Day 3 - Libby Lights Up The Pool

Major Highlight - Women's 100m Butterfly

Four years on from her disappointment in Athens, Libby Trickett won her first individual Olympic gold medal, and Australia's second gold of the games, with a dominant display in the Women's 100m Butterfly. Trickett recorded a personal best time, and just missed the world record, to hold off the fast finishing Christine Magnuson (US) to add gold to the bronze medal she won in the 4 x 100m Freestyle relay on Day 2. It was a double success for Australia with Jess Schipper taking the bronze. It was Trickett's dynamic speed off the blocks that won her the race. She gained an early lead and was ahead of world record pace for most of the race before fading slightly in the final 10m as her early effort told. The victory suggests Trickett is in great form, and will be hard to beat in the 100m Freestyle later in the meet.

Gold - Libby Tricket (Australia)
Silver - Christine Magnuson (US)
Bronze - Jess Schipper (Australia)

Swimming
Michael Phelps grabbed his second gold of the games by just 8/100ths of a second as the United States came from the clouds to win the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay in world record time. However, it was more a case of a massive choke in the final leg from world record holder Alain Bernard of France, who somehow managed to lose a body length lead in the final 50 metres. The Aussies took the bronze and actually broke the old world record mark themselves! A similar collapse from American Katie Hoff in the Women's 400m Freestyle allowed Rebecca Adlington (Great Britain) to take an unexpected gold medal. Kosuke Kitajima (Japan) became the first man to defend the Men's 100m Breastroke, taking the gold in world record time. Leisel Jones (Australia) cruised to victory in her Women's 100m Breastroke semi and would need to fall off the blocks to lose the gold in today's final. There was also a surprise for Australia in the Men's 100m Backstroke semi's with unheralded Hayden Stoeckel breaking the Olympic record to qualify fastest for today's final. In overnight heats both Stephanie Rice (Australia) and Alicia Coutts (Australia) qualified easily for today's semis in the Women's 200m IM.

Hockey
The Kookaburra's got their gold medal defence off to a flying start with a 6-1 demolition job over Canada in their first group game.

Basketball
The Opals are now 2 for 2 at this years Olympics after a comfortable 80-65 victory over Brazil.

Water Polo
Australia's women's water polo team (the stingers?! please!) got their Olympic campaign off to an excellent start with a 8-6 win over Greece.

Judo
Australia's Maria Pelki finished a heart-breaking 4th in the Women's 57kg class after losing her bronze medal match to Ketleyn Quadros (Brazil) in extra time.

Tennis
Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) is through to the second round of the Men's Tennis after defeating Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 7-5 7-6. He will meet Rafael Nadal in round 2 (Spain), and be eliminated, joining Alicia Molik (Australia) who crashed out in straight sets in the first round.

Equestrian
Australia lies in second place overall after the cross-country stage of the Team Equestrian. However, they trail Germany by only 4 penalty points which is the equivalent of dislodging 1 bar in the final show jumping round. The battle for the medals should go right down to the wire.

Medal Tally after Day 3:

1 - China - 9-3-2 (14)
2 - Korea - 4-4-0 (8)
3 - USA - 3-4-5 (12)

5 - Australia - 2-0-3 (5)

Channel 7 Bullshitmetre - Despite showing the Australian girls water polo opener against Greece delayed, Channel 7 had the bright idea of showing the last quarter and a half of a game they already new would finish 8-6 Australia's way. The score when they started their delayed coverage halfway through the third quarter...8-5!!!! Thirteen goals had been scored in the first 25 minutes yet the geniuses at 7 thought we'd like to see the last 15 minutes which involved 1 goal to Greece from a penalty.