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(It's not college sports, and isn't really relevant to K-State until it's time for the high jump, but that's okay. Jon is crazy, and is willing to editorialize and report on the Olympics for the next two weeks. Consider these daily posts your Olympics Open Threads, and pray for Jon's clearly twisted and shattered psyche.)
China kept rolling, the USA kept being inconsistent, and NBC improved somewhat. It was a day of triumph and disaster in the aquatic center, where records keep falling left and right. It was a day when the fourth-best gymnast in the arena didn't qualify for the women's all-around. It was a day when one team sport favorite stumbled, and another bombed out entirely.
But most importantly, from an American perspective, it was a day when a hero turned into a goat. All the skinny, and your viewing guide for tomorrow, after the jump.
Archery: Three of the four women's teams who drew first-round byes were knocked off in the quarterfinals. That included Team USA, who lost a 218-213 decision to China. The one team that survived their bye was South Korea, who captured the gold with a one-point victory over the Chinese; Japan earned the bronze by defeating Russia.
Badminton: Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach fell again in group play, losing 21-13/21-14 to the Malaysian duo of Kien Keat Koo and Boon Heong Tan.
Basketball: Team USA got off to a slow start, only leading 22-21 after the first quarter. Behind 22 from Kevin Durant, however, the Americans blew out the French in the middle two quarters to cruise to a 98-71 win. Also in group A, Nigeria got past Tunisia 60-56, and Argentina pounded Lithuania 101-79. In group B, Brazil survived a late rally to beat Australia 75-71, Pau Gasol had 21 points and 11 boards to help Spain drill China 97-81 despite 30 points from Jianlian Yi, and Russia drilled Great Britain 95-75 behind 35 points from Andrei Kirilenko. Luol Deng had 26 for the British.
Beach Volleyball: April Ross and Jennifer Kessy beat Maria Virginia Zonta and Ana Gallay of Israel in straight sets in preliminary round action; Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers did the same to the Japanese pair of Kentaro Asahi and Katsuhiro Shiratori
Boxing: Jose Ramirez barely escaped his lightweight round of 32 bout with France's Rachid Azzedine, winning 21-20 on points. Welterweight Errol Spence had an easier time of it, beating Brazilian Myke Ribiero de Carvalho 16-10. (LIVE: CNBC, 7:30-10:30 and 2:30-5:30)
Canoe/Kayak: Slovakian Michal Martikan and Slovenian Benjamin Savsek finished 1-2 in the qualifying heat for the men's C1 slalom, both finishing a good two points ahead of the pack placed 3-8. American Casey Eichfeld managed to finish each heat near the bottom of the top 12, but as you keep the best of your two heats he fell a point shy of qualifying for the final. Scott Parsons faced a similar fate, posting the best score among non-qualifiers in the men's K1 slalom. German Hannes Aigner blew away the field on his second run with a score over three and a half points better than anyone's best. Benjamin Boukpeti, who stunned the world by claiming bronze in Beijing and earning Togo their first Olympic medal ever, snuck in as the 14th of the 15 qualifiers.
Cycling: The medal riders were separated by a mere two seconds at the finish of the women's road race, with Marianne Vos of the Netherlands claiming gold by a wheel over Britain's Elizabeth Armitstead. Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya took the bronze. Shelley Olds led the USA contingent, finishing 7th, half a minute behind the leaders. Evelyn Stevens came in 24th, and Kristin Armstrong and Amber Neben pulled in together at 35th and 36th.
Diving: China's He Zi and Wu Minxia captured yet another gold medal for the Chinese, blowing away the competition in the women's synchronized 3m springboard. Abigail Johnston and Kelci Bryant gave the USA silver, while the bronze went to the Canadian pair of Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel.
Equestrian: The top three places in individual dressage were claimed by Day Two riders, as Japan's Yoshiaki Oiwa claimed the lead aboard Noonday De Conde. Phillip Dutton and Mystery Whisper are currently the highest-placed Americans, sitting 19th; the USA is in 7th place in the team standings.
Fencing: James Williams was eliminated 15-12 by Russia's Nikolai Kovalev in the round of 32, but Daryl Homer (15-11 over Romania's Tiberiu Dolniceanu) and Timothy Morehouse (15-6 over Russian Veniamin Reshetnikov) advanced. In the round of 16, Homer got past another Russian, Alexey Yakimenko, 15-14, while Morehouse beat Dmitri Lapkes of Belarus 15-13. They both fell in the semifinals, however, as Romania's Rares Dumitrescu won 15-13 over Homer and Italy's Diego Occhiuzzi beat Morehouse 15-9. Aron Szilagyi of Hungary captured the gold, beating Occhiuzzi 15-8; the bronze went to Kovalev, who outscored Dumitrescu 15-10.
Footy: In group A, Senegal knocked off Uruguay 2-0, guaranteeing a wild conclusion to the group on Wednesday as Britian beat the United Arab Emirates 3-1. Mexico beat Gabon 2-0 and Korea snagged a 2-1 win over Switzerland; both winners need only avoid losing by more than a goal on Wednesday to advance. Brazil guaranteed advancement out of group C with a 3-1 win over Belarus. Egypt and New Zealand drew 1-1, all but eliminating the Kiwis. Japan has also advanced, now having won group D outright with a 1-0 win over Morocco. The big shock, of course, is that Spain is toast, having lost 1-0 to Honduras. They're now unable to advance.
Gymnastics: The big surprise: Jordyn Weiber failed to qualify for the individual all-around, and not because her performance was poor. She concluded the day ranked fourth overall; the problem was that Alex Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas finished 2-3, and only two gymnasts per country may advance. Weiber's disappointment will probably be dulled by the fact that the Americans seem poised to completely wreck the team final, though Russia's still a threat. Individual qualifiers for the Americans include McKayla Maroney in vault, Douglas on the uneven bars, Raisman and Douglas on the balance beam, and Raisman and Wieber on the floor exercise. Kyla Ross is a reserve for the uneven bars, nudging Wieber out of another event; both Ross and Wieber were eliminated from the balance beam due to Raisman and Douglas finishing ahead of them, even though Ross "should" have qualified on score.
Handball: In men's group A, Iceland took down Argentina 31-25, Sweden beat Tunisia 28-21, and France pounded Great Britain 44-15. Yes, you read that right. Group B saw Croatia easily dispatch South Korea 31-21, Spain scored a 26-21 win over Serbia, and Denmark edged Hungary 27-25.
Hockey, Field: The women got into action, and group A saw the Netherlands shut out Belgium 3-0, China blanked South Korea 4-0, and Great Britain beat Japan by the same score. Argentina gave themselves a massive tiebreaker advantage in group B, pounding South Africa 7-1, while New Zealand won the ANZAC derby over Australia 1-0. Team USA, considered a favorite here, lost 2-1 to the Germans.
Judo: In the men's -66kg, Lasha Shavdatuashvili of Georgia won the gold over Miklos Ungvari of Hungary. The bronze was shared between South Korea's Jun-Ho Cho and Japan's Masashi Ebinuma. Kum Ae An of North Korea captured the gold in the women's -52kg, defeating Cuban Yanet Bermoy Acosta; the bronze medals went to Italy's Rosalba Forciniti and Priscilla Gneto of France.
Rowing: The repechages for men's double sculls, men's light four, and both single sculls events were this morning; Team USA won the men's light four repechage, and move on to the semifinals. Heats for both light double sculls, as well as the women's eight heats, begin at around 4:40am. Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols finished in third place in their heat of the women's lightweight double sculls event, and will face the repechage. Team USA won their heat of the women's eight, advancing directly to the event final. The qualifying heats for men's lightweight double sculls also took place, with no US representation.
Sailing: Jonas Hogh-Christensen has captured the early standings lead after 2 of 10 races in Men's Finn. American Zach Railey finished 10th and 15th, and sits 15th overall. In Men's Star, Mark Mendelblatt with Brian Faith finished fifth in the first race, but stumbled to a 14th place finish in the second race; they're tenth overall, and the Brazilian crew of Robert Scheidt with Bruno Prada have the lead. In the first day of the Women's Elliott round-robin, the USA beat Denmark head-to-head, but lost the second race to Spain. The Spanish share the overall lead with Australia and Russia. A race between Finland and Portugal was postponed to tomorrow.
Shooting: Kim Rhode tied the world final-round record in women's skeet, resulting in a USA GOLD. She easily outpaced the competition, scoring a perfect 25 in the final round to finish with 99/100; to put it in perspective, China's Wei Ning scored a 91 winning the silver, while the last-place shooters scored 89. The bronze came down to a shoot-off, won by Danka Bartekova of Slovakia over Russia's Marina Belikova. China's Guo Wenjun continues the Chinese gold medal parade, winning the women's 10m Air Pistol event. Silver and bronze came down to a tie-breaking shootoff in which Celine Goberville of France defeated Ukranian Olena Kostevych. American Sandra Uptagrafft finished 28th, failing to qualify for the final.
Swimming: Another USA GOLD, as Dana Vollmer followed her earlier claim of the Olympic record in the qualifying heats by setting the world record and winning the women's 100 butterfly. Lu Ying of China took silver, with the bronze going to Australia's Alicia Coutts. Another sure gold turned into USA silver when yesterday's hero Ryan Lochte inexplicably collapsed on the anchor leg of the men's 4x100 free, turning what had been a half-second lead handed over by Michael Phelps at the 200m mark and maintained by Cullen Jones on the third leg into a shocking half-second loss to the French. Yannick Agnel swum the heroic anchor leg for the French team. Russia captured the bronze, catching Australia at the end. France's Camile Muffat won the gold in the women's 400 free, setting the Olympic record. Another USA silver came courtesy of Allison Schmitt's Americas record performance, while Rebecca Adlington of Britain won the bronze. The final medal event of the day resulted in USA bronze as Brendan Hansen, who'd had somewhat lackluster qualifying and semifinal swims and thus wasn't feeling much like a contender, surged to nip Hungary's Daniel Gyurta by .04 seconds. The gold, and another new world record, went to South Africa's Cameron van der Burgh (who, like Vollmer, had broken the previous Olympic record yesterday); Australian Christian Sprenger won the silver.
As for today's events which did not conclude in finals, the finals are all now set. Missy Franklin won her heat of the women's 100 backstroke and will race from a center lane. Rachel Bootsma failed to qualify for the final; shockingly, neither did Auburn's Kirsty Coventry of Zambia, the two-time defending gold medalist in the 200 back. In the qualifying heat, Emily Seebohm of Australia set a new Olympic record. Lochte qualified for the men's 200 free, although with the fifth-best semifinal time; Ricky Berens missed the final by .07 seconds. In the women's 100 breaststroke, Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania set a European record and recorded the best time racing in heat 2; in heat 1, Americans Rebecca Soni and Breeja Larson finished one-two and will advance. A swim-off was required to determine the eighth spot in the final; Jamaica's Alia Atkinson beat Canadian Tera van Beilen by almost a full second. Matt Grevers, with the best time in the semifinals, qualified for the men's 100 backstroke along with teammate Nick Thoman.
Table Tennis: Ariel Hsing defeated Xia Lian Ni of Luxembourg 4 games to 2 in the second round of women's singles; she fell by the same margin in the third round to Li Xiaoxia of China, ending Team USA's participation in the event.
Tennis: A bunch of matches were postponed due to inclement weather, including every match involving Americans: Andy Roddick's first round match against Martin Klizan of Slovakia, Italian Sara Errani's shot at Venus Williams, Varvara Lepchenko's match against Paraguay's Veronica Cepede Royo, and the Williams sisters doubles tilt against Romanians Sorana Cirstea and Simona Halep. Other victims of the weather included Lleyton Hewitt and Maria Kirilenko, as well as Roger Federer's doubles match. Andy Murray was able to knock off Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets, and Maria Sharapova blew out Israel's Shahar Peer 6-2/6-0.
Volleyball: Group A saw Bulgaria wipe out Great Britain in straight sets, Argentina doing the same to Australia, and Poland taking a 3-1 win over Italy. In group B Russia blanked Germany, Brazil swept Tunisia, and Team USA shut out Serbia.
Water Polo: Men's group A got underway with Croatia beating Greece 8-6, Spain routing Kazakhstan 14-6, and Italy getting past Australia 8-5. In group B Serbia outlasted Hungary 14-10, Romania embarrassed the host British 13-4, and Team USA struggled in a hard-fought game, nipping tiny Montenegro 8-7.
Weightlifting: North Korea's Yun Choi Om won gold in the men's 56kg class, with the silver going to China's Wu Jingbiao and bronze to Valentin Hristov of Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan captured their second gold of the games courtesy of Zulfiya Chinshanlo's win in the women's 53kg. Taipei's Shu-Ching Hsu won the silver, with the bronze going to Cristina Iovu of Moldova.
MEDAL COUNT: China still leads the way with 12 overall and six gold. USA has moved up into second with 11 medals, three gold; Italy is third with 7 and two. South Korea and Japan have five medals, France and Russia four.
Tomorrow (all times Central):
Remember, all events available live streaming if you can get it to work. The broadcast details I give here are TV-specific.
Archery: Both men's and women's individual competitions begin at 3am, with 10 of the 32 first-round eliminations (and their succeeding second-round matches as well) for each gender. No American men are in action today, but Miranda Leek will shoot against Kateryna Palehka of Ukraine at 3:39am. (tape delay: NBCSN, 12:45-1:15pm)
Badminton: The Americans are toast at this point, but will face Japan's Naoki Kawamae and Shoji Sato tomorrow at 8:19am. (tape-delay; NBCSN, 5-5:30am, MSNBC 9:15-9:30am)
Basketball: Tomorrow, it's the women. In group A we have Croatia-China, Czech Republic-Turkey, and at 4:15pm, the US faces Angola. In group B, we get France-Australia, Russia-Brazil, and Great Britain-Canada. (All games LIVE on either NBCSN or NBC Specialty)
Beach Volleyball: Misty and Kerry return to action at 5pm tomorrow against the Czech duo of Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova. On the men's side, Jacob Gibb and Sean Rosenthal face Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland at 3pm. (LIVE: NBCSN 5am-6am, MSNBC 9:30-10:15am and 4-5pm, NBC 3-4pm; tape delay: NBC Primetime)
Boxing: We move on to the men's flyweight and light heavyweight divisions tomorrow, with 5 morning bouts in each class starting at 7:30, and five each in the afternoon beginning at 2:30. There is no American flyweight, but at 9:45 or so light heavyweight Marcus Browne will enter the ring against Great Britain's Damien Hooper. (tape delay: NBCSN 1:15-3pm, CNBC 4-7pm)
Canoe/Kayak: At 7:30am, the men's C2 slalom gets underway. Americans Eric Hurd and Jeff Larimer will be the second pair off the start, so get the stream running right away. The women's K1 slalom starts at 8:22, with Caroline Queen 8th in the start order. (tape delay: NBC 10-10:30am; NBC Late Night 11:35am-12:35am)
Cycling: off day.
Diving: The men's synchronized 10m platform event starts at 9am. David Boudia and Nicholas McCrory will dive for the Americans. (tape delay: NBC Primetime 6-11pm)
Equestrian: The cross country stage of the competition begins at 6:30am, with the start order yet to be determined. (LIVE: NBCSN, 7:15-11:45am)
Fencing: Susie Scanlan will face Ukranian Olena Kyrvitska at 4:30am in the women's epee round of 64. If she wins, she'll join two teammates in the round of 32; Courtney Hurley meets the French flagbearer Laura Flessel-Colovic, and Maya Lawrence faces Italian Mara Navarria. Those two matches are at 6:50. (Not televised today. At all.)
Football: off day.
Gymnastics: The men's team final begins at 10:30am, with Team USA hoping to build on their surprising first-place finish in qualifying. (tape delay: unavoidable)
Handball: Women's action: Angola-Croatia, South Korea-Denmark, Great Britain-Russia, France-Spain, Brazil-Montenegro, Sweden-Norway. (tape delay: France-Spain on MSNBC, 3:15-4pm)
Hockey, Field: Men's action includes South Korea-New Zealand, Australia-South Africa, Spain-Pakistan, Netherlands-India, Great Britain-Argentina, and Germany-Belgium. (LIVE KOR-NZE 3-4am; LIVE GBR-ARG 1-2:30pm)
Judo: Marti Malloy will be the first to take the mat tomorrow in women's -57kg, facing Telma Montero of Portugal at 3:37am with later rounds following on as the day progresses. Nicholas Delpopolo will face Chi Yip Cheung of Hong Kong at 4:26am in the round of 32 in men's -73kg. (not televised today)
Rowing: Repechage runs for men's and women's pair, women's and men's quad sculls, and men's eight; Team USA competes in both quad sculls events (3:40am for the women, 4am for the men) and Silas Stafford and Thomas Peszek will row in the men's pair repechage at 4:10am. The qualifying heats for women's double sculls (Sarah Trowbridge/Margot Shumway for the US in Heat 2 at 4:30am) and men's four (USA in heat 3 at about 4:50am) also take place. (tape delay highlights: NBC, 9:30-10:00am)
Sailing: Team USA faces Portugal and Australia in tomorrow's women's Elliott races. The third and fourth races in men's Star and Finn will take place, and the men's 49er (Eric Storck and Trevor Moore for the USA) and Laser (Rob Crane) and women's Laser Radial (Paige Railey) will commence with two races each. The action starts at 6am, and runs through the morning. (not televised today)
Shooting: Jonathan Hall and Matthew Emmons represent the USA when the men's 10m Air Rifle qualifications begin at 3am; the final will be at 6:15am. Also at 3am, the men's skeet qualifications commence, with Vincent Hancock and Frank Thompson shooting for the US. (tape delay highlights: NBCSN, 3:30-4:15pm)
Swimming: Heats and semis tomorrow in the women's 200 free (featuring Missy Franklin and Allison Schmitt) at 4am and 1:30pm, and the 200 IM (Ariana Kukors and Caitlin Leverenz representing America) at 4:41am and 2:55pm. At 4:21am and 2:32pm, the men's heats and semis for the men's 200 butterfly will feature Tyler Clery and Michael Phelps. The finals of today's four semifinal events will also take place; the mens 200 free at 1:43pm, women's 100 back at 1:51, men's 100 back at 1:58, and women's 100 breast at 2:15. (tape delay heats highlights: NBC 9-9:30am and 12:45-1:30pm; tape delay finals: NBC Primetime)
Table Tennis: off day.
Tennis: All those suspended first round matches get made up tomorrow. Second round action will feature American John Isner against Tunisia's Malek Jaziri, Roger Federer against Julien Bennetau of France, Serena Williams facing Poland's Urszula Radwanska, Ana Ivanovic against Britain's Elena Baltacha, Daniela Hantuchova meeting Alize Cornet of France, Kim Clijsters against Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro, and Caroline Wozniacki facing Belgian Yanina Wickmayer. (LIVE: Bravo, 6am-2pm)
Volleyball: Women's action in group A includes the Dominican Republic against Russia, Italy-Japan, and Great Britain-Algeria. In group B, China meets Turkey, Serbia faces South Korea, and at 10:45am Team USA takes the court against the Brazilians. (LIVE: SRB/KOR, NBCSN 5:30am; USA/BRA, NBC 10:30am; ITA/JAP, NBCSN 2pm)
Water Polo: Team USA takes on Hungary at 1:40pm; the day kicks off with the other group A game as Spain faces China. In group B, Italy meets Australia and Great Britain faces off with Russia. (LIVE: Spain/China, NSNBC 8am; Italy/Australia, MSNBC 11:15am joined in progress; USA/Hungary, NBC 1:30pm)
Weightlifting: Men's 62kg and women's 58kg take place tomorrow, starting at 4am. No Americans involved tomorrow. (LIVE: MSNBC, 2:30-2:45; tape 2:45-3:15)