Joe Ingles left newborn twin babies in Australia when he went to Rio

BOOMERS forward Joe Ingles had to drag himself away from his two-day old twins to fly to Rio but their sleeping routine means they — and wife Renae — are usually wide awake while he’s playing.

BOOMERS forward Joe Ingles had to drag himself away from his two-day old twins to fly to Rio for the Olympics but their sleeping routine means they — and wife Renae — are usually wide awake while he’s playing on the other side of the world.

When Australia’s men’s basketball team tipped off against Serbia at 2pm local time on Monday, it was already 3am Tuesday where his brand new family were watching from Melbourne.

“She’s up feeding usually when we play now so it works out all right,” Ingles said.

“(I FaceTime) them as much as I can, but it’s extremely hard.

An Instagram picture from Renae Ingles who is married to Australian Basketballer Joe Ingles.

“I left when they were two days old so it’s been pretty tough, but she’s (Renae) great, she’s been a trooper and we’re lucky to have good family and friends around.”

Adelaide Thunderbirds captain and Australian Diamonds netballer Renae and Ingles welcomed twins Jacob and Milla on July 25 — just before Ingles flew overseas to prepare for the Boomers’ Olympic campaign.

The team is off to a flyer having beaten France and Serbia going into the clash with the US at 8am AEST on Thursday.

Ingles said he was disappointed with his first game but hit 10 points in the win over Serbia and praised the strength of the team for its unbeaten start to the tournament.

Joe Ingles in action against Serbia.

“That’s why we play team sport, four other guys on the court and 11 other guys on the team and we’ve played well together, we’ve played team basketball and focused on the job at hand,” he said.

“We knew coming in what we could do, we’ve got a goal and we’re not going to stop until we reach that goal, we’ll go and recover, get some sleep and then focus on the (United) States.

“Some of us are on their team, some of us play against them daily, weekly, so we think that gives us a bit of an edge to know how they play. Obviously saying that they’re still a bloody good team but we think our style of basketball can match it with anyone.”

NEW-FOUND FAME AND FORTUNE

THE oiled up Tongan flag-bearer has done all right for himself after stunning the world with his physique at the opening ceremony.

Taekwondo maestro and all around Olympic hunk Pita Taufatofua was spotted posing for a selfie with international supermodel Adriana Lima.

Pita Taufatofua with international supermodel Adriana Lima.

Taufatofua appeared on the US Today show, where he met Lima on set.

Lima posted the selfie to her own Instagram page, declaring — in all capitals — “LOOK WHO I FOUND BACKSTAGE”.

He told the Today Show he was pleased to communicate his culture to the world.

DOING EMOTIONS WITH MICHAEL PHELPS

NOT only is Michael Phelps a gold medal magnet, he’s apparently his team’s emotional guru.

Turns out it was Phelps who brought emotional US relay members Ryan Held and Caeleb Dressel to tears when the swimmers broke down on the podium on night two.

Held, 21, had already started openly crying on the podium, when Dressel joined him becoming teary at the joy of winning gold.

Rio Day 3: Aussies at the 2016 Olympics

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“(Phelps) just said to let it out, let it go, to take my time and enjoy the moment,” Dressel told USA Today yesterday.

“I tried to tell myself I wasn’t going to cry. I was too tired to cry. But as soon as I heard the national anthem play, the tears rolled down my face. I just couldn’t hold back.”

Phelps said: “I told them before hand it’s OK to sing, and it’s OK to cry. It’s good to see the emotion out of those guys, and it shows they really do care.”

STOSUR BREWING SUCCESS?

SAM Stosur has her priorities straight — she came to Rio prepared with her own personal coffee plunger.

Stosur, who won her second round singles match yesterday in two sets, said she was an experienced enough traveller to know to pack the necessities: a coffee plunger and washing powder.

Australia's Samantha Stosur returns the ball to Japan's Misaki Doi.

“I’m washing out my match gear in the sink at 11pm last night,” she said.

“I’m organised I’ve got washing powder. I travel with my washing powder, my coffee plunger, everything.”

Originally published as Joe Ingles left newborn twin babies in Australia when he went to Rio