Day 1 - Sanchez Rides To Gold For Spain

Major Highlight - Men's Road Race

The marquee event on the opening day of the Games was the Men's Road Race, an intense battle over 245km in opressive Beijing humidity. With the field already in the saddle for some 5 and a half hours the last hour of racing produced some of the most exciting cycling ever seen at an Olympic games. Andy Schleck (Luxembourg), Samuel Sanchez (Spain), and Davide Rebellin (Italy) seemed to have the medals between them when they broke clear of Michael Rogers (Australia) and Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia), but a an epic finishing burst from Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland), who appeared from nowhere in the final 5 km's, dragged the Aussie and the Russian back to the leaders. The result was a 6 man sprint at the finish, with Sanchez proving the most powerful to take the gold from birthday boy Rebellin. Cancellara's effort in the last kilometres told at the finish. He lacked his usual punch but managed to snare a deserved bronze right on the line:

Gold - Samuel Sanchez (Spain)
Silver - Davide Rebellin (Italy)
Bronze - Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)

Swimming

A number of heats on day 1 but no finals thanks to the made-for-US scheduling of this years swimming. The Australian's were generally below par except for Jess Schipper in the 100m butterfly. Schipper and Libby Trickett (100m Butterfly), Grant Hackett (400m Freestyle), Stephanie Rice (400m IM), and the Women's 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay team look Australia's best chances for gold given their heat performances. Michael Phelps (US) who is aiming to win 8 gold medals in Beijing looked in cruise control to qualify fastest for the Men's 400 IM and should be unstoppable in the Day 2 final.

Basketball
The Opals defeated Belarus easily in their first pool game of the preliminary rounds.

Equestrian
Australia leads both the teams and individual standings, through Lucinda Fredericks, after Day 1 of the dressage.

Rowing
Australia's Men's coxless fours, double sculls and coxless pairs all won their heats to progress to the next stage of their respective events.

Medal Tally after Day 1:

1 - China - 2-0-0 (2)
2 - USA - 1-1-1 (3)
3 - Korea - 1-1-0 (2)

Australia - 0-0-0 (0)