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August 1st, 2012

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It was drama galore yesterday in London, featuring Michael Phelps, who won a record breaking 19th Olympic medal, a rower from Niger who, bless his heart, couldn’t row, a scandal in the badminton, and a literal de-pantsing in the table tennis.

Skeet Shooting

Anders Golding, a young carpenter from northern Jutland, brought home the first medal for Denmark by finishing second in the skeet shooting. Golding only missed one target in the final round, thereby maintaining his silver placing behind American winner Vincent Hancock. His final score would have won gold in 2008. The other Dane in the field, Jesper Hansen, missed out on the final round and finished in 26th place.

Table tennis

Michael Maze lost a seven-set thriller to Germany's Dimitri Ovtcharov in the men’s table tennis singles quarter-final by the score of 8 -11, 10-12, 11-1, 11-9, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11. Maze led 8-6 in the final set but dropped a couple of easy points and eventually the match. Maze did get some kind of revenge later when he ripped down the trousers of the German while he was speaking to journalists.

Badminton

Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl were today knocked out of the mixed doubles in straight sets by one of the Chinese pairings in the quarter-finals. It's a shame as Tuesday was a great day for Denmark with all its doubles pairing advancing to the knockout stage.

Laybourn and Juhl were the only Danes to not win on Tuesday, losing their final group stage game 22-24, 16-21 to an Indonesian pairing. The other mixed doubles pair Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen, meanwhile, beat a pair from Japan, 21-11, 21-10.

Tine Baun progressed from the group stage of the women’s singles after narrowly beating Russian Anastasia Prokopenko in a nervy three-set match by the score of 19-21, 21-15, 21-16. After struggling early on, Baun mounted a comeback to book her place in the next round

Peter Gade may be Denmark’s badminton legend, but young gun Jan Ø Jørgensen showed he’s ready to take over by beating Derek Wong of Singapore in straight sets, 21-17, 21-13, and moving onto the next round of the men’s singles.

China traditionally dominate the sport but yesterday it was the Danes who were on top as both the men’s and the women’s doubles overcame Chinese opposition. Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen won 22-20, 21-12 while Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen triumphed 21-14, 21-19.

But scandal has rocked the sport and the Olympic badminton committee is investigating whether teams have been purposely losing games to ensure an easier route to the final. The Chinese number one seeds in the men's doubles  were booed off the court after seemingly intentionally losing to an unseeded South Korean team 14-21, 11-21 in a match that did not include a rally of more than four returns.

Swimming

In the only race featuring Danes, Pal Joensen, Mads Glæsner, Daniel Skaaning and Anders Lie finished 13th in the men’s 4 x 200-metre freestyle and failed to qualify for the final

Handball

The men’s handball team may be European champions, but they can’t seem to win a game without intense drama at the end. And true to form, Michael Knudsen scored the game-winning goal in the final seconds in a 24-23 victory over Spain. The Spaniards played better for long periods, but a heroic performance by reserve keeper Marcus Cleverly and an unstoppable Mikkel Hansen ensured the Danes were able to succeed in the end.

Rowing

After a rusty qualification heat in the men’s lightweight four, the pressure was on Eskild Ebbesen, Jacob Barsøe, Morten Jørgensen and Kasper Jørgensen to perform in their semi-final and ‘guld firen’ brought their ‘A’ game, winning ahead of South Africa and Australia.

Fie Udby Erichsen qualified for the semis after winning her quarte-rfinal of the women’s single sculls, but Henrik Stephansen just missed out on a semi after finishing fourth in his quarter-final heat.

Sailing

Jonas Høgh-Christensen continued his dominance in the men’s Finn on Tuesday after taking a first and second place in the fifth and sixth rounds to maintain his lead in the standings. Allan Nørregaard and Peter Lang finished sixth and 14thin the men’s 49er, which dropped them from first to third in the overall standings, while Anne-Marie Rindom is 14th in the women’s Laser Radial after finishing eighth and 22nd in her two rounds.

Sebastian Fleischer opened his Olympic journey with in 23rd position in the men’s RS: X, while Thorbjørn Schierup sits in 22nd in the men’s Laser after a poor third round in which he finished in 24th place. Claus Olesen and Michael Hestbæk are 14th in the men’s Star and seem out of medal contention, while Susanne Boidin, Lotte Meldgaard and Tina Gramkow beat Holland and Sweden to get their first wins in the round robin of the women’s 6m Elliott.

Tuning in today:

Three to watch today … for the home crowd

Caroline Wozniacki earned a hard-fought win in the previous round, but will face sterner competition this evening at around 18:00 when she takes on Daniela Hantuchukova of Slovakia, a player she beat four years ago in Beijing.

Denmark meets Spain for the second consecutive day, but this time it’s the women’s team that hope to emulate the men’s performance from yesterday. The game is scheduled for 20:30.

It’s an important night for the Danes in the pool. Jeanette Ottesen race in the semis of the women’s 100-metre freestyle, while Rikke Møller Pedersen looks to reach the final of the 200m breaststroke. The action begins at around 20:30.

Three to watch today … for the neutrals

It's a massive night in the swimming pool with four semis and four finals taking place, starting from 20:30.

Great Britain take on Uruguay in the men’s football and with both nations able to progress, the match should be a cracker. The game starts at 20:45.

It’s a clash of the undefeated tonight in the women’s volleyball as USA takes on China at 21:00.