Day 9 of the games started with the women’s marathon. The lead group consisted of 3 Ethiopians and 3 Kenyans at half way but Russian Petrova Arkhipova came through to join the leaders and managed to prevent an African clean sweep by taking bronze. Ethiopian Tiki Gelana proved too strong for her rivals and took gold with Kenya’s Jeptoo taking silver.
The sailing medal races were tense affairs where a maths degree would have been handy to keep up with the scoring. The remarkable Ben Ainslie bagged gold for the 4th consecutive games after battling his Danish rival Hogh-Christenson all week but in the Star class the Swedes just got the better of GBs Percy and Simpson.
China have bagged all 5 gold medals in the Badminton and generally had a pretty good day with Zhou Lulu winning the +75kg class in the weightlifting and China taking gold and silver in the women’s 3m Springboard diving. There was heartbreak for the Italian diver Tania Cagnotto who lost the bronze by 0.2 of a point to the Mexican Laura Sanchez.
The women’s beach volleyball has come down to the semi finals with the 4 qualifiers from Brazil, USA, Germany and the Czech Republic.
History was made with the first ever bout in women’s boxing. The Russian Savelyeva outpointed Kim of DPR Korea.
On the cycle track GB won silver in the men’s Omnium, a sort of cycling decathlon only with 6 events. Denmark’s Lasse Hansen won gold.
Italy are doing well in the fencing and today they won gold in the Men’s team foil.
There have been some very close finishes in this Olympics and GB missed out on another gold by a very narrow margin in the gymnastics where Hungary’s world champion Berti pipped GB’s Louis Smith in the pommel horse. GB also took bronze with Max Whitlock.
What a performance from Andy Muray who just blew away Federer in the singles final. Murray also grabbed a silver with his partner Laura Robson in the mixed doubles who lost in the tie break to Azarenka and Mirnyi. The Williams sisters won gold in the doubles yet again against the Czech pair in a repeat of the Wimbledon final. There was a minor upset in the men’s singles bronze medal match with Del Potro beating Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
The wrestling got under way today. There were no Greeks in the final of the Greco-roman 74kg class but a roman did win gold, Russian Roman Vlasov. The other gold medal, in the 55kg category went to Iran.
Performance of the day in the men’s hockey saw an amazing fight back by team GB. 3.0 down to Australia they came back to share the points 3.3. Wonderful comeback with the equaliser coming in the last 5 minutes.
Luke Campbell takes on a Bulgarian in the boxing quarter finals. If he wins this he is guaranteed a medal. I am watching this bout while waiting for the women’s 400m final where defending champion Christine Ohuruogu ha a bit of a chance of a medal. Great run from Christine to grab silver behind worthy champion Richards-Ross. Back to the boxing and Campbell is 1 point in arrears going into the last round. That’s it, it’s going to be close I don’t think he’s done enough. He’s done it 16.15 – phew!
Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan has just won the women’s triple jump. Next up is the 3,000m steeplechase– 1-2-3 for Kenya I suppose. Kemboi keeps up the Kenyan record with fellow countryman Mutoi gets bronze but Frenchman Mekhissi-Benabbad splits the Kenyan’s and takes silver.
There have been big games in the team sports. In the men’s hockey Holland beat Germany 3.1 in the clash between the top 2 in Group B. In the women’s handball Norway were beaten 25.20 by Spain.
The big moment of the evening coming up – the men’ 100m final. Is Usain going to bolt up. Bolt looked very good in the semis – I think he will win. Bolt – no problem!
More boxing tomorrow. Vasyl Lomachenko is number 1 seed in the lightweight division and meets a boxer from Puerto Rico. GB middleweight Anthony Ogogo will face a German opponent while Magomedrasul Medzhidov of Azerbaijan is looking good in the super heavies.
It is goal less at half time in the men’s hockey between Spain and Argentina. Time for bed.
ahorse 