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Let’s be honest, it wasn’t the finest evening for Australia in the pool on Day 3.
Our two big medal hopes in the men’s and women’s 100m backstroke walked away empty-handed, despite pre-Games hype having them pencilled in to get on the podium at the minimum. Mitch Larkin fought to the very end but was edged off the podium, while Emily Seebohm was never in the hunt and faded to finish seventh.
She will have her critics (with some justification) sharpening their pencils and accusing her of not being able to deliver on the big stage.
Credit to her though, where in London she bawled her eyes out, yesterday she simply put up the hand and said she tried her best but was just not fast enough to win.
The middling results in semi-finals yesterday coupled with predicted non-podium chances indicate that tonight will not be a gold night for Australia either.
A lot of you yesterday were pretty quick to throw arms up in the air and say the team have fallen off the wagon, and there is an inability to perform, there must be some internal trouble etc.
However, Australia are actually still on track to win seven golds in the pool (I predicted six). There is a lot to be encouraged by. I myself wrote an article in July talking about Australia’s best medal chances and we are still on track.
For those who were disappointed by the men’s 4x100m freestyle, look no further than my comments in that article. We were never in the hunt, so don’t include that in any argument for Australia under performing. We did exceptionally well to get bronze.
We’ve won the 4x100m women’s freestyle and the 400m men’s freestyle.
The other five where Australia is expected to win are
The 100m men’s freestyle, The 100m women’s freestyle, The 200m men’s backstroke, the 50m women’s freestyle and the 200m women’s butterfly.
On form both before and during the games there is absolutely no reason why we can’t still be the favourites for these events. Cameron McEvoy is still in electric form (all but matching Nathan Adrian in the relay, and having to do it in dirty water). The women’s relay demonstrated exactly why one of the Campbell sisters are going to win (they swam the fastest legs of all competitors in the second, third or fourth legs) the 100m and 50m.
We all knew Mitch Larkin is a better 200m than he is 100m backstroker, while Madeline Groves is still the woman to beat in the 200m.
Seven golds would be an astonishingly good performance. Let’s not forget that we are still in the hunt in the 1500m and that Seebohm may turn things around in the 200m backstroke as well. What has been definitely disappointing is that Australia in non-gold chances are failing to at least get a minor medal. It’s either gold or bust. But hey, I’d rather see the anthem played seven times, instead of no gold and 14 minor medals!
Cheer up, the glory days are going to come once more!