Australia

Your daily guide to the Games: Swimming finals, hockey and golf headline Thursday action


There are another five finals in the pool on Thursday, while the Australian women’s rugby sevens team begin the defence of their Olympic title.

It’s also the first day of the golf and the BMX racing.

The Tokyo Olympics are broadcast in Australia on free-to-air TV on Channel Seven, as well as streaming platform 7Plus.

The ABC will be live blogging events every day of the Olympics.

Here are the events to watch on Thursday, July 29.

Swimming: More medals on offer

Jack McLoughlin has already collected a silver medal at the Tokyo Games.(

AAP: Darren England

)

There are five medal events in another action-packed day at the aquatics centre.

The first one at 11:30am AEST will be the men’s 800 metres freestyle final and features Queenslander Jack McLoughlin, who is coming off a silver medal in the 400m freestyle.

Right after that will be the men’s 200m breaststroke final where Izaac Stubblety-Cook qualified fastest.

Brianna Throssell is in the final of the women’s 200m butterfly and will go from lane seven at 12:28pm.

Kyle Chalmers, the reigning 100m freestyle Olympics champion, will attempt to defend his crown at 12:37pm.

Rounding out the medal events will be the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay at 1:31pm. 

Canoe slalom: Fox makes another attempt at gold

Jessica Fox will be looking to put the disappointment of missing the gold in the kayak behind her when she hits the white water again for the semi-finals of the canoe slalom.

The 27-year-old, who now has a silver and two bronze medals from her three Olympics Games, had one of the fastest times on Wednesday.

Fox will be the 14th of 18 to take off on Thursday at 3:39pm AEST.

Rugby sevens: Australia begins title defence

Charlotte Caslick runs past Fijian rival in rugby sevens in Rio
Charlotte Caslick helped guide Australia to gold in Rio.(

Getty Images: David Rogers

)

It was one of the highlights of the 2016 Olympics Games and now the Australian women begin their title defence.

Their campaign starts at 11:30am AEST with a clash against Japan and continues with a second match on Thursday against China at 6:30pm AEST.

The Australians are a big chance again for a medal but will face tough competition in the mighty New Zealanders.

Hockey: Australia vs New Zealand

Australian hockey players celebrate after scoring a goal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Hockeyroos are undefeated in Tokyo.(

AP Photo: John Locher

)

The Hockeyroos are hoping to keep their unbeaten run going when they come up against New Zealand.

The match from Oi Hockey Stadium is a late one, beginning at 10:15pm AEST.

Their last pool game will be against Argentina on Saturday.

Golf: Men’s first round begins

Marc Leishman holds a pose with his gold club behind him
Marc Leishman is one of two Australians in the men’s golf at the Tokyo Olympics.(

AP: Denis Poroy

)

Golf is in the Olympics for just the fourth time and will be played at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, outside Tokyo.

The men’s and women’s events will feature 60 golfers each and will be played over four rounds.

The men begin on Thursday morning, with Australians Marc Leishman (teeing off at 8:41am AEST) and Cameron Smith (teeing off at 10:14am) in action.

The women’s tournament begins next Wednesday.

BMX racing: Three Australians in action  

BMX racing will be over two days and starts on Thursday.

Australian Anthony Dean will be in the fourth heat of each of the three quarter-final runs.

Racing begins at 11:00am AEST, with the top four ranked riders from each heat to move through to Friday’s semi-finals. 

It’s the same deal in the women’s event, which begins at 11:21am and will feature Australians Lauren Reynolds and Saya Sakakibara in the third heat of each run.

What else is happening?

A group of men in green and gold speedos raise their hands in the air and shout in celebration
The Sharks have one win and one loss so far in the water polo in Tokyo.(

Getty: Justin Setterfield

)

No medal opportunities yet but there will be plenty of Australians in action in the sailing again on Thursday, which begins at 1:05pm AEST.

The shooting continues with Laetisha Scanlan and Penny Smith looking for a place in the women’s trap final and James Willett and Thomas Derek Grice in the men’s. 

The events get going at 10:00am.

The Aussie Sharks play the third of their five preliminary round matches against Serbia at the Tatsumi Water Polo Centre at 8:50pm.

The Sharks have one win and a loss from their first two matches and will be desperate for more points in a tight group B.

There will be four medal events in the rowing, but they won’t feature Australians.

The women’s all-around gymnastics final starts at 8:50pm.

Tokyo drifting

By Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson

Most Australian fans have their eyes firmly on Jess Fox’s quest for an elusive gold medal in the C1 canoe slalom.

The canoe slalom is like trying to navigate with precision through a washing machine, with the risk of hitting your head on the concrete banks if things go wrong.

Many people wonder how an average athlete would go when invited into the Olympics at late notice.

In 1992, with the reintroduction of the canoe slalom, the rules and restrictions around entries were on the lax side.

A month out from the Olympics, the head of the Costa Rica canoeing team found that he had an extra place. He then called Gilda Montenegro.

Fox flirts with danger in her Olympic kayak
Jess Fox has three Olympic medals but not yet a gold.(

Reuters: Lucy Nicholson

)

Montenegro was one of the first female white water rafting guides in the country, and knew her way around rapids.

But there was one problem: she had never competed in the actual sport before.

With no time to train on the unfamiliar artificial courses, Montenegro opted for safety on her first run.

She got down in one piece, but with time penalties eight and a half minutes slower than the eventual gold medallist and more than five-and-a-half minutes slower than second last.

On her second run, Montenegro tried to be more competitive, and things went awry. The Costa Rican rolled her boat early in the run, and hit her head on the hard bottom.

Facing danger, Montenegro ended her run early without finishing. She ended up finishing further behind the gold medallist than perhaps any athlete who successfully finished ever.

Montenegro was determined to not finish her Olympic experience on such a painful note.

Faced with a more arduous qualification route, the Costa Rican successfully qualified for the 1996 Olympics, and even managed to beat a couple of opponents along the way.

She also met her husband at Atlanta — the men’s K1 gold medallist Oliver Fix.

Sometimes it’s not just about the medals but the determination to compete. However the event has come a long way and finishing last by that much, won’t be a concern to Fox and her well-drilled rivals.

The alternative medal tally

Gilda Montenegro’s Central American nation of Costa Rica has competed at 16 Olympics, winning four medals along the way — all by the Poll family in swimming.

Costa Rica is also famous for producing crops such as coffee and bananas.

While bananas are one of the most popular fruits in Japan, almost none are grown in the country.

Due to this, the host of Tokyo 2020 sits at the top of the medals per banana leaderboard.

Australia, with a medium sized banana crop, have more efficiently converted the gold flesh into gold medals than most other banana producing nations.



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