Rowers shine on day seven

NSWIS rowers Brooke Pratley and Dan Noonan have shone on day seven of Olympic competition, with each winning a medal in their respective rowing events.

Pratley’s result highlighted the day’s events as she teamed with compatriot Kim Crow to pick up the silver medal in the women’s double scull. The pair was just over one second outside the British crew at the halfway mark before losing touch, but stormed back into gold medal contention before eventually winning silver.

The final of the men’s quad scull final saw Noonan and the Australian crew in the middle of the pack for much of the way, keeping in touch with leaders Germany and Croatia. However, just after the halfway mark the quartet kicked into gear to pass the crews from Great Britain and Estonia, securing Olympic bronze to add to world championship gold in 2011.

The performances from Pratley and Noonan now take the NSWIS medal tally to three silver and two bronze medals.

Elsewhere on day seven, the first of the track & field events began in the Olympic stadium. Dani Samuels was in the thick of the action early, qualifying in fourth position for the final of the women’s discus. Samuels threw a season’s best 63.97m throw to put herself in contention for medals. Fellow NSWIS athlete Ryan Gregson progressed to round one of the men’s 1500m, Eloise Wellings finished 21st in the final of the women’s 10000m, and Youcef Abdi unfortunately failed to qualify for the final of the men’s 3000m steeplechase after a sixth place finish in his heat.

The Australian women’s water polo team, including three NSWIS athletes, secured progression through to the next round as they dusted Russia 11-8 to finish top of group B. Nicola Zagame scored four goals in that match, while at the hockey arena the Australian men’s hockey team continued their undefeated streak with a 2-2 draw against Argentina. NSWIS athlete Matthew Butturini scored for the third successive match.

In other team action, the Australian women’s table tennis team, including NSWIS athlete Vivian Tan, were defeated 0-3 by Germany in their event, while Australia slipped to ninth overall in the team dressage event. NSWIS athlete Lyndal Oatley is placed 37th in the individual dressage.

The London aquatic centre saw NSWIS athlete Eamon Sullivan finish eighth in the final of the men’s 50m freestyle, and Jarrod Poort finish seventh in his heat of the men’s 1500m, while at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Warren Potent could not match his Beijing bronze in the men’s 50m rifle prone, finishing 32nd overall.

Finally, in Weymouth the sailors continued to perform strongly, with Tom Slingsby regaining the overall lead in the men’s laser, Malcolm Page moving to second in the men’s 470, and Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen maintaining their standing atop the leaderboard in the men’s 49er.

Plenty of medals are up for grabs for NSWIS athletes on day eight. Samuels competes in the women’s discus final; Ben St Lawrence lines up in the men’s 10000m; Suzy Balogh aims to repeat her Athens gold medal in the women’s trap shooting; James Magnussen looks likely to join the Australian men’s 4x100m medley relay team, and rowers James Chapman and Bronwen Watson compete in the finals of the men’s four and lightweight women’s double scull, respectively.