Perth cyclist Georgia Baker finished in ninth place in the Olympic Madison
Contesting the gruelling 120-lap event with Western Australian Alex Manly at the Saint Quentin En Yvelines velodrome, the 29-year-old added to her seventh place at the last Olympics with Annette Edmondson.
The Australians picked up their first point in the fourth sprint and added three more in the sixth to sit seventh midway through as The Netherlands took a lap to grab the lead.
Also teammates with Liv AlUla Jayco on the road, Baker and Manly took two more points on the 10th sprint to finish on a total of six.
Italy also took a lap to claim the gold medal with 37 points from world champions Great Britain (31) with the Dutch (28) taking bronze.
Coached by former madison world champion Matthew Gilmore at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport, Baker has twice won world championship silver medals in the event - with Manly in Glasgow last year and fellow Tasmanian Any Cure in 2019 in Pruszków, Poland.
She was in the Australian team pursuit line-ups which finished fifth at the Rio and Tokyo Games plus seventh earlier in the Paris program.
Baker is also scheduled to race the four elements of the omnium on the final night of the Games.
Alanna Smith and her Opals teammates will compete for the bronze medal in the women’s basketball after losing their semi-final 85-64 to the world no.1 US
The 27-year-old WNBA star contributed seven points and seven rebounds but the perennial favourites were too strong 12,000 fans at the Bercy Arena, asserting their dominance with a 25-11 second quarter.
Born in Hobart, Smith grew up in Melbourne and has played for Phoenix Mercury, Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA.
She top-scored with 22 points and 13 rebounds in a comprehensive 85-67 quarter-final victory over Serbia.
Interview with Stewart McSweyn
Tasmanian runner Stewart McSweyn has shed some light on the dramatic developments which will see him line up for a second Olympic final on the penultimate day of the Paris Games.
“The race was very chaotic!” the 29-year-old said of his 5000 metre heat at the Stade de France.
Entering the final straight in the hunt for the required top-eight spot, McSweyn saw numerous rivals start tumbling around him. Impeded and forced onto the infield, the King Islander still sprinted to the line to finish 12th in 14:12.31.
However, a successful protest subsequently earned a reprieve with the note: “Advanced to next round by jury of appeal” added next to McSweyn’s name on the official results.
He said a tactically slow tempo over much of the 12-and-a-half laps had set up the drama and subsequent red tape.
“In such a slow race with so many people fighting for qualifying spots it was always going to be messy.
“The appeal is lodged by the team and they decide when you were impeded if they thought you would qualify from that position and, lucky for me, they did.”
McSweyn finished seventh in his maiden Olympic final over 1500m in Tokyo and, having fallen short of that final in Paris, is determined to make amends over 5000m in which he is ranked 19th in the world and set his personal best of 12:56.07 in Los Angeles in May.
“I think now I’m through to the final, I have to believe if I run my best I can be there with the best. So that’s what I will be doing, being aggressive and trying to take the race on.”
With four other runners also advanced by the referee, it means 22 will contest the final at 3.50am on Sunday.
Launceston-born, Melbourne-based McSweyn said he will take fond memories away from his second Olympic experience which has been a stark contrast to the COVID-hit Games in 2021.
“I think Paris has been great. The athletics stadium has been phenomenal and the atmosphere in both morning and nights sessions has been like no other."
“So it’s been awesome and hopefully I can finish it off with a big race on Saturday night.”
