Olympic Times – Sports Daily

Germany’s Jan Frodeno, who took up triathlon because a girl he fancied did it, won the Olympic gold medal on Tuesday in a dramatic sprint over the last few meters.

Close behind him, Sydney gold medalist Simon Whitfield of Canada won the silver in the baking hot Beijing swim-bike-run event, and New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty the bronze.

Frodeno, a former swimmer and surf-lifeguard who took up triathlon eight years ago while living in South Africa, battled

with Docherty and 2008 world champion Javier Gomez of Spain, both heavily tipped for gold, for front position in the last two laps.

But the lanky German, whose nickname is “Frodo”, strode ahead at the final bend, overtaking all of them and leaving a crushed-looking Gomez in fourth place, a full 20 seconds behind his finish time of one hour, 48 minutes and 53 seconds.

“It was a moment I had dreamed of so many times in my head. During the race I told myself: ‘Boy, be greedy — it’s champagne or fizzy water’,” an overwhelmed Frodeno said afterwards.

“I tried not to think that the others behind me were the fastest guys and the most famous triathletes,” he said, adding he had learned his lesson from losing a lot of sprints this year.

“I knew I had to be hard and bite and fight,” he said.

The all-round fitness event came down to a running race, as the best sprinters held back and then surged past the winners of the swim and bike sections in the four-lap final section.

Frodeno, whose gold medal surprise came a day after his 27th birthday, punched the air triumphantly after breaking through the ribbon at the Ming Tombs reservoir course north of Beijing.

He told reporters he lay awake tossing and turning on Monday night plotting how to beat Gomez, an 11-times world cup winner.

EXASPERATED RIVALS

Gomez has dominated his sport this year despite an abnormal heart valve that kept him out of competitions for several years.

The Spaniard, who prefers racing in cooler weather, said he tired himself out when he bolted ahead and ran the first two laps in a spectacular 14 mins 10 secs to make up for lagging badly coming out of the bike transition.

“I just had a not very good day on the run,” said Gomez, who is dating a German triathlete in Monday’s women’s race.

He said it had been hard to run fast in the 31 degree Celsius (88 degree Fahrenheit) heat and 84 percent humidity.

“I got tired. I did train well but today there were three athletes better than me,” he told Reuters.

Whitfield said Gomez’s exasperated rivals decided ahead of the Games that the way to beat him was to join forces and all run against him. “We all raced today watching him. Everywhere he went in the pack, we all knew where he was and paid attention.”

For Docherty, beating Gomez was not quite enough, however.

The mop-haired New Zealander has gained a tiresome reputation for always coming second or third.

“I’m super happy to get another medal. I’m slowly building up a collection. Unfortunately I’ll have to go to London to get the gold,” he said, dolefully.

from: reuters.com

Emma Snowsill and Emma Moffatt of Australia won gold and bronze medals in today’s Women’s Triathlon race. The silver medal went to Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal.
Snowsill won the gold with a time of one hour, 58 minutes and 27.66 seconds. Fernandes finished in a time of one hour, 59 minutes and 34.63 seconds, while Moffatt won the bronze medal with a time of one hour, 59 minutes and 55.84 seconds.
Laura Bennett of the United States led out of the water, followed closely by Magali di Marco of Switzerland and Sarah Haskins of the United States.
On the 40km bike course, two packs came together early to form a leading group of 24 triathletes. After three laps, the leading group was in front of the chasing group by one minute. The margin was widened to nearly two minutes after five laps.
As the women headed out onto the 10km running course, Snowsill and Fernandes immediately surged to the front and opened up a slight gap over the rest of the field, which they maintained till the end.

from: beijing2008.cn

World champion Canada has won the men’s eights gold at the Beijing Olympic rowing competition.

It was the first time in more than 30 years that the reigning world champions also won Olympic gold.

Australia’s rowers were not able to reproduce last night’s success, with six-time Olympian James Tomkins in the Australian boat which finished in last place.

Canada blasted out from the start and built up a lead of more than 2.50sec on Britain by the halfway mark.

The Brits started to come back but ran out of water and only held off the United States for silver by 0.23sec.

from:abc.net.au

Pre-race favorites Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu of Romania grabbed gold in Rowing Women’s Pair with a time of 7:20.60. Wu You of Gao Yulan of China finished with a time of 7:22.28, edging out Yuliya Bichyk and Natallia Helakh of Belarus by just 0.63 seconds to take silver.

“I’m very happy with the gold, it’s the third time that I’ve won a medal in this sport,” said an excited Andrunache after the race. “Now my boyfriend will understand (why) I didn’t spend so much time with him last year.”

China reached the three-quarter mark nearly three seconds behind Belarus, but clinched silver with a sprint in the final 500m. Belarus had progressed directly to the A-final after their heat win, while China qualified for the final by winning a four-second victory over Germany in the repechage

Women’s Pair, final standings:
1. Romania — Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu, 7:20.60
2. China — Wu You and Gao Yulan, 7:22.28
3. Belarus — Yuliya Bichyk and Natallia Helakh, 7:22.91
4. Germany — Lenka Wech and Maren Derlien, 7:25.73
5. New Zealand — Juliette Haigh and Nicola Coles, 7:28.80
6. Great Britain — Louisa Reeve and Olivia Whitlam, 7:33.61

from: beijing2008.cn

Spectators who attended the Greco-roman style wrestling competition at the Beijing Olympics became witnesses of an ugly incident when the Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw away his bronze medal.

The incident happened during the award ceremony for the Olympic medallists in the 84 kg wrestling category.

The Swedish wrester had been angry with the judge of his semi-final match with Andrea Minguzzi of Italy, who went on to the take gold, and had even refused to appear for the bronze final.

During the semi-final match Abrahamian had to be restrained by teammates as a row erupted with judges over their decision.

“I do not care about this medal; I wanted the goal,” stated the enraged wrestler.

After the award ceremony, Abrahamiyan publicly displayed his discontent and indignation by throwing his bronze medal on the ground, stepping from the podium and storming off.

The medal had been collected by a worker from the sports facility’s maintenance crew,

from: novinite.com

Number one seeds Croatia made it three wins from three in the men’s water polo competition with a 13-5 thrashing of Germany in the Yingdong Natatorium.
Damir Buric scored three goals and four others added two each as Croatia scored on every power play.

“Croatia is, at the moment, the favourite for the final,” said Germany coach Hagen Stamm.

Elsewhere, Canadian coach Dragan Jovanovic was ejected as his side lost 8-5 to Australia.

Jovanovic received a red card in the third quarter for arguing a call with the referees and was eventually escorted from the pool area.

He will not be allowed to coach in Saturday’s match against Greece.
“Honestly, I don’t care,” said Jovanovic, whose team have yet to record a win from their three games.

“I’m going to prepare the team the next couple of days for the game against Greece, but execution is coming from the players in the water.”

In other Group B matches, Italy claimed their first win of the tournament with a 19-7 victory over winless China.

Serbia defeated the United States 4-2 to join them on two wins.

The Americans had plenty of chances to pull off an upset but were only two from 27 on their shooting.

Montenegro remain top of Group A thanks to a 10-6 victory over Greece.

Hungary, the Olympic champions in 2000 and 2004, are also on five points after they beat Spain 8-5.

The winners of each group qualify for the semi-finals, with the teams finishing in second and third playing for place in the last four.

Chinese beach volleyball men’s duo Wu Penggen/Xu Linyin remained unbeaten Thursday to advance to the next round.

The host team beat Spanish pair Pablo Herrera/Raul Mesa in two straight sets 21-13, 21-15.

“From the very beginning we were ahead of them in points. Compared with the last match we were more relaxed,” commented the 1.98-meter Wu after the match.

“We had a good start, which put a lot of pressure on our opponents. We had very good rhythm, organization and momentum,” said Xu on their performance in the match.

Herrera said they could not resist the attacks of the Chinese in most of the time and the 2.02-meter Xu was the biggest headache for them. Mesa said the Chinese controlled the rhythm of match.

The Chinese team had 28 attack points, 5 blocks and 1 ace.

“They are very strong team. We tried our best to play to our best standard but we still lost,” Herrera said.

With three preliminary wins, the Chinese team will meet in the next round with one of the last-placed top 16 teams.

On their next match, Xu said, “We don’t think much about the points and medals. We will adjust ourselves according to the next opponent and be well prepared for the next match.”

Beijing Olympics beach volleyball tournament will wrap up its preliminaries Thursday and the last 16 will be decided. The draw for the composition of top 16 matches will be held later Thursday.

from: mathaba.net

Chiara Cainero of Italy has won the gold medal in women’s skeet shooting, beating Kim Rhode of the U.S. and Christine Brinker of Germany in a shoot-off.

The three finished tied at 93 targets Thursday, and Cainero hit the first two targets of the shoot-off. Rhode and Brinker each missed one. The shoot-off continued to determine second place. Rhode ended up winning the silver, and Brinker took the bronze.

Cainero led after qualifying with a score of 72, but she hit only 21 of 25 targets in the final round, enabling Rhode and Brinker to catch up.

Rhode won gold in double trap in 1996 and 2004, but that event was eliminated for women before the Beijing Games. Forced to focus on skeet, she added another medal to her collection.

from: ap.google.com

Salvatore Sanzo of Italy has won bronze in the Men’s Individual Foil at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 13, holding off fourth place finisher Zhu Jun of China 15-14 in a two-round bout.

The gold and silver medals will be decided at the Fencing Hall tonight, August 13, when Athens 2004 ninth place finisher Ota Yuki of Japan contests Olympic newcomer Benjamin Philip Kleibrink from Germany.

from: beijing2008.cn

Ota Yuki of Japan and German fencer Benjamin Philip Kleibrink will duel over the Olympic gold medal in the Men’s Individual Foil competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at 9 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8) on August 13.
Ota Yuki of Japan, ninth-place finisher at the Athens 2004 Olympics, defeated Athens 2004 silver medalist Salvatore Sanzoof from Italy 15-14 to advance to the final competition.
In another semifinal bout, Germany’s Benjamin Philip Kleibrink, gold medalist at the Venice, Italy World Cup 2007/08 defeated Zhu Jun of China 15-4 to enter the final.

Zhu will compete with Sanzo for the bronze medal at 8 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8).

source: beijing2008.cn

Cat Osterman had 13 strikeouts in throwing a no-hitter, the second straight for the U.S. softball team at the Olympics, this one a 3-0 victory over Australia on Wednesday.

Crystl Bustos hit a two-run homer and Natasha Watley had the tie-breaking RBI single in the fifth inning for the Americans, who no-hit Venezuela, 11-0, on Tuesday behind a strong effort from Jennie Finch.

A day later it was Osterman’s turn. She walked three batters, but went the distance, striking out Kylie Cronk to end the game.

The Americans won at the Olympics for a 16th straight time, going back to the 2000 Sydney Games.

Next up for the U.S. will be a game against Canada on Thursday.

Tanya Harding was the losing pitcher for the Aussies, allowing four hits and three runs in five-plus innings.

Lovieanne Jung walked with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning and stole second with two outs. Watley then singled to left-center field for the game’s first run.

Jessica Mendoza walked to begin the U.S. sixth before Bustos cranked a homer to right field.

Osterman then struck out the side in the seventh to end the game.

source: canada.com

After winning the gold in 1996 but coming in second at the next two Olympics, Michal Martikán of Slovakia recaptured the gold in the Men’s Slalom Canoe Single competition on August 12, finishing the semifinal and final races with a combined total time of 176.65 seconds.

from: beijing2008.cn

For their first dance at the last roundup, the defending women’s softball champions won in a waltz.

That is certainly not a surprise, since Team USA has been boogieing to music that only they can hear ever since their sport joined the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996.

To call them a dynasty hardly describes their dominance. They are more of a hybrid monster, Godzilla and King Kong rolled into one.

Team USA has won eight World Championships, seven Pan Am Games titles and is a perfect 3-for-3 in Olympic gold medals. They were so overwhelming at Athens in 2004 – winning nine consecutive games by a combined score of 51-1 – that their reward from the International Olympic Committee was getting the entire sport booted out of the lineup for the 2012 Games in London.

Now, they’re back for one last overwhelming whirl around the dance floor as a send-off before taking up the game of politics to get softball reinstated onto the Olympic roster.

“That is definitely in the back of our minds. It’s the ultimate goal, getting softball put back into the lineup for 2016,” said starting pitcher Jennie Finch, who threw four no-hit innings as the Americans opened the tournament with an 11-0 win over Venezuela.

“I feel, and we all feel, that softball should be an Olympic sport. “I don’t know how much these games are going to matter in helping to make that determination. But hopefully, we can play the game at the highest level, make an impression and spread the word about the high level that we play and also spread the knowledge around the world that we need to continue to grow fast-pitch softball.”

The knowledge that most opponents have of stepping in against Finch or Houstonian Cat Osterman is like going head-first into a blender.

Add in an overall lineup that returns 10 of the 15 players from the dominant 2004 team and added the likes of centerfielder Caitlin Lowe and it’s possible the Team USA is even better in 2008.

That was definitely the experience Venezuela – a first-time Olympic participant – got in the tournament opener. The U.S. set an Olympic record for most runs scored in a game by one team and tied the single-game record for home runs with three – from Natasha Watley, Lowe and Crystl Bustos.

After Watley went deep to left field with two out in the second, Lowe’s homer was an inside-the-parker that bounced around in the left field corner while she zipped around the bases. Bustos sent a laser beam that cleared the center field wall in about two seconds in the third.

“Any Olympics in general, we are going to try to come out and put down our best performance,” Lowe said. “But there probably is a desire to really put a stamp on this one. We know that it’s the last Olympics for softball, at least for now.”

Finch nodded in agreement.

“That’s definitely in the back of our minds,” she said. “This is definitely my last Olympics and we’d like to give everyone something to really remember.”

For now, they’ll keep lining them up and knocking them down, maybe for their own satisfaction or perhaps to catch the attention of IOC officials, several of whom were in the stands on Tuesday.

“I’ve said all along that our job as players and coaches right now is to prepare ourselves and do as well as we can as a team,” said U.S. coach Mike Candrea. “We’re not trying to put on a show. We’re playing the game the way we know how to play the game. USA Softball is playing the game hard, playing aggressively, playing with heart. If it was a great show, I hope we have eight more great shows.”

from: chron.com

China’s Tan Zongliang will regret his first and last shot in the final of the Men’s 50m Pistol for a long time.

The 7.9 points from his first shot, the worst among all his shots in the final, wrote off the two-point lead that he gained in the qualification round. In the qualification round, Tan shot a total of 565, while the other five shooters were tied on 563.

Tan’s mistake gave Jin Jong-oh of the Republic of Korea the opportunity to win the gold medal with a final score of 660.4. The silver medal was won by Kim Jong-su of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who shot a final score of 660.2, while Tan won a consolation bronze with a final score of 659.5.

Jin still gave Tan a chance to win the gold medal though. Kim only scored 8.2 on his last shot, which meant second-placed Tan could still win gold if he scored more than 10.1 on his last shot. Tan, however, could only shoot 9.2 and instead of winning gold, Tan bid farewell to silver as well because Kim overtook Tan with an outstanding 10.5 on his last shot.

The bronze medal is 37-year-old Tan’s first medal from four Olympics.

source: beijing2008.cn

This particular hug from dad was a long time coming.
After two disappointing Olympic experiences – a 15th-place finish in 2000 and a 17th-place finish in 2004 – Glenn Eller is finally an Olympic champion.
The 26-year-old from Katy held off five finalists to claim the Olympic gold medal in double trap shooting Tuesday at the Beijing Shooting Range.
Eller finished with a score of 190, topping Italy’s Francesco D Aniello (187) and Binyuan Hu of China (184).
After setting an Olympic record with 145 points in the three-round prelims, Eller started the finals shootout in the worst way, missing both targets on the initial pull. His four-point lead was cut in half.
He settled down quickly, however, connecting on 25 shots in a row to regain a five-target edge after nine pairs of targets had been released.
D Aniello continued to push, easing to with three points after Eller missed the second target of the 14th pair. But when he missed two pairs later, the contest was all but over.
All Eller had to do was avoid a complete collapse, and he did that to cruise to the victory.
Eller posted the highest first-round score Tuesday morning (Monday night in Houston) and followed that up with an almost perfect second round and only two misses in the third to enter the finals as the overall leader.
He delivered under pressure, and remained calm until the 24th pull, when he hit both targets, clinching the win.
Shortly after, he was embraced by his father, Butch Eller, who has said he has spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on his son’s shooting career.
It finally paid off in a gold medal.

source: chron.com

Italy took both gold and bronze today, August 11, in the final of the Women’s Individual Foil at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, while Nam Hyun-hee of the Republic of Korea claimed silver.

Italy’s Maria Valentina Vezzali won the 6-5 bout for gold, with Nam Hyun-hee unable to hold her off.

Italian Margherita Granbassi won in the bronze medal 15-12 bout in a tightly fought match against her Italian teammate, Giovanna Trillini.

When asked about what she thought let her down in the bronze medal bout, Trillini replied, “The judge. I’m very angry with the referees.”

The final of the Team Foil event will take place at the Fencing Hall on August 16.

source: beijing2008.cn

Twelve canoeists and fifteen kayakers advanced from the August 11 heats to the following day’s semifinals in the Men’s Slalom Canoe Single and Kayak Single competitions.

With the fastest combined time from both heats, Atlanta Games gold medalist and two-time silver winner Michal Martikan of Slovakia finished first in 170.15 seconds, .35 seconds ahead of German Jan Benzien with 170.50 seconds. David Florence of Great Britain trailed Martikan 1.48 seconds for a total time of 171.63 in third place.

Other top paddlers finished in the top half of the ranking, with Czech Republic’s Stanislav Jezek coming in fourth at 172.09 seconds and two-time defending Olympic champion Tony Estanguet finishing sixth with 176.08 seconds.

Australian Robin Bell, ranked first in the world, played low with a seventh place finish of 176.45 seconds in the heats.

“I didn’t paddle as hard as I would normally,” said Bell, who finished ninth in Sydney and came up with a respectable fourth place in Athens. His steady performance in this year’s World Cup series brought him to the top of the world rankings.

Kayaker Peter Kauzer of Slovenia filled the top slot in the Men’s K1 heats, with a combined time of 166.49 seconds to complete both runs. Fabian Lefevre of France came in second with a time of 168.06, and Italy’s Daniele Molmenti finished in 168.59 seconds. Fevre hopes to defend his country’s Athens gold finish in the absence of French Olympic champion Benoît Peschier.

World No. 3 Austrian Helmut Oblinger finished sixth with a time of 171.75 seconds, and European champion Campbell Walsh of Great Britain came in ninth with a time of 172.44 seconds.

The Men’s C1 and Men’s K1 semifinal races will commence on August 12, with a start order determined by reversing the finish order from the heats. Paddlers with top times in the heats will begin last in the semifinals.

source: beijing2008.cn