Olympics 2021: Five unmissable events on Day 13 and when to watch
The finish line of Tokyo 2020 is in sight but there’s still no end to Australia’s medal chances.
It’s another day filled with possibilities to boost that medal tally across a diverse range of sports, plus the Aussie pair of Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho Del Solar are playing for a spot in tomorrow’s gold medal match in the women’s beach volleyball from 11am AEST.
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Here are five events to watch on Day 13 of the Tokyo Olympics.
Men’s decathlon, from 10am AEST
The event for those kids at school who were annoyingly good at everything. This is the second of two days of competition in the men’s decathlon and we’re watching out for Aussie Ash Moloney here.
He came into these Games ranked No.17 in the world and was considered something of a medal chance.
After the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m yesterday, the program is completed today with the 110m hurdles (from 10am AEST), discus (11.55am), pole vault (1.45pm), javelin (8.15pm) and 1500m (10.40pm).
What can Moloney produce today?
Australia v USA, men’s basketball semi-final, 2.15pm AEST
This would go down in Australian Olympic folklore if the Boomers could knock Team USA out of gold medal contention today.
The Boomers have never had a better finish at an Olympic than fourth. A medal has been tantalisingly within reach so many times.
Patty Mills and his team believe this is their time.
It’s a team stacked with talent and NBA experience and they could cement themselves as the greatest Boomers team ever with a win here and a ticket to the gold medal match.
We dispensed with Argentina in the quarter-final as we should have, considering they were one of the third-place group teams to make it through.
The Boomers beat USA in a pre-Olympics exhibition match 91-83 where Mills scored 22 points. It couldn’t happen again, could it?
Women’s 10m platform final, diving, 4pm AEST
She has been part of our sporting consciousness for so long, it’s easy to forget the sustained level of performance Melissa Wu has given over nearly two decades.
After starting her career in 2003 at the age of just 10, Wu really burst onto the scene at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games when she won silver with Alexandra Croak in the 10m synchronised diving.
She has been a mainstay of our diving team ever since, the height of which came with a silver medal in Beijing.
Diving has been good to Australia over many years now, we’ve won a medal at every Olympics since Sydney, and Wu is a big chance to continue that tradition in the 10m platform today.
The semi-finals are at 11am AEST.
Australia v USA, women’s football bronze medal match, 6pm AEST
Heartbreak for the Matildas in the semi-final when their brave push for a gold medal was thwarted by a 1-0 loss to Sweden, especially considering the contentious nature of a disallowed first-half goal to Sam Kerr.
Still, a bronze medal here would be our first at an Olympics, and even in defeat, a fourth-placed finish would be our best result at an Olympics or World Cup.
It’s something of a surprise to be playing the Americans here, after their shock 1-0 loss to Canada in the semis. They’ll be absolutely stinging after that.
They’ve won the past two World Cups and are four-time Olympic champions, so it’s going to need a big effort from the Matildas to bring home a medal.
Australia v Belgium, men’s hockey gold medal match, 8pm AEST
Let’s finish off the day with gold, shall we? The Kookaburras have barely put a foot wrong in Tokyo and now have a chance to secure only our second Olympic gold in men’s hockey, and first since Athens 2004.
Australia and Belgium topped their respective groups, each taking four wins and a draw from their five group games.
It was the penalty shootout win against Netherlands in the quarter-finals that might be seen as the defining moment of this campaign for the Aussies, though, just that little scare they might have needed.
The Belgians have made light work of Spain (3-1) and India (5-2) in their finals.
They are easily the highest scoring team in the tournament, so the Aussie defence will need to be at its best.
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