London 2012: Day 11.

(Jon is really excited, and had to be restrained in order to complete today's recap. BUT HE DID NOW LEAVE HIM ALONE.)

Today's Olympic WTF?: "WTF are the tie-break rules for jumping events in track and field?" They're pretty simple once you get your head around them. Everyone who clears the same height is then grouped by misses at that height, then by misses overall during the competition. So even if you've only missed once, but it was at the current height, you're behind someone who's missed twice if both were at earlier heights. (Remember, you're not eliminated after three misses period, but after three misses in a row.)

Those rules play a part in when jumpers choose to pass; for instance, in today's high jump final, there were two instances where the silver medalist had no need to even attempt a given height that he'd missed because it wouldn't have done him any good anyway and would have wasted a miss had he, well, missed. There was another instance where a jumper, realizing that taking his third attempt at 2.29m would have been risking a chance at a medal, passed and let everyone else who hadn't already cleared that height fail. Had his jump at 2.33m been successful, instant medal. Too bad it wasn't.

Speaking of the high jump, here's your full recap of Day 11 and guide to day 12:

Athletics: In qualifications for the men's 110m hurdles, K-State's Jeffery Julmis, running for Haiti despite having been born in the US (Haitian parents, you see), finished eighth in his heat and did not qualify for the semifinals. Americans Jason Richardson, Jeff Porter, and Aries Merritt all did, however. In the men's triple jump qualifiers, Christian Taylor and long jump bronze medalist Will Claye both advanced to the final. Julie Culley and Molly Huddle qualified in the women's 5000m; Kim Conley, despite a personal best 15:14.48, did not. Also not qualifying: any of the American women javelin throwers. On the flip side, Isiah Young, Maurice Mitchell, and Wallace Spearmon all advanced to the semis of the men's 200m.

In the women's long jump qualifications, Brittney Reese and Janay DeLoach qualified for the final, though Chelsea Hayes did not. Nick Symonds and Duane Solomon qualified for the men's 800m finals, and we'll have three women in the 200m finals as Carmelita Jeter, Allyson Felix, and Sanya Richards-Ross all qualified.

The most important news today, of course, was the USA silver brought home by K-State's Erik Kynard in the men's high jump. He lost out on the gold to Russian Ivan Ukhov, who cleared 2.38m to Kynard's 2.33. The bronze was split three ways: Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshem, Canadian Derek Drouin, and Britain's Robert Grabarz all went out at 2.29m. Jamie Nieto also went out at 2.29m, but with a prior miss; he's the one I mentioned above that took the pass on his final attempt at 2.29m to try 2.33m. Jesse Williams finished tied for ninth at 2.25m.

Kynard's only 21. Peak age for high jumpers is around 28-32. Contemplate that, and consider Dwight Stones (who won a bronze in 1972 at 19) would have medalled three times if it hadn't been for the Moscow boycott. Yeah. Me, I can't help but imagine the announcements at next year's track meets: "And now, representing Kansas State University, the two-time defending NCAA champion and OLYMPIC. SILVER. MEDALIST... ERRRRRRIK KYNAAAAAARD"! Give you chills, don't it?

In the other medal events, Australian Sally Pearson surprised everyone, setting a new Olympic record while winning the women's 100m hurdles. Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells grabbed USA silver and bronze, with Lolo Jones right behind them. Robert Harting of Germany took gold in the men's discus, with Ehsan Hadadi of Iran winning silver and Estonian Gerd Kanter claiming bronze. Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria won the men's 1500m; Leo Manzano claimed USA silver while Abdalaati Iguider of Morocco took bronze. Matt Centrowitz was fourth, missing the bronze by .04 seconds.

Basketball: In women's quarterfinals, Team USA blasted Canada 91-48, Australia beat China 75-60, Russia edged Turkey 66-63, and France escaped the Czech Republic 71-68.

Beach Volleyball: Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings handled their semifinal match with China's Xue Chen and Zhang Xi in straight sets, while Jennifer Kessy and April Ross needed three sets to get by Brazilians Larissa Franca and Juliana Silva. In the men's semifinals, Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego of Brazil knocked off Latvians Martins Plavins and Janis Smedins in straight sets, and Belgians Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann also only needed two sets to take out the Dutch pair of Reinder Nummerdor and Rich Schuil.

Boxing: Errol Spence, who got a second chance at giving USA Boxing some level of redemption, promptly lost for real to Russian Andrey Zamkovoy 16-11 in the welterweight quarterfinals. Flyweight quarterfinals also happened, but meh boxing.

Canoe/Kayak: In the women's 500m K1 heats, Carrie Johnson qualified for the semifinals; but was eliminated after coming in fifth in her semifinal heat. The fields were also set for the finals in men's 1k K4, men's 1k C2, and women's 500m K2, with no Americans competing.

Cycling: Britain's Chris Hoy took the gold in men's Keirin, while Germany's Max Levy captured the silver. Simon van Velthooven of Australia shared bronze with Dutchman Teun Mulder; there was no American rider in the event. Sarah Hammer won the 3k Individual Pursuit phase of women's Omnium, wresting sole possession of first place in the event from Britain's Laura Trott, with whom she'd finished tied yesterday. Hammer then came in second in the 10km Scratch race, but Trott came in third to give Hammer a two-point lead. Unfortunately, in the 500m Time Trial, Hammer came in fourth while Trott won, handing Trott the gold. Hammer still came away with USA silver; the bronze went to Australian Annette Edmonson. The women's sprint gold medal belongs to Australian Anna Meares; Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain won the silver and Guo Shang of China the bronze.

Diving: Chris Colwell was eliminated in the semifinals of the men's 3m springboard competition, but Troy Dumais did move on to the final. He didn't medal, finishing fifth; the Chinese grabbed silver and bronze via Qin Kai and He Chong, while Ilya Zakharov won gold for Russia.

Equestrian: Steffen Peters and Ravel qualified for the individual dressage final in a tie for seventh place, but Jan Ebeling aboard Rafalca and Tina Konyot astride Calecto V were eliminated. The US finished eighth in the team event, which was won by Great Britain; Germany won the silver, with the bronze going to the Netherlands.

Football: Mexico beat Japan 3-1 in the first men's semifinal; Brazil shut out South Korea 3-0 in the other.

Gymnastics: China's Zhe Feng took the gold in men's parallel bars, with German Marcel Nguyen earning silver and Hamilton Sabot of France claiming the bronze. Aly Raisman won USA bronze in the women's balance beam, behind two Chinese gymnasts; Deng Linlin won gold and Sui Lu silver. Gabby Douglas continued her post-all-around meltdown, finishing eighth (which is last). Danell Leyva and Jonathan Horton finished fifth and sixth respectively in the men's horizontal bar final; Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands won the gold, followed by German Fabian Hambuchen and China's Zou Kai. Raisman finally got some satisfaction for the Americans in individual gymnastics, capturing USA GOLD in the floor exercise, with the silver going to 24-year-old Olympian Catalina Ponor of Romania. Aliya Mustafina of Russia won the bronze; Jordyn Wieber finished seventh.

Handball: Women's quarterfinals: Norway edged Brazil 21-19, Spain beat Croatia 25-22, South Korea squeaked past Russia 24-23, and Montenegro nipped France 23-22.

Hockey, Field: In group A, Australia crushed Pakistan 7-0 and Great Britain tied Spain 1-1; Australia and the British move on to the semis. Argentina beat South Africa 6-3 in a totally irrelevant game. In group B, the Netherlands and Germany had already advanced; the Dutch still went ahead and beat up South Korea 4-2, Belgium blanked India 3-0, and the Germans engaged in an ultimately fruitless shootout with New Zealand as the teams drew 5-5.

Sailing: Today's slate:

• Men's RS-X Medal Race: Dorian van Russelberge of the Netherlands didn't let the fact that he was already assured of gold dissuade him from putting forth his best effort; he went out and won the medal race outright just to drive home the point. Britain's Nick Dempsey took third in the race, more than enough to assure he'd remain in silver medal position, while Przemislaw Miarczynski of Poland finished fourth and slid up a notch for the bronze. Germany's Toni Wilhelm, who'd been in third place coming in, finished the race in sixth and slipped to fourth overall.
• Women's RS-X Medal Race: Spaniard Marina Alabau Neira just needed to finish in eighth place or better to win the gold; she won the race outright. Finland's Tuuli Petaja was fourth in the medal race, enough to move up from fourth to take the silver; Zofia Noceti-Klepacka of Poland both started and finished in third to claim the bronze a single point ahead of Sweden's Olha Maslivets, who came in second in the race. Israeli Lee-El Korsiz had been in second place coming in, but floundered to a ninth-place finish in the medal race, and finished sixth overall.
• Men's 470 (9-10): Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl posted 7th and 4th place finishes in the final pair of preliminary races, but it wasn't enough to get them back into the medal race as they finished 14th overall, a mere five points shy of earning the right to race Thursday. Australians Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page take a four-point lead over the British crew of Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell into the final; the two teams are guaranteed gold and silver, but who gets which is still up for debate. Mathematically, four crews are still capable of taking the bronze on Thursday, but realistically it's going to be a tussle between Argentina's Lucas Calabrese and Juan de la Fuente and Italians Gabrio Zandona and Pietro Zucchetti.
• Women's 470 (7-8): Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan managed to avoid a repeat of Saturday's debacle, finishing 3rd and 9th in today's races, and move up to 7th overall. They're probably safely in the medal race with a 20-point cushion over eleventh place; they're also probably out of actual medal contention, being 25 points out of third.
• Women's Elliott Quarterfinals: Team USA trails Finland 2-0 after the first two races of their quarterfinal match, which continues tomorrow. Australia and the Dutch split their pair today, Spain took the first pair from France, and Russia split with the British.

Swimming: Off day.

Synchronized Swimming: Mary Killman and Mariya Koroleva tumbled to an eleventh-place finish in the women's duets finals. Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina of Russia took the gold, Spain's Andrea Fuentes Fache and Ona Carbonell Ballestero the silver, and China's Huang Xuechen and Liu Ou the bronze.

Table Tennis: China won the gold in women's team, beating Japan 3-0. Singapore took the bronze, beating South Korea in straight sets.

Triathlon: Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee won gold and his teammate and brother Jonathan took the bronze, while the silver went to Spaniard Javier Gomez. Hunter Kemper was 14th for the USA, Manuel Huerta 51st.

Volleyball: In the women's quarterfinals, Japan beat China in five sets, Brazil did the same to Russia, Team USA swept the Dominican Republic, and South Korea took down Italy 3-1.

Water Polo: Team USA took the first women's semifinal from Australia 11-9 in extra time after coach Adam Krikorian committed an unspeakable blunder; with Team USA leading 9-8 and only one second left on the clock in regulation, Krikorian called time-out. Problem was, Australia had possession, and were awarded a penalty shot as a result of the gaffe. Shades of Chris Webber. Hungary facing Spain at 1:40pm. In placement games, China defeated Italy 14-10 and Russia beat Great Britain 11-9.

Weightlifting: There was no American in the men's +105kg final, which was won by Behdad Salimikordasiabi of Iran. His teammate Sajjad Anoushiravani Hamlabad took silver; the bronze went to Russian Ruslan Albegov.

Wrestling: Two men's Greco-Roman events tomorrow, both beginning with qualifications at 7am, 1/8 finals at 7:30, quarterfinals at 8:30, semifinals at 9, and repechage/bronze matches at 11:45. Justin Lester beat Tsutomu Fujimara of Japan in the 1/8 finals of the 66kg event before losing to Tamas Lorincz of Hungary in the quarterfinals. Lorincz went on to beat Manuchar Tshkadaia of Georgia in the semifinals, which put Lester into the repechage, where was eliminated for good by Germany's Frank Staebler. Tskhadaia took one of the bronze medals by beating Staebler; the other went to Steeve Guenot of the Netherlands. Lorincz earned the silver medal, losing the final to South Korea's Hyeonwoo Kim. In the 96kg final, Iranian Ghasem Gholamreza Rezaei defeated Rustam Totrov of Russia for the gold. Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia and Sweden's Jimmy Lidberg shared bronze.

MEDAL COUNT: China extended their lead over the US, 73-70, though the last few days will tend to favor the US what with all those shiny track and team sport medals waiting to be gobbled up. Britain and Russia are tied for third with 48, and then it's a long way down to Japan at 29. Gold, you say? China's got 34 to the USA's 30, and the British are actually getting into the race now with 22. South Korea with 12 and Russia with 10 complete the top five.

Tomorrow (all times Central):

Remember, all events available live streaming if you can get it to stop buffering. The broadcast details I give here are TV-specific. They also don't necessarily imply coverage of any particular competitor or team matchup unless specified.

Athletics: Tomorrow's slate:

• 4:00am: Men's Pole Vault Qualification (Jeremy Scott, Derek Miles, and Brad Walker)
• 4:00am: Women's Hammer Qualification (Jessica Cosby, Amber Campbell, and Amanda Bingson)
• 4:10am: DECATHLON: 100m (Ashton Eaton and Troy Hardee; also, K-State alum Darius Draudvila competes for Lithuania)
• 4:45am: Men's 5000m Round 1 (Lopez Lomong, Galen Rupp, and Bernard Lagat)
• 5:10am: DECATHLON: Long Jump
• 5:35am: Women's 800m Round 1 (Alysia Johnson-Montano, Alice Schmidt, and Geena Gall)
• 7:10am: DECATHLON: Shot Put
• noon: DECATHLON: High Jump
• 1:05pm: Men's Javelin Qualification (Cyrus Hostetler, Sean Furey, and Craig Kinsley)
• 1:15pm: Men's 110m Hurdles Semifinals (Jason Richardson, Jeff Porter, and Aries Merritt)
• 2:05pm: Women's Long Jump Final (Brittney Reese and Janay DeLoach)
• 2:10pm: Men's 200m Semifinals (Isiah Young, Maurice Mitchell, and Wallace Spearmon)
• 2:45pm: Women's 400m Hurdles Final (T'Erea Brown, Lashinda Demus, and Georgeanne Moline)
• 3:00pm: Women's 200m Final (Carmelita Jeter, Allyson Felix, and Sanya Richards-Ross)
• 3:15pm: Men's 110m Hurdles Final
• 3:30pm: DECATHLON: 400m
• 3:45pm: Women's 1500m Semifinals (Morgan Uceny, Shannon Rowbury, and Jennifer Simpson)

(tape delay: LIVE: Decathlon 400m NBC 3:30-4pm; NBC 12:15-1:30pm, Primetime, and Late Night)

Basketball: The men's quarterfinals begin, with Russia-Lithuania at 8am, France-Spain at 10:15, Brazil-Argentina at 2pm, and Team USA closes the day against Australia at 4:15. (All games LIVE on NBC Specialty; France-Spain NBCSN 10:15am, BRA-ARG and USA-AUS back-to-back on NBCSN at 1:45pm; tape delay: repeat of a morning game at noon on NBC Specialty, and an afternoon game at 6pm)

Beach Volleyball: The women's bronze medal match pitting Brazilians Larissa Franca and Juliana Silva against Chen Xue and Xi Zhang is set for 1pm; the all-American final will be at 3pm with May/Walsh taking on Kessy/Ross. (LIVE: NBC 1-2pm -- yes, that's right, the bronze medal match will be live, while the gold medal match won't be on at all according to television schedule as currently posted by NBC. It may change, of course.)

Boxing: Marlen Esparza takes on China's Ren Cancan in a women's fly semifinal at 7:30am. The women's lightweight semis are at 8am; at 8:30, Claressa Shields fights her middleweight semifinal bout against Kazakhstan's Marina Volnova. No Americans in today's men's quarterfinal action, which includes fly at 2:30pm, light welter at 3:30, and light heavy at 4:30. (tape delay: NBC noon-1:15pm, CNBC 4-7pm)

Canoe/Kayak: There are no Americans on the course today, which consists of the men's 1k K1 final at 3:30am, the men's 1K C1 at 3:48, the men's 1k K2 at 4:16, and the women's 500m K4 at 4:44. (tape delay: NBC 11:45am-12:15pm)

Cycling: Cycling action shifts to the BMX events, with the seeding runs for both women (9am) and men (9:40am). Brook Crain and Alise Post compete in the women's event and David Herman, Connor Fields, and Nic Long in the men's. (tape delay: NBC 3-3:30pm, Late Night)

Diving: Brittany Viola and Katie Bell compete in the preliminaries for women's 10m platform starting at 1pm. (tape delay: NBC 12:15-1pm, Late Night)

Equestrian: The individual jumping final begins at 6am, with Rich Fellers on Flexible and McLain Ward on Antares. They'll hope to place among the top 20 riders in the morning flight and advance to the final jump at 8:55; previous scores have no bearing on tomorrow's action. (LIVE: NBC 9-9:30am)

Football: Off day before the medal matches.

Gymnastics: All done, except for the weirdo rhythmic events, which are technically a separate sport anyway. So farewell, Wembley Arena.

Handball: Men's quarterfinals include Iceland-Hungary at 5am, Spain-France at 8:30, Sweden-Denmark at noon, and Croatia-Tunisia at 3:30pm. (LIVE: NBCSN 5-6:45am.)

Hockey, Field: The early games are the 9-10 placement game between Japan and South Africa at 2:30am, and the 7-8 game at 5:30 between South Korea and Germany. At 9:20, the Dutch take on New Zealand in the first semifinal, followed at 2pm by Argentina-Great Britain. (tape delay: NBCSN 1:15-2pm)

Sailing: Australian's Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen only have to finish the race to take the gold in men's 49er, and the same is true for New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke for the silver, in the medal race which begins at 7am. Six of the seven remaining skippers have a chance at bronze. The final preliminary races of the women's 470 are at 6am and 7:15am; see the recap for discussion on that event. The quarterfinal matches in women's Elliott continue at 8am, with the USA and Finland leaving the start line at 8:05. (Not televised today.)

Shooting: The gunplay has concluded for this Olympiad.

Swimming: Off day.

Synchronized Swimming: Off day.

Table Tennis: The bronze medal match in men's team is at 5am, with Germany taking on Hong Kong. At 9:30, it's South Korea meeting China for the gold. (LIVE: NBCSN 6:45-8am, MSNBC noon-12:30)

Taekwondo: It's not even the last event to get underway, believe it or not, but we finally begin action in the event with the women's -49kg and men's -58kg weight classes. The women's preliminaries kick off at 3am, with quarterfinals at 9, semifinals at 11, repechage and bronze medal matches at 2pm, and the gold medal match at 4:15; the men's bouts take place 15 minutes after each of those listed times (i.e., they alternate). There are no Americans in either class. (Not televised today.)

Triathlon: Really done this time.

Volleyball: In the men's quarterfinals, it's Argentina-Brazil at 8am, USA-Italy at 10, Poland-Russia at 1:30pm, and Bulgaria-Germany at 3:30. (LIVE: ARG-BRA MSNBC 8am, USA-ITA NBC 10am, POL-RUS and BUL-GER back to back on MSNBC at 1:40pm, first match joined just a few minutes late; tape delay: NBC Primetime)

Water Polo: Men's quarterfinals here as well, with Spain-Montenegro at 8:30am, Australia-Serbia at 9:50, Italy-Hungary at 12:40pm, and Team USA taking on Croatia at 2pm. (LIVE: MSNBC 9:45-11am, 12:30-1:40pm, NBC 2-3pm; tape delay: MSNBC 11am-noon)

Weightlifting: All the heavy lifting has been completed, and you may now relax and have a beer.

Wrestling: Two women's Freestyle events tomorrow, both beginning with qualifications at 7am, 1/8 finals at 7:25, quarterfinals at 8:25, semifinals at 9, and repechage/bronze matches at 11:45. The 48kg event, with American Clarissa Chun in a qualifying match against Zhao Shasha of China, concludes at 1:03pm; the 63kg final is at 1:48, with American Elena Pirozhkov entering at the 1/8 state to take on Latvian Anastasija Grigorjeva. (tape delay: MSNBC 3-3:30pm)