Olympic daily wrap, day 7: Cate Campbell’s redemption, Matildas’ heartbreak and Team Pursuit’s near miss

A roundup of what went down on day 7 in Rio: Cate Campbell returns to form, agony for the Matildas, Dane Bird-Smith takes race walking bronze — then sees his dad hauled off by the cops ...

Dane Bird-Smith celebrates his bronze medal performance in the Mens 20k race walk.

THE AUSSIES MAKING THE NEWS

It was a day of redemption for the Campbell sisters in the pool, with Cate and Bronte both qualifying for the 50m freestyle final, less than 24 hours after their heartbreaking swims in their pet 100m event.

World No. 1 Cate Campbell produced a gutsy swim to qualify for tomorrow’s 50m freestyle final by ranking second in 24.32s from the semi-finals, then proceeded to break down in tears as she recalled the pain of her last 24 hours.

American superstar Michael Phelps was aiming for gold medal number 23, but was usurped by Indonesia’s Joseph Schooling in the 100m butterfly. Phelps shared the silver medal dais with South Africa’s Chad le Clos and Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh. While American Katie Ledecky broke her own world record in the 800m freestyle to stamp her authority on the meet. It was the 19-year-old’s fourth gold medal at the Rio games.

Cate’s raw emotion after semi swim

Australia faces yet another four-year wait to exact revenge on Great Britain in the men’s team pursuit after the Brits broke the world record in an epic Olympic final in Rio.

Led by Bradley Wiggins who won his fifth gold medal, Great Britain came from 0.5 of a second down at the halfway mark of their 4km final to win in 3mins 50.205 secs from Australia’s 3:51.008.

World record denies Aussies pursuit gold

The Matildas have suffered Olympic Games heartbreak, losing their quarter-final to Brazil on penalties after having a shot to win the game in Belo Horizonte.

Katrina Gorry’s fifth penalty had a chance to win it after five-time world player of the year Marta had Brazil’s fourth kick saved by Lydia Williams, but she was denied by Brazilian keeper Barbara.

Three shots later defender Alanna Kennedy had her shot saved, sending the Matildas out of the Games and denying them a first ever semi at a major tournament

A distraught Kennedy was consoled by teammates as the capacity crowd and Brazilian players celebrated.

Matildas heartbreak in epic penalty shootout

The father of bronze medal-winning walker Dane Bird-Smith was detained by military police as he tried to celebrate with his son. David Smith, who is also his son’s coach, was stopped at a security checkpoint where he got in an argument with police.

Bird-Smith wasn’t told about the situation until he had completed his media commitments.

The 24-year-old Queenslander had earlier claimed the 20km bronze in a career best time of 1hr 19m 37s with China’s Wang Zhen taking gold (1:19.14 sec) from his countryman Cai Zelin (1:19.26).

Cops stop dad celebrating with son

Marcus Fraser closed with a tap-in birdie to seize the lead after Friday’s second round of the Rio Olympics men’s golf tournament with British Open champion Henrik Stenson and Belgium’s Thomas Pieters making a charge.

Fraser, ranked 90th, fired a two-under par 69 to stand on 10-under 132 after 36 holes and sustain hopes of a wire-to-wire victory at the first Olympic golf event in 112 years.

Fraser keeps Aussie gold golf hopes alive

Shelley Watts was denied by a contentious split judges decision.

Australian boxer Shelley Watts was left fuming after a split decision saw her lose her first fight and sink her Olympic dream in just eight minutes.

The lightweight fighter was beaten by teenage Italian Irma Testa but Watts and her coaches were left shocked by the 2-1 judges’ decision after a bout they thought they’d won.

All Australians are now out of medal contention.

Heartbreak for Australia’s lightweightboxer

The Kookaburras will take on London silver medallists Holland in their knockout quarterfinal on Monday morning (AEST) after a pool round that almost never went to plan.

The world’s most dominant side had to work for every victory, finishing third in their pool with three wins and a pair of 1-0 losses. Finally against Brazil last night Australia was able to coast to victory against easybeat Brazil in a 9-0 win that included a Glenn Turner hat-trick.

Kookaburras bulldoze home nation Brazil

Aussie coach Andrej Lemanis says he is proud his side plays so-called “dirty” basketball as the Boomers sealed their quarter-final berth.

The Boomers coasted to a 93-68 victory over winless China to lock in a top four berth after three wins from four pool games.

’Dirty’ Boomers get back to winning ways

THE BIG PICTURE

Australia's women’s team pursuit squad take to the boards in Rio.

THE RIO LOWDOWN

Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby was jeered out of the Olympic arena after refusing to shake hands with his Israeli opponent.

El Shehaby was beaten by Or Sasson in their heavyweight first round encounter but at the end of the bout, he refused to either bow to the Israeli or shake his hand. In judo it is customary to both bow to opponents — a sign of respect in Japan — and shake hands after a bout is over.

Egyptian judoka jeered after Israeli handshake snub

They say records are made to be broken. The world mark in the women’s 10km deserved to be obliterated. Set by China’s Wang Junxia during an era where Chinese doping was infamous, the mark had sat as a sore point in athletics for 23 years. Step forward Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana, who today carved a scarcely-believable 14 seconds off Wang’s record, finishing in 29:17.45. The run was described as “insane” and greeted by a mixture of euphoria and, inevitably, scepticism.

Almaz Ayana destroys the ‘dirtiest record in track history’

The Olympic ‘green pool’ debacle could plummet to an even greater depth of embarrassment with Rio 2016 organisers considering relocating the synchronised swimming competition to another pool due to health concerns.

Synchro events could be moved from swamp pool

THE SOCIAL SCENE

Sportsmanship. pic.twitter.com/J4jt7H7tz5

— Todd Balym (@balym_GCB) August 13, 2016

First night session of athletics. LOG claim 67% of tickets sold tonight! Clearly kept Delhi-style in room somewhere! pic.twitter.com/9ESY2gmuy6

— Vikki Orvice (@vikkiorvice) August 12, 2016

This could go either way but one thing I know is our @TheMatildas are doing us proud 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

— TIM CAHILL (@Tim_Cahill) August 13, 2016

Cate Campbell just poured her heart out in mixed zone & broke down in tears. Why? To say thanks to @DolphinsAUS & Aust public for support.

— Todd Balym (@balym_GCB) August 13, 2016

THE QUOTE

“I do not really believe she is 100 per cent [legitimate]. It is too easy for her. We see no facial expressions while the rest of us are struggling for life at the back. How much difference can there be. I cannot say that she is not clean, but there is little doubt.”

Swedish 10,000m runner Sarah Lahti, who finished 12th, reacts to Ethiopian Almaz Ayana knocking a staggering 14 seconds off the world record in the process of winning the gold medal.

“My doping is my training, my doping is Jesus. Otherwise, nothing. I am crystal clear.”

Ayna’s response.

Originally published as Olympic daily wrap, day 7: Cate Campbell’s redemption, Matildas’ heartbreak and Team Pursuit’s near miss