EXPERT'S EYE DAY 10 - Van Rouwendaal (NED) takes gold in the women’s 10k marathon

In women’s water polo the United States, Hungary,  Russia and Italy go through the semi-finals. Ischchenko and Romashina continue their domination in the synchro duet while Yuan Cao tops the qualifiers for the 3m springboard semi-finals

We could call the 10th day of aquatics the “women’s day”. In fact, except for the men’s 3m springboard preliminary in diving, all the remaining competitions were among women.

OPEN WATER SWIMMING

In the Olympic 10km swimming marathon, which took place yesterday in the waters in front of Forte Copacabana waters, the Frenchman Philippe Lucas - former coach of Laure Manaudou, Federica Pellegrini, Camelia Potec, etc. - who trains both the Dutch Sharon Van Rouwendaal and the French Aurélie Muller had guessed the winning combination with his two fillies.

In fact, it was Van Rouwendaal who, at about two 2 kilometers to the finish, pulled ahead and went to touch first, with the time of 1h56m32s, with a consistent advantage on her competitors.
Muller prevailed in the tussle for the silver medal arriving after 16 "6 seconds behind the winner but just before 0.08 secs before of Italy’s Rachele Bruni, who finished in 1h56m49s5, almost 2 seconds ahead of the Brazilian Poliana Okimoto, 1h56m51s4.

But Lucas’ bet was only half won because Muller was disqualified having damaged the Italian.

Rachele Bruni , 26, necked the silver medal (assuring the presence of Italy on the podium after the bronze medal of Martina Grimaldi at London 2012) while Poliana Okimoto was upgraded to bronze.

Éva Risztov, of Hungary, was unable to retain the Olympic title she won in London 2012; she finished thirteenth, in 1: 57: 42.8.

WATER POLO

The women quarter finals decided the four team who will playing the semi-finals, having therefore the chance to get a medal. The winners were the United States, Hungary, Russia and Italy.
The defending champions, the United States, also world champions, had an easy victory over Brazil. They defeated the home team 13-3. It was a one-sided contest which ended in a 10-goal difference and confirmed the ambitions of the Americans, who wish to retain their title, and are likely to succeed in the task.

Hard-fought, instead, the match between Australia and Hungary. The Magyars came back from 1-5 to tie 8-8 at the expiration of the regular time; then ousted the Aussies in the penalty shootouts: 5-3, 13-11 the final score.

The match between Russia and Spain was also exciting. The two teams exchanged goals until the end, except in the third period when the Russians went up 2 goals: a deserved advantage they kept until the final buzzer. The Iberians, silver medallists in London 2012, had to bow out earlier than planned. The final score was 12-10 for Russia, also on a 2-goal gap.

Against China, Italy had a convincing victory, 12-7. The Italians were always in the lead and tamed the Chinese team who was not willing to surrender easily. The third period was crucial as the Italians put themselves 4 goals ahead, 8-4. In the last period they widened the gap to 5 goals.

Quarter Finals Results
Brazil v United States 3-13 (0-5, 0-3, 0-5, 3-0); Australia v Hungary 8-8 (3-1, 2-2, 2-3, 1-2), penalties 3-5; Italy v China 12 – 7 (1-1, 3-1, 4-2, 4-3).

SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING

In the second preliminary round of the duet event the Russian super pair, composed of Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina, once more dominated the competition, which lined up 24 teams, with 194.5244 points (98.0667 + 96.4577). Both Ischchenko and Romashina won three golds in the two previous  Olympics and are poised to win their fourth medal in this event in Rio.

As in the first day China’s Huang Xuechen and Sun Wenyan were second, this time with 191.4355 points. They can certainly eye a medal.

Huang Xuechen claimed silver in the Solo Free last summer in Kazan, while the same pair took silver in the Duet Technical in Russia.

The 2015 World Champions from Ukraine, Lolita Ananasova - Anna Voloshyna, climbed up to the 3rd  place with 93.1358 points, making them third (186.6691), just behind the Chinese, relegating the Japanese duo of Risako Mitsui and Yukiko Inui in  fourth with an accumulated 187.5214 points, and the Spanish duet of Ona Carbonell and Gemma Mengual in fifth. Brazil’s duet ranked 13th in front of a very supporting crowd, but just missed to make the final by one spot.

The 12 best duets of today qualified for the final round which takes place today, August 16. Duets qualified: 1. Russia, 2. China, 3. Japan, 4. Ukraine, 5. Spain, 6. Italy, 7. Canada, 8. France, 9. USA, 10. Greece, 11. Mexico, 12. Austria.

DIVING

Yesterday in the men's 3m springboard preliminary, of the 18 athletes who qualified for the semi-finals, 12 have managed to score more than 400 points. The Chinese Yuan Cao was by far the best with 498.70 points, just 1.30 shy of the 500. Just over 10.45 points behind the Chinese, the Mexican Rommel Pacheco Rommel too distanced himself from the rest, with 488.25, and a very brilliant performance.

Of the other the best +400 were: Kristian Ipsen (Usa) 461.35, Evgenii Kuznetsov (Rus) 449.90, Sebastian Morales (Col) 447.05,  Patrick Hausding (Ger) 440.00.

Chao He (Chn), the reigning world champion, suffered a shocking elimination, as well as Matthieu Rosset of France, European champion in 2015: they were respectively 21st and 23rd .

The defending Olympic champion, Russia’s Ilia Zakharov,  and Ukraine’s Ilya Kvasha  risked the elimination too, but eventually they made it by a hair, respectively with the 18th and the 15th place.