Mollie O’Callaghan led a golden day for Australia on day three in the pool.
Swimming:
Mollie O’Callaghan has broken through for her first individual Olympic gold medal, surging past teammate Ariarne Titmus as the Dolphins went one-two in a 200m Freestyle final that lived up to its primetime billing at the Paris La Défense Arena.
Kaylee McKeown qualified second-fastest for the 100m Backstroke final as she sets out to defend the Olympic title she won in emotional scenes in Tokyo three years ago. Iona Anderson, the 18-year-old from WA, was fourth fastest and ensured a twin Australian presence in the final.
Tasmania’s Max Giuliani declared he would be back bigger and better in Los Angeles in 2028 after finishing seventh in a nail biting 200m Freestyle final, won by Romania’s David Popovici (1:44.72).
Ella Ramsay opened the night for the Dolphins in the final of the 400m IM, finishing fifth (4:38.01) behind Summer McIntosh from Canada (4:27.71), who dominated the race to collect her first Olympic gold medal.
Rowing:
Australia’s Men’s and Women’s Eights are both headed for the repechage in their bid to make the Paris Olympic final.
The Men’s Eight finished second in their heat behind Great Britain and now move to the repechage at 6.20pm AEST on 1 August where the top four boats will qualify for the A Final on 3 August.
The crew of Ben Canham, Joshua Hicks, Spencer Turrin, Angus Widdicombe, Jack Hargreaves, Alex Purnell, Angus Dawson, Jack O’Brien and Kendall Brodie finished with a time of 5mins 37.04secs.
The Women’s Eight was also second in their heat which was won by Great Britain.
Katrina Werry, Lucy Stephan, Bronwyn Cox, Georgie Rowe, Jacqui Swick, Giorgia Patten, Sarah Hawe, Paige Barr, Hayley Verbunt finished in 6mins 18.61secs with Romania setting the fastest time of 6mins 12.31secs.
They will race their repechage at 6.10pm AEST on 1 August ahead of the A Final on 3 August.
Beach Volleyball:
Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar knew they would need to be at their best to win their pool match against the world number two Americans Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth.
Taliqua and Mariafe were able to trade blows with the Americans, and had their usual points of brilliance, but they couldn’t string enough of them together to seize the momentum.
The Americans played well to force errors from the Australians and take the match 2-0 (21-16 21-16).
Earlier on Monday in Paris, Australian men’s team Mark Nicolaidis and Izac Carracher pushed the ninth seeded Italian pair, Samuele Cottafava/Paolo Nicolai all the way in two tight sets, going down 21-19 21-18.
The Australian pair created opportunities early in the second set and again later on but weren’t able to capitalise and push it to a third set.
