Olympics - Day Two Preview

By Nick Powell
A teenage gold medalist, a thrilling road race, a horrifying leg break, a first gold for Vietnam and a British swimming World Record in a heat. The first day of the Olympics is always exciting, but this day was chaotic.

Having said that normal service resumed in the women's team archery, where South Korea won gold to add to their victories in 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. They have won each of the 12 Women's team Olympic events since it began 44 years ago. A quite remarkable feat. 

But it was not all plain sailing for the Chinese, who would've expected to have at least won one gold in the shooting. Pang Wei and Du Li were expected to pick up gold in their shooting events came third and second respectively. It's not a cause for concern but China have led the medals table after day one on each of the previous 5 games, so it is not the best start to the games for them. 

It was USA and Vietnam who denied them those golds. The former through teenager Virginia Thrasher, who took a surprise gold ahead of Li and her compatriot Yi Siling in the Women's 10m air rifle event and the latter saw Hoang Xuan Vinh edge ahead of favourite Wei and home favourite Felipe Wu to claim Vietnam's first ever gold at an Olympic games.

Meanwhile it was crashes galore at Great Britain's Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas missed out on a medal in the men's road race at Rio 2016 as Belgium's Greg van Avermaet took gold. Vincenzo Nibali also fell, ruling his hopes of a medal out. Overall, it was a tactically estute performance from GB, giving themselves various options for victory, although there were some tired legs after a tough tour this year. 
Froome consoles Thomas after he fell to rule out his medal hopes


Unfortunately for Hannah Miley, she fell agonisingly short of a medal, missing out by just 0.15 of a second. But after Adam Peaty's World Record, there is plenty more to look forward to for team GB. Peaty destroyed his previous record of 57.98 with a time of 57.55. It was a stunning performance, and made sure Peaty will head into tomorrow's final as the overwhelming favourite for the title. 

He will just be one part of a busy day of action coming up...

GB Medal Hopes 
Peaty, a three-time world champion for GB in 2015, is expected to win gold in the 100m breaststroke. He is joined by Scottish team-mate Ross Murdoch, who finished third behind Peaty in 2015's world final.

There has been plenty of controversy surrounding Lizzie Armistead, but she will be competing in the women's road race, looking to improve on her London 2012 silver in the same event. The World Champion has focused her training on preparing for the Rio route's mountainous terrain. 

In Judo, Commonwealth Champion Colin Oates will be competing in the men's -66kg category, beginning at 14:00. A medal is unlikely but shouldn't seriously be ruled out. In an alternative fighting capacity, GB will hope that James Davis and Richard Kruse can be in the medal hunt in the men's individual foil for Fencing. Ranked 5th and 6th in the world respectively, Davis was European Champion in this event in 2014 and Kruse has won 4 European medals. The latter is at his fourth games. 

Brits in Action 
On the water 2012 gold medalist Alex Gregory features in the men's coxless four. He was part of the team that won that event in London, and GB have won it at the previous four Olympics. The favourites again this year, if this will be a strong games for GB, it will be have to be a gold. 
Gregory will be hoping for a second straight gold medal in the coxless fours

Another rowing event that you feel needs to be gold is the women's pairs, where Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won gold in 2012. They are big favourites to do it again, and will start their journey towards gold today.

In the women's rugby sevens, after a hugely successful opening day where GB overcame hosts Brazil and Japan, scoring 69 points and conceding just 3, they face a crunch game against Canada to decide who will win the Pool. Later on there will be the knockout stages Britain have already secured their place in that round, but will get a much easier draw if they can win that big match. 
GB's women will be looking to capitalise on an excellent opening day










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