Olympic Times – Sports Daily

China praised injured national hero Liu Xiang on Tuesday, smothering disappointment that he limped away from his hurdles heat by stressing its dominance of the Olympics medals table.

China hoped for a repeat of Liu’s 110 meter win in Athens to show its sporting prowess could extend to the track and was not confined to traditional areas like table tennis.

But Liu’s forlorn exit on Monday put a serious dampener on those aspirations.

Soccer superpowers Argentina and Brazil face off in the men’s soccer semi-finals on Tuesday, while Britain and the United States grabbed another gold apiece in the sailing regatta at Qingdao.

Germany added to its gold tally when Jan Frodeno, a man who only took up triathlon because a girl he fancied did it, won the swim-bike-run endurance test on a hot day in Beijing.

Hurdler Liu could barely start his Monday heat, grimacing in pain from injury.

After a false start in the race he pulled out, shocking China where he has been a national idol since his 2004 success which gave the country its first Games male track and field victory.

“Everyone will understand why Liu Xiang had to abandon competition due to injury,” Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said in a “get well” message carried by state media.

Liu himself promised to return, saying unbearable pain in his foot and the prospect of a long-term serious injury left him no choice but to pull out of the race.

China’s rulers have invested billions in staging a spectacular Games to demonstrate to audiences at home and abroad the country’s superpower status and the Communist Party’s sponsorship of sporting success and national pride.

In recent days state media have grown in confidence that China will topple the United States from the top rank in the medal spot it held in Athens. This demonstrates that China’s economic rise has brought it sporting glory, official media has explained.

“There is basically no worry about top spot on the gold medal table,” state news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.

China already has 39 golds, seven more than in Athens, while the United States has won 23 and been relatively disappointing in the Bird’s Nest stadium, the athletics venue where it would normally do well.

ATHLETICS EXCITEMENT

China will expect to pick up more golds in diving and gymnastics on Tuesday but most attention will be on the football pitch and the athletics arena, which has already seen four days of action as magnificent as its architecture.

Jamaican sprinters have finally lived up to their promise on the world’s biggest stage, with Usain Bolt winning the 100 meters in spectacular style and world record time and compatriots taking the top three places in the women’s 100 meters.

The United States will try for revenge against another strong Jamaican team in the 100 meters hurdles. U.S. women ran the top three semi-final times, led by world numbers one and two Lolo Jones and Damu Cherry.

Bolt is back in action today in the semi-finals of the 200 meters in his quest to secure the first sprint double gold since Carl Lewis in 1984. The 21-year-old cantered through the first two rounds of the 200m competition in relaxed style.

Kenya hopes to add a win in the men’s 1500m to golds in the women’s 800 meters and the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, its seventh successive win in that event.

Kenyans Asbel Kiprop or Augustine Choge will battle it out for the top middle-distance running prize.

Outside the athletics arena, Germany’s Frodeno scored a surprise in the men’s triathlon, timing his late run well to leave pre-race favorites gasping at the Ming Tombs reservoir.

The soccer tournament bursts into life later with a semi-final between two of the sport’s fiercest rivals, Brazil and Argentina, in a contest enlivened by the genius of Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi on opposing sides.

Brazil want revenge for defeat in Athens to Argentina. Its has won five World Cups but never an Olympic gold.

Nigeria play Belgium in the other semi-final.

from: reuters.com

Paul Goodison won Team GB’s 13th gold medal of the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday by taking the sailing Laser title.

The 30-year-old went into the race at Qingdao as red-hot favourite, knowing that Swede Rasmus Myrgren would have to win and he himself finish last of the ten boats in order to be denied the gold.

Goodison played the man rather than the field, making sure to engage Myrgren and letting the rest of the fleet take a lead, whilst keeping the Swede behind him.

It was a tactic that meant that Myrgren fell from the silver medal position at the start to sixth.

Goodison failed to win a medal in Athens after finishing fourth, and was delighted to put that setback behind him.

“It just feels fantastic to come in with a medal this time and the fact that it’s gold is just amazing,” he said.

“I always knew it was going to be a bit of an up and down regatta. I didn’t start great in the first race but bounced straight back and then from there I was always within reaching distance and sailed a superb day yesterday to give myself the cushion I needed for today.”

The Briton admits that his own efforts denied Myrgren a medal, and he offered his opponent sympathy after the race.

“I really feel for Rasmus,” he added.

“I think that if the winds here had been a little bit stronger and the racing had been normal then I would have just sailed my race because I would have been more confident that I wasn’t going to lose.

“But because the wind was so light and so random, the only way to guarantee winning was to do what I did.

“My heart feels for him, I feel sorry for him, but at the end of the day you have to do what’s best for you.”

In the women’s equivalent event, the Laser Radial, gold went to British-born American Anna Tunnicliffe.

Briton Penny Clark was 10th overall.

British long-jumper Jade Johnson qualified for the final at the Bird’s Nest on Tuesday morning.

Johnson jumped 6.61m with her third and final attempt to finish inside the top 12, after looking close to going out with initial jumps of 6.33m and 6.15m.

“Maybe tomorrow I might be happy. I’m in the final but right now I’m still a bit mad with myself,” the 28-year-old said.

“I always make hard work of it. When have I ever had an easy ride? Never. Once I just accept that I’m never going to have an easy ride I’ll be fine.”

Goldie Sayers had no such problems in booking her berth in the javelin final, her throw of 62.99m in round two sailing past the 61.50m automatic qualifying mark and making the fifth best qualifier for Thursday night’s final.

Sayers said afterwards: “I was hoping not to need two throws because there were so many people in the pool. But I had a bit of food poisoning last week at our training camp in Macau and nerves mixed with food poisoning in an Olympic qualifying round doesn’t make for very good stomach cramps.

“I was struggling a bit and it wasn’t a great first round but I’m pleased to be through.”

Briton Emily Freeman made it to the second round of the women’s 200m on Tuesday, finishing second in her heat in a time of 22.95secs.

Bahrain’s Roqaya Al-Gassra won the race in 22.81.

Alistair Brownlee finished 12th in the triathlon, 86 seconds behind Germany’s gold medallist Jan Frodeno.

from: setantasports.com

Francoise Mbango Etone successfully defended her Olympic triple jump title with a new Games record leap.

An effort of 15.39 metres on her second attempt secured victory at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium on Sunday.

Russian Tatyana Lebedeva (15.32m) won silver, and Greece’s Hrysopiyi Devetzi (15.23m), the 2004 Olympic silver medallist, took bronze.
Mbango Etone, 32, became Cameroon’s first individual Olympic gold medallist when she won in Athens four years ago.
She came back this season after spending most of 2006 and 2007 off the circuit for a combination of reasons, including injuries, studies and becoming a mother.

source: bbc.co.uk

Britain’s Rebecca Romero made Olympic history here Sunday when she became just the second woman to claim medals in two different sports at the summer Games.

England’s Romero dominated an all-British track cycling individual pursuit final to leave Wendy Houvenaghel of Northern Ireland with the silver medal after posting a winning time of three minutes 28.32 seconds for the three-kilometre event.

Lesya Kalitovska of the Ukraine defeated New Zealand’s Alison Shanks to win the bronze medal.

Romero’s was the first Olympic gold medal for Britain in the event, and came a day after Bradley Wiggins successfully defended his individual pursuit crown in the men’s four-kilometre race.

Romero’s win, five months after her maiden world title, meant Britain had now claimed an impressive four gold medals from five of what will utlimately be a total of 10 finals.

British riders have also now won eight of the 15 medals up for grabs so far.

Romero, who won an Olympic rowing silver four years ago in the women’s quadruple sculls, follows in the footsteps of Roswitha Krause of the former East Germany.

Krause won a swimming silver at the 1968 Games in Mexico from the women’s 4x100m relay, then won silver in the women’s handball final at the 1976 Games in Montreal and handball bronze at Moscow in 1980.

The 28-year-old Romero admitted there was no way she was settling for silver this time.

“I’d have been absolutely crushed if I got the silver,” said Romero, who only took up cycling seriously in 2006 after giving up rowing due to a recurring back problem.

“It’s taken for me to come into cycling to realise my full athletic potential,” she added.

Houvenaghel only took up cycling six years ago, but won world championship bronze in the individual pursuit and gold in the non-Olympic team event at Manchester in March.

Formerly an amateur cross0country runner, she discovered a talent for time-trialling in 2002 not long after she had run the London Marathon for the first time in April of that year.

Although being pushed into road time-trialling by her cycling enthusiast husband, she was inspired to take up track cycling after she saw Scotland’s Chris Hoy win gold in the kilometre at Athens in 2004.

Romero set out to make up for her “disappointing” silver rowing medal from Athens in defiant fashion.

Although Houvenaghel led over the first couple of laps of the 250-metre track, the Northern Irishwoman was soon playing catch-up.

Romero led after the first kilometre, and held her pace over the next four laps to virtually seal the gold. Houvenaghel raced a faster third lap but by then it was too late.

The 33-year-old Houvenaghel finished just over two seconds behind and, even as Romero screamed out in joy as she brandished a Union Jack flag, still had a huge smile on her face.

from: afp.google.com

Michael Phelps said rest was the first thing on his agenda in the wake of his epic Olympic performance in Beijing, before he and coach Bob Bowman chart a new course for London 2012.
Despite his remarkable achievement – an unprecedented eight gold medals in nine days to take his career total to a record 14 Olympic titles – Phelps says there is plenty left to do to achieve his goal of changing the sport of swimming in the United States.
“There are some things I still want to do to raise the bar a bit more in the world of swimming,” Phelps said. “For me, it’s still work in progress.”
But Phelps, whose Beijing programme matched his schedule in Athens, will spring something new on the world of swimming in London.
He hadn’t even dried off after winning the 400m individual medley here when he said he was through with that event – although coach Bob Bowman may have other plans.
“I would say I would like to go down and start sprinting, but Bob isn’t so keen on that,” said Phelps, who showed in Beijing just how dangerous he could come to be in swimming’s shorter races.
Phelps swam the lead-off leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay in 47.51sec, making him the third-fastest performer in history in the prestige event behind current world record-holder Eamon Sullivan and former world record-holder Alain Bernard of France.
Phelps was also the second-ranked swimmer in the world in the 100m and 200m backstroke in 2007 – one of the top performers all time in each event although neither was on his Beijing programme.
“We’ll see how keen he is on going to the sprints,” Bowman said. “There is more and different training. He’s more naturally suited to longer events.”
Phelps said he and Bowman would experiment a little, as they did at the 2005 world championships in Montreal in the wake of his impressive Athens Games.
“I think over the next four years, I would like to try new events and see what happens.
“Bob has said he wants to start fresh and do things he hasn’t done before, new training methods and stuff like that.”
After moving from his hometown of Baltimore, following Bowman to a coaching job in Michigan, both are planning a return to Maryland.
“We are going to look at some different events, mix up the training programme a little bit and do some experimenting,” Bowman said. “We have plenty of time and we will look at reinventing ourselves.
“We have accomplished this set of goals and I would dare to venture to say we are not going to do it again, at least not like this.
“We will start coming up with some goals that excite him and start working towards them.”
But first, Phelps said a little vacation was in order.
“It’s something I haven’t done for a long time,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing friends, hanging out and sitting down. Not moving.
“Bob has a saying about putting money in the bank and this week was about making withdrawals. I guess I’ve gotten through every penny. Now it’s time to start making redeposits.”
But Phelps won’t rest too long, especially since his over-arching aim is to raise the profile of swimming in his home country so that it can garner headlines outside of Olympic years.
“I don’t want this sport to be an every four year sport,” he said. “We get lots of attention every four years, but for the rest of that time there is really not a lot of attention.
“We swim every single day, there is never really an off-season. I just want more people to get involved in the sport and I think it will happen in the next four years.”
Besides, Phelps can’t take too much time off, since he has to book a spot in the 2009 World Championships in Rome.
“My mom has told me I have to make the (US) team so she can go to Rome,” Phelps said. – AFP

from: nst.com.my

Organizers say events are sold out despite appearances. One possible explanation is that Chinese bought cheap tickets but aren’t using them.

Tickets were in such short supply for Friday night’s field hockey match between Australia and Pakistan that some relatives of players couldn’t get any, and those who did had to fork over as much as $130 apiece. At the box office, clerks told disappointed ticket seekers that the game was “sold out.”
But inside the 17,000-seat Olympic Green Hockey Stadium, the stands were a sea of blue — the color of the rows and rows of empty plastic seats. When the game began, only a quarter of the seats were filled, leaving an incredulous Donna Dancer, wife of Australian hockey coach Barry Dancer, to ask, “Where have all the tickets gone?”

It’s one of the great mysteries of the Beijing Olympics: In what is reportedly the first sold-out Games in Olympic history, many venues are far from full, with the expanses of empty seats giving events a somewhat forlorn appearance.

“Everyone I know wanted tickets; we Chinese love to see sports,” said Mike Ma, 34, a Beijing office worker who scored a field hockey ticket through a German friend because he was unable to buy one in China. “It’s a pity there are so many empty seats. We would like to know who is responsible.”
And how it happened.

Demand for the 6.8 million tickets has been crushing. When tickets first went on sale, online ticketing sites around the world crashed because so many people were trying to buy. When the final batch of tickets was offered in July, Chinese fans waited in 90-degree heat for as long as two days to buy them, with near riots breaking out at many locations.

“This is our fourth Olympics, but getting tickets to this one really has been a nightmare,” said Stacey Watson, a 44-year-old Australian, as she watched her country beat Pakistan, 3-1. “Then you get inside and you wonder who got all the tickets, because there is nobody there.”

Dancer, wife of the Australian coach, knows how tough it was to scrape together tickets for the players’ families. She and others spent long nights trying to get through to jammed Internet sites. They called dodgy ticket agencies, scalpers and people they barely knew begging for tickets. About 300 of them finally got tickets, scattered around the stadium.

Not every venue is empty. There have been full houses for swimming and gymnastics finals. The 91,000-seat National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, was packed Saturday for track and field. But at most other events, even table tennis and archery in which the Chinese are strong, the lack of fans is glaringly obvious, especially on TV.

Beijing Olympic organizers initially explained away the empty seats by citing the humid and rainy weather on the first days of the Games. But with the skies clearing, they have begun complaining about tickets that have been purchased but gone unused.

“All the tickets have been sold out; we will be encouraging all the ticket holders to watch the matches themselves,” Wang Wei, executive vice president of the organizing committee, said Friday at a news conference. “If they don’t want to go, they should give the tickets to those who do,”

Empty seats are a chronic problem at the Olympics, where large blocks of the best seats are set aside for sponsors, VIPs and media members who may not use them. The 2004 Athens Games were marked by vast swaths of empty seats.

But Athens was not sold out, and people could buy tickets at the on-site box office. Not so in Beijing. With no same-day tickets available, hundreds of people mill about outside the wire fences that separate the Olympic Green from the street, looking for tickets. Scalpers slink through the crowd, muttering their prices and avoiding police.

On Saturday morning, the cheapest price to see U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly race was $570, for tickets with a face value of $21.

One reason for the shortage is that organizers wanted to make the Games accessible to China’s 1.3 billion people, so they sold more tickets domestically and at lower prices than usual, some for as little as $4. The low prices encouraged people to snap up whatever they could.

But it turns out there weren’t that many people truly prepared to spend their Monday morning watching Mali play New Zealand in women’s basketball.

Also, the custom in Communist China is to attend sporting or cultural events as part of official work outings. Large blocks of empty seats in the cheaper nosebleed sections of the stadiums may have been allocated to state companies that ended up not using them.

From the looks of the stands, the empty seats do not appear to be tickets that were sold in the United States, Australia or Europe, said Mark Lewis, president of Jet Set Sports, the affiliate of CoSport, which was the official sales agent. In the cases where foreigners decided not to go to China, their tickets were returned and resold.

“I know where our seats are. . . . The people who bought our tickets are attending,” Lewis said.

So many foreigners have complained that the Chinese have been busing in rent-a-crowds to lend the stands a festive atmosphere.

“It’s better. Nobody likes an empty stadium,” said Dave Andrews, 27, of Perth, Australia. “But you can tell they’ve just been brought in here to fill the seats. They know nothing about hockey. They cheer at all the wrong times.”

from: latimes.com

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won the men’s Olympic 100 meters in breathtaking style on Saturday, thumping his chest as he streaked to victory in record time.

In an awesome display of power running, the 21-year-old obliterated his own world record, despite raising his arms in triumph well before he crossed the line in 9.69 seconds.

“I came here just to win, that was my aim,” said Bolt. “I didn’t even know I’d won the record till I did my victory lap.”

Bolt’s supremely self-confident run in the world’s most-watched race capped a magnificent day of sport in Beijing.

In the pool American Michael Phelps equaled Mark Spitz’s 36-year record of winning seven golds in one games. He could become an unequalled Olympian on Sunday if he and his U.S. team mates win their last relay race.

Phelps defeated Serbian Milorad Cavic in the 100m butterfly by one hundredths of a second, the narrowest margin possible.

Bolt’s victory was beyond doubt within meters of the starting block. He was ahead in a heartbeat and with 30 meters to go he glanced sideways and smiled in realization that he would win the showcase race of the Olympics.

The 21-year-old almost highstepped across the finish line to take the most coveted athletic crown meters clear of Trinidadian Richard Thompson who won silver in 9.89 seconds.

American Walter Dix won bronze in 9.91 but Bolt’s blistering speed made his rivals look like sluggards.

After scorching across the line, Bolt draped himself in a Jamaican flag, took off his golden running shoes and kissed them.

His performance sealed a remarkable transition from 200 meter specialist to winner of the showcase race of the Olympics.

Bolt only began racing the 100m in the last year, putting his fellow sprinters in the shade with his performances. He first really showed his threat in May, when he set a world record time of 9.72 in New York.

JOY AT HOME

Bolt’s father said “yam power” won it for his son. Wellesley Bolt said Usain son was partial to the vegetable grown in the Trelawny area of north-west Jamaica where he was born. Local citizens believe the local staple has medicinal powers.

Much of Jamaica clustered around televisions to watch the extraordinary run and jumped for joy at the victory of the man dubbed “Lightning” by the media.

Despite a tradition of producing world class sprinters, the Caribbean island had never before won a men’s 100m gold at the Olympics.

Bolt can now set his sights on becoming the first man to win the 100m and 200m Olympic double since Carl Lewis in 1984. He will be full of confidence ahead of Wednesday’s 200m final.

“I am just focusing on the 200 meters now,” said Bolt. “I came here prepared and I’m going to do it.”

The much-touted clash between Bolt, former world record holder and fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and world champion Tyson Gay never happened.

Gay, suffering from a hamstring injury, failed to qualify for the late evening final in front of a roaring 90,000-strong crowd in Beijing’s magnificent Bird’s Nest stadium.

Powell, 25, who has never won a global sprint title, finished in fifth place.

“I messed up big time,” said Powell. “My legs died on me. Usain ran an awesome race. I’m very happy for him.”

PHELPS PHENOMENEN

Phelps’ victory was equally dramatic. He trailed Cavic but lunged forward on his final stroke to win. The sporting phenomenon of the Beijing 2008 Games punched the air and screamed with joy as a capacity crowd in the Water Cube rose to hail him.

“It’s pretty cool, that’s all I can say,” said Phelps, who thought halfway he had blown it. “I am in a sort of dream world.”

“He can be called the best Olympian of all time,” Spitz told America’s NBC television, “not because he has more gold medals than anybody but in the way he’s handled himself and in the way he’s actually won under a tremendous amount of pressure.”

Phelps now has 13 career golds, four more than anyone else in the 112-year history of the modern Games.

Phelps’s success is down to total focus and the perfect swimmer’s physique of large torso and huge reach on short legs. His arm span is 3 inches more than his 6ft 4 height.

The only surprise was that Phelps did not win in world record time, unlike his other six title-winning swims in Beijing.

The women, though, were in record breaking form.

Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, who had won three silvers already in Beijing, finally struck gold in the women’s 200 backstroke, bringing some rare cheer to her troubled homeland.

She shaved 0.85 seconds off the previous world best.

Britain’s Rebecca Adlington also smashed a 19-year-old world record to take gold in the women’s 800 freestyle.

LOWS AND HIGHS

Switzerland’s Roger Federer finally won the Olympic gold he craved to add to his well-stocked trophy cupboard. His doubles win will ease the pain of his quarter-final singles defeat and a poor season that has seen him lose his number one ranking.

Sweden’s greco-roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian was stripped of his 84kg-category bronze medal after he dropped it in disgust to protest a refereeing decision. Olympic organizers also threw him out of the Games for his medal ceremony protest.

Australia picked up two gold rowing medals but lost to Britain in a thrilling sprint for the line in the men’s four. Two more medals came Britain’s way in the cycling.

China’s gold medal charge paused on Saturday, with only one badminton gold coming the way of the host nation during the day as attention switched to sports where the Asian nation does less well.

China came second to the United States in the medal table in Athens and would dearly like to win this year to showcase a sporting superpower status to mirror a growing economic clout.

China leads the gold medal table with 27 to the United States’ 16.

from: reuters.com

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won the men’s Olympic 100 meters in stunning style on Saturday, obliterating his own world record to win in 9.69 seconds.

He took the most coveted athletic crown with ease, soaring across the line meters clear of Trinidadian Richard Thompson in silver in 9.89 seconds. American Walter Dix won bronze in 9.91 but Bolt’s blistering speed made his rivals look like sluggards.

The tall Jamaican raised his arms in triumph well before he crossed the line, thumped his chest and raced to salute supporters in the crowd who roared approval of a spectacular run.

His victory was beyond doubt within meters of the starting block and was over within a heartbeat. With 30 meters to go, Bolt glanced sideways and smiled in realization that he would win the showcase race of the Olympics.

After scorching across the line, Bolt draped himself in a Jamaican flag, took off his golden running shoes and kissed them.

“I came here just to win, that was my aim,” said Bolt. “I didn’t even know I’d won the record till I did my victory lap.”

His performance sealed a remarkable transition from 200 meter specialist to winner of the showcase race of the Olympics.

Bolt only began racing the 100m in the last year, putting his fellow sprinters in the shade with his performances. He first really showed his threat in May, when he set a world record time of 9.72 in New York.

Much of Jamaica was expected to have clustered around televisions to watch the extraordinary run and will have jumped for joy at the run by the man dubbed “Lightning” by the media.

Despite a tradition of producing world class sprinters, the Caribbean island had never before won a men’s 100m gold at the Olympics.

Bolt can now set his sights on becoming the first man to win the 100m and 200m Olympic double since Carl Lewis in 1984. He will be full of confidence ahead of Wednesday’s 200m final.

“I am just focusing on the 200 meters now,” said Bolt. “I came here prepared and I’m going to do it.”

The much-touted finals run-off between Bolt, former world record holder and fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and world champion Tyson Gay never happened.

Gay, suffering from a hamstring injury, was too slow in his semi-final to qualify for the late evening race in front of a roaring 90,000-strong crowd in Beijing’s magnificent Bird’s Nest stadium.

Powell, 25, who has never won a global sprint title, finished in fifth place.

“I messed up big time,” said Powell. “My legs died on me. Usain ran an awesome race. I’m very happy for him.”

PHELPS PHENOMENEN

The day’s other highlight was Michael Phelps equaling fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven golds in one Olympics.

Trailing Serbia’s Milorad Cavic in the 100 meters butterfly, Phelps lunged forward on his final stroke to touch a hundredth of a second ahead, the smallest margin possible.

The sporting phenomenon of the Beijing 2008 Games punched the air and screamed with joy as a capacity crowd in the Water Cube rose to hail him.

“It’s pretty cool, that’s all I can say,” said Phelps, who thought halfway he had blown it. “I am in a sort of dream world.”

On Sunday, Phelps can go one better than Spitz if he wins an eighth Beijing gold in the 100 medley relay.

“He can be called the best Olympian of all time,” Spitz told America’s NBC television, “not because he has more gold medals than anybody but in the way he’s handled himself and in the way he’s actually won under a tremendous amount of pressure.”

Phelps now has 13 career golds, four more than anyone else in the 112-year history of the modern Games.

Phelps’s success is down to total focus and the perfect swimmer’s physique of large torso and huge reach on short legs. His arm span is 3 inches more than his 6ft 4 height.

MEDALS FOR OTHERS

The only surprise was that Phelps did not win in world record time, unlike his other six title-winning swims in Beijing.

The women, though, were in record breaking form.

Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, who had won three silvers already in Beijing, finally struck gold in the women’s 200 backstroke, bringing some rare cheer to her troubled homeland.

She shaved 0.85 seconds off the previous world best.

Britain’s Rebecca Adlington also smashed a 19-year-old world record to take gold in the women’s 800 freestyle.

She had won Britain’s first Olympic women’s swimming title in nearly half a century in the 400 freestyle on Monday.

But the Games have had some low moments as well.

Sweden’s greco-roman wrestler Ara Abrahamian was stripped of his 84kg-category bronze medal after he dropped it in disgust to protest a refereeing decision. Olympic organizers also threw him out of the Games for his medal ceremony protest.

Australia picked up two gold rowing medals but lost to Britain in a thrilling sprint for the line in the men’s four. Two more medals came Britain’s way in the cycling.

China’s gold medal charge paused on Saturday, with only one badminton gold coming the way of the host nation as attention switched to sports where the Asian nation does less well.

China came second to the United States in the medal table in Athens and would dearly like to win this year to showcase a sporting superpower status to mirror a growing economic clout.

from: reuters.com

recensioni blog

Chris Hoy of Britain took his second cycling gold medal of the Beijing Olympics in the keirin Saturday, while his compatriot Bradley Wiggins got his first. Both are hoping the eventual tally will be three apiece.
Earlier, Joan Llaneras of Spain took gold for a second time in the men’s points race.
Two-time
keirin world champion Hoy dashed away from the field in the final of the keirin, a sprint race paced by a motorized bike, and none of his rivals could get near him.
Hoy’s compatriot Ross Edgar had a harder struggle, but he managed to slip across the line for the silver medal, just ahead of Kiyofumi Nagai of Japan.
The keirin is an eight-lap race, where riders spend 5 1/2 laps jockeying for position behind a pacesetting motorcycle that accelerates steadily before leaving the competitors alone on the track for the final 625 meters.
Hoy was part of the British team that won the team sprint on Saturday. He will be going for his third gold in the individual sprint on Tuesday.
The event in which Hoy won gold in Athens, the 1-kilometer time-trial, has been dropped to make way for the BMX competition.
It was a bad night for the Dutch sprinters. Theo Bos was brought down in the second round by Polish rider Kamil Kuczynski, who crashed in front of him, and he did not take part in the restarted race. His compatriot, world championship silver medalist Teun Mulder, also went out. He won the first-round repechage but was disqualified for riding outside the racing area.
In the 4,000 meters individual pursuit, Wiggins finished almost three seconds ahead of Hayden Roulston of New Zealand, completing the race in a time of 4 minutes, 16.977 seconds. Steven Burke of Britain _ selected to race only days ago _ took the bronze.
Wiggins, 28, is hoping to improve on the gold, silver and bronze he took on the track in Athens. The British are seeking eight of the 10 track golds, and they are on target so far.
If Wiggins wins three medals at these games, he will become the track cyclist with the most medals in Olympic history, breaking a record that has stood for 104 years.
Wiggins broke the Olympic record in qualifying Friday _ the record he himself set when he took gold in Athens.
Llaneras, the champion eight years ago in Sydney and silver medalist four years ago, scored 60 points in the race, coming in ahead of Roger Kluge of Germany and World Cup champion Chris Newton of Britain.
In the points race, racers ride 160 laps of the track, taking part in sprints every 10th lap for points. Most important, however, is the bonus of 20 points they get for lapping the field.
Llaneras, Kluge and Newton were the only three riders to lap the field twice.

Speaking shortly after his victory, Llaneras said he was thinking of his former madison partner, Isaac Galvez, who died after crashing during a race in Belgium in 2006.
«I remember all the people who support me. At this very moment, I remember Isaac,» Llaneras said.
Saturday also saw the first round of the women’s individual pursuit, and again it was a British rout.
World champion Rebecca Romero will face her compatriot Wendy Houvenaghel in the gold medal race on Sunday afternoon, while Alison Shanks of New Zealand will face Lesya Kalitovska of Ukraine for the bronze medal.
Shanks put out two-time world champion Sarah Hammer of the United States and Romero beat Athens silver medalist Katie Mactier of Australia.
Romero is competing in her first Olympic cycling event but already has a medal _ she was part of the British team that took silver in the quadruple sculls in rowing, four years ago in Athens.
Houvenaghel, a 33-year-old dental surgeon, began cycling only six years ago. She took gold with Romero in the women’s team pursuit at the world championships in March.

source: pr-inside.com

Alaskans Matt and Katerina Emmons just got something else to talk about over dinner: their gold and silver medals in the Olympic shooting event.
The deadeye husband-wife tandem of shooters Matt and Katerina Emmons continued wearing out the path to the medals podium at the Beijing Summer Games.
Matt is a former University of Alaska Fairbanks shooter who lists both Fairbanks and Browns Mill, N.J., as his hometown. Katerina, his wife, shoots for the Czech Republic.
On Friday in Beijing, Matt won a silver medal in the 50-meter prone event, just behind Artur Ayvazian of the Ukraine. Four years ago in Athens, Greece, Emmons won gold in the same event.
He joins alpine skier Tommy Moe as the only Alaskans who have more than one Olympic medal. Moe captured a gold and silver as well, in the downhill and super-G races in the 1994 Winter Games.
After the competiton, Emmons walked over to the stands, where his wife rushed to embrace him.

From: oregonlive.com

Agloco-Action – il bello della blogosfera

Canada’s medal drought in Beijing is over – and it came to an end with a gold and silver one-two punch Saturday.

Freestyle wrestler Carol Huynh won the women’s 48-kilogram final about 20 minutes after rowers Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen finished second in the men’s pair for the country’s first trip to the podium at the Summer Games.

Huynh posted a 4-0, 2-0 win in a one-sided final against Chiharu Icho of Japan.

The 27-year-old from Hazelton, B.C., won gold at last year’s Pan American Games and a bronze medal at the 2005 world championship.

Calder, from Victoria, and Frandsen, from Kelowna, B.C., clocked a time of six minutes 39.55 seconds, nearly five seconds ahead of the bronze medallists from New Zealand.

The Canadians were about two seconds behind Australia for gold.

Calder rowed in the men’s pair four years ago in Athens. That crew was disqualified from the semifinal for leaving their lane.

Frandsen was a member of the men’s eight that finished fifth in Athens.

There was an opportunity for a third medal Saturday when wrestler Tonya Verbeek of Beamsville, Ont., competes in a bronze medal match in the 55-kilogram category.

The medal flurry comes as a welcome relief after Canada went without a trip to the podium during the first seven days of competition.

There were three agonizing near-misses over that span – weightlifter Christine Girard fell three kilograms short of bronze, Mike Brown missed a bronze in the 200-metre breaststroke by 0.09 seconds and shot-putter Dylan Armstrong fell a centimetre short of third place.

The pressure both in China – where expectations were high for the team coming in – and back at home – where anxious fans wondered how Canada could trail countries like Togo, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia in the medal standings – had been building, but should now start to ease.

Meanwhile, three Canadians advanced to women’s and men’s trampoline finals next week.

Rosannagh MacLennan of King City, Ont., was third and Karen Cockburn of Toronto fourth in the women’s preliminary round, while Toronto’s Jason Burnett finished seventh among the men.

The women’s final is Monday followed by the men Tuesday at National Indoor Stadium.

The news wasn’t as good for the Canadian baseball team, beaten 5-4 by the United States for a third straight one-run loss.

This one really hurt as they blew a 4-0 lead in falling to 1-3 at the Games, leaving them needing wins in their final three preliminary round contests to have any hope of reaching the semifinals.

In other Canadian action:

-The struggles continued for the men’s water polo team, which fell to 0-4 with a 13-7 loss to Greece. Kevin Graham and Aaron Feltham each scored three goals for Canada.

“We played well three of the four quarters but Greece scored five goals in the first,” said Nathaniel Miller of Beaconsfield, Que. “We can’t give up such a big lead in an Olympic tournament.”

from: canadianpress.google.com

Look out, Mark Spitz. Get the cheque ready, Speedo. Michael Phelps is closing in – quickly, of course.

Phelps made it six gold medals in six races, each in world record time, by taking the 200-metre individual medley Friday at the Beijing Olympics.

If he wins either of his last two races, he’ll join Spitz as the only Olympians to win seven golds at one Summer Games and cash a US$1-million bonus from his sponsor.

Should he win both, Phelps will stand alone as the greatest Olympic champ for both a single Games and for his career. This was his 12th gold overall, pulling him farther from Spitz and three others with nine. At only 23, he could end up doubling the longstanding career mark at London in 2012. Who would bet against him after this week?

Phelps dominated right from the start of the 200-metre individual medley and won in one minute 54.23 seconds. He knocked off his own mark of 1:54.80 set at last month’s U.S. trials, his sixth world record of the Games.

Phelps returned right after the medal ceremony for the 100 butterfly semifinal, where he qualified second-fastest and set himself to tie Spitz’s total in the final on Saturday. He could break the record if the heavily favoured U.S. wins the 4×100-metre medley relay on Sunday.

“There wasn’t much time,” Phelps said, “but I think there’s going to be a lot of time for me to rest over the next 18 hours or so, and I’ll be able to be ready for tomorrow morning’s 100.”

Rebecca Soni of the U.S., set a world record in the 200 breaststroke. Leisel Jones of Australia was out front over the first 100, but Soni came on strong at the end, finishing a full body length ahead of the Australian in 2:20.22 to beat Jones’ mark of 2:20.54, set two 2 1/2 years ago in Melbourne.

Britta Steffen of Germany won the 100 freestyle, edging Libby Trickett of Australia by four-hundredths of a second.

Nastia Liukin edged U.S. teammate Shawn Johnson for the all-around gold in women’s gymnastics and Yang Yilin of China took the bronze.

Athletics cranked up at the Bird’s Nest, with some pretty heady qualifying races – the men’s 100 metres.

Tyson Gay showed no ill effects from a lingering hamstring strain, easily qualifying for the quarter-final along with Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.

“It feels good,” Gay said. “My body is woke up.”

Gay’s reassuring performance kept the Games on track for a defining three-way battle for gold in the sport’s marquee event on Saturday.

Bolt won his heat in 10.20, and Powell coasted into the quarter-final in 10.16.

The Games were hit by several off-field controversies Friday. A two-time North Korean medallist in shooting and a Vietnamese gymnast both failed doping tests and were kicked out of the Games after testing positive for banned substances.

Shooter Kim Jong Su was stripped of his silver medal Friday in the 50-metre pistol and bronze in the 10-metre air pistol. Gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do finished in 82nd and last place in the women’s floor exercises. Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno was kicked out of the Games on Monday after testing positive for EPO.

A Swedish wrestler who dropped his bronze medal in disgust could face sanctions from the IOC, which has opened a disciplinary investigation into the actions of Ara Abrahamian. He lost to gold medallist Andrea Minguzzi of Italy in the semifinal of the men’s 84-kilogram Greco-Roman event.

During the medal ceremony, Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck and, in disgust, dropped it on the mat as he walked away.

Abrahamian had to be restrained from going after the matside officials following his loss to Minguzzi and, storming away from the mixed zone where interviews are conducted, slammed a door.

Pavol and Peter Hochschorner finished first in double canoe slalom, making it three straight Olympics that the brothers from Slovakia have won gold. Elena Kaliska of Slovakia won the women’s single kayak slalom by nearly 15 seconds, successfully defending her gold from Athens.

Cao Lei won China’s seventh weightlifting gold medal and smashed three Olympic records in the women’s 75-kg division. Artur Ayvazian of Ukraine won gold in the men’s 50-metre prone rifle, holding off Matt Emmons of the U.S., in the final round.

Guo Jingjing kept China on its path toward a sweep of all eight diving gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, leading after the women’s three-metre springboard preliminaries Friday. The final is Sunday.

The U.S. women’s softball team extended its winning streak to 18 with an 8-1 victory over Canada. China rallied to beat Taiwan 8-7 in 12 innings in the baseball tournament.

Top-seeded Xie Xingfang and defending champion Zhang Ning both advanced to the women’s singles badminton final, assuring China the gold and silver medals.

from: canadianpress.google.com

Stephanie Rice grabbed her third gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday when she helped the Australian women’s 4×200 metres freestyle relay team obliterate the world record by nearly six seconds.

Rice teamed up with Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie to demolish the old record and claim the gold in seven minutes 44.31 seconds. The previous record, set by the United States, was 7:50.09.

China, still celebrating their first swimming gold in Beijing after Liu Zige won the women’s 200 butterfly less than an hour earlier, took silver while the United States won the bronze as the first five teams all went under the old world record.

Although Australia were not expected to win the gold their victory was not a total surprise after their impressive women’s team won gold medals on each of the four previous days.

Rice, who won gold in the 200 and 400 individual medleys, capped a remarkable first Olympics with her third world record of the Games.

“It’s so exciting, it’s me and Bronte’s last swim, and what a great way to finish, with a gold medal and a world record,” said Rice. “For us to break the record by so far is amazing.

“We went in knowing we had a really good chance. I wasn’t as nervous this time. I was trying to enjoy the moment. I’ve never led off a relay before.

“I feel amazing, I finished such a great meet as part of the relay, it’s amazing. There wasn’t a lot of nerves, just a lot of excitement, I’m so impressed with everything that happened.”

The U.S. went into the final as overwhelming favourites after setting the previous record at last year’s world championships in Melbourne but never got any higher than third.

The bronze kept Natalie Coughlin on course to win six medals in Beijing after her gold in the 100 backstroke, silver in the 4×100 freestyle and bronze in the 200 individual medley.

She has already qualified for Friday’s 100 freestyle final and will lead off the U.S. medley relay on Sunday.

However, America’s third placing was another disappointment for Katie Hoff, who is still chasing her first Olympic gold medal after nerves got the better of her in Athens four years ago and she vomited on the pooldeck.

Hoff arrived in Beijing attempting to win six gold medals, including five individual events, but has managed only a silver and two bronzes from her first five events with only the 800 freestyle to go.

“I’m doing good going into the 800,” Hoff said. “I’m definitely more determined for the 800, it’s definitely given me some motivation.”

Bob Bowman, the coach of Michael Phelps, who is also chasing five individual titles in Beijing, said Hoff had handled her programme brilliantly and she should be praised instead of criticised.

“The last Olympics was pretty much a complete disaster, so she’s way ahead of the game,” Bowman said.

“With every race she’s got better and grown a bit and she’s taken on these tough doubles too.

“She made the choice to do that and has handled that extremely well. I know she wanted to place higher and we always want to do better but I’m very proud of her.”

source: reuters.com

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima established a place for himself among swimming’s all-time greats with a victory Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

Kitajima cruised to victory in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke in 2 minutes, 07.64 seconds to become the fifth swimmer in Olympic history to complete a golden double in successive Games.

Australia’s Brenton Rickard placed second in 2:08.88, with Hugues Duboscq of France third in 2:08.94 at the National Aquatics Center.

Kitajima, a double gold medalist four years ago in Athens who captured the 100 breaststroke gold Monday, finished just .13 off the world record he set in June.

Unlike in the 100, Kitajima came into the 200 as the firm favorite, not only as the world record-holder but because he didn’t have to deal with former record-holder and main rival, American Brendan Hansen, who failed to make the U.S. team in the event.

Kitajima joined American star Michael Phelps in the elite group of swimmers who have doubled in back-to-back Olympics.

The others were Germany’s Roland Matthes (100-200 backstroke, 1968-72), Hungary’s Tomas Darnyi (200-400 individual medley, 1988-92) and Russia’s Alexander Popov (50-100 freestyle, 1992-96).

The last swimmer to win back to back gold in the men’s 200 breaststroke was also a Japanese, Yoshiyuki Tsuruta way back in 1928 and 1932.

from: yomiuri.co.jp

Of all the swimming sessions in Beijing, this is the one Michael Phelps had to worry about the least. In fact, his worrying days might be over.

One record down, several more to go.

Phelps became the Olympics’ all-time gold medal leader Wednesday with two more wins at the National Aquatics Center — one by himself in the 200-meter butterfly and one as part of the United States’ winning 800-meter freestyle relay team.

It gave the 23-year-old American 11 career gold medals, two more than any other athlete in history, and put him more than halfway to breaking Mark Spitz‘s 36-year-old record of seven gold medals in one Olympics.

“The end is close,” Phelps said. “I love it.”

He now has now five gold medals in Beijing. The last two were all but guaranteed.

Phelps lowered his own world record in the 200 butterfly by .06 seconds despite having trouble seeing the last two walls through the water that filled his goggles.

He may not have been able to see the swimmers on either side of him pushing their way into contention, but it didn’t matter. Also the 2004 gold medalist in this distance, Phelps touched at 1 minute, 52.03 seconds.

His 10th gold medal moved him out of a tie with Spitz, American track and field star Carl Lewis, former Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina and Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi for the all-time Olympic gold medal record.

“I couldn’t see anything for the last 100 (meters),” Phelps said of the race. “My goggles pretty much filled with water and it kept getting worse and worse through the race and I was having trouble seeing the walls, to be honest.

“But I wanted to break the record. I wanted to 1:51 or better, but for the circumstances I guess it’s not too bad.”

Cseh won silver behind Phelps for the second time here after also finishing second to the American’s first gold medal swim in the 400 IM on Sunday. He touched in 1:52.70 — .67 seconds behind Phelps — for a new European record.

Matsuda took the bronze and set a new Asian record at 1:52.97.

Less than an hour later, Phelps was in the pool again for the 800 freestyle relay, a race the Americans were an overwhelming favorite to win. Swimming the first leg, he gave his team nearly a two-body-lengths lead over the first 200 meters while putting them more than two seconds ahead of their own world record pace.

Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay swam further under the world record pace over the next 600 meters until Vanderkaay touched to finish his anchor leg and secure the U.S. the first sub-seven minute time ever in the event.

The foursome broke the world record Phelps, Lochte and Vanderkaay set with Klete Keller last year by 4.68 seconds, finishing at 6:58.56 to successfully defend the gold the U.S. won in Athens four years ago.

“We talked about breaking seven minutes,” said Phelps, “and we did it.”

Said Lochte: “It was just a matter of time.”

Russia’s European-record swim of 7:03.70 wasn’t nearly good enough, as the country finished more than five seconds behind the U.S. at 7:03.70. Australia won bronze at 7:04.98.

Phelps has now been part of a world record in each of his gold medal swims here, also winning the 400-meter medley and 200-meter freestyle as individual events. He was part of the thrilling, record-setting 400-meter freestyle relay the U.S. ran Monday.

He only has three events remaining, and he’s won gold in all three before: the 200-meter individual medley, the 100-meter butterfly and the 400-meter medley relay (though he didn’t swim the final of that event in Athens).

If Phelps goes on to break Spitz’s Holy Grail record for gold medals in one Olympics — or even if he wins eight medals of any kind here — Phelps would be the all-time winningest medal winner among male Olympians with 16.

Said Phelps: “From now on it’s just a downward slope” — in momentum, that is.

Also on Wednesday, Federica Pellegrini of Italy won the gold medal and broke her own world record in the women’s 200-meter freestyle. Pellegrini, who had set the old mark on Monday, lowered it by .63 seconds to 1 minute, 54.82 seconds to win by just less than one-tenth of a second.

“I have been expecting to win for the last four years,” said Pellegrini, the 2004 silver medalist. So I have been avenged.”

Slovenia’s Sara Isakovic won the silver medal, her country’s first in swimming, at 2:06.34 while China’s Pang Jiaying took bronze in 2:06.42.

American Katie Hoff failed to win her third medal of the Beijing Olympics, finishing .73 seconds out of contention for the bronze with a new American record in the event of 1:55.78.

Hoff also finished fourth in the day’s other final, the 200-meter individual medley, where U.S. teammate Natalie Coughlin won the bronze to go along with the backstroke gold she won Tuesday.

Stephanie Rice of Australia lowered her own world record in the 200 IM by .47 seconds to 2 minutes, 8.45 seconds, claiming her second gold medal of the Beijing Olympics. Rice also won the women’s 400 IM on Sunday.

Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry has finished second behind Rice in both races, claiming silver again on Wednesday with a time of 2:08.59 — .14 seconds behind the winner. It was Coventry’s third silver medal here.

Coughlin finished a distant third, touching 1.89 seconds after Coventry at 2:10.34 for her bronze.

Rice said the two other swimmers pushed her to go faster.

“It’s really good being next to Natalie. She pushed me the first 100 meters,” said Rice. “And Kirsty swam amazing as always.”

from: canada.com

World No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland defeated Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6(4) in the third round of the Men’s Singles Tennis event at the Olympic Green Tennis Center on Wednesday, August 13.

Federer lost to Berdych in the second round at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

“I’m happy with the way I play. I haven’t lost to him [in six matches] since the [Athens] Olympic Games. He’s always dangerous. You can see how hard he hits the ball,” commented Federer after his third round match with Berdych.

“I don’t think he served his best today, which gave me quite a few opportunities to get into his second serve. I just tried to play tough and compact and not give him much. I did well today,” added Federer.

Federer will face James Blake of the United States in the quarterfinal match at the Olympic Green Tennis Center on Thursday, August 14.

source: beijing2008.cn

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

Ueno Masae of Japan needed just six seconds to beat Cuba’s Anaysi Hernandez with an ippon to claim her second consecutive Olympic gold in Judo Women’s -70kg.

Ronda Rousey of the United States defeated Athens’s bronze medalist Annett Boehm of Germany with a yuko to take the first of two bronze medals, while Edith Bosch of the Netherlands beat Leire Iglesias of Spain with an ippon to take the second. Bosch was the silver medalist at the Athens Olympic Games.
from: beijing2008.cn