Paris Olympic Wrap – Day 8 Saturday August 3

SportsHounds Senior correspondent Mike Osborne wraps up the Australian highlights on Day 8 of 16 at the Paris Olympics.

The red clay of Roland Garros rather than the blue water of the Olympic pool was the scene of Australia’s latest golden moment in Paris as Matt Ebden and John Peers won the men’s doubles.

Ebden and Peers, both 36 years old, took centre stage on a day when the swimmers delivered silver and and two bronze medals and 20-year-old sailor Grae Morris took silver in windsurfing on the waters off Marseille.

In the pool it was the wonder women Ariarne Titmus and Kaylee McKeown who delivered again.

Titmus won silver behind American legend Katie Ledecky in the 800m freestyle while McKeown finished the night with two bronze medals – in the 200m individual medley and the mixed 4x100m medley relay with Mollie O’Callaghan, Matt Temple and Josh Yong.

Emulating the feat of the Woodies – Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge who won doubles gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games – Ebden and Peers immediately celebrated with their wives and children who were court side for the win over Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.

It took a third set super tiebreak 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (7-1) 10-8 to secure the gold medal in just over two hours, and Ebden told Peers afterwards: “We’ll remember this moment for the rest of our lives.”

Both the Australians have won grand slam doubles titles and it was Peers’ second Olympic medal after he won bronze in the mixed doubles at Tokyo with Ash Barty.

“These moments are very rare in your career,” Peers said. “This is a once-off, playing at the Olympics is rare, winning gold is rarer. I’ll be talking about this until I’m 100 years old.” Read their full story here.

Morris, meanwhile, had led the windsurfing competition after 13 rounds before going into the final where he faced a race off against Israel’s Tom Reuveny and Holland’s Luuc van Opzeeland for the gold.

In a tight tactical battle contested in 17 knot winds, Reuveny outmanoeuvred Morris at the final marker to fly across the finish line in 6min43. The Australian crossed five seconds behind with the Dutchman a further seven seconds back.

“I was on the line with two of the best in the world,” Morris said. “I wouldn’t want to be on the line with anybody else. Great blokes. It was a fair fight. We all agreed, ‘let’s make this a fun one’. I’m just super happy to share that moment with them. Super close.”

Morris was chaired out of the water by his fellow Australian team mates after he won the first medal for the green and gold at the Olympic regatta in Marseilles.

“That was an epic race, super fun,” he said. “I was pretty bloody nervous. The longer we waited, the more I settled down. That wait made it worth it. I definitely got to experience every single nerve I have in my body. So it was awesome.”

At the swimming Titmus made USA swimming legend Ledecky fight all the way for her ninth career gold medal in the 800m freestyle.

And McKeown looked to have finished fourth in the 200m individual medley only to be promoted to bronze when one of the Americans who finished ahead of her was disqualified for an illegal turn. Canadian teen sensation Summer Macintosh won the gold with Kate Douglass of the USA taking silver.

With a busy schedule McKeown was quickly back in the water for the mixed medley relay where Temple’s butterfly leg and O’Callaghan’s final freestyle leg lifted the Australians from fifth to third behind the American (gold) and Chinese (silver) medallists

The tennis gold, a sailing silver and the silver and two bronze medals in the swimming helped Australia’s to remain fourth on the medal tally at the Paris Olympics behind China, the USA and France. Australia has 12 gold 8 silver and seven bronze medals after Day 8 of the Games.

7 to 1 swimmer silver and bronze

Paris Olympic Medal Table

The young sailor admitted to a few mistakes.

“I was just trying to keep my head clear and take my next opportunity,” he said. “I feel I did everything I’ve trained for. It could have gone better, but I’m super happy and have no regrets. I can’t compare it to any other moment in my life. This is really the pinnacle in my 20 years.” 

The Australian action from other sports in Paris today:

BOXING

Australia’s Charlie Senior is assured of at least a bronze medal after winning a tight 57kg division quarter-final against Tokyo silver medallist Carlo Paalam of the Philippines.

Senior scraped past the Filippino in a split decision 3-2, losing the first round but edging ahead in the final two rounds.

The Hungarian, Canadian and Irish judges awarded the fight to the Australian but the American and Moroccan judges went the other way.

“I knew the rounds were close and going into the third I knew it was all down to that round,” Senior said.

“But finishing the third I knew I could box cleaner, get out of the way and score the points. It’s not about hitting as hard as you can, it’s about boxing, getting it done and winning the fight.”

Senior said he wanted to win his next bout and fight for gold. “You don’t come here for a bronze … you come here for the final result, that gold medal, and you aim for that.”

CANOEING

With two gold medals already in her Australian Olympic bag, Jess Fox comfortably qualified for the next round of the new kayak cross event which is making its Olympic debut in Paris.

Her younger sister Noemie, an Olympic rookie, also qualified for tomorrow’s competition.

“I just had to get through this round and tomorrow, so job done,” said the elder Fox who has already won the canoe and kayak slalom events.

“I’m tired, but a lot of the girls are tripling up, and if they aren’t tripling up they’re doubling up. The fact that it’s just one run (today) means more rest, which is good.”

Noemie said her heat was challenging but set the tone for the racing with carnage from the start.

Father Richard Fox was relieved to see both his daughters progress.

“Noemie was focused. She got ahead and stayed there,” he said. “They live to fight another day. Every race is tough. If they are in the same race there will be fireworks.”

HOCKEY

The Hockeyroos are into the quarter finals after beating Spain 3-1 with two last quarter goals breaking a 1-1 deadlock at the final break.

Alice Arnott scored in the second minute to take the pressure off and the Australians went to half time with that narrow lead before Spain equalised just before three-quarter time.

But Stephanie Kershaw converted a penalty corner in the 55th minute followed by a field goal from Kaitlin Nobbs a minute before the buzzer.

Australia’s goalkeeper Jocelyn Bartram saved nine shots from 10 in a strong defensive performance.

The win ensured the Hockeyroos topped their pool and remain undefeated with four wins and a draw as they head into the quarter finals.

Australia’s Mariah Williams said remaining unbeaten was important for the Hockeyroos so they could avoid the strong Dutch side until the final.

“We wanted to make sure that we were going into our quarterfinal top of the table,” she said.

“We really focus on just the game ahead, and we don’t go any further than that… and then (our unbeaten run) just continues for us. We don’t want to go up against the Dutch in the semifinal.” 

WATER POLO

The Australian men scored a thrilling come-from-behind 9-8 upset win over 2023 world champions Hungary, surviving a late scare when an equalising shot from Hungary.

Goalkeeper Nic Porter was again one of the stars in defence, saving eight of 16 shots.

“I probably wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that we’d win this one,” Porter said.

“You hear all the talk about the game beforehand and there’s no one giving us any chance to win. But the belief in this team right now is incredible.

“We had some really difficult moments in that game, going down by two goals on two occasions, and we clawed our way back against the world champions from last year.”

Blake Edwards, Nathan Power and Milos Maksimovic all scored two goals in the win which ensured the Australians qualified for the quarterfinals.

After losing their first pool game 5-9 to Spain, the Australians have since beaten Serbia, France and Hungary. They next play Japan who have yet to win a game. 

ATHLETICS

Kurtis Marshall qualified for the finals of the men’s pole vault clearing 5.70 metres after three straight clean jumps at earlier heights.

Abbey Caldwell won her 800m repechage to join Claudia Hollingsworth in the semifinals but Catriona Bisset was eliminated.

“It’s certainly not easy (having an extra race) after a quick turnaround,” Caldwell said. “It really keeps you on your toes but it worked out for me because it got me through to the semifinals.”

Australia’s three 1500m runners Oliver Hoare, Stewart McSweyn and Adam Spencer all failed to reach the semi-finals through the repechage.

Bree Masters finished 7th in her women’s 100m semifinal and did not qualify for the final. And both Rohan Browning and Josh Azzopardi failed to qualify for the men’s 100m sprint final with Americans Fred Kerley and Ken Bednarek the fastest qualifiers.

Basketball BB 3X3

The Gangurrus were eliminated from the Olympics after losing a play-off game to Canada 21-10 after earlier losing toFrance 18-16 in overtime.

Marena Whittle scored four points in the Canada match and had a game high eight points for Australia against France. Anneli Maley topped the scoring with five points against Canada.

“Professional sports is really hard, especially at this level,” Male said. “I am really proud of the way we played. We showed Australia and everybody back home the heart and the fight that we have.

“We fail sometimes and that is OK. We will get back up, we are going to go to the next tournament and we are going to be reat. But this will hurt for a while.”

ROWING

A disappointing Olympic regatta for the Australians finished with two fourth places for women’s singles sculler Tara Rigney and the women’s eight, while the men’s eight finished last in their final.

Rigney had looked like she had the bronze medal in her keeping for most of the race but was pipped at the line by Lithuania.

The women’s eight rowed solidly but appeared destined for fourth from the halfway mark.

The men’s eight was hit with problems when Josh Hicks withdrew from the final with gastroenteritis. He was replaced by Tim Masters from the men’s four who also raced in the bronze medal winning eight at the 2023 World Championships.

GOLF

Australia looks to be out of medal contention as the men’s golf heads into the final round at the National course.

Former PGA champion Jason Day was tied for 10th and five shots behind the leaders after the third round.

Day had his best round so far with 67, after a 69 and 68 on the first two days left him 9-under.

Spain’s 2023 Masters winner John Rahm and another two-time major winner in Xander Schauffele of the USA are tied for first at 14-under.

Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood was one stroke further back at 13-under.

Australia’s other men’s player at the Paris Games is Min Woo Lee who was tied for 29th, going around in 3-under today. After three rounds he’s 4-under following a disastrous opening 76.

CYCLING

The Australian challenge faded in the men’s road race with Michael Matthews the top finisher in 15th place, while Simon Clarke was 32nd and Ben O’Conner 51st over the 273km course.

The race was won in fine style by Belgian Remco Evenpoel who had enough of a lead over the peloton to survive a flat tyre  and bike change near the Louvre museum in the run into the finish line.

Once he crossed the line, he stopped and posed in front of the Eiffel Tower while waiting for the other medallists to arrive.

Australian Medallists at the Paris Olympics

Mike Osborne

+ posts

Michael Osborne has been a journalist for more than four decades including 35 years with the national news agency Australian Associated Press, rising from junior reporter to Editor.

He was AAP Editor for 11 years and served four years as Head of Sport and Racing. He was also posted to London and Beijing as AAP’s Bureau Chief and Foreign Correspondent.

He has worked at six Olympics and five Commonwealth Games, covered tennis grand slams, golf majors, international cricket, rugby world cups and numerous sporting world championships. He also co-ordinated and managed AAP’s teams and coverage at three Olympic Games in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

• Mike Osborne

  https://sportshounds.com.au/author/mike-osborne/

  We predicted 18 golds & Australia delivered
• Mike Osborne

  https://sportshounds.com.au/author/mike-osborne/

  Frivolous facts about French tourism for Olympic bon vivants
• Mike Osborne

  https://sportshounds.com.au/author/mike-osborne/

  Paris Olympic Wrap - Day 15 Saturday August 10
• Mike Osborne

  https://sportshounds.com.au/author/mike-osborne/

  Paris Olympics Preview - Sunday August 11