Short and Sweet Rio 2016 wrap: How Australian women are faring at the Olympic Games
SHORT and SWEET wrap of Australian women in the first week of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Day 1-5 WRAP.
Women's sport
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- How Aussie women fared in Rio in week 2
- Play of the Day: Lisa De Vanna
- GOLD! Women's rugby series in 2017
- Play of the day: Tears to cheers
- Jessica Fox: The numbers game
FROM day one of the Rio Olympics there was success for Australian women.
And it only got better in the opening stanza of the biggest sporting event in the world.
There were medals in the pool, Catherine Skinner became our first female individual gold medallist in trap shooting and there was also the great win by the women’s sevens.
Here we have tracked some of the great moments of our women in week one - day’s one to seven — and their progression at the Games.
For the SHORT AND SWEET wrap of week two in Rio go HERE
DAY 7 WRAP
FOOTBALL
Heartbreak for the Matildas in the quarter-finals. With the scores drawn 0-0 at full time the Aussies and Brazil met in a penalty shootout won by the hosts 7-6.
BOXING
Shelley Watts knocked out in round one by Italian Irma Testa.
TRACK CYCLING
Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton opened their Rio campaigns with a fourth place in the team sprint.
DIVING
Australia’s Esther Qin and Maddison Keeney successfully qualified for the women’s 3m springboard semi-final.
ATHLETICS
Eloise Wellings recorded the best ever Olympic result by an Australian in the 10,000m. Wellings finished 10th in a time of 31 minutes, 14.94 seconds, eclipsing her personal best of 31:41.31.
DAY 6 WRAP
BASKETBALL
The Opals pulled off a stunning comeback to beat Japan and stay undefeated at the Olympics.
The Aussies came home strong in the fourth quarter for a 71-59 victory with Liz Cambage scoring 18 points in the final stanza alone for a game-high 37.
CANOE/KAYAK SLALOM
A penalty cost Jessie Fox silver but the Penrith paddler still has two medal at just 22 — a silver form London and a bronze from Rio after her third place in the K1 women.
EQUESTRIAN — DRESSAGE
Australia’s dressage team of Mary Hanna, Sue Hearn, Lyndal and Kristy Oatley placed ninth after the test event to miss out on a place in the final.
HOCKEY
The Hockeyroos have found their feet and notched a 1-0 in their fourth pool match against Argentina.
SWIMMING
It want a good day. Bronte Campbell finished fourth in the 100m freestyle and sister Cate sixth.
Belinda Hocking qualified fifth fastest for the women’s 200m backstroke final but world champion Emily Seebohm missed out after finishing sixth in her semi-final.
WATER POLO
Our women’s water polo team just missed out in victory over Italy with their 7-8 thriller.
DAY 5 WRAP
SWIMMING
CONGRATULATIONS Madeline Groves and our 4x200m freestyle team of Leah Neale, Emma McKeon, Bronte Barratt, Tamsin Cook. Our newest swimming silver medallists.
Groves raced to a silver on Thursday in the 200m butterfly final, finishing just 0.03 seconds of gold in her first Olympics.
Our relay swimmers then added silver to the women’s team total by finishing behind the US in their final.
Earlier Cate Campbell had a great night in the pool when she hit the water in the 100m freestyle heat.
Not only did she win the race but she also set a new Olympic record with her time of 52.78s.
This morning she swam in the semi-final
Sister Bronte also swam in the semi-final for a second place (52.29) in her race.
Cate them came out to record a 52.71 for a win in the second semi-final.
HOCKEY
Australia’s women’s hockey team went into battle against India and emerged from the stoush with their first win.
The Hockeyroos beat India 6-1 win to keep alive their Olympic campaign with defender Jodie Kenny’s 100th goal for Australia a highlight of the game.
SAILING
Great start to the Nacra sailing by Lisa Darmanin and skipper Jason Waterhouse.
The pair are competing at their first Games in the new mixed class and sit fourth overall after two races.
Out of the top 10 are Carrie Smith and Jamie Ryan in 12th in the 470 women. Ashley Stoddart is 11th in the Laser Radial.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Australian beach volleyballers Mariafe del Solar and Nicole Laird suffered a 21-16, 21-11 loss to China.
But Australia is still alive in the competition thanks to Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy who have moved through to the Round of 16 with a win over the Netherlands.
DAY FOUR WRAP
SWIMMING
Emma McKeon claimed bronze in a women’s 200m freestyle dominated by American sensation Katie Ledecky and Sweden’s Sarah Sjorstrom.
McKeon’s teammate Bronte Barratt came in fifth.
FOOTBALL
The Matildas knew they had to bring something special to the pitch to stay in Rio and that’s exactly what they did in their trouncing of Zimbabwe.
The Matildas navigated their way into the knockout stage of the tournament with a 6-1 victory over their rivals.
Lisa De Vanna, Clare Polkinghorne, Alanna Kennedy, Kyah Simon and Michelle Heyman (two) scored for Australia to advance Australia into the quarter-finals stage.
WATER POLO
Like the rugby sevens, our water polo women are considered a major hope for a medal of some colour in Rio.
They started their quest for their first gold since the 2000 Olympics with an unexpectedly emphatic 14-4 win over Russia, a side they had beaten by just a goal in the lead-up.
Australia’s leading goal scorer was Ash Southern.
BASKETBALL
Move over Liz Cambage. The Opals captain is back in town.
Penny Taylor was simply unbelievable as she scored 31 points and five rebounds in the Opals 89-71 win over France.
The Aussie veteran was unstoppable as Liz Cambage got herself into foul trouble.
ROWING
She’s back, baby. Kim Brennan showed why she is favourite for the single scull gold when she cruised to victory in her quarter-final.
The performance was a nice 31st birthday present for the 2015 world champion and London Olympic star.
“We were fortunate today to have a lot of other Australian crews racing today, so we were having a ball in the warm-up room and that helped keep me relaxed ahead of racing,” Brennan said.
SAILING
Queenslander Ashley Stoddart record a 17th and 28th to be placed 14th overall in the women’s Laser radial sailing.
DAY THREE WRAP
RUGBY SEVENS
It was a memorable game and a historic moment when our women’s rugby team delivered Australia it’s fourth gold medal of the Rio Olympics.
The Aussies defeated New Zealand 24-17 in the gold medal match with Emma Tonegato, Evania Pelite, Ellia Green and Charlotte Caslick all scoring a try.
It was a special moment for a group of women who had never played together until four years ago.
And it will be a hard golden moment to top in Rio.
CYCLING
After a shocking crash in the women’s road race, Australia’s top women were involved in one themselves in training on Tuesday.
The five woman team of Ashlee Ankudinoff, Georgia Baker, Amy Cure, Annette Edmondson and Melissa Hoskins were doing a training effort at race speed when the crash occurred.
Ankudinoff, Baker and Cure walked off the track with track friction burns and bruises. Hoskins was stretchered off the track, taken to hospital but later released.
CANOE SLALOM
Our silver medallist from the London Olympics, Jessica Fox, has made a good start to get quest for gold.
Fox was the second fastest qualifier in her semi-final.
The Penrith paddler is one of our top hopes for gold glory in the K1 and will race again Friday morning.
HOCKEY
We weren’t expecting this.
The Hockeyroos suffered their second successive loss at the Game when they were beaten 2-1 by the USA.
Western Australian Kathryn Slattery scored her first Olympic goal but the Aussies were unable to hold the US at bay.
The loss follows don from the Hockeyroos being beaten by Great Britain.
TENNIS
Sam Stosur made it thorough to the third round in Rio.
Australia’s number one and Olympic 13th seed beat world No. 35 Misaki Doi of Japan 6-3 6-4 to advance.
She will now face German No. 2 two Angelique Kerber.
SAILING
There’s a long was to go but after her first day in the water Queenslander and Olympic debutant Ashley Stoddart is placed fourth overall in the Laser Radial class.
Stoddart placed eighth and a seventh which left her in equal fourth place in her single-handed regatta.
ROWING
Not a great day on the water for our women. Medal contenders, the women’s quadruple sculls, missed making the cut for the finals by sixth hundredths of a second. But our women’s eight get a second chance in a repechage.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Tia-Clair Toomey exited the competition in the first round after attempting a personal best lift of 112kg in the clean and jerk
DAY TWO WRAP
SHOOTING
Catherine Skinner excelled in a sudden-death shoot-off to claim trap gold for Australia on day two.
It was Australia’s first gold by any Australian shooter since the Beijing Olympics.
The 26-year-old hails from Victoria and is chemical engineering student.
‘In a way I got so frustrated I just wanted to see those little targets smash so it kind of worked out!’ Catherine Skinner
DIVING
Divers Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith won Olympic bronze in the women’s 3m synchro in Rio.
The pair finished on 299.19 points to finish third behind Chinese gold medallists Shi Tingmao and Wu Minxia.
Incredibly the pair came from last place in the second round to find their form when it was needed most.
The pair pulled off a forward two and a half somersault one twist pike on their last dive for their best score of 71.10. It saw them pip Canada for a medal by less than a point.
BASKETBALL
It was a thriller but the Opals managed to keep their record intact in Rio with a hard-fought win over Turkey.
The victory followed on from the Opals defeat of Brazil in the opener.
Liz Cambage scored 20 points for the Opals as they downed Turkey 61-56.
“There was a lot of emotion in the first game, so there was always a danger of how we played that second game,’’ said coach Brenda Joyce.
RUGBY SEVEN
After doing demolition jobs on rivals on the first day the Aussie women’s sevens were forced to fight much harder in day two but still managed to book a semi-finals clash against Canada.
The Australians trailed the US early before escaping with a 12-12 draw. They then defeated Spain 24-0 in a bruising encounter.
‘It was bad’ Emma McKeon after the 100m butterfly final
SWIMMING
An emotional Emma McKeon finished seventh in the 100m butterfly final with a time of 57.05 seconds. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom took gold in a new world record time of 55.48s.
‘It was bad,’ said McKeon, who qualified second fastest and was part of Australia’s 4x100m freestyle relay team that won gold on day one.
DAY ONE WRAP
BASKETBALL
The Opals have come from behind to claim a great victory in front of a home crowd in their opener.
The Opals defeated Brazil 84-66 to put their quest for a first ever gold in the Olympic arena on the right track.
The Aussies were down 47-40 before they managed to work their way back into the game
Liz Cambage scored 20 points and 14 rebounds.
SWIMMING
Australia’s 4x100m freestyle relay women claimed gold and a new world record in the pool.
The team of Cate and Bronte Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Emma McKeon were the first Australian women to stand on top of the podium in Rio.
World record holder Cate, younger sister Bronte, the reigning world champ, McKeon and Elmslie claimed gold with a world record 3.30.65.
The gold followed on from Mack Horton’s in the 400m freestyle.
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ROWING
Olympic champion Kim Brennan gave us all a scare when choppy conditions almost sunk her boats and prevented her qualifying through in the women’s single sculls.
Brennan, rowing’s major gold medal hope, eventually finished third to advance.
But the world renown rower later raged against the conditions rowers were forced to race in at Lagoa Stadium which she deemed untraceable due to the wild chop and white capped waves.
RUGBY SEVENS
The Australian women’s sevens side have lived up to expectations with a stunning opening day.
The Aussie women outmuscled Fiji in a danger match to race off with a 36-0 win.
This followed on from their 53-0 win over Colombia in the first match.
FOOTBALL
Having led Germany for much of the match, the Matildas were held to a 2-2 draw in their second match of the tournament.
The Matildas, making their return to the Olympic arena for the first time since the Atlanta Games, needed to win or draw to keep alive their hopes of a medal in Rio.
The Matildas now need to make up a seven goal deficit and hope Canada beat Germany in their pool match-up.
HOCKEY
The Hockeyroos were looking the goods in their opener against Great Britain on Sunday but ended up losing 2-1.
It will be a tough road back for the Aussies after this loss to an old foe.
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