Two-time Olympic medallist Jessica Fox is looking for an elusive gold as Australian swimmers again carry medal expectations into the Tokyo pool.
Australia enter Tuesday’s competition with two gold, one silver and two bronze and backstroker Kaylee McKeown and Fox expect to deliver more.
World record holder McKeown is a favourite for her 100m backstroke final and teammate Mitch Larkin is also hoping to land among the medals in the 100m backstroke.
Newly-crowned Olympic 400m freestyle champion Ariarne Titmus will contest a 200m freestyle semi-final as Fox hits the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre for the deciding K1 rounds.
A three-time K1 world champion, Fox is yet to stand at the top of an Olympic dais, winning silver in London in 2012 and bronze in Rio four years later.
The 27-year-old enters the semi-finals as raging favourite after posting a qualifying time of 98.46 seconds, some three seconds faster than her nearest rival, Germany’s Ricarda Funk.
Fox needs a top-10 finish to advance to the medal race.
In the table tennis Jian Fang Lay is saving her best for last, marching into the third round of the women’s event in her record-equalling sixth Olympics.
Fang Lay upset Poland’s 28th seed Li Qian in a six-game struggle on Monday, with the 48-year-old facing German 12th seed Han Ying, a quarter-finalist in 2016, on Tuesday.
Fang Lay is one win away from setting a new benchmark for her best-ever Games, having already equalled a third-round effort at Rio.
Ash Gentle leads the Australian charge in early action in the triathlon while Sally Fitzgibbons and Owen Wright will fly the flag in the surfing quarter-finals at Tsurigasaki beach.
Canberra’s own Rebecca McConnell is in action in the women’s cross country mountain biking.
In team events, the Kookaburras meet Argentina in the men’s hockey while the Aussie Sharks face a crunch water polo meeting with Croatia.
The Opals get their Olympic campaign underway against Belgium while the Matildas look to rebound from their loss to Sweden against the USA.
AAP
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