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The women’s basketball team got off to an excellent start on Friday against the US jumping to a 10 point lead before the American players began to regain their bearing. In the end, the Czechs lost by a score 61:88. The women’s team will have to defeat Angola on Sunday in order to book a spot in the play-offs.

The Czech women’s doubles pair Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie Hradecká have guaranteed the Czech Republic another Olympic medal by reaching the finals of their respective tournament. The pair advanced with a 6-1, 7-6 straight sets victory over US top seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond. In the finals, the pair will either face Russia’s Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova or the famous US sisters Serena and Venus Williams.

The Czech Republic won a second Olympic medal on Friday as rower Ondřej Synek came in second place in a 200m race with a time of 6:59.37. He was beaten to the gold by New Zealand’s Mahé Drysdale who came in with a time of 6:57.82. This is Synek’s second Olympic medal – he won the same medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Czech Republic’s first medal at this year’s Games was won on Wednesday by kayaker Vavřinec Hradilek.

Tennis: Czech Petra Kvitova took a beating at the hands of Russia's Maria Kirilenko losing 7-6(3) 6-3 in an Olympic women's tennis singles quarter-finals match on Thursday. The game has dashed Kvitova’s hopes of winning a medal at the London Olympics.

The AP news agency has given the Czech Olympic House in London top marks. In its guide to Olympic houses and pavilions the Czech House in Islington received a gold medal for its London Booster sculpture by artist David Cerny, the house’s modern interior and rich cultural programme for visitors. The only thing that Associated Press found fault with was the high price of its most popular dish – goulash and dumplings.

The Czech Republic has ended its Olympic medals drought with a silver medal win by twenty-five-year-old kayaker Vavřinec Hradilek. The silver medal win was in the Olympics-Men's canoe slalom K1 kayak category, with Hradilek coming in with a time of 94.78 seconds. He was pipped at the post by gold medal winner Italy’s Daniele Molmenti, who came in at 93.43 seconds. This is Hradilek’s first Olympic medal; the kayaker came in seventh place in his category during the Beijing Olympics four years ago.

Stanislav Ježek finished fifth in the final of the Olympic men’s single canoe event on Tuesday, 8.67 seconds after the winner Tony Enstanguet from France. The 35-year-old Czech canoeist achieved the same position as four years ago at the Games in Beijing. In other Olympic results, Tomáš Berdych and Radek Štěpánek beat the Italian pair Daniele Bracciali, Andreas Seppi 4:6, 7:6, 6:4 to advanced to the second round of the Olympic tennis doubles tournament while skeet shooter Jan Sychra finished sixth in the Olympic finals on Tuesday.

Czech kayaker Štěpánka Hilgertová, in her sixth Olympic Games, qualified for the semi-final in her discipline on Monday. In the canoe double (C2), Jaroslav Volf and Ondřej Štěpánek, as well as Vavřinec Hradílek and Stanislav Ježek also advanced.

Czech tennis player Petra Kvitová has made it to the third round at the Olympic Games. On Monday, she rebounded in her match against China’s to Shuai Peng after losing the second set. The final score was 7:5, 2:6, 6:1.

In other action, Petra Cetkovská had to forfeit her match due to injury, while Lucie Šafářová lost. Kvitová is the only Czech player left in the singles tournament.

Blue wellington boots that the Czech Olympic team wore to great success in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London are reportedly selling well at the Czech House in London, not only among Czech visitors but Londoners and tourists. The Czech collection - blue and white suits topped off with wellington boots and parasols (a humorous reference to English weather) was one of the hits of the opening evening, trending high on Twitter and gaining international attention. Václav Hrbek, the head of Alpine Pro, official partner of the Czech Olympic team which invested heavily in the collection, told news website idnes that sales of the blue rubber boots had also gone up at home. He said that expected profits would be mild but indicated the project was crucial in terms of marketing.