Thursday, August 11, 2016

The Olympics: Day 5 Rio

The big surprise in the Olympic pool tonight was that we had a group of unlikely winners. None from the US Team.

Dmitriy Balandin won Kazakhstan's first ever Olympic Gold in the Men's 200m Breaststroke, but that wasn't the only headline. Josh Prenot won a silver for Team USA, no American man had won a medal in this event since 1992 when Mike Barrowman won Gold in 1992 and Brendan Hansen won bronze in 2004.

Men's 200m Breaststroke

1. Dmitriy Balandin, Kazakhstan, 2.07.46
2. Josh Prenot, USA, 2.07.53
3. Anton Chupkov, Russia, 2.07.70

Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain added a Gold to her Bronze from earlier this week.

Women's 200m Butterfly

1. Mireia Belmonte Garcia, Spain, 2.04.85
2. Madeline Graves, Australia, 2.04.88
3. Natsumi Hoshi, Japan, 2.05.20

At only 18 years of age, Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers captured Gold in one of the marquee swimming events, the 100m free last night. It's the first Australian Gold in the event since 1968, and what's even more impressive is that Chalmers beat several veteran swimmers to do it. This included US swimmer and defending champion, Nathan Adrian who just made it onto the podium with a Bronze. Adrian said he still felt great about getting another medal.

Men's 100m Freestyle

1. Kyle Chalmers, Australia, 47.58
2. Pieter Tmmers, Belgium, 47.80
3. Nathan Adrian, USA, 47.85

Another relay Gold for the US Team was achieved in the pool last night. This time it came from Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, Maya Dirado, and Katie Ledecky. Ledecky has added more hardware to her already successful Rio Games. Dirado now has one of each medal from Rio.

Women's 4x 200m Relay

1. USA 7.43.03 (Team USA: Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, Maya Dirado, and Katie Ledecky)
2. Australia 7.44.87
3. Canada 7.45.39

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, the Men's All Around in Gymnastics took place on Wednesday night and the winner was no surprise. Kohei Uchimura from Japan who has dominated his sport since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing repeated as the All Around Champion. "King Kohei" as he is called sealed the deal with a near flawless high bar routine, 15.8. Uchimura is always humble and said that a team medal means far more to him than an individual medal, and so when his team did just that, one could tell that his happiness was genuine. Silver went to Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine who led several times during the event. Verniaiev said that Uchimura is one of the gymnasts he admires most, and the two posed for photos together. Max Whitlock from Great Britain became the first British man to win an All Around Medal at the Olympics.

Men's Individual All Around

1. Kohei Uchimura, Japan, 92.365
2. Oleg Verniaiev, Ukraine, 92.266
3. Max Whitlock, Great Britain, 90.641







No comments: