Jess Fox won Bronze in the Women's K1. Image: Australian Olympic Team / Twitter
Day four was a day of mixed emotions for the Australian athletes with triumphs and heartbreaks in Tokyo. For all your Tokyo 2020 coverage, stay tuned to The Inner Sanctum’s Olympic hub and the Olympics Central.
More Aussie Swimming Gold this morning
Australia added another Gold to their medal tally this morning with Kaylee McKeown taking home the Women’s 100m Backstroke. McKeown set a new Olympic Record in the process with a time of 57.47 seconds just 0.02 seconds off her World Record set at the Australian Olympic trials in June.
McKeown charged home from third place in last 50m having to make up some ground on Canada’s Kylie Masse who won Silver.
This is the first time an Australian has won Gold in this event. Fellow Australian Emily Seebohm finished fifth with a time of 58.45.
READ: Kaylee McKeown secures gold and Olympic record in 100m backstroke
Our golden girl Ariarne Titmus is through to the final of the 200m Freestyle final qualifying fastest with a time of 1:54.82. She will be entering the final tomorrow morning next to her rival Katie Ledecky.
Aussie Madison Wilson snuck into the final as well, claiming the final spot with a time of 1:56:58.
It was not such a memorable day for Mitch Larkin who finished seventh in the final of the 100m Backstroke. Larkin will be back in action tomorrow night in Heat 4 of the Men’s 200m Medley.
Read our full recap of the swimming here.
Kookaburras remain unbeaten
Australia cruised to victory against the 2016 Rio Olympic Champions Argentina 5-2, to remain undefeated in Tokyo and a game clear on top of Pool A.
READ: Tokyo 2020 Recap: Men’s Hockey – Australia vs Argentina
The game was tied 1-1 after the first quarter but Australia dominated in the second to extend the lead to 4-1. In the second half both team teams only managed one goal each.
Australia’s goal scorers were Blake Govers with two, Tom Wickham, Lachie Sharp and Jeremy Hayward with one each.
The Kookaburras come up against New Zealand for their fourth match on Wednesday night
Australia unable to shoot their shot
Australia was unable to progress into medal contention in any of today’s shooting events.
In the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Teams event, Daniel Repacholi and Dina Aspandiyarova made it through the first stage with a score of 576-17x placing them in sixth. They were unable to progress to Stage Two of the competition with a score of 380-11x which placed them eighth.
In the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams Australia’s best performers were Elise Collier and Alex Chresten Hoberg who finished Stage One in 19th. Their score of 623.6 was not good enough to qualify for the next stage.
Also, in the event was Katrina Rose Kowplos and Dane Sampson who finished in 22nd with a score of 623.1.
Australia will have more athletes in the shooting tomorrow with Penny Smith and Laetisha Scanlan in the Trap Women event and James Willett and Thomas Derek Grice in the Trap Men’s.
Rollercoaster day on the waves capped off with a bronze
Australia will leave Tokyo with a Bronze medal in the surfing after Owen Wright won the bronze medal match against world number one Gabriel Medina 11.97 to 11.77.
Wilson led after the first wave with a score of 6.50 compared to Medina’s 6. On the second wave, Medina attempted to close the gap but his score of 5.77 was not enough to outscore Wright who received a score of 5.47 for his second wave.
The Bronze medal was a well-deserved prize for Wilson who had to battle back from a life-threatening injury in 2015 to return to surfing.
Wilson was so close to being able to compete for Gold but earlier in the day fell just short to eventually Gold medallist Italo Ferreira of Brazil in the semi-final 13.17 to 12.47.
It was not all good times for Australia’s surfers today with Sally Fitzgibbons losing her quarter final heat to Japan’s Amuro Tsuzuki 13.27 to 11.67.
Fitzgibbons was one of the favourites to medal in the Women’s Surfing and was heartbroken with the result.
Australia’s Men’s Rugby Sevens team out of medal contention
The Australian Men’s Rugby Sevens Team has come and gone from contention, with a devastating loss in the quarter finals.
Australia snuck into the quarter finals after finishing third in Group A following a loss to New Zealand earlier today. Due to them being ranked as the seventh highest seed after the group stage they made it to the quarter finals.
The match earlier today against New Zealand was a game of two halves with Australia having a strong first half leading 12-0 at the break. The Aussies were unable to score in the second and New Zealand piled on two tries.
Ultimately a Lewis Holland missed conversion was the difference for the Aussies, going down 14 to 12.
The Australian Men’s Rugby Sevens team is out of medal contention after falling to Fiji 19-0 in the quarterfinals. The Aussies put on a strong defensive performance hold Fiji to just seven points in the first half.
Two quick tries for Fiji in the second half within two minutes spelled the end for the Australians who will now face South Africa tomorrow to determine the 5th-8th placings.
Unpolished Opals fall in first game
The Opals lost their opening game of the Women’s Basketball, falling to Belgium 70-85.
They led 41-37 at halftime but a poor last quarter was the difference being outscored by 16 points, 13-29.
Ezi Magbegor led the Opals in scoring with 20 points, going at 60% from the field to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks.
Belgium’s Emma Meesseman proved the difference, leading the game in scoring with 32 points and 4 steals.
The Opals will meet China in their next Group C game on Friday.
Plenty of Aussies setting sail
It was a big day of sailing for Australia, having athletes competing in five events.
Matt Wearn had a strong performance in the Men’s One Person Dinghy coming fourth in race four, second in race five and second in race six.
In the Women’s Skiff- 49er FX Aussie pair Tess Lloyd and Jamie Ryan finished ninth in race one, 11th in race two and seventh in race three. They will be back in action tomorrow in race four.
In the Men’s Skiff- 49er FX, Will and Sam Phillips finished seventh in the first race with races two and three being postponed until tomorrow.
Heartbreak for Fox
Jessica Fox has been unable to claim that illustrious gold medal in the Women’s Slalom K-1 winning Bronze with a time of 106.73.
Fox received a four second penalty during the race following an early touch on gate four and then again on gate 24. Without the penalties Fox would have easily claimed gold with a time of 102.73.
Fox entered as the favourite after setting the fastest time in the semi-finals with a time of 1:05.85. She was heartbroken after the result where the massive pressure and expectation on her shoulders seemed to affect her.
Fox’s Olympic record now includes a Silver medal in London 2012 and now two Bronze medals in Rio and Tokyo.
Germany’s Ricarda Funk won the Gold and Spaniard Maialen Chourrat won Silver.
Jian Fang Lay knocked out in quick fashion
Jian Fang Lay is out of the Women’s Singles in the Table Tennis, losing to Germany’s Ying Han 4-0 in the third round.
Lay remained competitive in all four games, however, was unable to do enough to edge out the German in any of them.
The final scores from the games were 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 and 11-8.
At 48 years of age, this was Lay’s sixth Olympic Games and ties as the furthest she has made it in the Olympics with Rio 2016.
Matildas waltz into quarter finals
The Matildas have tied with the United States 0-0 in the Women’s Football tonight.
In the final match of Group G, a win for Australia would have guaranteed progression to the next ground, but after a nervous wait for a couple of hours, it was confirmed that the Matildas are through to the quarter finals.
It was a tight affair between both sides both having a similar amount of shots with eight for Australia and seven for the United States. Australia dominated the possession, having the ball for 61% of the match.
Read the full match recap here.
Shark attack stuns Croatians
The Australian Men’s Water Polo team pulled off a stunning upset of Croatia, winning 11-8. After an even start, the Sharks opened up a 5-3 gap just before half time, courtesy of Richard Campbell.
The Aussies didn’t ease up at all in the second half, and continued to fight hard to maintain their lead, before showing plenty of calm in running down the clock with the final few possessions to seal the win.
Read the full match recap here.
Tonight’s swimming heats
Kyle Chalmers is through to the semi-finals of the Men’s 100m Freestyle following a strong swim, recording the second-fastest time of 47.77.
Aussie Brianna Throssell is through to the semi-finals of the Women’s 200m Butterfly, posting a time of 2:09.34. She will race again tomorrow morning for a place in the final.
Matt Wilson and Zac Stubblety-Cook are into the semi-finals of the Men’s 200m Breaststroke. Stubblety-Cook qualified fastest in the heats with a time of 2:07:37 while Wilson finished with a time of 2:09.29.
Australia also qualified second fastest in the 4x200m Freestyle with a time of 7:05.00.
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