Paris Olympic Games Moreton Bay coverage - July 29

Defending Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown, who was born in Redcliffe, eased through the heats of the 100m backstroke tonight.

A triple gold medallist in Tokyo, McKeown was in control and comfortable as she opened her Paris program with victory in her heat in 58.48 seconds.

That ensured she qualified third fastest for the semi-finals tomorrow morning, with closest rival Regan Smith, from the US, a fraction faster.

Aussie legend Ian Thorpe was impressed by McKeown, who grew up in Caboolture and swam at Australian Crawl, when based in Burpengary, saying she “performs well at big meets”.

The 100m backstroke semi-finals are scheduled to start at 4.57am tomorrow (AEST).

However, Sam Short, the former Albany Creek swimmer, has missed the 800m freestyle final.

Short finished third in his heat clocking 7 minutes 46.83 seconds, yet was outside the top eight fastest qualifiers for Wednesday’s final.

The Bunya resident was second in the early stages but Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen (7:41.53) and Australia’s Elijah Winnington (7:42.86) finished ahead of him.

Short still has the 1500m which starts on Saturday evening with the heats.

The Matildas, with three former Moreton Bay residents, have this morning kept their Olympic dream alive in a crazy 11-goal thriller in Nice.

Australia, world ranked 12, hit four unanswered second half goals against Zambia, ranked 64, to turn the game around and save their Pool B campaign.

The winner came from Michelle Hayman in the 90^th minute to spark wild celebrations among the Matildas and their fans, in the stadium and at home.

Hayman told Channel Nine afterwards: “We want that medal. For us it was just keep digging we knew we could do it. We knew they were going to get tired.”

The stunning 6-5 victory – from 5-2 down after 56 minutes - pulls them level on three points with Germany, who went down 4-1 to the USA following the Tillies' game.

On Thursday morning Australia will face the US, who lead the pool and are virtually assured a place in the quarter-finals, at 3am AEST.

The Tillies', third on goal difference, must do better than Germany, who face Zambia, in the last game to climb into second. Anything less and the Germans go through, with Australia sweating on the final few quarterfinal places.

To do that, the Matildas will need a much more energetic and tighter performance, especially in defence - something akin to last year’s run to the World Cup semi-finals - against a fast, direct US forward line.

Cortnee Vine and Teagan Micah - who both played for Peninsula Power, Vine was also with Deception Bay and PCYC Redcliffe - were on the substitutes’ bench and not used this morning.

Sharn Freier, who travelled as a reserve in case of injury, was not in this morning’s squad, dropping out as Tameka Yallop returned from injury.

Freier was born in Redcliffe, went to Pine Rivers State High, played juniors at Pine Rivers and juniors and seniors at Moreton Bay United (now Moreton City Excelsior).

Hopes fading

Indiah-Paige Riley and the New Zealand women’s team need a near miracle to progress from Pool A of the Olympic football competition.

Riley, who started playing at The Lakes (now North Lakes United) and Moreton Bay United (now Moreton City Excelsior) was in the starting line-up again this morning.

New Zealand went down 2-0 to Columbia after the South Americans scored in each half leaving the White Ferns pointless from two games.

Canada’s six-point deduction for illegal use of a drone to spy on New Zealand’s training session, leaves the White Ferns, ranked 28 in the world, with a mathematical chance of progressing.

But they will need to beat France, who are world ranked two, at 5am on Thursday to have a chance of sneaking through on goal difference.