Gold rush at the Games

Day 14 of Olympic competition saw another gold medal being awarded to an NSWIS athlete, this time sailor Malcolm Page in the men’s 470 class.

Page and his skipper Mat Belcher went into the medal race of the men’s 470 with a slim four point lead over their nearest competitors, Great Britain. After some tactically brilliant sailing, the duo crossed the line in fourth place, with Great Britain crossing in eighth, to secure gold. The win is Page’s second consecutive Olympic triumph after prevailing in Beijing four years ago with former NSWIS athlete Nathan Wilmot, and cements his place in sailing history as one of the sport’s most successful athletes.

The gold medal takes the NSWIS medal tally to four gold, four silver and four bronze, with the four gold in London improving on the three gold won by NSWIS athletes in Beijing.

There are more medals on the way in Weymouth, with NSWIS sailors Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty guaranteed at least a silver medal in the women’s match racing competition. The trio defeated reigning world champions Finland 2-1 in the semi-final to book a gold medal clash with Spain.

The track & field events continued at the Olympic stadium on day 14, with NSWIS athletes Isaac Ntiamoah and Anthony Alozie competing in the heats of the men’s 4x100m relay. The NSWIS duo combined with compatriots Andrew McCabe and Josh Ross to finish seventh in their heat and progress to the final.

The London aquatic centre hosted the first round of the men’s 10m platform diving, with reigning Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham cruising through the preliminaries into the semi-final, while at the Riverbank Arena the Australian women’s hockey team, featuring six NSWIS athletes, defeated China 2-0 to finish fifth overall. NSWIS athlete Jade Close scored Australia’s second goal.

The water polo arena saw the Australian men’s water polo team, including seven NSWIS athletes, suffer a tight 9-10 loss to Hungary to move into a playoff against the USA for seventh and eighth, while at Eton Dorney, NSWIS athlete Sebastian Marczak made the semi-final of the men’s C1 200m before bowing out of the competition.

There are plenty of medals on offer on the penultimate day of Olympic competition. Mitcham aims for the final of the men’s 10m platform diving; Matthew Butturini, Kieran Govers and Simon Orchard play for bronze in the men’s hockey competition; the NSWIS sailing trio competes for gold in the women’s match racing; Ed Fernon makes his Olympic debut in the men’s modern pentathlon, and the Australian relay team runs for gold at the Olympic stadium.