Olympic Diary : Day 3

Pool Upsets galore , Controversies Rage, India on the Board

For the 2^nd time in 2 days Ryan Lochte was comprehensively beaten by French sensation Yannick Agnel. In a star studded 200 m freestyle relay field, Agnel demolished the field to finish more than a second ahead of the silver medal. With Lochte finishing a disappointing 4^th, Agnel has now replaced the American as the male star of the pool in these Olympics. The US though did get golds in the Mens and women’s 100m Backstroke (Matt Grevers and Missy Franklin). Franklin’s swim was especially impressive as it came just minutes after her qualifying heat for the 200 m freestyle. The games continued providing newer stars with 15 yr old Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania claiming as outstanding gold in the 100 m breaststroke for women.

There were controversies galore in the boxing ring, the fencing competition and in the men’s gymnastics team final, where the Japanese score was increased after an official protest over the last pommel horse routine. As a result the Brits were shunted into 3^rd place and Ukraine out of the medal places with Japan sneaking in for the silver. China, of course, ran away with the gold.

In spite of a first gymnastic medal in a 100 years for GB , these games might well prove to be one where the hosts put up the worst showing. Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield failed to impress off the diving board and all the British swimmers came up short in the pool. The realistic gold medal hopes for the Brits now seem to be in the rowing events and track cycling.

India on the Board : India is creating a bit of a fortress in the shooting gallery (if one medal per games can be called that). For us, who’ve been brought up to delight on scraps , 3 consecutive medals in  one sport , is probably akin to the monopoly of the Dream team for the US. But it was a great performance by Narang in the 10m Air Rifle final. Saina breezed through her match and surprise , surprise...the hockey team went 2 goals down , came back to equalise , conceded a late penalty corner goal and went down fighting against the Dutch – now where have we heard that before.  India should get one or 2 more medals with Saina, Vijender Singh (boxing) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling).

                                                    A Disconsolate Shin Lam

Image of the Day : A tearful protest by South Korea’s Shin Lam, who’s semi-final fencing math against Britta Heidemann ended controversially. With the scores tied , the official clock was reset with 1 second to go in which Heidemann landed the winning hit. Lam sat on the piste for almost an hour while her entire entourage staged a written protest. Both Lam and Heidemann lost their respective bronze and gold medal matches subsequently.