Athletics
In the women’s marathon this morning the US saw Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher hang with the leaders for most of the race. As the marathon came down to it’s final miles though the leaders pulled away and left Flanagan and Goucher to finish 10th and 11th. American Desiree Davila really wanted to start and did, but she pulled out quickly after that with the injuries she’s been dealing with lately.
In the women’s 400m hurdles in the afternoon the US got all three of their athletes, T’Erea Brown, Lashinda Demus, and Georganne Moline into the semifinals scheduled for Monday.
All three Americans qualified for Tuesday’s men’s high jump final on Sunday. Erik Kynard and Jesse Williams jumped the highest height reached, 2.29m, while Jamie Nieto jumped 2.26m without missing to reach the final in a tiebreaker with the others that didn’t clear 2.29m.
Then in the men’s 1500m Andrew Wheating and Leonel Manzano were in the first heat and we saw Leonel Manzano come on late to finish 4th and qualify for the final. Andrew Wheating finished 9th and was eliminated. In the second heat Matthew Centrowitz pulled into position late and finished 5th to qualify for the final. Manzano and Centrowitz will be in the final on Tuesday.
In the men’s hammer throw final Kibwe Johnson’s best throw of 74.95m in the first three was just shy of the 8th place distance, 75.84, and saw him eliminated in 9th place.
The Americans only had two competitors in the men’s 400m semifinals. The men’s 400m is an event the US has dominated for years. Today was not their day though… in the 1st round LaShawn Merritt had been injured and unable to complete his race. In the 2nd heat today Tony McQuay couldn’t keep up down the stretch and finished in 4th. Then in the 3rd heat Bryshon Nellum nearly went quick enough. However his 45.02 was .03 slower than necessary to get him into the final and the Americans were shutout. This is remarkable considering in Beijing and Athens the US swept the men’s 400m medals. Excluding the boycotted Moscow games in 1980 the last time the US didn’t have the gold medalist in the event was 1976. The last time the US didn’t have a medalist at all was 1920. And the last time the US didn’t have a finalist… well that had never happened until today.
The US did stack the field in the women’s 400m final with DeeDee Trotter, Sanya Richards-Ross, and Francena McCorory. In the end it was Sanya Richards-Ross that flew down the track the quickest and won the race in 49.55. DeeDee Trotter finished third in 49.72 to give the US two medals in the event.
After that in the 3000m final Evan Jager and Donald Cabral led a lot of the way but late on they faded and finished 6th (Jager) and 8th (Cabral) within 8 seconds of the leader.
The final event of the day was the men’s 100m final. Having qualified Tyson Gay, Justin Gatlin and Ryan Bailey it wasn’t clear who would challenge Usain Bolt, but the Americans had a few that could try. In the end they weren’t able to beat Bolt, but then again no human has ever ran as fast as he did, other than himself. His 9.63 was an Olympic Record and overshadowed great runs of 9.79 by Justin Gatlin (3rd and a personal best), 9.80 by Tyson Gay (4th and a season best), and 9.88 by Ryan Bailey (5th and a personal best).
Basketball
The US women take on China in their final group stage game and after being close early they blew the Chinese out of the gym, winning 114-66 to lock up 1st place in their group. They will face Canada in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Beach Volleyball
The beach volleyball competitions had the quarterfinals today and it was a great day for the Americans. First Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh Jennings solidly beat Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti of Italy 21-13, 21-13 to move into Tuesday’s semifinals. Their opponent on Tuesday will be Chen Xue/Xi Zhang of China. Later April Ross/Jennifer Kessy beat Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic 25-23, 21-18 in a really close match to move into the semifinals on Tuesday. At least one of these two will medal at this point.
Boxing
The US saw their first female boxer get underway on Sunday and saw her tournament come to an end as Queen Underwood was defeated 21-13 by Natasha Jonas of Great Britain in the lightweight round of 16.
Cycling
In men’s cycling Bobby Lea wrapped up the omnium by finishing 11th in the 4km individual pursuit, 7th in the 15km scratch race, and 13th in the 1km time trial. This left him in 12th at the end of the omnium with 61 points.
In the men’s sprint Jimmy Watkins lost twice to Shane Perkins of Australia in the quarterfinals, ending his chance at a medal. Instead he was in the 5th-8th place race and finished to end the individual sprint competition in 6th place.
Diving
There were high hopes today that Christina Loukas or Cassidy Krug could add another medal to the US’s already successful diving haul in London, both those hopes were dashed as both women has some disappointing dives and ended up finishing 7th (Krug) and 8th (Loukas).
Equestrian
In the equestrian competition the 2nd day of jumping took place. McLain Ward on Antares and Beezie Madden on Via Volo both finished with 4 penalties. Ward now has 4 overall and is 17th in the individual competition while Madden was eliminated from the individual competition on Saturday in the first round. Reed Kessler on Cylana had a few problems and finished with 9 penalties, placing her in 47th and eliminating her from the individual competition. That meant Rich Fellers on Flexible needed a great ride to keep the US in the team competition by placing them in the top eight. He had a perfect ride and it was just enough as the US ended up in 8th, 2 points clear of 9th place Mexico. All four riders will ride tomorrow in the team jumping final while Fellers and Ward will hope their scores keep them in the top 35 in the individual competition to make the individual 4th round.
Fencing
In men’s team foil the US started off slow against France falling behind 20-13 after four matches. They steadily came back and were down 30-24 when Gerek Meinhardt turned things around with an 11-1 bout win to give the US a 35-31 which they never relinquished en route to a 45-39 victory in the quarterfinals. Things didn’t go as well after that as the US lost 45-24 to Italy in the semifinals and 45-27 to Germany in the bronze medal match and finished 4th overall.
Gymnastics
Two Americans were involved in individual apparatus competitions on Sunday. Jacob Dalton finished 5th overall in the men’s floor final with a score of 15.333 while McKayla Maroney finished 2nd in the women’s vault final with a score of 15.083 after she fell on her 2nd vault attempt’s landing. It was a disappointing finish for Maroney who was a heavy favorite in the event.
Sailing
In the women’s RS-X competition Farrah Hall finished her event by finishing in 16th in both the 9th and 10th races. She ended up with 173 points and finished in 20th place.
Her counterpart, Robert Willis, finished in 11th and 30th in the 9th and 10th races and finished in 22nd overall with 179 points.
In 49er racing Erik Storck/Trevor Moore were 10th entering Sunday’s race but placed 20th and 17th in the 12th and 13th races to really hurt their chances of making the medal race. They are in 15th with 132 points and would need to climb to 10th (117 points) during the final two races on Monday.
In the women’s 470 Amanda Clark/Sarah Lihan were in 4th heading into Sunday’s races but finished 19th and 20th (out of 20) to fall to 8th place with a total of 41 points. Races 7 and 8 will be on Tuesday.
Mark Mendelblatt/Brian Fatih took part in the star’s medal race. They finished in 6th place and ended the competition in 7th overall.
Shooting
In the men’s 50m pistol qualifying round Sunday morning Nickolaus Mowrer finished 15th with 558 points and Daryl Szarenski finished 28th with 550 points. Mowrer had a great final round to end up within one point of being involved in the tiebreaker for the final spot in the final.
Tennis
The US went for three medals at Wimbledon on Sunday. First Serena Williams/Venus Williams took on Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic for the women’s doubles gold. The sister had a bit more trouble than Serena did in her single’s final, but still won the match 6-4, 6-4 to take home their 3rd doubles gold medal.
Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond faced Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova of Russia for the women’s doubles bronze. After winning the first set 6-4 they lose the 2nd set 6-4 and lost the 3rd set 6-1 to miss out on medaling in London.
Finally the mixed doubles bronze medal final between Lisa Raymond/Mike Bryan and Sabine Lisicki/Christopher Kas of Germany took place and Lisa Raymond ended up with a medal after all as they beat the Germans 6-3, 4-6, [10]-[4].
Volleyball
The US women had already locked up the top spot in their group but they finished it in style beating Turkey in straight sets (27-25, 25-16, 25-19). The US will now face the Dominican Republic in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Water Polo
The US women won their quarterfinal matchup fairly easily against Italy, 9-6 and now they will face Australia in the semifinals on Tuesday. Australia finished 3-0 atop their group but struggled to beat 0-3 China today in the quarterfinals.
Weightlifting
There were two women competing for the US in +75kg weightlifting today. Holley Mangold lifted 105kg in the snatch and 135kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 140kg, placing her 10th. Sarah Robles lifted 120 kg in the snatch and 145kg in the clean and jerk, placing her 7th overall with 265kg.
Weightlifting
In men’s 55kg greco-roman wrestling Spenser Thomas Mango advanced from the qualification round by beating Abouhalima Abouhalima of Egypt 3PP-1. Then in the round of 16 he lost to Rovshan Bayramov of Azerbaijan 3PO-0. Because Bayramov made the gold medal final Spenser Thomas Mango got into the repechage bracket and faced Mingiyan Semenov of Russia but lost 3PO-0.
In the men’s 74kg greco-roman wrestling Benjamin Provisor beat Cuba’s Bel Alexei 3PP-1 in the qualification round. He was then eliminated by Zurabi Datunashvili 3PO-0 in the round of 16.