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July 31st, 2012

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It was another action-packed day in London yesterday full of bizarre incidents, racist twitter comments from Swiss footballers and a 15 year-old Lithuanian girl who won a gold and spectators’ hearts in the pool.

But for the Danes it was a solid day at the Olympic office, especially in badminton, tennis, table tennis, shooting and archery.

Shooting

Anders Golding is currently gunning for gold in the men’s skeet shooting. He hit 72 out of 75 of the clay pigeons yesterday, and is currently second in the standings and well on the way to an appearance in the final, which is scheduled to take place at 15:00. Jesper Hansen did not fare as well, however, and is in 23rd place after hitting just 68 targets yesterday.

Badminton

The badminton entourage had a stellar day yesterday, tasting victory in all four of their respective events. Peter Gade, participating in his final major tournament, started off well, dispatching his Portuguese opponent in the men’s singles 21-14, 21-8.

Tine Baun followed that up with a dominant 21-11, 21-6 win over a Pole in the women’s singles while both mixed double teams won as well. Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen won a hard-fought 21-9, 14-21, 21-17 win against some stiff Polish opposition and Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl are through to the quarter-finals after a convincing 21-15, 21-12 triumph over a South Korean pair.

Table Tennis

Despite coming off a prolonged injury period, European champion Michael Maze played some splendid table tennis, only dropping one game in a 4-1 win against a Greek opponent before crushing his Japanese foe 4-0 to progress to the quarter-finals.

Tennis

Denmark’s tennis darling, Caroline Wozniacki, took part in a tremendous match against her Belgian counterpart Yanina Wickmayer. While Woziacki won the first set, Wickmayer battled back to win the second before the third set, which included a marathon 30-minute game, saw Caroline hold off the tenacious Belgian to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Sailing

The seas were rough for most of the Danes yesterday and out of the six events only Jonas Høgh Christensen in the men’s Finn class and Allan Nørregaard and Peter Lang in the men’s 49er had success.

Christensen maintained his lead after the fourth round of sailing, and that was despite a disastrous start that saw him begin over 50 metres behind the pack after suffering a penalty for bumping into a judge’s boat as the race began. But in a display of astounding seamanship, Christensen mounted a comeback that brought him through the pack to finish seventh, keeping him in the lead overall. Earlier in the third race he had finished second.

Allan Nørregaard and Peter Lang in the men’s 49er started brightly by taking the lead in the overall standings after the first two rounds of sailing, finishing second and fourth in the opening races.

Swimming

There were no Danish splashes in the pools yesterday as Rikke Møller Pedersen finished eighth and last in the 100-metre breaststroke and Olympic debutant Pernille Blume failed to reach the semi-finals of the 200-metre freestyle, despite winning her qualification heat.

Archery

Carina Rosenvinge Christiansen is one win away from the quarter-finals after dispatching two foes, one Australian and the other South Korean, in confident style. Maja Jager, however, is out of the tournament after losing a heartbreaking tie-breaker to her German opponent.

Handball

The women’s handball team tried to follow up on a strong start against Sweden on Saturday when they took on South Korea yesterday afternoon. But they started poorly and, despite fighting back in the second half, the Danes lost a close contest 25-24.

Tuning in today:

Three to watch today … for the home crowd

Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl aim to make the quarter-finals when they take on an Indonesian pair in the mixed doubles this evening at 19:30.

The Danish men’s handball team face a difficult obstacle when they play Spain at 20:30.

Michael Maze is bidding to reach the semi-finals tonight when he takes on German Dimitrij Ovtcharov at 22:00.

Three to watch today … for the neutrals

It’s a massive derby in the men’s handball tonight when arch rivals Croatia and Serbia clash in a match that is sure to have plenty of drama and passion.

Great Britain take on Brazil in the men’s basketball this evening at 17:45 as they look to recover from a first game loss to Russia.

Another massive swimming night featuring three semi-finals and four finals starts tonight at 20:30.