London 2012: Day Twelve Review!

Some thoughts from day 12:

• What's in the water in Novosibersk? The hometown that is made famous by one of the greatest Olympians ever-Aleksandr Karelin-now has another gold medalist as Roman Vlasov won 74kg Greco-Roman gold in the final of that weight class! A great way to start day one of wrestling at the London games!
• Glad Andy Murray won gold, now he needs to back it up with a grand slam, and hopefully at the U.S. Open later this month!
• Women's quarterfinals in basketball are confiremed: USA/Canada, Turkey/Russia, China/Australia and France/Czech Republic. Croatia, whose team is comprised of supermodels, finished 5th in Group A and won't play in the quarterfinals.
• Australia/China, wow! Best water polo match so far of the tournament-men or women. Great match despite the fact that it came down to penalty shots. Australia will now play USA on Tuesday, and Hungary and Espana on the same day as well in semifinal play.
• What a comeback for Team GB men's hockey! Down 3-0 to Australia and came back to tie it up including on a goal that counted despite a stick contact with the ball. The goal was reviewed via video replay and yes, it counted. But wow, what a match!
• Usain Bolt is yet again the fastest man in the world! The end. However one idiot almost ruined the moment by throwing a plastic bottle (I'm assuming because it's blue, looks to be either Bud Light or Skyy Vodka) toward Bolt prior to the start. He's facing prison time. A woman-who just won bronze in an event at London-was next to him and helped apprehended him. Great job.
• Despite a slow time in heat two of the men's 400m, we can all be proud of Oscar Pistorius just for qualifying for London.
• Are we're this close to a Juliana Silva-Larissa Franca/Kerri Walsh Jennings-Misty May Treanor women's beach volleyball final for gold? I think so. A great swan song for May-Treanor who is retiring after the London games.
• Women's boxing debut yesterday.
• I've read or heard that there was a close finish in the women's triathlon?
• The women's handball quarterfinals are set for Tuesday: Brazil/Norway, Russia/South Korea, Spain/Croatia, and France/Montenegro.
• Women's volleyball quarterfinals are also set for Tuesday: Russia/Brasil, Japan/China, Italy/South Korea and Dominican Republic/United States.

Also don't forget, women's football semifinals today, including USA/Canada on Monday Night Football (7:45pm local time kickoff)!