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Olympics 2021: 5 unmissable Day 8 events and when to watch

Aussie swimmer Kaylee McKeown (pictured left) and Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (pictured right).
Aussie swimmer Kaylee McKeown (pictured left) and Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (pictured right) will feature in an action packed Day 8 at the Olympics. (Getty Images)

A great mix of events to watch as the middle weekend of the Games kicks off with an early gold medal chance for Australia.

There’s plenty to look forward to and a more medal chances for Australia. Here are five events to watch on Day 8 of the Tokyo Olympics.

Triathlon, mixed team relay, 8.30am AEST

There’s no better way to start the day than with an early gold medal hope. The mixed relay triathlon is a lot of fun to watch, consisting of teams of two men and two women who complete a short triathlon (300m swim, 6.8km bike, 2km run) each and then hand over to their teammate.

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Australia’s team of Ashleigh Gentle, Matthew Hauser, Emma Jeffcoat and Jacob Birtwhistle are experienced and successful competitors and should be in medal contention when the whips are cracking.

An Australian team finished on the podium in this event at the world championships for five straight years between 2015-2019, including a win in 2017 which featured Hauser, Gentle and Birtwhistle, so they know how to get it done.

Trap mixed team, Shooting, from 10am

Australia has the team to beat here as the trap mixed team event makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo. James Willett and Laetisha Scanlan are considered genuine gold medal contenders, having won the event at the 2019 world championships.

Scanlan has won gold in the trap at the past three Commonwealth Games, while she and Willett both finished fifth in their individual events at their first Olympics in Rio.

Coached by Olympic gold medallist Russell Mark, they’ll have all the intel on what it takes to win at this level. The bronze medal match is at 2.30pm AEST and they’ll be shooting for gold at 3.05pm.

Women’s 200m backstroke final, 11.37am AEST

Have your finger on the mute button if there are little kids around and Kaylee McKeown wins gold here.

The 20-year-old dropped the f-bomb on live TV after beating home Canadian Kylie Masse and world champion Regan Smith to win the 100m backstroke on Tuesday, but she’ll be able to say what she likes if she repeats it here.

McKeown has produced four of the fastest five 200m backstroke swims this year, and her Olympic trials time of 2min 04.28sec was the fourth fastest of all time.

Kaylee Mckeown (pictured) shows her gold medal after winning the women 100m Backstroke final.
Kaylee Mckeown (pictured) shows her gold medal after winning the women 100m Backstroke final. (Photo by Giorgio Scala/BSR Agency/Getty Images) (BSR Agency via Getty Images)

Only four women have ever won the 100m-200m backstroke double at an Olympic Games, so McKeown would be in elite company if she can pull it off today.

She finished second in her semi-final yesterday, while compatriot Emily Seebohm qualified fastest for the final in the earlier semi. Masse and American Phoebe Bacon will be threats.

Mixed 4x100m medley relay, 12.43pm AEST

Now this is a crazy spectacle. If you didn’t catch the heats the other night, make sure you’re tuning in here, and not just because the Aussies are in with a chance.

This is a race of the traditional medley format of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, but each country picks two men and two women, and they can put them in any order they want. So you’ll have men and women in the pool at the same time, which causes huge fluctuations in the positioning as the race unfolds.

This is the first time it’s been swum at an Olympics, and has only been swum at world championship level three times since being introduced in 2015. Australia is the current world champion in this event but the Brits and Americans will take some beating here.

Women’s 100m final, 10.50pm AEST

One of the blue riband events at any Olympics, this one could cap one of the greatest sprinting careers of all time.

Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a two-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion in this event, is at her last Olympics and could go out with a bang.

No woman and only one man, compatriot Usain Bolt, has ever won three 100m Olympic gold medals. She would stamp herself as the undisputed GOAT with a third win here.

At the age of 34, she came into Tokyo with the fastest 100m time this year. She’s the one to beat here. The three semi-finals start at 8.15pm AEST.

Watch 'Mind Games', the new series from Yahoo Sport Australia exploring the often brutal mental toil elite athletes go through in pursuit of greatness:

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