ITR - News from Australia re 2008 Olympics from Angela Spray - New South Wales for InTouchRadio.net (UK & GLOBAL)

We now have another InTouchRadio.net friend Angela Spray from New South Wales, Australia who is all things Equestrian so if you have Equestrian news please send to me michael@intouchradio.net and I will get it posted for you. I hope this is the beginning of a regular feature and of course other Aussie news from Angela.




MEGAN JONES' BEIJING OLYMPIC SILVER IS DREAM COME TRUE


I am taking the time to congratulate all our athletes from the Beijing Games of 2008. The highlights for me were when Stephanie Rice won her three first gold medals and breaking 3 world records. The other highlight is when Megan Jones in the team eventing won a Silver.



Australia's Megan Jones rides Irish Jester after completing the show jumping portion of the equestrian team eventing.



AFTER just missing out on equestrian gold for Australia, securing silver in the Beijing Olympics team eventing competition was a dream come true for Megan Jones.

Jones also narrowly missed a podium finish in the individual eventing when her horse knocked the last rail of the concluding show jumping round, dropping her to fourth place behind German winner Hinrich Romeike.

Had Jones and her horse Kirby Park Irish Jester cleared the last barrier, the South Australian would have collected the individual silver medal too.

But nothing could take away from the silver medal team triumph of Jones, Clayton Fredericks, Lucinda Fredericks, Sonja Johnson and Shane Rose - all making their Olympic debut.

After the dressage and cross country sections, the German riders went into the final stage just one rail penalty ahead of Australia, but held on for victory with 166.10 points to Australia's 171.20 and Britain's 185.70.


STEPHANIE RICE - THREE GOLD MEDALS, THREE WORLD RECORDS

Twenty-year-old Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice won three gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and set new world records in her races.



In the women's 200m individual medley, she finished first in the world record time of 2:08.45. She followed this with a record-breaking women's 400m individual medly in 4:29.45.

On August 14, Stephanie Rice and team mates Bronte Barratt, Linda Mackenzie and Kylie Palmer broke the women's 4x200m freestyle relay record, winnning gold over the more favored teams of China, second, and the United States, third.

Two years ago, 18-year-old Stephanie Rice won gold medals in the 200m and 400m individual medleys at the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne.