One medal, lessons learned

The Aussie Spirit picked up Australia's only medal on Day 12 of the Beijing Olympics, while the Boomers received somewhat of an education from the USA to bow out of medal contention.

The softballers endured utter heartbreak after making it past Canada 5-3 only to lose 4-3 to Japan in the fifth extra innings. A win would have put the Spirit into the gold medal match against the United States, but despite producing a last ditch home run to force it into extra inning and then leading 3-2 at the top of the 11th, they were unable to get the win.

It will likely be the final chance to compete at the Olympics for the Australian team with softball taken off the schedule for the 2012 Games in London.

In basketball, the Boomers' quarter-final against the United States turned from one of promise to one of disaster in the space of a few minutes. Trailing by one at quarter-time and just seven in the final minute of the second quarter, the Boomers were rattled as the Americans hammered home 20 consecutive points either side of half time. Andrew Bogut departed with an ankle injury and the final margin blew out to 31, 116-85.

Four of Australia's BMX riders managed to get themselves into the semi-finals as the sport made it Olympic debut. Aussie cult figure Kamakazi squeezed through to the final 16 while Jared Graves was most impressive in his quarter-final runs. Tanya Bailey and Nicole Callisto are also through in the women's division.

There could be more gold on the water for Australia in the tornado class with Glenn Ashby and Darren Bundock second, coming into the medal race on Thursday. If they can beat the Spanish crew by more than two places in that race then they will most likely win Australia's third gold in sailing for these Games.

However, Jessica Crisp could not hold on for a medal in the women's RS:X, after a disastrous medal race saw her finish fifth overall.

Craig Mottram's Olympic campaign lasted just one race with Australia's great hope on the track run out in the heats of the men's 5000m after failing to finish in the top three in what proved a slow heat. Collis Birmingham suffered a similar fate after running a similar time. Lach Renshaw failed to flatter in the 800m, leaving Steve Hooker and Paul Burgess to fly the Aussie flag. They were both trying to qualify for the men's pole vault final late on Day 12.

Melissa Wu and Alexandra Croak both qualified for the semi-final of the women's 10m platform despite some inconsistent efforts, while in the canoe/kayak, Ken Wallace made it through to the K1 men's 1000m final but Torsten Lachmann in the C1 and the K4 crew missed out.

In other results, Melissa Gorman finished 15th in the women's marathon swim, Ali Abdo failed in the first round of the men's 55kg wrestling, Ryan Carneli bowed out in the quarter finals of the taekwondo, while Australia's campaign for medals in table tennis ended with defeats to Stephanie Sang and William Henzell in the singles.