By Marcus Uhe
Australia only trails Japan for gold medals after the first three days of Olympic Games competition in Paris.
Fuelled by the success of the swimmers and canoeing superstar Jessica Fox, Australia finished Monday (Paris time) with five gold medals, equal with France, China and South Korea, only trailing the Japanese, and equal sixth on the overall medal count.
While none of the local hopes have made their marks in finals yet, a pair of hockey players have been instrumental in Australia’s excellent start to the games, in Emerald’s Amy Lawton and Keysborough’s Nathan Ephraums.
Lawton helped the Hockeyroos secure a statement victory over Great Britain on Tuesday morning, as they conquered their 2022 Commonwealth Games demons in a 4-0 thrashing.
They Hockeyroos have made a perfect start to pool play, with two wins from two contests after a 2-1 win over South Africa on Sunday night, but having blitzed the pool stage in Tokyo, they know a bigger test is yet to come.
Ephraums, meanwhile, earned a last-minute call up to the Kookaburras after missing initial selection for the Paris squad.
Ephraums replaced Jake Whetton in the squad for Australia’s first match of the tournament against Argentina on Saturday night, in which the Kookaburras scored a 1-0 victory, and fronted-up again on Monday night in the 2-1 win over Ireland, almost scoring in the dying stages.
His availability for the remainder of the Games will hinge on the fitness of Whetton, who sustained a low-grade hamstring injury in the Kookaburra’s second warm-up clash for against Great Britain on Wednesday last week, the Australian Olympic Committee said.
The striker was one of the stars of the Kookaburra’s gold medal winning efforts at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where he scored six goals, including two in the gold medal contest against India.
He was a member of the Kookaburra’s squad that secured qualification for the Games in 2023
It’s a maiden Olympic Games experience for the 25-year-old, who will add firepower to an already stacked Kookaburras squad that is once again expected to contend for a medal, having won silver in Tokyo.
With the swimming set to conclude in the early hours of Monday 5 August, attention will turn to the Athletics events.
Berwick race walker Rebecca Henderson will begin her Games campaign on Thursday 1 August at 5.20pm, while Berwick shooter Sergei Evglevski will spend the coming week sharpening his focus ahead of his competition kicking off on Sunday 4 August.
Lyndhurst long jumper Brooke Buschkhuel’s qualification for the Long Jump final begins on Tuesday 6 August while Nyora skateboarding teenage sensation, Keefer Wilson, will have to wait until Wednesday 7 August before entering the Men’s Park qualifying rounds.
Among the showpiece events still to come, the Men’s 100m athletics final will take place on Monday morning, 5 August, with the Women’s scheduled for 24 hours prior.
All times referenced are Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).
