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SpeedSeries August 2024: Catch up Interview with Dream Racing’s Jackson Rice from Trans-Am Australia – No.7 Ford Mustang

by Sports Benches

Yes, SpeedSeries so far this year may have been completely different compared to 2022-23, especially at a time during the mixed paid/free TV experiment on Stan and Nine (via 9Gem and 9Go) before Motorsport Australia took back the rights at season’s end for the competition to return on Seven once again. 

But that doesn’t mean SpeedSeries can be completely forgotten when times have changed since then as fortunate to catch up with one of the drivers competing there via the competition’s series of race categories in Trans-Am Australia. 

His name is Jackson Rice who currently races the No.7 Ford Mustang for Dream Racing & hails from Albury-Wodonga – right in between the NSW-Victoria border.

This interview is available both in written and video/audio form below:

SpeedSeries/Trans-Am so far of 2024

1. First of all, it’s great to hear from you as it’s been a long while for me to catch up since the end of last season. How is SpeedSeries going on right now compared to the last 1-2 years?

Really good, I feel like the Seven Network coverage has been fantastic this year with the support of Seven (via 7mate on TV) and the 7 + app. For us personally, it gave us fantastic value to our sponsors & our supporters. It also gave us track time and vision & I think it really boosted our (Trans Am Australia) category that brought really good incentive for other people to join us, especially going into 2025.

2. How much do you miss the International drivers coming here as well as the S5000 open-wheel category?

I think this year’s Bathurst International event is the last year they’ve proposed (with the event not returning next year) & I think the International drivers we have coming here are awesome. They brought a different perspective of class that gave an International and world view of the categories they’ve competed (from Sports cars to World Touring Cars & the likes).

The S5000 open-wheel category are awesome machines & it’s said those guys (the drivers who competed last year) couldn’t have the numbers (on the grid) to compete. But I think all those categories (like the GT World Challenge, GT4 Australia Series & TCR Australia) with the organisers involved are really cool to watch. It’s a shame it’s going to be the last hurrah that they (the S5000 open-wheel organisers) won’t continue with it.

3. Speaking of the journey you’ve had so far this season, what was your 2024 like so far if you can describe it in just a few words?

It’s been positive with a huge learning curve. So yes, it’s been an all-round positive.

4. I looked at your Facebook/social media page lately & there’s a quite a few related to Supercars, how much preparation of you driving these race kind of touring cars or sedans have benefited your Super2 opportunity? 

Massively…I think the Trans-Am is a fantastic category that opens doors to a lot of avenues including working towards Supercars & those high-end performance categories. 

So Trans-Am where it’s at right now has fantastic value with some of the guys in there who are true professionals that previously raced in V8 Supercars before through co-driving (at Endurance Races like the Bathurst 1000) or full-time.

Guys like myself – who are young and trying to make a name for our ourselves – I think that mix (of both youth and experience) presents really well for those who are scouting for talent including Super2 (Supercars main feeder category), and it’s been a massive help for me to step  from a Trans-Am into a Super2 by driving a high-powered rear wheel drive race car.

5. Looking at the present when it comes to Trans-Am, what would be the No.1 thing you wished you could’ve done any better & how you will apply this to your next set of Trans-Am races later this year in November?

I think the biggest thing we like to improve on is finishing our races. 

We have very consistent pace with the guys at Dream Racing giving me a consistent race car but we’ve been really unfortunate to have some mechanical failures which sort of put us a bit on a damper with our season’s race results. 

But we had a couple of podiums where we’ve been consistently inside the Top 8 or 6 before we were able to finish consistently to then drag more podiums at the end of the race and not having a DNF towards the end of the 2024 season would probably make a big difference for us.

6. Other than Trans-Am wait until November, do you have any other races you got lined up like the TA2 Muscle Car Series you’ve competed in the past?

I’m planning to, I like to race some more other than the usual Trans-Am. We’ve been fortunate with our sponsors and budget this year, so I won’t definitely rule it out to come back and compete in the TA2 events to keep me busy & in the seat for the next round at Bathurst in Trans-Am.

Being present at Sandown Raceway while talking a couple of other race tracks across Australia

Other than his ongoing Trans-Am season, there’s more to life from Jackson who is currently helping out at Sandown Raceway this weekend where we will pick it up from here.

1. Great to hear you’re in Sandown for the weekend, I was wondering if it was an different event you’re competing there?

I’m just down here with a couple of guys who are new drivers that come in to the team we compete for racing such as meeting them before they compete on the new Toyota 86 races. But I’m business where I don’t have to drive which is alright.

2. How’s the atmosphere like at Sandown Raceway?

It’s fantastic! I love coming to the Victorian VMRC (Victorian Motor Racing Championships). They have good grassroots & state-level racing with a great variety of categories & it’s really good being involved & see grassroots racing. To come back especially post-COVID, the atmosphere’s really good.

Pause

Link of the weekend’s events LIVE and on-demand on BlendLine TV’s YouTube Channel here.

3. Speaking of Sandown, I hear they are going to knock the place down while looking to build a new race track next to Avalon Airport. I was wondering if this was true?

I’m unsure at the moment. I know there were proposed plans (of Sandown being knocked down for housing) but unsure if it’s going ahead. But Sandown is such an iconic venue that in the end, there was so much support behind it to keep it now that I think it will be pretty harsh to get rid of.

4. I heard there’s a different SpeedSeries category event going on at Phillip Island within Victoria in the GT World Challenge as wondering if they’re hosting this alone or a part of the main event support bill?

Yeah, I believe it’s a standalone event with the GT Festival with just GT3, GT4 and other Production Car categories.

Pause

Link to watch the GT Festival weekend race at Phillip Island also on GT World’s YouTube channel here.

5. With Wakefield Park over in Goulburn, they were also being under threat at one stage due to the noise but now they still get to keep the track?  

It’s interesting that they’ve come back and made provisional changes to keep the noise down. I think they’ll definitely come back to run events with no issue. With the noise restrictions, I think they’re going to run less events and it will just be selected to certain race cars to make sure that they don’t break that noise barrier they’ve set.

His best moment of racing and even the Olympics also in 2024

And other than racing cars, what’s your favourite moment of 2024 so far across motorsport and even the Olympics when our Aussie team had their best campaign recently at Paris? I’m also wondering which Olympic sport you’d be best competing in if it was for gold?

I think our podium at The Bend Motorsports Park (South Australian Round between May 31-June 2) was a great achievement for us & the team. We had real pace we showed that we competed with the big teams like GRM (Garry Rogers Motorsport), TFH & The Racing Academy.

So that’s been a fantastic sort of point for me personally.

Then you know throughout the Olympics, the Australians really had our best campaign at Paris 2024. So it’s really cool to be Aussie and to be pretty proud when your country does well.

And for myself if I was to compete in a sport, that’s a hard one, I enjoy doing water sports so maybe I’ll probably go with Rowing since being by the water was pretty cool. I think the guys have endurance who use a lot of upper body & core strength which a lot of stuff really translates to racing cars, so something similar I reckon I would give it a crack.

Post-Notes

We wish Jackson all the best of luck as he will be back for the back-to-back November Trans-Am Australia races at Bathurst and Adelaide. He is so someone who loves watching NASCAR, especially on a Monday morning with the Cup races.

As said, if you want to keep a good eye on his driving progress – Seven & 7 + is the place to be for everything SpeedSeries.

You can also follow him and his Dream Racing team across social media:

And yes, He sure gave a wonderful shoutout also to none other than our Aussie own Leigh Diffey, who is set make his full-time commentary debut in the NASCAR Cup Series for the US NBC network, starting with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 race at Daytona tomorrow morning our time at 9.30am AEST. You can tune in live on Fox Sports via Foxtel/Kayo Sports back here who has the live local NASCAR TV rights.

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Paris 2024 Closing Ceremony: Australia’s best ever Olympic Games campaign as we say goodbye to Paris

by Sports Benches

One word to describe our Aussie Olympic Games performance at Paris 2024: simply extraordinary!! That’s right we finished 4th overall on the medal tally with 18 gold, 18 silver and 14 bronze after 16-18 days of action, which is our most successful games ever since Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 with also back-to-back 4th.

Sure, we might not be the biggest country when it comes to size and investments with likes of USA and China who always finish 1st and 2nd, but still we had plenty of stunning gold medal moments though including some in silver and bronze when it comes to various other sports as we relive our golden fortnight.

Our Aussie Dolphins Swim Team always as strong as ever in the pool with seven gold medals despite being pipped by Team USA on the ninth and final night last weekend. We continue to see more success of Jess Fox with her sister Noemie now a first time Olympic gold medalist in the women’s canoeing events that made her canoeing family proud with their parents dad Richard (a former British slalom canoeist) & mum Myriam (also a former French canoeist who won bronze back via the K1 class race in Atlanta 1996 for France), especially where Jess and Noemie are both Western Sydneysiders from Penrith. 

We also love riding with glory on a bicycle where one came on the road from Grace Brown via time trial, another coming from BMX in Saya Sakakibara after an emotional last few years, and one on the velodrome with the men’s team pursuit.

What else? We went skateboarding & collected two gold there thanks to 14-year-old Arisa Trew & 23-year-old Keegan Palmer in their respective women’s and men’s park events. We also can’t forget our men’s tennis triumph last weekend at Roland Garros when Matt Ebden & John Peers came from behind to win over USA’s Austin Krajicek & Rajeev Ram via 3rd set tiebreak to 10 in the men’s doubles Final since Todd Woodbridge & Mark Woodforde back in Atlanta 1996. 

We also did well over in the sailing when Matthew Wearn successfully defended the men’s laser event from Tokyo 2020 on what has been his second straight Olympic gold triumph. And finally in the track and field/athletics, Nina Kennedy became the 18th and final Aussie gold medalist of Paris 2024 when she won Olympics gold for the first time in the women’s pole vault – how good was that!!

She had an outstanding 12-24 months that began with Diamond League & Commonwealth Games title in 2022 as well as by a World Championship win last year in Budapest, Hungry, and now Nina’s an Olympic champion fast forward to Paris 2024!! Keep an eye out for her as she has came from a long way since her setbacks at the start of this 2020s decade & she knows how to respond with by achieving so many huge accolades along the way!!

As Paris 2024 has drawn to an excellent close, we now say goodbye to Paris who has been a great host over these last 16-18 days of world-class sports competition. Next stop: Los Angeles in the United States of America when the 34th Summer Olympics edition will take place in July 14-30 2028.

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Paris 2024 Aquatics Review: A string of silver for our Aussie Women’s Water Polo Team & Moesha Johnson in the women’s 10km open water swim as well as Maddison Keeney for bronze in the women’s 3m springboard dive

by Sports Benches

The Paris 2024 swimming program may be over last weekend where our Aussie Dolphins Swim Team still had great success despite falling short to Team USA when it comes to this sport’s medal tally alone as our big battles ain’t over anytime soon, that way we can go on & win back this pool like it was several times before. 

However, there’s more to water/aquatics when it comes to the 2nd week Olympics program, having also achieved good success — even though we were so close to winning gold in Marathon Swimming as well as Water Polo and Diving programs. 

Now that would be a big boost when it comes to future World Aquatics Championships with the next edition going to Singapore in about 11 months time from now.

First of all, shoutout to Moesha Johnson who finished silver behind Sharon Van Rouwendaal from the Netherlands in the women’s 10km open water swimming event while Chelsea Gubeca finished 14th. Gotta say Moesha has improved a lot this year when it comes to her marathon swimming career, she was fourth individually earlier this year at the World Champs in Doha including the team gold there.

She too alerted all of Australia off the back of her specialist swimming discipline success which is the long-form events including some long-distance swimming in the pool as we need more of these marathon swimmers like her. Sure she can go one better if she can for LA28 & let’s hope our future marathon swimmers for those looking to take up soon enough can take her lead for gold going into the home Summer Olympics edition for Brisbane 2032.

We also didn’t forget Nicholas Sloman & Kyle Lee with the men’s 10km open water swimming event. Yes, trying to reaching gold may not be our biggest strength unlike some of our pool swimmers at this stage. But seeing both of them within the Top 15 ain’t bad though with Sloman just outside the Top 10 in 11th while Lee came home in 13th. Again, we need and can do more to inspire more young kids to take up marathon swimming for the best chance of success both in here and worldwide.

If one silver medal wasn’t enough, why not we look at our Women’s Stingers Water Polo team? They too fell so short last night by only two goals (9-11) v Spain in the gold medal final off the back of their unreal campaign in the lead up to this big dance undefeated at Paris La Defense Arena. Now they had an equal start with Spain from the beginning while the Stingers made a late charge to hold back Spain but their inconsistent play midway through the match fell into Spain’s favour and their opponents were the one that got themselves home with the Olympics gold.

Unlucky but this is the team we should be proud of having won gold before back in Sydney 2000. We are absolutely confident that our women’s Stingers team can go one better towards setting up regular world-class success as the one of the top water polo powerhouse nations in the world. Keep an eye on them on a regular basis for their support where they also got Tilly Kearns (who plays centre forward) as one of the players there and she’s related to her dad who is a former Wallaby in none other than Phil Kearns.

And in the Diving, shoutout to Maddison Keeney with her silver medal success in the women’s 3m springboard. She had an excellent performance despite not being able to reach gold that won her multiple World Championships before, having split the two Chinese divers in between gold and bronze. But again, we got another amazing diver on our hands & fingers crossed she will go back to at least 1 if not 2 more games to bow out on a high with a breakthrough Olympics gold – keep an eye on her too including next year’s Worlds.

So that’s all you need to know as we enjoyed watching our aquatics athletes take centre stage in Paris that showcased their best abilities for those watching at home and also in-person with credit to our parents’ sheer hard work of making their sons and daughters dreams made come true. Can’t wait to see Australia hopefully take extra rewards of gold medals in world aquatics beyond pool swimming going into next year’s Worlds in Singapore & the next Summer Olympics in LA come 2028. 

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Olympics Field Hockey News: Kookaburras and now Hockeyroos out of the Quarter-Finals to the Netherlands and China respectively all within the last 24 hours

by Sports Benches

From Day 9 yesterday, the Men’s Kookaburras aspirations of going one better for gold at Paris 2024 unfortunately came to an end in the Quarter-Finals at the end of the Netherlands, 2-0. Yes, the first half or first two x 15 mins weren’t bad for a start with both teams being scoreless as they had plenty of opportunities to strike a few through the net against one of the best Top 2 hockey teams in the world.  We also thought they can cause them a huge storm, having done so back in February earlier this year during the Indian FIH Pro League mini-tournament. But then series of silly mistakes, poor attacking execution and poor discipline ultimately forced their hand to the Dutch with 2 x 2nd half goals en route to their semis berth v Spain on Wednesday at 10pm AEST – one via penalty corner in the 3rd x 15 mins followed by an open strike in the last 15.

Now we’ve just seen the same with the women’s Hockeyroos side just now on Day 10 also from the Quarter-Finals who lost by one goal to China 3-2 – despite a really improved 2nd half play where they did their best to save the match but it was too little, too late unfortunately. They got away with the early goal which was so far, so good – especially when they dominated the last 2 x 15 minute plays by sharing the possession with China after half-time. 

It’s just a shame they’ve been inconsistent play across the pitch, such as the ill-discipline for the most part including the last few mins under presssure that allowed China to cash in & hold them accountable with goals coming their way. The Hockeyroos surrendered an early 1-0 lead into a 3-1 trail behind China ahead of half-time and then a 2-3 loss in the end by a single goal difference as they cannot play any further now much like the Men’s Kookaburras in this Olympics tournament. 

Instead, China will be waiting their next opponent for the semi final come Wednesday night when Belgium v Spain to round off today’s Women’s Quarter-Final day at 4am AEST tomorrow. Hats off to head coach and former Hockeyroos player Alyson Annan with the win, who knows how to get a good sniff of the Hockeyroos, having won a few times over them time and time again as we’ve seen back in April 2024.

For now, Hockey Australia will need to look at both the men’s and women’s teams performances very closely soon enough and see where they will go from there over the next 3-5 years. As said, there were some signs of promise prior to the Olympics that they can both thrive against the world’s best where a Top 3-4 finish would be the bare minimum – no pressure.

But both of their own early QF exits now meant that the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos are still far from the very best that they’re trying to accomplish when you look at the likes of both the Netherlands & Belgium. Looks like we won’t be seeing Colin Batch & Katrina Powell back in the dugout as their respective men’s and women’s teams coaches going into 2025.

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Olympics News: Aussie Dolphins Swim Team finished 2nd in the swimming medal tally behind USA by only one gold medal with back-to-back silver on the final night

by Sports Benches

Yes, Team USA may have officially been crowned as the Olympic swimming champions at Paris 2024 while we were so close by a gap of one gold medal behind in 2nd at a total of 7. But so proud of our Aussie Dolphins swimmers though who put us on the map over these first eight days including two silver on the 9th & final night. Gotta say Meg Harris was so close in the Women’s 50m Freestyle Final behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom while Mollie O’Callaghan rescued the Aussies yet again when she anchored the Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Final for freestyle from 4th to 2nd in the last swimming race of Paris 2024 at Paris La Defense Arena.

We start with our best freestyle specialist Mollie O’Callaghan whose finishing ability was world-class that can wow everyone out of nowhere as we’ve seen in the 200m Freestyle Final including several other team relay races that won her a few gold medals plus the final night Women’s 4 x 100 medley relay silver in her first Olympics campaign. 

So does our Queen of Backstroke Kaylee McKeown who successfully defended the 100 and 200m Final races of her specialist discipline while she wasn’t bad when it comes to both team relays as well as medley & individual medley races.

We also can’t forget our best middle distance swimmer Ariarne Titmus when she made us proud on the first day after she defended the 400m Freestyle Final from Tokyo 2020, and last but not least Cameron McEvoy – who defied all odds with his breakthrough 50m Freestyle sprint Final performance – that won finally him an Olympic Gold Medal on top of his World Championship win at the ripe age of 30.

Plus, we can give shoutouts to so many more like Meg Harris where she’s not just an excellent team player but also did really well in the 50m Freestyle sprint earlier this AM in 2nd. And last but not least, Emma McKeon & Shayna Jack whom they are also excellent team players that won them Olympic team relay gold medals. Jack has came back from a long way while things won’t be the same without McKeon after her decorated career.

Where to now for our Aussie Dolphins Swim Team? Their message to Team USA is well played but our battles ain’t over when we can go dominate the World Championships once again next year and 2027, as well as the long-awaited 2026 Pan Pacs and the next Olympics on their home turf come 2028 in Los Angeles.

For now, merci & au revoir Paris as the our Aussie Dolphins are on their way back home.

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Olympics Swimming News: Aussie Dolphins Swim Team still in for a fantastic finish going into the ninth & final day tomorrow morning with one silver & two bronze medals on Day 8

by Sports Benches

Okay, the Aussie Dolphins Swim Team might not have got away with any gold at all on Day 8 – which wasn’t what we wanted thanks to arch-rivals Team USA. Instead, they only won one silver thanks to Ariarne Titmus in the Women’s 800m Freestyle Final behind Katie Ledecky & two bronze, with Kaylee McKeown unexpectedly following Alex Walsh’s DQ in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley Final, as well as a team effort in the Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final.

However, we’re still just holding on the Olympics Swimming Medal Tally that tight by one gold medal totalling 7 so far ahead of Team USA going into the ninth and final day’s program tomorrow morning our time.

Oh so close from Arnie who wasn’t far off Katie’s radar all along but not quite enough to close her down on time unfortunately on time. But she did her personal best nonetheless against someone that is already and still an U.S. Olympic swimming legend in none other than now 4 x Women’s 800m Freestyle Olympic Games champion Katie Ledecky. 

Congratulations to Katie as she’s simply unstoppable since the age of 15 that goes way back to London 2012 – that’s all. Looks like she will want to keep on going maybe at least one more towards achieving a homecoming feat when the next Summer Games will be in LA 2028.

For McKeown, she might not have the best race once again this time in the women’s 200m IM Final. She’s happy to accept bronze though when Team USA’s Alex Walsh was disqualified on what has been a huge week for her in Paris thanks to her two gold medals through her specialist backstroke discipline this week including the Women’s 200m Final win yesterday.

But wait, McKeown isn’t done just yet when she later went back into the pool to start off just the backstroke part for the 4 x 100m Mixed Medley Final. It wasn’t the easiest of starts to say off the back of a long night once again while nothing much came from Joshua Yong during the breaststroke stint, but Matthew Temple was not bad though for the butterfly leg despite an underwhelming run earlier on in his specialist Men’s 100m final race earlier this morning before Mollie O’Callaghan freestyled her way home to a team bronze.

Now the ninth and final day’s swimming session will only be Finals same time tomorrow morning with 2-3 gold medals up for grabs since the heats were done the other day. We got Shayna Jack onboard alongside Meg Harris in the women’s 50m Freestyle Final as hoping that the best is yet to come from Jack for gold. 

Plus, we might be in for a 50/50 chance in the Men’s 4 x 100 Medley Relay Final but sure our women are 100% confident on getting the job done for their own 4 x 100m Medley race. After that, the Olympics swimming program would be finished by then with Australia hoping to def. Team USA for the overall Swimming honours once again – this time at Olympic Games level following their World Champs triumph in Fukuoka, Japan just a little over last year.

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Olympics Tennis News: Super Saturday at Court Phillipe Chatrier with both the men’s doubles final as Matt Ebden & John Peers won gold including the women’s singles final

by Sports Benches

What a Final it was at Court Phillipe Chatrier as Matt Ebden and John Peers are now Olympic champions in the Men’s Doubles Final over Team USA’s duo of Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram out of a tight three set contest. The last time Australia won a gold medal there at an Olympics level was back in Atlanta in 1996 by both Todd Woodbridge & Mark Woodforde. Now fast forward to 28 years, Australia finally got their first gold medal in the 21st century for Tennis thanks to the superstar doubles duo of Ebden & Peers.

It wasn’t the easiest of starts when Ebden and Peers were behind earlier on, even though they had some fair share of battles before Team USA locked themselves in with the 1st set lead. But the game wasn’t over just yet when they began to turn themselves around from the set down & that paid off big time where they kept on going by putting their opponents under pressure until the very end. Now they might have almost lost 3 out of 4 gold medal points but at least that crucial final serve was good enough to see off both Krajicek and Ram for the gold medal win.

Commiserations from Krajicek and Ram whom they played oh so well off the back of a good headstart to stay ahead of Ebden and Peers. They never gave them an easy run for sure but they did however have slipped away at times following the 1-0 set lead where the final set best of ten tiebreak decider has been activated by Australia before Peers had the last say for the final serve for that gold medal point.

And how good was China Qinwen Zheng who finally got her breakthrough that may not be exactly at a grand slam at this stage but at least she won a gold medal at the Roland Garros with the straight sets (6-2 & 6-3) win over Croatia’s Donna Vekic. She too had a powerful first set performance while Zheng took her time well v the improving Vekic as the match goes on before she stood her ground that made her an Olympics champion for China. Sure she has unfinished ahead and that will be winning a grand slam after she fell short to Aryna Sabalenka back in late January of this year at Melbourne Park.

On Vekic, it wasn’t the match she wanted when she fired off not bad on both sets including some progress from the opening set down. But just couldn’t catch up nor found the long run consistency to put Zheng under pressure. She did make Croatia proud though as Vekic collected the silver medal ahead of Iga Swiatek from Poland who won bronze v Anna Karolína Schmiedlová from Slovakia (6-2 & 6-1).

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Olympics Swimming News: Cam McEvoy finally won his first gold at age 30 while Kaylee McKeown defended another gold in the 200m back on Night 7 of 9 for Australia

by Sports Benches

The Aussie Dolphins Swim Team are well clear going into this weekend before the Olympics swimming program is done, having collected two gold medals on Day 7 at a total of 7 right now, which they’re now three gold medals ahead of Team USA in 2nd on this swimming medal tally.

First of all, “Big Boy” Cameron McEvoy finally won an Olympics gold on his fourth campaign out in the Men’s 50m Freestyle Final at age 30 while Kaylee McKeown is the No.1 backstroking Queen after she defended her 200m Final race on top of her 100m Final race from the other day.

What a moment from McEvoy when he was neck-and-neck with everyone all along before he was really the first one to touch the wall at a time of 21.25 – just 0.05 tenths of a second between the difference that consigned Team GB’s Ben Proud into second for the silver medal. He never gave up as he too has finally became an Olympic champion after also being the first time World Champion last year in Fukuoka, Japan – go you good thing!

And on Kaylee, she’s the superstar we have got in our backstroking arsenal after she defended her 100 and 200m Olympic gold medal titles. The only other person who has done it last time around was West Germany’s (now Germany) Roland Mattes back in 1968 and 1972. Okay, she fired off not bad where the start could’ve been hers to get ahead so Kaylee can try and break another world record there. But at least she saved her energy till the end while keeping in check with her competitors and yet she’s done well to lock them out en route to another Olympics gold towards the end of the wall.

Now Day 8 tomorrow morning is going to be huge with 3-4 gold medal shots that will hopefully see our Aussies one step closer to safeguarding this Olympics Swimming medal tally in Paris 2024.

Kaylee will be back this time in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley; Yes, she wasn’t the best in her semis race but sure she’ll come back recharged to try and win another gold. So does Ariarne Titmus and Lani Pallister in the women’s 800m Freestyle Final – no doubt Arnie will look to stop Team USA’s Katie Ledecky once again. Don’t forget the Mixed 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final that could mean bonus points for the Dolphins going into the ninth & final day & Matt Temple as the lone Aussie in the Men’s 100m Butterfly.

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Olympics Tennis News: Carlos Alcaraz too good for Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi with Matt Ebden & John Peers also on their way to an Olympic Gold Final in the doubles

by Sports Benches

What a way to finish off Friday here with two brilliant semi-final Tennis matches we’ve just saw tonight at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris coming from Stade Roland Garros where Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz was too good for Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets (6-1, 6-1) & so does our Aussie doubles pair of Matt Ebden & John Peers (7-5, 6-2) also in straight sets during the 2nd men’s doubles semi against USA’s Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz. Alcaraz will await his next opponent for Sunday’s gold medal match between the winner of the other men’s semi-final in either Serbian legend Novak Djokovic or Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti (another Wimby rematch from last month) later on while Ebden/Peers isn’t done with Team USA just yet going into tomorrow night where they will take on Austin Kraijcek & Rajeev Ram for the Men’s Doubles gold medal match.

It wasn’t Auger-Aliassime’s day today having came here off a great run up until this point including two good wins against Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round and Norway’s Casper Ruud in the Quarter-Finals the other day. However, going up against a seasoned grand slam champ is never easy to say unfortunately and that proved too good to be true other than some early head starts v Alcaraz. His time isn’t done yet with the Bronze Medal match tomorrow to hopefully give Canada another medal against whoever loses the other semi final in either Djokovic or Musetti. Looking at Alcaraz now, he’s simply unstoppable – that’s all! He too never looked out of place having dominated all two sets en route to an Olympics gold medal Final. Looks like it’s going to be another round of Alcaraz v Djokovic if Djokovic can win v Musetti again later on as the young Spaniard would love to win another major honour at the same Court Phillipe Chatrier all in the one year this time for gold.

And how good was Ebden and Peers on what has been an unreal performance to hold off Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz in straight sets. That first stage was really close where they both found a way to get out unscathed and although they had a few bumps along the way with the 1-0 lead but at least both Ebden and Peers took their time well to wrap all things up for the semi-final win. Hard luck to Paul and Fritz by the way who weren’t far off the pace of Ebden and Peers throughout the opening set but struggled mightily to stay in the game during the set, even though a couple of late saves wasn’t enough to warrant them a big turnaround from there. Now Ebden and Peers are one stop closer now to emulating “The Woodies” pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde from Atlanta 96′ if they can get this done tomorrow & Australia is surely right behind them.

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Olympics Field Hockey News: Kookaburras complete 5-0 demolition win v Black Sticks

by Sports Benches

We had a Trans-Tasman rivalry this time in the Men’s Olympic Games Field Hockey tonight coming from Stade-Yves-Du-Manoir Stadium in Paris between the Kookaburras and the Black Sticks. It was a quiet and scoreless first 15 to begin with but the Kookaburras have been absolutely destructive upfront with back-to-back goals in the 2nd 15 followed by another one in the 3rd quarter before they finished the game courtesy of a Blake Govers hat-trick masterclass as the final score was 5-0. That means, the Black Sticks won’t be able to advance into the Quarter-Finals with one game to go at 1am AEST Saturday v Ireland.

It’s not been their day today from the Black Sticks on what has been a brutal 5-0 loss as they still have yet to have taken the win in this tournament, even though they came here as outsiders. Sure, they defended really well off the back through a series of Kookaburras’ missed opportunities while denying access at their own end that leads to a couple of good attempts on the counter-attack. They just couldn’t find the middle ground when it comes to these conversions unfortunately including a few winning penalties and when you lack numbers, there’s no way the Black Sticks can give themselves a fighting chance to rattle Andrew Charter where they were toothless in that attacking department alone. All they can do now is finish off on a high v Ireland who is most certainly leaving the group stages early in 5th right now and yet Ireland are also winless so far either.

And great to see the Kookaburras respond to that unfortunate 6-2 loss yesterday v Belgium with a 5-0 win v the Black Sticks with one game to go tomorrow night at 9.15pm v India. One way to describe their performance – strong and powerful. This was exactly what the Kookaburras has done every time they harried the Black Sticks defenders with a lot of ball that led to back-to-back 2nd x 15 mins goals followed by a succession of goals throughout the 2nd half including two from penalty corners before they are well and truly secure & yet they didn’t stop attacking as if they’re preparing for fightback against a top team like Belgium to see how it’s done. There’s unfinished business here having finished 2nd to them at the last Olympics tournament in Tokyo, Japan four years ago, a win v India would hopefully open up an extended run to go all the way in Paris.

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