There were three more medals for Australia on Friday. Their medal total is now at 44 (17 gold, six silver, and 21 bronze). The Australian mindset and attitude towards sport can be best described by veteran Canadian sports broadcaster Steve Armitage who stated today prior to the canoeing competition, “I have never met an Aussie who was not competitive.” Here are the three highlights from Day 14.
Australia earned two medals on Friday even though their athletes had losses. In women’s beach volleyball, Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar won the silver medal after losing the gold medal game to the American duo of April Ross and Alix Klineman, 21-15, 21-16. The Aussie Olympic silver medal will be highlighted by their three-set win over Canada in the women’s quarterfinals. Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes were the tournament’s number one seed.
Harry Garside became only the fifth Australian Olympic medalist all-time in boxing. Even though he lost his semifinal bout to Andy Cruz of Cuba in the semifinals of the men’s lightweight division, he still was guaranteed third place. Cruz will now fight American Keyshawn Davis for gold.
Meanwhile, it was an Olympic bronze medal for reigning women’s world champion javelin thrower Kelsey Lee-Barber of Canberra. The 29-year-old had a javelin throw of 64.56 metres, which earned her an Olympic medal by .56 metres. Eda Tugsuz of Turkey was in fourth place with a throw of 64 metres. Shiying Liu of China won the gold medal with a throw of 66.34 metres and Maria Andrejczyk of Poland won the silver medal with a throw of 64.61 metres.
Liu was the first Chinese Olympic medalist ever in the javelin, and Barber was the first-ever Australian Olympic medalist in the javelin. Meanwhile, Andrejczyk became only the second Polish Olympic javelin medalist ever. The first was Maria Kwasniewska, who won the bronze medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
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