Bisset blitzes 800m semis and update of action around Napoli

The University of Melbourne’s Catriona Bisset has qualified fastest for the 800m final, with yet another bold display of front running.

Bisset, who smashed through the 2-minute barrier when winning the Australian University Games title in Sydney in April, clocked 2:01.45 to win her semi-final. Fellow UniRoo Morgan Mitchell (Collarts) will join Bisset in the final, qualifying fifth fastest overall with 2:02.91 after finishing second in her semi.

Bisset, 25 is a late bloomer, the architecture and planning student retuned to athletics after an extended break from her late teens. Coached by Cathy Freeman’s mentor Peter Fortune she clocked 1:59.78 to win the Australian University championship title, becoming the first Australian in a decade to go under the 2-minute barrier and will not be scared to take it to the field in the final on Wednesday (03:30 Thursday AEST).

In other results at the athletics, Gabriella O’Grady (University of Technology Sydney) smashed her personal best in the 400, semis, clocking 51.87, a 0.51sec PB to qualify for Wednesday’s final. Alec Diamond (Australian Catholic University) had a big start to the decathlon finishing in 3rd after day one with 3960 points. Jesse Harper (The University of Queensland) finished 7th with 6.30m and Liz Hedding (The University of Melbourne) 8th with 6.29m in the women’s long jump final. Both Max Stevens (LaTrobe University) and Matthew Clarke (Swinburn University of Technology) are through to the 3000m steeplechase final after taking on the heat during the morning session. Stevens finished fifth in his heat in 8:52.30 and Clarke finished 7th in his heat in 9:03.13 but gets through on a non-auto qualifier. Liam O’Brien (University of Queensland) has qualified for the javelin final with his first throw of 71.6m finishing in 12th.

Read the full report from Athletics Australia HERE.

Fencing – The UniRoos men’s foils team of, Matthew Dall’Asen (The University of Sydney), Sholto Douglas (The University of Sydney) and Edward Fitzgerald (The University of Melbourne) has finished with the best result for Australia in fencing in Universiade history coming in fourth after falling Russia 45-23 in the bronze medal match

It was a tough road to the medal bout having to go through # 2 ranked Japan in the quarterfinals, but the team was up for the challenge and came away victorious 45-44 and then faced Korea in the semifinals. In a hard-fought match Australia fell 33-45 to fence for bronze.

Water Polo – The men’s water polo team are through to the quarterfinals after dispatching South Korea in the round of 16 20-5.

In a must win game, Australia took control of the game early on, leading 3-0 halfway through the first period, before a second quarter onslaught saw the UniRoos put sevengoals past the hapless South Korean goalkeeper. A further five goals in the third period put any chance of a loss to bed with Korea scoring just once in the second half. Nine UniRoos got on the scoresheet in the emphatic win, with James Gillfeather (TAFE NSW) leading the way with four, while Sam Nangle (University of California, Santa Barbara), Nicholas Elphick (University of Notre Dame) and Angus Lambie (UNSW Sydney) each scored three times.

The team will now move on to the quarter finals where they will play Russia on Wednesday 10th July at 13:30 CEST (21:00 AEST).

Taekwondo – Jessica Borg (Griffith University) was first up as the Kyroogi competition got underway in the women’s 57kg event. Jessica defeated her opponent from the Ukraine 13-6 in round 1, moving on to round 2 where she was defeated by the top ranked player from Turkey in a spirited effort 11-9.

Sailing – Day two of the sailing competition got underway today, with Australia competing in 3 of the days 5 races. Despite the wet and wild conditions, the all-UNSW Sydney team of Tom Grimes, Jessica Grimes, Annelise Sholten and Nicholas Rosenauers performed strongly, finishing in 6th, 2nd and 2nd from their three starts.

Tennis – The University of Tennessee’s Kaitlin Staine’s run in the women’s singles competition is over, after the psychology student was knocked out in her round of 16 clash by Chinese Taipei’s world #186 ranked Ya-Hsuan Lee 6-3, 6-1.

Stains was back out on the court later in the afternoon with Scott Jones (University of Tennessee) in the mixed doubles against Poland. The pair had hard fought match, but fell 6-7 (7-9), 6-7 (6-8).

Archery – In the men’s individual recurve competition James Gaze (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) placed 55th with a score of 343. Niamh Jones (University of Adelaide) was also in action, competing in the compound women’s competition, placing 37th with a score of 377.

Shooting – The shooting competition wrapped up today with the mixed team’s 10m air pistol event. The UniRoos team of Bailey Groves (University of Tasmania) and Alison Heinrich (University of South Australia) combined to finish 17th in the first qualification group.

Table Tennis – The men’s singles knock-outs took place today with Edward Belokopytov (UNSW Sydney) and Joshua Ip (Macquarie University) competing. Belokopytov lost to China’s Linfeng Zhu 3-0 in the round of 64, while Ip went down 3-0 to Ho Ching Hocking Leung from Hong Kong.