The Boomers won a maiden Olympic medal on Day 15 of Tokyo 2020. (Photo: FIBA - Twitter)
On the penultimate day of Tokyo 2020, the Australians are still winning medals and making finals, looking to end the Olympic Games on a high. Keep up to date with all the happenings at Tokyo 2020 through The Inner Sanctum’s Olympic hub and Olympic Central.
Mills Thrills in Olympic-first for Boomers
The Boomers have done what no previous Australian Men’s Basketball Team had done at the Olympics or World Cup and that was win a medal, claiming bronze in a tense 107-93 win over Slovenia.
Tested all throughout the game, the Boomers were helped along massively by point guard Patty Mills, scoring a personal Olympic-high 42 points. Joe Ingles was the next-highest scorer with 16 points.
The Boomers were good offensively and defensively against Slovenia, leading the game in field goal percentage and capitalising on the turnovers, and on the fast breaks.
You can read the full match recap here.
Stinging the competition to farewell Tokyo 2020
The Australian women’s water polo team ended their Tokyo 2020 campaign with a win over the Netherlands, finishing fifth overall for the tournament.
The 14-7 four-quarter effort by the Stingers was a showing of the team’s strength, looking to take control early, evidenced by a 5-1 score after the first quarter and a 8-2 margin at the halfway point.
Keesja Gofers scored three goals for the Stingers, while Bronte Halligan, Bronwen Knox and Amy Ridge each found the back of the net twice.
You can read the full match recap here.
Not feeling the rough, Green finishes strong in debut
Coming into the final Round 4 today, Olympic debutant Hannah Green was sitting equal third at 12 under par, just three shots behind first-placed, and eventual-gold medal winner Kelly Norda of the USA.
Green shot three under today for a score of 13 under total across the four rounds and 72 holes though it wasn’t enough for a podium finish as she finished equal fifth overall, three shots behind third place.
Over the course of Green’s Olympics, she shot one eagle (today), 20 birdies, and 43 pars, as well as seven bogeys and one double bogey.
Fellow Australian golfer Minjee Lee finished equal 29th overall, shooting four under par across the Olympic competition.
The bar continues to be set high for Aussie athletics
Australia started the day with three competitors in the Women’s Marathon Final and although neither of them finished on the podium, they recorded a season-best time.
Sinead Diver was the pick of the Aussies, finishing inside the top 10 in a time of 2:31:14 while Ellie Pashley (2:33:39) and Lisa Weightman (2:34:19) crossed the finish line in 23rd and 26th place respecively.
Australia had two people to cheer for in the Men’s 1500m Final, Stewart McSweyn and Oliver Hoare, and each ran respectable races but again, neither competitor could find the podium.
McSweyn looked a likely chance, keeping with the front of the pack and even placed in third at the 800m mark but fell away to finish seventh in a time of 3:31.91. Hoare was second at the 400m mark before slowing dropping off from there to finish 11th in a time of 3:35.79.
Both of our Aussies found success in their own rights in the Women’s High Jump Final, including a silver medal for Nicola McDermott, along with an Australian Record when she cleared 2.02m.
McDermott cleared each height mostly with ease – she missed the first attempts at 1.96m and 2.02m before clearing it an attempt later. She couldn’t clear 2.04m through three attempts whereas Mariya Lasitkene of the ROC could and ultimately, win gold.
McDermott is the second Australian woman to win an Olympic medal for High Jump, the first one to win was Michelle Brown who won silver at Tokyo 1964. McDermott has also become the first and only Australian woman to clear 2.02m.
Elanor Patterson finished seventh overall in the Final, her best jump coming in at 1.96m, an equal-season best for her. She cleared the four heights to begin the final, all on her first attempts before being unable to clear 1.98m.
More Tokyo 2020 News
Tokyo 2020 Recap: Women’s Water Polo – Netherlands v Australia
Belcher to bring Australia home with a wet sail at Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony
Tokyo 2020: Daily Recap – Friday August 6
Rousseau’s platform will only grow bigger
After finishing in the top 18 of the preliminaries yesterday, in his maiden Games Cassiel Rousseau competed in the Men’s 10m Platform semi-final. After six rounds, Rousseau qualified for the final, finishing in sixth place of 12 available spots with 444.10 points.
Throughout the six rounds, Rousseau never fell lower than 12th, keeping one foot in the qualifying half of the competition at all times, even after he opened his account with his worst dive, an Inward 3½ Somersaults from the Tuck position which scored him 67.20.
His next two dives were better scored, earning 70.20 before his best dive, a Back 3½ Somersaults from the Tuck position, scoring 84.15. His next three dives were all low-to-mid-70.00 scores as he was guaranteed a place in the final.
The final took place later in the day, though Rousseau wasn’t on the podium, finishing eighth overall with a score of 430.35, more than 150 points behind first-placed, gold-medallist Cao Yuan of China.
Starting with a score of 57.60, Roussea was at the back of the pack to begin with, and still after his second dive of 61.20.
Three scores in the 70.00s followed but the deficit was already too much, even after his best dive was saved to last, a Forward 4½ Somersaults from the Tuck position, earning 88.00 points.
Ca-no Sprint medals for Australia
Australia was well represented in the canoe sprint’s semi-finals and finals today, and it began with the Women’s Kayak Four 500m semi-final.
In that event, Australia’s crew of Jamie Roberts, Jo Brigden-Jones, Shannon Reynolds and Catherine McArthur finished in a time of 1:38.170 for qualification into Final A.
In the Final, Australia finished seventh overall in a time of 1:39.797, over four seconds behind the first-placed gold medallists Hungary.
The men’s team of the same event, lead by Lachlan Tame, Riley Fitzsimmons, Murray Stewart and Jordan Wood finished second in a time of 1:24.868, just over half a second behind first place but will feature in Final A also after the race.
For the men in the Final, they finished in sixth place, crossing the line in a time of 1:25.025, 2.806 seconds behind gold medal-winning Germany.
In the Women’s Canoe Double 500m Final B that involved Bernadette Wallis and Josephine Bulmer, the pair finished fifth in a time of 2:05.698, 3.000 seconds behind first-placed Chile.
Cyclists on Track to bring home gold on Day 16
Australia had two track cyclists involved in the Men’s Keirin first round of heats at Tokyo 2020, Matthew Richardson in Heat 2 and Matthew Glaetzer in Heat 4.
For Richardson, he qualified for the quarterfinals with a second-placed finish in the heat, 0.070 seconds behind the winner, Jack Carlin of Great Britain while the other four riders in the heat were either relegated or did not finish.
Glaetzer was forced to perform in the repecharge of the event after a narrow third-place finish in the heat, 0.093 seconds from first spot. In Heat 4 of the repecharge, Glaetzer was the winner, and thus was granted entry into the quartefinal, joining Richardson to take place tomorrow.
In the Men’s Madison Final, Australia’s Kelland O’Brien and Leigh Howard finished 12th overall. They didn’t finish the race after claiming three sprint points and -20 lap points.
Keeping in rhythm but not rewarded in scores
In Australia’s first appearance in the all-round event, it has failed to progress to the Final of the rhythmic gymnastics after finishing with the lowest scores across both the 5 Balls and 3 Hoops + 2 Pairs of Clubs routines for an all-round score of 40.350.
In the 5 Balls routine, Australia scored a total of 20.850, ranking them 14th, scoring low for difficulty and execution, as well as picking up -0.60 penalty points.
In the 3 Hoops + 2 Pairs of Clubs routine, the total score was even lower, 19.500 after the routine based on more low scores of difficulty and execution.
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