General News

British Scullers Set Olympic Record In Women's Rowing

British women's double scullers set an Olympic rowing record in London on Monday.

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins clocked an Olympic best time of 6 minutes 44.33 seconds as they powered into the final.

The Australian crew set a new Olympic benchmark of five minutes 47.07 seconds as they cruised into the semi-finals of the men's four rowing.

Michael Phelps, who looked to put the disappointment of missing out on a medal in the 400m Individual Medley, secured his place in the semifinal of the men's 200m Butterfly. Phelps finished third and was fifth fastest overall en route to the semi-finals scheduled for tonight. He was far from the dominating presence that he was in the swimming pool in Beijing.

The crowds at the Aquatics Center will also be treated to finals in the women's 100m Backstroke, the women's 100m Breaststroke and the men's 100m Backstroke.

The US men's Artistic Gymnastics team will look to steal the show on Day 4 of London 2012 as they aim to follow up their strong qualification performance by claiming gold in the Team final.

The US team led the way on Saturday with an impressive qualification score of 275.342 as Japan failed to live up to their billing as favorites and Olympic champions China also struggled.

Japan finished fifth and China sixth, but the US, Russia, Great Britain and Germany will be braced for an improvement from both Asian countries in the final.

Jonathan Horton is the only member of the American team who is not making his Olympic debut but rookie quartet Danell Leyva, John Orozco, Jacob Dalton and Sam Mikulak showed no signs of nerves in qualification and a repeat performance could see them win gold at the North Greenwich Arena.

There has already been some thrilling action in the pool in the first two days of competition and American Ryan Lochte will be back in action on Monday as he attempts to claim his second gold medal of the Games in the 200m Freestyle final.

Day 4 will also feature the first men's Diving final of the Games and Chinese duo Yuan Cao and Yanquan Zhang are strong favorites for gold in the Synchronized 10m Platform event.

Britain's 18 year-old Tom Daley and the experienced Pete Waterfield are eying a medal, with Daley a more mature competitor four years on from his Olympic debut at the age of just 14 at Beijing 2008.

China are expected to dominate the Diving events, just as they did on home soil four years ago.

There will also be medals at stake in Shooting, Judo, Weightlifting and Fencing.

In all, 12 golds are at stake in 22 disciplines on Monday.

by RTTNews Staff Writer

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