Olympics: Aussie channel avoids showing NZ on medal tally

Eric Murray and Hamish Bond celebrate after the medal ceremony. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Australian media are in denial - the first stage of grief - at seeing New Zealand above their team on the Olympic medal table.

Gold medal wins to Hamish Bond and Eric Murray and Mahe Drysdale propelled New Zealand nine spots ahead of Australia to tenth in the medal count last night.

Channel 9, the official free Olympic broadcaster in Australia, refused to show the Kiwi team's new placing.

It displayed a medal table with only the top nine countries and Australia showing and later admitted Australians did not want to be reminded of New Zealand's success.

The decision did not go down with some Australian sporting commentators.

League writer Brad Walter expressed his disbelief at the decision on Twitter.

He tweeted: "Ch9 should be showing NZ gold, not pretending it didn't happen."

Channel 9 has come under fire for being too one dimensional in its Olympic coverage, with 105,000 Australians calling for it to show sports beyond "swimming, repeats of swimming, interviews of swimming, analysis of swimming, previews of swimming."

New Zealand had dropped back to 12th on the medal table this morning with three gold and three bronze medals, while Australia was in 19th with one gold, nine silver and four bronze.

- HERALD ONLINE