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Rio 2016: 5 things we learned on day 4
Mathew Owen wraps up five things we learned from day 4 at Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.
• Rio’s opening ceremony sent a clear environmental message to the world last Friday, insisting this was the green Olympics, the games with a conscience. Unfortunately for red-faced officials it’s not just Brazil’s rivers and beaches which they should be worried about, but the pool used for yesterday’s Women’s 10m Synchro Platform, as TV audiences (not to mention athletes) looked on in horror as the water turned a horrible murky green. By the third round of dives, competitors were being issued with tetanus jabs.
• If it’s giant killing feats you want, the mighty are dropping left, right and centre at the Olympic Tennis Centre. After Novak Djokovic’s premature exit from the Men’s Singles, it was the turn of Olympic champion Serena Williams, who bowed out in uncharacteristically limp fashion, in straight sets to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina. The good news for Team GB is that Andy Murray is managing to avoid the Olympic curse of being a top seed, and progressed smoothly to the Third Round, whilst fellow Brit Johanna Konta won a dramatic tie against Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.
• Team GB’s hockey team were in seventh (well ninth as it goes) heaven on day four as they registered their first win of the Olympics with a rollicking 9-1 defeat of the host nation Brazil, in a tournament in which the top four in each group qualify for the quarter-finals. Great Britain’s fate is currently in their own hands with two must-win games against Australia and Spain still to come. Now I’m no expert, but I can think of nine reasons not to leave it to Brazil to do them any favours in the group.
• Everyone loves an underdog (well apart from U-S-A!), they kind of embody the true spirit of the Olympics. With this in mind, it came to pass that we witnessed the seemingly unbeatable All Blacks Sevens going through rucking hell and having their backsides handed to them by a joyous Japan side, who ran out 14-12 winners. A breathless start to the Men’s Rugby Sevens also saw Great Britain (no less) get off to a perfect start by beating the All Blacks’ conquerors, Japan, 21-19 in what turned out to be a bit of a thriller.
• Whilst countries worldwide enjoy wall-to-wall, multi-platform coverage of the Rio games and celebrate stories of humanity and endeavour, it appears that North Korea really can’t be bothered when it comes to the greatest show on earth. In fact, the home broadcaster hasn’t even bothered telling the nation the good news that they’ve managed to win a silver in weightlifting. Now I’m guessing if randomly firing missiles into the sea for no other reason than to annoy the Japanese was an Olympic event, they’d walk away with the Gold and it’d be all over the glorious state rolling news channel.
