Day 13 - The Curse Returns

Major Highlight - Men's Hockey Semi-Final - Australia v Spain

One of sport's great curses has been reborn! After apparently burying their seemingly endless years of disappointment and torment in Athens by taking gold the Kookaburra's have once again somehow managed to snatch a minor medal (at best!) from the jaws of gold. Ranked number 1 in the world, the Aussie men have been relegated to the bronze medal match after a last minute 3-2 loss to Spain, who will go on to play Germany in the final, after they defeated the Dutch in the corresponding semi. The plight of the Kookaburra's must be up there with sport's all time great curses such as those faced by the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and of course the choke jobs of Australia's own Greg Norman and Cadel Evans. The Aussies looked to be cruising into the final, scoring in the first 30 seconds and holding that 1-0 lead into the half time break. Two minutes into the second half they doubled that lead and looked home and hosed. Just 7 minutes later it was 2-2 and the ghosts of Olympics past were beginning to surface. The capitulation was complete when, with just two minutes left on the clock, the Spaniards took advantage of a penalty corner to slam home the winner.

Gold Medal Match - Spain v Germany
Bronze Medal Match - Australia v Netherlands

Athletics
Veronica Cambell-Brown (Jamaica) wrote her name into the Olympic history books by defending her title in the Women's 200m. Jeremy Warriner (United States) could not repeat the same feat in the Men's 400m going down to team-mate LaShawn Merrit. There was also a shock result in the Men's 800m with defending champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy (Russia) missing the final along with Sudan's Abubaker Kaki, who had previously been undefeated in the event this season.

Basketball
The Opals will playoff against the United States for gold after easily accounting for home-nation China 90-56 in their semi-final.

Sailing
Australia snared their third sailing medal of the games with Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby taking silver in the Men's Tornado class.

Water Polo
Australia's Women's water polo avenged their fourth place in Athens by defeating Hungary in a heart-stopping penalty shoot-out in the Bronze Medal game. Scores were locked at 7-7 after full time, and with each team scoring a pair of goals in the extra period the teams went to a shoot-out at 9-9. Australia prevalied 3-2 in the shootout to take the medal and spark wild celebrations amongst the team and coaching staff.

Diving
Australia's 16 year old diving star Mellissa Wu finished a brave 6th in the final of the Women's 10m springboard.

Medal Tally after Day 13:

1 - China - 46-15-22 (83)
2 - USA - 29-34-32 (95)
3 - Great Britain - 17-12-11 (40)

5 - Australia - 11-13-14 (38)