NSWIS athletes in force on Rio Day 1

The opening ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games is underway this morning with more than 100 Australian athletes and dozens of support staff set to be part of the spectacular.

After the glitz and glamour of the ceremony nine NSWIS athletes will be in action on Saturday night and early Sunday morning our time.

Getting things underway will be our rowers with Cameron Girdlestone (men’s quad sculls), Genevieve Horton (women’s double sculls) and Chris Morgan (men’s double sculls) all involved in heats action that begins at 9pm Sydney time.

At the same time Daniel Repacholi and Blake Blackburn begin qualifications in the 10m air pistol event at the Olympic Shooting Centre.

From 10pm the men’s singles tournament gets underway at the table tennis with NSWIS athlete Chris (Xin) Yan taking on Serbian Aleksander Karakasevic in his first match at 1030am.

Veteran horsemen Shane Rose and Stuart Tinney kick off their indivual and team eventing campaigns with the dressage competition from 11pm. Tinney won team gold 16 years ago at the Sydney Olympics.

Joshua Katz will hit the mat in the 60kg judo elimination rounds from 11pm. Josh is the younger brother of teammate and fellow judoka Nathan who will be in action on Day 2.

Our hockey players hit the pitch at midnight (men vs New Zealand) and 7am (women vs Great Britain) and Nicole Beck is part of our women’s 7’s rugby team that play Colombia at 230am and Fiji at 730am.

For ongoing coverage please refer back to our website and the Australian Olympic Team site.