Olympics 2021: 5 unmissable events on Day 9 and when to watch
The final day on the swimming program and the most popular event at any Olympic Games highlight a bumper day in Tokyo.
Plus we have a couple of other genuine gold medal chances. Here are five events to watch on Day 9 of the Tokyo Olympics.
Women’s 4x100m medley relay final, 12.15pm
It’s been a great meet for the Australian women at the pool and they can finish it off with one final win here in the medley relay.
A couple of genuine stars of Australian swimming have emerged at these Games, and Kaylee McKeown and Emma McKeon will be crucial in our gold medal tilt here.
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Although she won gold in the 100m freestyle, McKeon will probably swim the butterfly leg, leaving the freestyle anchor leg to Cate Campbell, who took bronze behind McKeon.
The breaststroke leg is a concern for us though.
USA and Canada will be our biggest threats here – the Americans are going for three Olympic gold medals in a row in this event and have also won it at the past two world championships.
Men’s 4x100m medley relay final, 12.36pm
Don’t cry it’s over, smile it ever happened. The curtain comes down on the swimming program and there’s nothing better than being a genuine underdog, which is exactly what the Aussie men will be in this one.
But we’ve got an Olympic champion breaststroker over the 200m in Zac Stubblety-Cook, a former Olympic champion over the 100m free in Kyle Chalmers - who went within a breath of defending his title - as well as class backstoker Mitch Larkin and rising butterflyer Matthew Temple.
So a medal is a genuine chance, but it looks like being a scrap between Great Britain and Team USA for gold, while we might be fighting the Russians for bronze.
BMX freestyle park final, 12.20pm AEST
Logan Martin describes it as “gymnastics on a bike” and the guy should know, the Australian star is the one to beat at this event in what will be its Olympics debut.
In a nutshell, riders get a minute to perform acrobatic tricks and are judged on difficulty, originality, execution, height and creativity.
Martin is a two-time BMX Park X Games gold medallist and won the BMX freestyle event at the UCI Urban Cycling world championships in 2017. Heck, the guy even built a BMX park in his own backyard after his local venue was closed.
He means business.
Compatriot Brandon Loupos, who beat Martin to gold at the 2019 BMX freestyle world championships is another to watch.
Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser final, 3.33pm AEST
Sit back, relax and enjoy Matt Wearn completing a victory lap in the final race today with gold already assured thanks to an unassailable lead.
After something of a slow start in the first two races, the West Australian put in a dominant streak of performances to confirm why he came into this event as the favourite.
Wearn reeled off six top-four finishes in a row, including five firsts or seconds to take a commanding lead heading into the business end of the event.
Men’s 100m final, 10.50pm AEST
No early bedtime tonight, get your PJs on and settle in for this one.
Always the most anticipated event of any Olympics, and this has the added intrigue of being the first since the Usain Bolt era.
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American Trayvon Bromell has the fastest time this year, clocking 9.77sec in June, the seventh fastest run of all time.
Compatriot Ronnie Baker and South African Akani Simbine look his biggest threats.
Be sure to tune into the heats from 8.15pm for Rohan Browning, the first Australian to have even qualified to compete in the 100m at an Olympics since Josh Ross in 2004.
No Aussie man has made the 100m final since Hector Hogan in Melbourne 1956. Browning’s best time this year was 10.05sec.
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