Canadian Results: Day Three

Phew... an exciting day!

Canadian team rowers finally got their start in the water after the missed Day 2 heats. The Women's 8s didn't get a great start, and pulled together towards the end of the race to take 3rd. First place, and the guaranteed spot in the final, went to the US team. The women will race in the repechage on Wednesday and hopefully will make it to the final that route.

The Men's 8s blasted out of the starting gate and handily won their heat, and will race in the finals on Sunday. These guys are enormous and powerful - the team's average height is 6'5". Average. Whoa.

Anna Rice is Canada's top badminton player, and she won 2 matches early on in her competition. The third match was against a Chinese player ranked 2nd in the world. Anna played well, looked like she was having fun, but ultimately lost. But can these women ever play badminton! It's crazy, it's impressive, and looks very fun.

Never watched field hockey at an international level before today. Playing it in school doesn't count. The Canadian men's team, in their first Olympic game ever, played the top ranked Australian team. Needless to say, the Aussies won (6-1) and didn't have too much of a challenge keeping the Canadians contained. The Canadians made a powerful hip check against the top Aussie player, potentially injuring him, so at least our international reputation is intact. For a non-contact sport, field hockey looks painful at times. Odd fact: the field is wet on purpose, they use water cannons at half time. It apparently aids players when sliding on the astro turf.

Fifth time Olympian and medal hope Susan Nattrass lost trap shooting in the third round. She'll likely show up again in London 2012.

K1 Slalom (whitewater kayaking) began today, and a Canadian, David Ford, advances to the semis.

It's now 8:40am in Beijing, and the start of Day 4 is coming up. I'm considering tracking the number of hours I've spent watching so far, but I think I'll be scared by the final tally.