Local Olympians to Watch Saturday

Athletes competing Saturday include Chula Vista Olympic Training Center residents

Water sports and track and field are on top of the list for Saturday's Olympic viewing.

Local athletes continued to compete in sailing, rowing, and water polo while others will get their first shot at gold with track and field events women's pole vault and race-walking.

The U.S. men’s four crew of Scott Gault, Charlie Cole, Henrik Rummel and Glenn Ochal earned a bronze medal in their event Saturday.

The top two favorites in the men's four, Great Britain and Australia finished with gold and silver respectively.

Also racing Saturday were Gevvie Stone for women's single sculls and Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols for women's lightweight double sculls. They placed sixth in the final. Many members of the U.S. Rowing team live and train at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center.

Pole vaulter Becky Holliday qualified for the finals in Track and Field with her finish in the preliminary event Saturday. See results here.

At 5'3", Holliday originally tried her hand at gymnastics. Then, at 16, she picked up a pole vault. The Chula Vista Olympic Training Center athlete splits her time between San Diego and Arkansas.

Chula Vista OTC athlete Will Claye qualified for Saturday's final in men's long jump. He grabbed the bronze medal with an average mark of 8.16 meters.

The U.S. men's water polo team were challenged when they faced the 2012 European champion and gold medal-favorite Serbia Saturday. The Sebians ultimately overtook the U.S. team 11-6.

The U.S. has 10 players back from that 2008 team, including Coronado High School graduates Layne Beaubien and Jesse Smith, while Serbia has seven veterans back on this year's squad from its Beijing roster.

Cyclist Sarah Hammer of Temecula helped her team qualify for the women's team pursuit finals set for 8 a.m. PT Saturday.

Hammer and her teammates finished first in the team pursuit, winning by one-hundredths of a second to Australia during the qualifying round. Australia had won the silver medal in this year's world championship.

But the U.S. women's team pursuit team fell to Britain in the final round. Hammer helped to secure a silver for the team, which finished 5 seconds behind the world-record breakers Great Britain.

The local athlete led the way to clutch the victory, and they will continue to the next round on

With 6 wins, 3 losses, the U.S. team in Women’s Match Racing goes into the final day of races ranked fourth. Coronado’s Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer, Anna Tunnicliffe of Plantation, Fla and Debbie Capozzi of Bayport, N.Y. enjoyed a reserve day Friday. On Saturday, they will face Sweden first and then Great Britain.

The U.S. men’s four crew of Scott Gault, Charlie Cole, Henrik Rummel and Glenn Ochal earned a bronze medal in their event Saturday.

The top two favorites in the race, Great Britain and Australia finished with gold and silver respectively.

Also racing Saturday are Gevvie Stone for women's single sculls and Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols for women's lightweight double sculls.

Many members of the U.S. Rowing team live and train at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center.

Racewalker Trevor Barron is one of the athletes coached by two-time Olympian Tim Seaman who is also the head cross country coach at Cuyamaca College.

Prior to the Olympics, when the brush fires in Colorado Springs forced Barron to train indoors, Seaman suggested Barron fly to San Diego. It was here that he trained with Seaman and his team of Silver Strand Racewalkers while preparing for London. Barron will competed in the men's 20K racewalk Saturday, but finished 26th in the race.

Fresh of Thursday's win against Brazil, the U.S. men's volleyball team went up against Russia at 8:45 a.m. PT on Saturday. 

Reid Priddy of Encinitas posted this message via Twitter Thursday, "We got better today! Definitely feeling the support! Keep it coming America! #teamusa"

The U.S. stood alone atop Group B with nine points on Friday, ahead of both Brazil and Russia, who have six. But they failed to clinch the pool B top seed as they lost to Russia on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, the U.S. field hockey team faced New Zealand at 11 a.m. on Saturday, but lost 2-3.
 

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