Brutal scenes for Opals and beach volleyball as Maddison Keeney makes Aussie history at Olympics
Australia won three more medals on Friday night, but two of our women's teams suffered heartbreak.
Australia's women's beach volleyball team missed out on a medal and the Opals had their hopes of winning gold crushed on Friday night at the Olympics. But diver Maddison Keeney became the first Australian in Olympics history to win a medal in the individual 3m springboard, as the Aussies grabbed three more medals in Paris.
After winning bronze in the springboard synchro at the 2016 Games in Tokyo, Keeney delivered her best ever performance under the utmost pressure on Friday in Paris. The 28-year-old Aussie ended up with the silver medal and was only beaten by the seemingly invincible Chinese diver Chen Yiwen.
Keeney has enjoyed a decade-long career with much success, especially with synchro partner Anabelle Smith. On Friday night she scored 343.10 from her five-dive program to finish second, as Chen proved a runaway winner with 376.00.
But Keeney's remarkable performance was epitomised by the fact she beat the other Chinese diver Chang Yani (318.75), who made a mess of her first dive to walk away with bronze. "It's everything. Coming from kind of the bottom of the barrel around 2020, 2021, missing out on the Tokyo Games (through injury). But it's made me a better person, a better athlete, and I've re-fallen in love with the sport," Keeney said afterwards.
It marked Keeney's 16th career medal in world, Olympic and Commonwealth championships - but this was the best. "Feels pretty damn good," she said. "I was very nervous today. But I've been working really close with my psych for the last 10 years. I used to have a lot of trouble with my nerves, and was on all sides of results, from falling off the board, to a lot of fourth places.
"Many times my legs have buckled from under me, but going through all those experiences, falling off the board, it's kind of made me who I am today. I feel like I've been forged in fire."
Matthew Richardson wins silver as paddlers settle for bronze
Keeney's silver was one of three medals Australia won on Friday night, with Matthew Richardson also taking silver after losing the gold medal race to Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen in the cycling sprint. Lavreysen again showed he is track cycling's match sprint king, beating the Australian in the gold medal ride-off to successfully defend his Olympic title.
Lavreysen has won the last five sprint world championships, and Richardson held his own against the champ. But the Dutchman was simply too good. It was Richardson's first individual medal at the Olympics, after he won bronze earlier this week in the team sprint.
And paddlers Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen walked away with bronze in the men's K2 event, but were dirty not to get the gold. The pair won the title in Tokyo three years ago, however the 1000m event was replaced by a 500m race for the Paris Games.
The Aussies smashed a 20-year-old Olympic record in the semi-final earlier on Friday, but couldn't catch German pair Max Lemke and Jacob Schopf in the medal race and crossed the line third. If the Australians were able to repeat their semi-final time of one minute 26.85 seconds in the medal race, they would have taken the gold.
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It was also heartbreak for Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy in the beach volleyball bronze medal match, while the Opals were thrashed by the USA in their basketball semi-final. Artacho del Solar and Clancy won silver in Tokyo, but were outplayed by Swiss duo Tanja Hueberli and Nina Brunner 21-17 21-15 on Friday night.
The Aussies appeared to be suffering a hangover from the previous evening when they went down in an agonising semi-final loss to Brazil, which relegated them to the bronze medal game. And the Opals will also play for bronze after they went down 85-64 to the all-conquering American women's team.
Their Aussies are now 0-9 head-to-head against the US, who are on a 60-match winning streak at the Olympics as they seek an eighth-straight title on Sunday. Only twice during that run - which dates back to the 1992 Games in Barcelona - have they won by less than 10 points.
with AAP
