During the day today is the men's beach volleyball quarterfinals. The U.S. team of Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena play against Brazilian favorites Alison, who appears to just go by one name, and Bruno Schmidt. Winner moves on to the semifinal with medal hopes close at hand. Loser goes home. While the match is at 3 p.m. (EST), they may replay it in primetime.
It's the second to last day of gymnastics competition, which starts to make me sad that the games are going by too quickly even though there are still seven days left. Today is the event finals in men's rings and vault and women's balance beam.
The USA doesn't have anyone in the rings final but China had two of the top three qualifiers in Yang Liu and Hao You. Greece's Eledtherios Pertounias qualified in second and is one of the favorites as the reigning world champion. Brazil's Arthur Zanetti is also in the final after qualifying in fifth and is the reigning Olympic champion. After his teammates won silver and bronze yesterday on floor, you can be sure he'll have everyone in the stands cheering for him.
No American in the men's vault final either. Jake Dalton just missed out by placing 10th in the prelims. North Korea's Ri Se-Gwang, yes, they send gymnasts to the Olympics, qualified in first and is the two-time defending world champion. He did not compete in London because North Korea was banned from gymnastics after the federation's age falsification of a female gymnast in 2008. Very close behind in second was Russia's Denis Ablyazin who won silver in 2012. Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev, who missed out on all-around gold by the slimmest of margins, is in the final after qualifying seventh.
Simone Biles qualified in the top spot for the beam final and is obviously the favorite after going a perfect 3-for-3 in gold medals so far. Biles along with Laurie Hernandez, who qualified in second, both had qualifying scores that distanced them from the rest of the field. Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas actually qualified as well but the two per country rule is once again keeping them out. I don't see much competition for the two Americans except for the fact that it's the beam. Brazil's Flavia Lopez qualified in third after a great routine in the prelims. She's tiny, smaller than Biles, and easily moves across the beam. If you watched the men's floor last night, you know how much the crowd is helping along it's home gymnasts. This could be another one of those instances. The other one to look out for is Romania's Catalina Ponor. She's the lone representative for the Romanian team at these games, which is a crazy thing to say after that country's history at success in the sport. The 28-year-old is in her third Olympics and won gold on this event back in 2004.
At the track tonight is the final of the women's 400m and the men's 800m. There will also be the
first rounds of the women's 200m.
Typically, you see American Allyson Felix in both the 200m and 400m. But it's just the 400m this time around as an ankle injury that still wasn't healed prevented her from claiming a spot on the team in the 200m to defend her Olympic gold from London. Instead, she gets a chance to defend the American title in the 400m (USA's Sonya Richards-Ross won in London). Felix ran the best time in the semifinals with fellow team members Natasha Hastings and Phyllis Francis finishing third and fifth, respectively. Jamaica's Shericka Jakson was second in the semis with the Bahamas Shaunae Miller in fourth.
Today also happens to be the opening rounds for the women's 200m. Tori Bowie, Jenna Prandini and Deajah Stevens race for Team USA, while new 100m champion Elanie Thompson of Jamaica is also in the field.
While Kenya's David Rudisha finished third in the men's 800m semifinal, he is the world record holder and defending Olympic champion. France's Pierre-Ambroise Bosse and Algeria's Taoufik Makhloufi took the top spots in the semifinal, while USA's Clayton Murphy and Boris Berian were fourth and sixth, respectively.
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