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
[roargal]
See the complete London 2012 Olympics gallery
Axelv
Guest
Tomkins is a rowing legend afterall :) +1 I also really enjoy his comments.
Axelv
Guest
Long way to go David, don't count your chickens before they hatch. The Kookaburras are just as likely to get a silver or bronze than they are at gold.
John Vizzone
Roar Rookie
You are talking about sports that have models and competitions which make them almost self-funding. I think it is important that Olympic sports continue to be funded for the reasons listed above.
lolly
Guest
I don't really understand why it should. The Olympics is once every four years and then everyone forgets about it and follows footy, cricket or whatever. Should that be the be all and end all of funding? I love hockey and swimming so always look around to see how Aussies are going in those sports but i'm not sure that many others do. They only pay attention to the Olympics (which annoys me greatly on the Kookas behalf). Why should a once every four years feel good factor be so damned important?
lolly
Guest
Yes, great to see a young bloke learn so fast. I've felt pretty impressed with how he has handled himself in the past couple of days. Especially since the poolside interviewers can be bloody tactless.
lolly
Guest
Yep, After the World's it was obvoius that Magnussen was our strongest hope for gold. More than obvious. So he's had this world of pressure on him as the pickings are very slim (and seem to be getting slimmer the longer the Olympics goes on). Apropos of nothing: I've been to the Olympic Park twice tis week and I've had a great time at the hockey and water polo, two aggressive team sports. Great fun and a quite fantastic venue.
lolly
Guest
What do you mean? I'm not blaming any of the athletes, I hope it didn't sound like that. They've been good enough to get there, I've never had that talent or commitment to a sport and I admire anyone who has. I've felt sorry for Magnussen, he's had so much pressure which I think he was probably not understanding or properly prepared for and I still think he's the fastest going, but the US have had the best techniques - it's been obvious seeing the turns they are doing.
matthew
Guest
Having a good chuckle about this. Teams like Russia, GB and Australia with their enormous funding being put to the sword by the basically unsponsored exceedingly talented South Africans- our rowing team just claimed a gold their first in history,.
Roger the Alien
Guest
Other countries haven't destroyed their public sector the way we've destroyed ours.
Roger the Alien
Guest
Yes. The girls have the right attitude and work ethic. To be fair, though, the mens' side of the draw always has a lot more depth and that makes it harder.
Banger
Guest
Thorpie on the british coverage, came straight out and said both swimmers stuffed up their final touch. They both left their touching hand rise in the water, when they should have kept their hand and fingers angled down. Might have been the difference if Magnussen had done that
Republican
Guest
While we have some silver and bronze from this pool campaign, an effort many countries can only dream of, gold is what we expect of Australian Swimming teams i.e. our historical pedigree. I believe Swimming Australia and respective state govts would do well to make swimming more accessible and indeed compulsory throughout schools, because while the almighty dollar seems to be the focus at the pointy end, our grass roots is no longer integral to our sporting DNA. Will NZ end up with more gold than Oz at the end of this Olympics and while we will have far more medals overall, they would be ahead of us on the medals table given the value of GOLD . This is going to hurt us and certainly put the AIS under intense scrutiny as to whether or not our tax payers dollar is being put to good use.
GCS
Guest
I agree, enough is enough. Surely there has to be some sort of qualifying time. Seeing some novice on the 10m diving board could make for some classic moments though.
gah
Guest
David Lord. Re the "tanking" observations. They were all thrown out of these Games, that is the gold medal favourites ejected. Surely that is a stiff punishment, given the fiasco occurred after changes to the draw that meant they were not seeded properly. It is hardly a slap with a feather.
Albo
Guest
We have got to change our focus on the sports that we choose to seriously fund and compete in ! There are a myriad of medals to be won in shooting and archery, and not an Aussie in sight ! I blame our gun laws ! We should be encouraging our kids to take up these sports and go for gold ! Kiddies should be taking their bows & quivers, glocks, shotguns and skeet gear to school to practise at lunchtime. Apart from developing our future Olympic champions, school would be a lot more fun, and you could identify our future potential sociopaths early ! And you don't need an Olympic pool or a gym ! Although bird life might be scarce. Still it seems like a win win, all round !
Bondy
Guest
Bondy
Guest
Did anyone see that rower from Africa "some where" why is he allowed to compete ! Does the I.O.C. go and find these people prior to tournamnents for the purpose of Tv and their magic moment , Eric the eel ,Eddie the eagle, some bloke rowing a boat yesterday got lost after 16 strides amazing,it wasnt sport it was truly shocking.
John Vizzone
Roar Rookie
With the Aussie gold medal drought the debate will once again turn to funding in Sport. Whereas before it was 'cool' to get behind sport in this country and support it as it being the most important thing of our national identity, it has now been cool to hate sport and to loathe any government funding to it. I'll take another angle. Each day we hear of the obesity problems plaguing this nation particularly about youth. Would not success in the Olympics help encourage more and more people to take up sport and to lead an active life style? Food for thought.
Bondy
Guest
Will. Couldnt agree more about the mens eight their bot bot was hanging out of their mouths after that race all crews. .
Handles
Guest
Actually - both wrong. The swimmer in question is Allison Schmitt.