Olympic Review – July 29th

Archery

In the women’s team competition on Sunday the US women started off by facing China in the quarterfinals. That is where their day ended as they were upset 218-213. It was a disappointing outing for a US after a 2nd place team qualification. The women will now focus on the individual competitions, beginning on Monday.

Badminton

In badminton Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan had their 2nd group stage match as they facted Koo/Tan of Malyasia. Koo/Tan won 21-12, 21-14. That combined with Jae-sung/Yong-dae’s victory on Sunday means the US has been eliminated from the competition. They will have one final match tomorrow against Kawamae/Sato of Japan. Both teams are 0-2.

Basketball

The US men’s basketball team only led by a point after the 1st quarter but led by 16 at the half and went on to win 98-71. Kevin Durant led the way with 22 points and the US put themselves atop the group with a point differential of +27, 4 better than Argentina. They will next face Tunisia. 4th in the group, on Tuesday.

Beach Volleyball

The US women’s duo of Jennifer Kessy/April Ross won their match 21-11, 21-18 over Gallay/Zonta of Argentina. The US went into the group lead since they won in straight sets while Baquerizo/Fernandez won in three sets. They will next face Keizer/van Iersel (currently 3rd) of the Netherlands on Tuesday.

The men’s pair of Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers won 21-15, 21-16 over Asahi/Shiratori of Japan. The US men are in 1st on points ratio and will face 2nd place Gavira/Herrera of Spain on Tuesday.

Boxing

In lightweight boxing, Jose Ramirez had a strong bout against Rachid Azzedine of France and hung on in the last round to win 21-20 and advance to a round of 16 bout with Fazliddin Gaibnazarov of Uzbekistan on Thursday.

Errol Spence messed around a little less and was dominant against Myke Ribeiro de Carvalho of Brazil, winning 16-10 and advancing to a round of 16 bout with Krishan Vikas of India on Friday.

The US is now 4-0 in boxing and has just two men left in the round of 32. Ten boxers are in the round of 16 for the US in the various competitions.

Canoeing

In the men’s C1 Casey Eichfeld put up a run of 97.04 in his 1st run but saw that time slide back as run 2 went on. He needed to improve on it but couldn’t and that run ended up being the 14th best, so he missed out on the semifinals by 2 spots.

In the men’s K1 Scott Parsons saw a similar fate develop. A good first run was getting passed and a mistake on the 2nd kept him from improving it. He finished 16th in the end and only the top 15 moved to the semifinals.

Cycling

The women’s road race saw the US nearly get a medal again with Shelley Olds falling a bit short in 7th place. Evelyn Stevens finished 24th, Kristin Armstrong 35th and Amber Neben 36th.

Diving

Diving was an amazing event for the US today as Kelci Bryant/Abigail Johnston had a great afternoon and exceeded expectations with a score of 321.9 and picked up the silver medal, the first US medal in diving since 2000.

Equestrian

In the equestrian the US wrapped up the dressage portion of the eventing competition on Sunday. Will Coleman scored a 46.3 to finish in 26th while Phillip Dutton led the way with a 44.3 to finish 19th. Of the competitors from Saturday Karen O’Connor’s was best with her 48.2 placing 29th. Those three combined to score 138.8 placing the US in 7th as a team. The other two competitors were Boyd Martin who is in 36th with a 50.7 and Tiana Coudray who is 42nd with a 52.

All competitors will take part in the cross country portion tomorrow.

Fencing

The US had three men going in the individual sabre competition today. James Williams lost to Nikolay Kovalev of Russia 15-12 in the round of 32. Daryl Homer won his round of 32 bout 15-11 over Tiberiu Dolniceanu of Romania and won his round of 16 bout 15-14 over Aleksey Yakimenko of Russia. In the quarterfinals Homer lost 15-13 to Rares Dumitrescu of Romania.

Tim Morehouse won his round of 32 bout 15-6 over Veniamin Reshetnikov of Russia before beating Dmitry Lapkes of Belarus 15-13 in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals Morehouse was beaten 15-9 by Diego Occhiuzzi of Italy.

These three will be back in the team sabre competition on Friday.

Field Hockey

In field hockey the US had a tough evening but still played pretty valiantly losing 2-1 to Germany after being down 2-0 21 minutes in. The US now finds themselves 4th in their group heading into a match with group leader Argentina on Tuesday.

Gymnastics

The US was superb in the women’s qualification round and placed 1st overall with a score of 181.863. The Russians came in second just over 1.4 points behind, China a distant 5th. The ramification of this was a extraordinarily tight race between the three main gymnasts for the two indvidual all around spots. The first spot went to Alexandra Raisman (60.391) who finished 2nd overall behind Victoria Komova (60.632). The 2nd spot went to Gabby Douglas who is 3rd overall (60.265). That meant that despite finishing 4th overall Jordyn Wieber (60.032) will not be in the individual all around final. The defending world champion is OUT!

In the vault McKayla Maroney, in her only event, blew the field away with a score of 15.8 she’ll be in the vault final and looks the heavy favorite to win gold. On the uneven bars Gabrielle Douglas scored a 15.333 and was the 6th qualifier for the uneven bars final. Douglas also qualified for the balance beam final with a score of 15.266, good for 3rd place. Alexandra Raisman will join her after finishing 5th and posting a score of 15.1. Kyla Ross lost out to her teammate despite finishing 6th with a score of 15.075. On the floor routine Alexandra Raisman led the way with a score of 15.325 while Jordyn Wieber finished 6th with a 14.666 mark. Both of them will be in the final.

Rowing

The men’s lightweight four crew had a great Sunday as they improved upon their time from yesterday and smoked the field to qualify for Tuesday’s semifinals out of their repechage.

The women’s lightweight double sculls got underway with the US finishing 3rd in their heat. Unfortunately only the top two go straight to the finals so they will face a repechage on Tuesday.

Finally the women’s eight crew had a great race and finished 1st in their heat to qualify directly for Wednesday’s final.

Sailing

Zach Railey finished 10th and 15th in the first two finn races. That combined score of 25 leaves him in 15th at this point. He will have races three and four on Monday.

Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih finished 5th and 14th in their two star races. Their combined score of 19 ranks them 10th. Races three and four will be on Monday.

The US women’s elliott 6m crew beat Denmark by 5 seconds before losing to Spain by a minute and five seconds. The US is one of five crews tied for 4th at 1-1 after the first day. The US will face Portugal (0-1) and Australia (2-0) on Monday.

Shooting

The women’s 10m air pistol for Sandra Uptagrafft saw her finish 28th in the qualification round with a score of 378. She was only seven points out of qualification despite a 91 in her 2nd set of 10 shots.

On the other hand was Kimberly Rhode. She set an Olympic record hitting 74 of 75 in the skeet qualification round. The final was never really in doubt and she hit all 25 shots to win the gold with a Olympic record score of 99. That tied the world record. She has now won a medal in her 5th straight Olympics and has three golds over two different events. When they took away the double trap after 2004, where she won gold, she turned her attention towards skeet. She moved from 5th (91) in 2004 to 2nd (93) in 2008 and then to gold this year (99). Amazing athlete.

Swimming

The swimming competition will be busy on Sunday with eight events going, four of them ending in medals.

First at 5 AM the women’s 100m backstroke will get us underway with Rachel Bootsma in heat 5 and Missy Franklin in heat 6. They will be looking to be in the top 16 to advance to the afternoon semifinals.

Next at 5:20 AM the men’s 200m freestyle will feature Ricky Berens and Ryan Lochte head-to-heat in heat 5 both just needing a top 16 spot to move on to the afternoon semifinals.

Then at 5:43 AM the women’s 100m breaststroke will start. American Breeja Larson is in heat 5, and American Rebecca Soni is in heat 6. Again in this competition all that is necessary is a top 16 for a spot in the afternoon semifinals.

A similar story is true at 6:03 AM when Nick Thoman in heat 4 and Matthew Grevers in heat 6 will look for the top 16 spots to advance to the afternoon semifinals in the men’s 100m backstroke.

Finally a more urgent race will take place at 6:23 AM when the women’s 400m freestyle heats take place. Chloe Sutton is in heat 3 and Allison Schmitt is in heat 5. Only the top eight move on to the afternoon final.

The morning session will end with the dazzling men’s 4x100m freestyle relays. The US is in heat 2 and will be looking to finish in the top eight to lock up a spot in the afternoon final.

In the afternoon at 2:30 PM the women’s 100m butterfly final will take place with Claire Donahue and Dana Vollmer both in the final. Vollmer has been dominant so far and is the gold medal favorite.

Next at 2:37 PM we’ll see the men’s 200m freestyle semifinals, likely featuring Ricky Berens and Ryan Lochte. The top eight will move on to the final on Monday.

Then at 2:50 PM we’ll see the women’s 100m breaststroke semifinals with Breeja Larson and Rebecca Soni the Americans in competition. The top eight will move on to the final on Monday.

At 3:11 PM we’ll see another final as the men’s 100m breaststroke will take place with American Brendan Hansen just squeaking into the field.

Next at 3:18 PM the women’s 400m freestyle final will start possibly featuring Americans Chloe Sutton and Allison Schmitt.

The first of 2 more semifinal events will start at 3:28 PM with the men’s 100m backstroke, Nick Thoman and Matthew Grevers the Americans vying for a top eight spot and a trip to Monday’s final.

The second is the women’s 100m backstroke held at 3:49 PM. This is where Missy Franklin might shine and Rachel Bootsma should also be in the field. The top eight will move on to Monday’s final.

The afternoon will end with the 4 PM final of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay. It should be an incredibly fast race and will be very entertaining.

Swimming will be covered on tape delay from 11-11:45 AM and 1:30-2 PM (heats) and the afternoon session will be shown during primetime 7 PM-12 AM. All of it will be tape delayed.

Women’s 100m Backstroke – Rachel Bootsma finished 11th and Missy Franklin 2nd in both the heats and the semifinals. Bootsma did not move on to the final but Missy Franklin did advance to Monday’s final.
Men’s 200m Freestyle – Ricky Berens qualified 8th and Ryan Lochte 2nd for the semifinal. In the semifinals Lochte advanced in 5th position but Ricky Berens finished 9th, just missing Monday’s final.
Women’s 100m Breaststroke – Rebecca Soni and Breeja Larson went 2-4 in both the heats and the semifinals to advance easily to Monday’s final.
Men’s 100m Backstroke – Matt Grevers and Nick Thoman went 1-3 in the heats and 1-5 in the semifinals to qualify for Monday’s final.
Women’s 400m Freestyle – Chloe Sutton missed out on the final finishing 10th in the morning but Allison Schmitt qualified in 2nd. In the final Schimtt lost out on the gold but set an American record while grabbing the silver.
Men’s 4x100m Freestyle – After qualifying in 2nd the men’s team had the lead most of the way during the final but gave it up in the final 50m to lose the gold to the French. US settles for silver.
Women’s 100m Butterfly – In the final it was Claire Donahue in 7th, but the headlines belong to Dana Vollmer who finally smashed the world record and took home the gold medal.
Men’s 100m Breaststroke – After qualifying for the final in 8th Brendan Hansen swam an amazing race in what might be his final individual race to win the bronze and improving his time by .29 seconds over the semifinals.

Table Tennis

Ariel Hsing was able to advance in her first match of the day in the 2nd round, beating Ni Xialian of Luxembourg 11-9, 10-12, 11-9, 11-5, 10-12, 12-10. In the 3rd round she faced #2 Li Xiaoxia of China and really gave it a great fight before losing 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 11-9.

All the singles are out for the US but the women’s team will start play against Japan on Friday.

Tennis

Only one match actually started for the US. Varvara Lepchenko took on Veronica Cepede Royg and won set 1 7-5 before losing set 2 7-6 (8-6 tiebreaker). She will have to finish the match on Monday, the time unclear but probably sometime around 6:30 AM. All the other matches were rained out without beginning.

Volleyball

The US men won their first match against Serbia 25-17, 25-22, 25-21 but are only in 3rd in their group because Russia and Brazil had more dominant wins (point ratio). The US will next take on 5th place Germany on Tuesday.

Water Polo

The US water polo team won 8-7 over Montenegro on Sunday. They took a 4-2 lead to the half and hung on late to get the win. They are currently 3rd in their group by goal differential. They next face Romania on Tuesday. Romania currently leads the group.

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