EXPERT'S EYE DAY 11- Amazing double-simultaneous arrival in Copacabana

Amazing double-simultaneous arrival yesterday morning in the waters facing Forte Copacabana: Dutch Ferry Weertman, silver medallist at the world championhisp 2015 and European champion 2016, and the evergreen Greek Spyridon Gianniotis were both first, in 1 : 52: 59.8, at the end of a battle that involved at least six swimmers in the final stage of the race. Thanks to the photo finish the gold medal was awarded to the Dutch, the silver to the Greek.

The Netherlands swept both medals in this event since yesterday they won the women's race with Sharon Van Rouwendaal.

Spyridon Gianniotis, who was in his fifth Olympics (the first in Sydney 2000), is the oldest medal winner in swimming here in Rio, with 36 years. After him, the eldest is Anthony Ervin, 35, gold medalist in the 50m freestyle: curiously that the "old men" have medaled respectively in the longest race and in the shorter one.

Gianniotis had won the 10km at the World Championships in 2011 and 2013 and was third in 2015; in the previous Olympics, in London in 2012, he was fourth.

Same situation for third place, with the simultaneous arrival of the French Marc Olivier (20 years old, the youngest among the first, he too coached by Philippe Lucas) and the Chinese Lijun Zu for second place, with 1: 53.02 (+2.2 compared to the first). Here too the medal was decided by the photo finish: bronze was awarded to the French, while the Chinese was declared in fourth place.

Fifth, with a second more than the previous pair, Jordan Wilimovsky in 1: 53: 03.2 (+3.4). The US swimmer, world champion in Kazan, was favorite but as in the 1500 freestyle - where he came fourth – he has been off the podium, just as Italians Simone Ruffini and Federico Vanelli, who both received a yellow card and placed respectively in sixth and seventh place, in 1: 53: 03.5 (+3.7 by the winner) and 1: 53: 03.9 (+4.1).

Two medalists at London 2012 finished distant from the podium in this race: London’s gold medalist, Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli, 32 (one more "grand old man" at these swimming Olympics), was twelfth in 1: 53: 06.1 (+6.3); Canada's Richard Weinberger, bronze in 2012, was 17th , in 1: 53: 16.4.

In the race there were 25 competitors, from 23 nations. Jack Burnell (GBR) and Vitaly Khudyakov (KAZ) were disqualified.

SYNCHRONISED SWIMMING

Yesterday in the Duet Free Final everything went according to expectations.

The Russian duet Natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Romashina took one more time possess of the gold medal after performing an almost perfect routine with 98.5333 points (194.9910 overall). Ishchenko, 30, and Romashina, 26, have now atally of 4 Olympic gold medals.

As heavily predicted the Chinese duet of Huang Xuechen (third in 2012) and Sun Wenyan (first Olympic medal) won the silver medal with an accumulated 192.3688 points.

Japan's pair Yukiko Inui and Risako Mitsui won the bronze medal with 188.0547, ahead of the Ukrainian pair of Lolita Ananasova and Anna Voloshyna (third in the 2015 world championship duet free final) who narrowly missed the podium with 187.1358 points.

The Spanish Gemma Mengual and Ona Carbonell ended in fifth place with 186.6357 points. The Iberians had been on the podium of this event in the last two editions of the Games: Mengual at Beijing 2008, pairing for silver with Andrea Fuentes; Carbonell, also pairing with Fuentes, for the runner-up position in London 2012.

The final score for each pair today was determined by adding the points received in the Duet Technical routine with those received in the final Free routine.

Final Ranking: 1. Russia, 2. China, 3. Japan, 4. Ukraine, 5. Spain, 6. Italy, 7. Canada, 8. France, 9. USA, 10. Greece, 11. Mexico, 12. Austria.

WATER POLO

In the Quarter-Finals on the sixth day of the men’s tournament the same four teams made the semifinals as in London 2012: three teams from former Yugoslavia -, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro - and Italy.

Noteworthy both group-winners, Hungary and Spain, missed to go through to the finals.

After a tight match, the score was 9-9 at the end of the regular time, penalty-shootouts had to take place, and Hungary was ousted by Montenegro
Serbia, instead, won comfortably over Spain. Serbia was not brilliant in the preliminary round but, as all experts know, in the first phase of the tournament sometimes teams play tactics while from the quarter-finals on a different kind of tournament may be witnessed.

Croatia beat Brazil on a comfortable 10-6 final score. Thousands of fans in the stands to support the home team with a hearty and noisy cheer, such as in football. The "whiz" Ratko Rudic, who four years ago had brought "his" Croatia to win the Olympic title, at the helm of Brazil for the latest three years, has managed to make a little miracle in getting the carioca team through to the quarterfinals, with the help of some naturalized players, including the formidable former Serbian goalkeeper Slobodan Soro.

Italy claimed a resounding victory over Greece, 9-5. Italy –who is the only team to make the medal zone with both the men's and the women’s team - will face Serbia in the semi-finals.
Quarter-Finals Results (Wednesday 17 August)

Hungary v Montenegro 13-11; 9-9 (1-2, 2-3, 3-3, 3-1); penalties 2-4
Serbia v Spain 10-7 (3-1, 4-2, 0-2, 3-2)
Brazil v Croatia 6-10 (2-3, 1-4, 3-1, 0-2)
Greece v Italy 5-9 (0-2, 2-2, 1-2, 2-3)

Semi-Finals (on Thursday 18 August)
Places 1-4: Montenegro v Croatia; Italy v Serbia
Places 5-8: Hungary v Brazil; Greece v Spain

DIVING

Yesterday’s men's 3-meter springboard final was the best diving competition seen so far at Rio Olympics, a competition “as it should be", well up to expectations! China's Yuan Cao has swept away all the doubts, and the ghost of the failure he experienced in the same venue at the World Cup the February when he was eliminated in the semifinals. He knew he had to be flawless to win gold at the Olympics, and he was totaling 547.60 points: When he rose on the highest step of the podium he pulled a nice sigh of relief.

The British Jack Laugher has challenged Cao throughout the competition with some really exciting dives; the difference was made by the natural elegance of the Asian diver. With 523.85 points and the silver medal Laugher has definitely confirmed himself as the strongest European diver.

Another European, German Patrick Hausding, who had a very difficult year because of injuries to a shoulder and the back has managed a well timely chosen return to form, allowing himself the huge satisfaction to climb on the podium to wear the bronze medal with 498.90 points.

On the contrary, Mexican Rommel Pacheco, who in February here at the "Maria Lenk" had won the World Cup, and who in the semi-finals had placed second, probably could not stand the fatigue and the stress, and last night “collapsed”, going wrong from the first dive. This final has been a watershed: many of its participants probably will close their careers here, but new young talents, such as Dingley, Gagné and Morales, have emerged, also from the semi-finals, and are likely to be the protagonists of the next four years.

The defending champion, the 25-year-old Russian Ilya Zakharov , last of the 18 qualifiers from the preliminary round, could not make the final. He started brightly in the semi-final, but he faltered in the third round and made a disaster in the fourth round, finishing an enormous 143.50 points behind top qualifier, Yuan Cao: practically handing him the Olympic 3m springboard crown.