Tom Slingsby has broken Australia’s nine-day gold drought at the London Olympics with a command performance to win the Laser sailing class.
The world champion and world number one, Slingsby was at his tactical and competitive best to finish the 11-race event with 43 points from Pavlos Kontidis, with the first Olympic medal of any description for Cyprus on 59, and Sweden’s Rasmus Myrgren with 72 points.
The victory made up for the devastation of Beijing four years ago when Slingsby was also the world champion and world number one, but finished outside the top 20 in what he described as “my worst ever performance”.
Not so last night as Slingsby started what looms as an Olympics medal saviour for Australia by the talented sailing team.
The Elliott 6m match racing team of Olivia Price, Nina Curtis, and Lucinda Whitty are unbeaten; Matthew Belcher and Malcolm Page in the 470 class are both genuine gold medal chances; while Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen have an unassailable lead in the 49ers.
At the velodrome, there was a bronze for Australian Shane Perkins in the men’s sprint won by Jason Kenny, Great Britain’s sixth cycling gold of the Games.
Arch-rivals Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain and Australian Anna Meares continue their battle for gold in the women’s sprint.
Australian Annette Edmondson is third on the women’s omnium points score after three events behind Great Britain’s Laura Trott and American Sarah Hammer.
The final three events are tonight.
On the track, a blistering start for Sally Pearson to open her gold campaign.
The world champion Australian made all her opponents sit up and take notice of her 12.57 in the qualifying round of the 100 hurdles. The next best were the Americans Lolo Jones 12.68, Kellie Wells 12.69, and Dawn Harper’s 12.75.
Australians Zoe Buckman (4.07.83) and Kaila McKnight (4.13.80) both qualified for the 1500 track semis. Ethiopia’s world number one ranked Abeba Aregawi was the fastest qualifier with 4.04.55.
But Jeff Riseley’s 1.46.99 wasn’t enough to qualify for the 800 semis. “I’m shattered, just two weeks ago I ran a 1.44,” was Riseley’s reaction.
Australian Ben Harradine qualified for the men’s discus final, but Dani Samuels finished 12th in her discus final.
Lauren Boden ran 56.66 in her 400 hurdles semi, well outside her PB, but was eventually DQ’d. “It was so draining, both physically and mentally,” was how Boden summed up her performance.
There were no Australian women in the 200 heats, where the three Americans Sanya Richards-Ross (22.48), Carmelita Jeter (22.65), and the effortless pocket-rocket Allyson Felix (22.71), looked good for the semis.
A disappointing 400 flat final from 19-year-old Australian Steve Solomon saw him finishing eighth in 45.14, with the gold going to Granada’s Kiran James with 45.94.
Belgium’s Borlee twins, Kevin and Jonathan, finished fifth and sixth with 44.81 and 44.83.
And even before Alana Boyd started her pole vault campaign last night, she was part of an enviable record. Along with pole vaulter father Ray, and track sprinter mother Denise, they are the first Australians as a family to represent at two Olympic Games each.
Alana finished 11th.
But the thunderous applause of the night at Olympic Park, with yet another 80,000 packing the stands, was reserved for Usain Bolt at his 100 gold medal presentation.
The greatest sprinter to ever don spikes was given sustained adulation worthy of his standing that sent chills up the spine.
Shooter Michael Diamond, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in his sixth Games, missed two of his last five shots in the trap final to be forced into a sudden-death shoot-off for bronze, which he lost as well to Fehaid Aldeehani, Kuwait’s first ever Olympic medal.
Very un-Diamond like for the Australian, who shot a world record possible of 125 in the qualifier.
Around the venues:
The Boomers are into the quarter finals of the men’s basketball after a nail-biting 82-80 win over Russia.
With 4.1 seconds left on the clock, Russia led 80-79, but Patty Mills wasn’t to be denied and he nailed a three-pointer off the rim with a second to go – a sensational finish.
The Australian men’s water polo team did a comprehensive 13-8 job on Greece to qualify for the quarters.
The Australian men’s volleyballers, the Volleyroos, upset Poland last night with a 25-21, 25-22, 18-25, 25-11 victory. Despite the loss, Poland advance to the quarters, while the Volleyroos’ chances of qualifying with two wins and three losses rest with other results.
The Hockeyroos had to beat Argentina to qualify for the semis, but drew 0-0. So Argentina will play Great Britain for a place in the final.
And Australian Edwina Tops-Alexander qualified for the show jumping final.
Arthur Fonzarelli
Guest
Xenophobia, bias, skewered writing and self indulgence in the Telecrap ?? How can that possibly be ? I thought they were fair and balanced ?
TheSportsFreak
Roar Guru
Wouldn't have thought Steve Solomon's run in the final was disappointing. Compared to his PB before the Olympics started, he went about 0.40s faster in the final. He was stoked to make the final. He's 19, he'll join the pantheon of Australian athletes that will be hyped up in Rio 2016. Someone shelter him now!
Titus
Guest
I'm just saying Heidi, clearly there are a lot of people getting into the Olympic spirit, myself included. I'm sorry to hear about the situation at your office, It would certainly do my head in. If your co-workers can't be drawn into a discussion about any aspect of the Olympics then unfortunately they are AFL dullards.
Heidi
Guest
Thanks for the number,Titus, glad to know that many people watch, but 1.6 million+ against 22.6 million population? That explain why I have to come here to share some of my passion.
Titus
Guest
Heidi-- Olympics are pulling 1.6 million on TV every night, not including Foxtel, the AFL is pulling, to be generous, half to a third of that amount.
Rough Conduct
Guest
Lol!! How about you first convince at least ONE other country that the sport is not a joke, it is actually a real sport.
Emric
Guest
Still we are proud of her.. She did her best its all we can ask
Punter
Guest
I can't believe I just read that, introduce AFL into the Olympics just so the 40 or so employees in your office can talk Olympics!!!! Funniest thing I have read in a long time.
Matt F
Roar Guru
It generally is, though if nobody ran quick enough for automatic selections they can elect to take another athlete at their discretion. Sheek gave a good explanation of this below.
Heidi
Guest
Wow JVGO, where do you get all those figures, impressive, really. One thing I have to say, the number of people in Australia who is interested in Olympic is far far less than AFL, just take the company I work for example, 40s employees, I can't find one person to talk about Olympic longer than 2 mins, they simply not show any interesting, yet when the subject comes to AFL, the passion instantly rise. For that, I was and still am quite surprised we actually have that many talent top performance Athletes appear in all those Olympic activities. I think the only way we can get more support and passion toward Olympic is we introduce AFL to Olympic, hopefully it will become one of Olympic event one day, after all, they successfuly bring Golf to Olympic ( I think it starts from next Olympic).
Matt F
Roar Guru
Basically right. An A qualifying time is an automatic selection but if a country hasn't filled it's A slots then it can select one athlete who has run a B qualifying time if they choose, assuming there are any. Generally the athlete with the quickest B time at the trials (Steffensen was quickest at our trials) will be picked but we initially decided to send nobody as none of the contenders came close enough to the A time. This is also why we had nobody in the men's 100m either. Solomon however went on showed really good improvement and was seen as a good chance for Rio in 2016 so AA/AOC changed their minds and gave it to Solomon.
katzilla
Roar Guru
They couldn't catch her.....
sheek
Roar Guru
MJ, Athletics have what they call an A qualifying time & a B qualifying time, which I think are set by the IAAF/IOC. An A qualifying time means automatic selection in the team, while a B qualifying time gives you the opportunity to be selected in the team if you continue to show improvement. As I understand it.....
Mango Jack
Guest
Matt, showing my ignorance a bit here. I assumed athletics selection was the same as swimming, which is based purely on times at the olympic trials.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Congrats to Tom winning Gold, I was waiting for a Tele headline today saying " Eureka the gold drought is broken " or something similar. Anyway hope the sailors keep up the good work. Shame about Diamond and the Hockeyroos. Young Solomon should be very proud. Let's go Anna, Edwina & Sally !
JVGO
Guest
But is the performance really that bad anyway by objective measure? The idea that Olympic athletes are spoilt brats and are somehow being chauffered to and from training and living caviar lifestyles is pretty far from reality. Nevertheless there has been an orgy of commentators rushing to put the boot in. The funding as I understand it has moved away from individual athletes more towards team sports and I guess therefore facilties. That the community benefits overrall from the availability of these swimming pools and basketball courts is surely partly the point of the whole exercise.
gah
Guest
Tom Slingsby talked the talk (pre Games) and walked the walk; top effort mate. He has done well and will be a natural promotion for the popularity of sailing in our country. Any aussie athlete doing PBs at the Games has my respect, and that includes Emily Seebohm. Nice work in the Semi Emily. Solomon's work on the track was 1st rate, including his run in the Final. Lets hope for Sally Pearson's sake she runs up to her best in her Final too. Hard to see her doing otherwise but you never know. These athletes will drive up participation in little aths as well, a great thing for our kids. Nice too hear our long jump champ giving the media an upper cut for talking down Silver Medals too; top stuff.
Hansie
Guest
The various levels of government in Australia have invested massively in facilities for Olympic sport (most of the Olympic sports cannot fund themselves or the facilities required), as well as the annual grants to the National Sporting Organisations. The funding for Olympic sports was at record levels for this Olympics, and about double what was spent for Athens. Given the number of athletes who didn't peak at these Olympics, I struggle to believe that funding is the issue. I think the sports need to look at themselves and get their own house in order before demanding ever more taxpayer funds.
JVGO
Guest
AFL has received ten of millions of NSW and ACT government money. $20 million of Govt money on Skoda, $10 million on the Homebush HQ, $90 million on the SCG, $3 million a year from the ACT Govt. More at Blacktown. They wanted Leicchardt council to spend one and a half million accomodating them at Birchgrove. This all for a project aimed mainly at making Victorians feel good about themselves. FFA received $40 million on its failed WC bid. The govt is talkling of spending hundreds of millions upgrading Moore Park even further for the footballl codes. The figure I heard for the Olympics is $220 million over 4 years, targetted more towards the team sports, hence the dearth of individual golds. This is honestly a drop in the ocean. The figure for the national disability insurance scheme is $32 Billion. The Olympics as i see it is a national project which should unite us but people don't want 'their' money spent on anything like that, same as they don't want a carbon tax that would encourage a new energy industry, the same as they oppose a mining tax where the money would be directed towards education and health. People would rather keep their money so they can spend it on their Foxtel led lifestyles and watch 7 games of footy a weelend. they loved the idea of the NBN because it will help beam the world into their lounge rooms, and then their half baked opinions back out into the blogosphere.
matty
Guest
we can expect that gold the Bellarussian won to be handed to nz in the next couple of months. Shes clearly on the juice as the eastern europeans have a reputation of it. Her winning distances are some what suspicious.