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Canadian distance swimmer Ryan Cochrane will get his chance to repeat as an Olympic medallist in the 1,500-metre freestyle after he breezed through Fridays qualifying heats. Victor Cruz Black Jersey . Cochrane, Canadas only swimming medallist four years ago in Beijing with a third-place finish in this event, posted a preliminary time of fourteen minutes, 49.31 seconds to advance as the third seed. The Victoria, B.C. swimmer was relieved after suffering disappointment in the 400m freestyle earlier this week. Cochrane was initially moved into the top-8 final after Olympic favourite Park Tae-Hwan was disqualified. But the Korean swimmer mounted a successful appeal bid, bumping Cochrane into ninth and out of the medal race. "I was pretty disappointed after my 400 swim, and I knew it was just a lost opportunity," Cochrane said after Fridays 1500m swim."I came here to win two medals, I can only win one now." Cochrane did not quite match his preliminary from Beijing, where he set an Olympic record with a time of 14:40.84. The record was broken soon after by Australian Grant Hackett, who swam 14:38.92 in a later heat. Even so, Cochrane said he was pleased with his Friday finish. His time was several seconds faster than he had expected, he said. "Its kind of the same thing in Beijing where I surprised myself, but Im going to take it as a building (block) because it wasnt as hard as it was in Beijing. Im going to take that as a positive." Reigning world record holder and 2011 world champion Sun Yang posted the fastest time of the heats with 14:43.25 while Tunisias Oussama Mellouli was third in 14:46.23. The final is scheduled for Saturday evening. Womens 50m Freestyle Four years after an untimely case of the chicken pox kept Canadian Victoria Poon in quarantine right up until her first individual event of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the sprint swimmer advanced to her first Olympic semi-final in London. Poon finished 30th in Beijing, a result she has already bettered in London with her 25.15-second finish in Fridays preliminary swim. In a race that is over in less than 25 seconds, Poons 0.77 reaction time off the blocks was among the slowest of the swimmers who advanced into Friday evenings semi-final round. She made up for her deficit with a mad dash through the pool and posted the 14th-fastest time of the morning -- just 0.15 seconds off the Canadian record set by Jennifer Beckberger in 2009, before the banning of the high-tech polyurethane swimsuits. The top-16 advance. While world-record holder Britta Steffen, of Germany, also advanced with a time of 24.70s, the fastest two swimmers of the morning were both from the Netherlands. Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Marleen Veldhuis both breezed through with times of 24.51s and 24.57s, respectively. The semis are scheduled for Friday evening. Womens 4x100m Medley Relay Canadas womens medley relay team of Julia Wilkinson, Tera Van Beilen, Katerine Savard and Samantha Cheverton were left disappointed following the morning heats. The Canadian squad posted a time of 4:02.71 to place sixth in their heat. Their 12th-place overall finish was well outside of the top-eight qualifying standard. "We wanted to be in that final and obviously, we are not going to be," Wilkinson said. "Its been a pretty hard way to end the meet but I think everybody on this team came out and did whatever they could." Australia finished first with a time of 3:55.42 and will be joined by Japan, Denmark, the United States, the Netherlands, Great Britain, China and Russia in Saturdays final. Mens 4x100m Medley Relay Canadas experienced mens relay team of Charles Francis, 23, Scott Dickens, 27, Joe Bartoch, 29 and Brent Hayden, 28, had a happier ending to their day after finishing eighth overall in their preliminary heats. After placing fourth with a time of 3:34.46 in the first of two heats, the Canadians place in the final was far from secure. Dickens, Bartoch and Hayden have all said they will retire following Londons Games, and they waited on the pool deck to see whether they had just participated in their final Olympic race. "Theres always that hope for one more, but I treated that swim like it was my last," Dickens said between races, his voice thick with emotion. "We had a really good swim so now its basically just a waiting game to see where we end up," added Hayden, two days after he earned his first Olympic medal -- a bronze -- in the mens 100m freestyle. "If were not in the final, I know we all put our heart and soul into this race," he said. As the last swimmers in Heat 2 touched the wall, however, it became clear that the Canadians Olympic run would be extended one race further. They qualified in the eighth and final spot, just 0.06 seconds ahead of the ninth-place team from New Zealand. The mens relay final is also scheduled for Saturday evening; Canada will be joined by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany and Hungary in the medal race. Chase Blackburn Elite Jersey . LOUIS -- St. Hakeem Nicks Elite Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. http://www.newyorkgiantsgears.com/michael-boley-jersey/ . -- Jordan Younger and his teammates have taken the issue of addressing the Toronto Argonauts penalty woes into their own hands. Martellus Bennett Elite Jersey . -- The Houston Dynamo had just allowed Sporting Kansas Citys Seth Sinovic to sneak behind their defence for the first goal of the night when coach Dominic Kinnear turned to assistant Tim Hanley and whispered, "Were in trouble. Chase Blackburn Jersey . Substitute Ilian Micanski scored the winning header in injury time. Robin van Persie gave the Netherlands the lead on the stroke of halftime, running onto a pass over the Bulgaria defence by Wesley Sneijder and volleying home with his left foot for his 26th international goal.Five things from Day Five at Euro 2012... 1. What on earth is wrong with Greece? For a team that conceded just five goals in 10 qualifying games, Greece have been woefully inept defensively in this tournament. In both of their games so far at Euro 2012, Greece have opted for a 4-3-3 formation. While this formation gives them options going forward, it also requires that the wide attackers do a job defensively – something that hasnt happened in either of their games. Greeces three central midfielders are being stretched across the width of the pitch, and are struggling to cover the overlapping runs from the fullback positions because they are getting no help from their wide attackers. Both Lukasz Piszczek from Poland and Theodor Gebre Selassie from Czech Republic had free reign down Greeces left side in the first two games. That all three of the goals conceded by Greece in the tournament have come down their left side is a problem that head coach Fernando Santos must address if Greece is to have any chance against Russia in their final group game. 2. The Czech Republic bounced back nicely Two goals in the opening six minutes of the Czech Republics game against Greece today was enough to give them the three points they needed to stay in contention in Group A. Facing elimination if they lost, the Czechs came out flying, with Tomas Rosicky playing an integral role in all of their attacking moves. His ball to the overlapping Gebre Selassie for the second goal was sublime – timed and weighted to perfection. With so many teams playing a 4-2-3-1 formation, the role of the attacking midfielder is crucially important. Rosicky fills this role for the Czech Republic, and if they can find a way to get him on the ball in dangerous areas, they could very well get the result they need in their final group game against Poland to get through to the knockout stage. 3. Headed goals aplenty Nearly 40% of the goals scored so far in the tournament have been headers – a significant increase over previous tournaments. Granted, it is still early in the tournament, but there are a few reasons for this. Jason Pierre-Paul Giants Jersey. . First and foremost, some of the delivery from set pieces has been superb. Steven Gerrard for England and Andrei Arshavin for Russia are just two examples. When the ball is delivered at pace behind defenders, all that is needed is a slight glancing touch – from either a defender or an attacker – and the ball is in the back of the net. Second, many of the teams have utilized the space in wide areas really well. Overlapping fullbacks, such as Piszczek and Gebre Selassie, as well as the predominance of the 4-2-3-1 formation, means that more and more teams are looking to deliver quality balls from wide areas into the penalty box for their strikers to attack. 4. Dzagoev looks the real deal Russias 21-year old attacking midfielder, Alan Dzagoev, looks like the real deal. With three goals to his credit in just two games, he is quickly making a name for himself as a rising star. Critics will point to the fact that his goals came against lesser teams – Poland and the Czech Republic – but with the quality of the teams at Euro 2012, I dont buy this argument. While Group A is without doubt the weakest group in the tournament, with none of Europes traditional powers in the group, Dzagoev has still shown poise, skill and confidence. It will be interesting to watch how he performs if/when Russia get to the knockout stage. 5. Poland will be happy so far If you had offered Poland one game to decide whether they would make it to the knockout phase – the situation they are in going into their final group game against the Czech Republic – they would have taken it. Win, and the Poles are going through to the quarterfinals. Lose or draw, and the Poles are out. I like their chances, as they will be buoyed by the home support, and have some exciting players like Lewandowski, Blaszczykowski and Obraniak. If they can tighten things up defensively, I like my pre-tournament prediction of Russia winning the group followed by Poland in second place. ' ' '
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