As expected, Wangi's Nath and Goobs took out Australia's fifth gold medal on the water at Weymouth on Wednesday in the men's 49er class. (That's not the 490 class as the Channel Nine News attempted to claim, nor the 47er class that implies.) That gives the Australian sailing team their second gold, making it the first time since Barcelona 1992 that swimming has not been our most successful gold medal sport.

The recriminations over Australia's "failure" at these Games have begun, and frankly it's all nonsense. For so long, Australia has punched well above its weight at Olympic level. We still are, just not quite as much. I plan to write more about this next week after the Games are over.

The heats of the men's pole vault proved an unexpected industrial relations highlight of Wednesday's track and field, as Steve Hooker played shop steward with the judges to permit fourteen qualifiers to go through to the next round at 5.50 metres or greater instead of the specified twelve. One who failed to qualify was Cuba's Lazaro Borges whose pole shattered in one of his earlier vaults.

Also failing to qualify was South Korea's Kim Yoo Suk. He did just that, failing to clear the bar even once.

Finally, congratulations to Misty May-Treanor and Kay Walsh for winning their third consecutive gold medal in the women's beach volleyball. Here's all the highlights from the final, brought to you by Beach Volleyball's Newspaper of Record, the Wall Street Journal: