Paris Olympics 2024: Australia’s Jessica Hull, Steph Curry and drama on the track lead best bits of day 15
1. Hull yeah!
Australia’s moment on the track was always going to be left until last. Jessica Hull’s silver medal in the 1500m is the nation’s first on the track since Sally Pearson in 2012 and our first ever in a women’s middle-distance event.
Hull was virtually shoulder-to-shoulder with Kenyan legend Faith Kipyegon with a lap to go, before the champion won her third-straight crown.
Then the 27-year-old Aussie embarked on what she called “the longest victory lap ever” and declared she “couldn’t imagine gold feeling any better than this” after the race of her life.
2. Curry cooks
On a team of the best basketball players on the planet, the best shooter we have ever seen stood up when it counted. A brave France stuck flat with Team USA until the final two minutes of their gold-medal match at Bercy Arena on Sunday morning (AWST).
Camera IconSteph Curry iced the gold-medal match for Team USA. Credit: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
But Steph Curry called game with a trio of late three-point shots that sunk the silver medallists and silenced the home crowd. When he stretched the lead to nine points with 30 seconds remaining by shooting over two French defenders, the Warriors legend celebrated with his ‘sleep’ gesture.
LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis and Co. sealed the country’s 17th gold medal in a 98-87 victory.
3. Water polo (S)pain
Australia’s Stingers didn’t do a lot wrong in their 11-9 gold-medal match defeat to Spain.
They were wrong end of two remarkable performances. One from Spanish sharp-shooter Bea Ortiz and another from goal-keep Laura Ester.
Aussie star Tilly Kearns did her best to pull her side over the line and the underdogs never went away, but Spain’s sheer firepower was too much for the Australians, who had to settle for an impressive and unexpected silver.
4. Feeling Green
Perth golfer Hannah Green started the final day of the women’s golf competition in a tie for 11th, but surged into medal contention and briefly in the fourth round, had one hand on a bronze medal.
But a late missed birdie putt all but ended her hopes of leaving Le Golf National with new hardware in another heart-breaking end to an Olympic tournament. It is Green’s second-straight fourth-placed finish.
She finished six-under as New Zealand’s Lydia Ko won gold.
5. The dunk
Out of a gold-medal defeat that left their stars in tears on the court, France was still left with one golden moment. A mammoth one-handed dunk from Guerschon Yabusele over none other than one of the greatest of all time, LeBron James.
Camera IconGuerschon Yabusele dunks over LeBron James. Credit: Mark J. Terrill/AP
Before Curry cooked the home team, it was the moment that lit up social media and the basketball world and could land Yabusele a lifeline in the NBA.
The 28-year-old former Boston Celtic is playing for Real Madrid, but is bound to a return to the US after starring in the tournament.
6. Tebogo v Benjamin
The United States were the white-hot favourites for the men’s 4x400m relay on the track, but they didn’t account for Botswana’s new sprint king Letsile Tebogo, who hadn’t even been slated to race.
Tebogo was a shock call-up for the semifinal, where he ran the lead-out leg, but anchored his team in the final. It set up a beautiful head-to-head between the 200m champion and Rai Benjamin, the 400m hurdles winner.
Benjamin started with a gap and had to desperately hold on as Tebogo ate away at it. He got it done and the USA’s women completed a 4×400 double.
7. Baton blunder
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s stunning championships continued when she put a gap between USA and the field during the women’s 4x400m relay final.
Camera IconSydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabrielle Thomas celebrate their 4x400m relay victory. Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images
They finished almost 60m ahead of silver medallists Netherlands, but all the drama happened further back. Jamaica’s nightmare week on the track continued when Andrenette Knight dropped the baton after bumping Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke on the second leg.
Dutch star Femke Bol then hunted down Great Britain and Ireland to claim a come-from-behind silver.
8. Making a splash!
An Aussie diver, whose grandfather won a gold medal for France at the 1956 Games, has fallen just short of snaring a medal of his own.
Cassiel Rousseau sat in third after the first round of the men’s 10m platform final and continued to test Great Britain’s bronze medallist Noah Williams, but missed out by 16.35 points.
9. Raising their bar
New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr set aside an awkward moment where he ran through his jump early in the final and was bold enough to reject the offer of a jump-off with an American rival before claiming gold in the men’s high jump.
Kerr was offered the chance to share gold with USA’s Shelby McEwen and then cleared the bar at 2.36m to seal victory.
Camera IconHamish Kerr celebrates his gold medal. Credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images
And with Lydia Ko’s golf gold just hours before, the pair clinched our Trans-Tasman neighbours’ greatest-ever Olympic campaign. Canoeing legend Lisa Carrington won three of the country’s nine golds in Paris.
10. Age is just a number
Australia’s Kathryn Mitchell has rounded out her Olympics career at her fourth Games with her fourth finals appearance and top-eight finish in the women’s javelin.
Mitchell threw a season-best 62.63 to finish seventh in her final Olympic competition. Countrywoman Mackenzie Little finished last in the final, while Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi won gold.
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