17th to American gold medallist Kristin Armstrong.
Observation:
The 30th Olympiad was tainted yesterday when eight badminton players – four from South Korea, and two each from Japan and Indonesia – were disqualified for “tanking”, trying to lose to manipulate the draw.
It’s beyond comprehension that any athlete representing his or her country would even consider such a move, let alone do it. They should be banned from all international competition for the rest of their lives.
But the odds are all eight will be bashed by a feather.
London 2012 Olympics – Day 5 Gallery
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See the complete London 2012 Olympics gallery