Olympics Highlights: Day 14
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the stripping ofthe gymnastics all-around gold medal from Romanian Andreea Raducan.The 16-year-old Raducan lost the medal because she’d taken two coldpills that contained a banned drug.
Using a translator at a news conference, Raducan said she’s verydisappointed by the result, adding that in her heart she’sconvinced she did nothing wrong. She said the drug didn’t help herbut, on the contrary, caused some dizziness.
Basketball
In a game with more than its share of rough stuff and trashtalk, the U.S. team made it to the Olympic semifinals by defeatingRussia 85-70.
Carter, after missing two dunks and taking an elbow to the gut,looked like he was trying to restart the Cold War as he went aftera Russian player as the teams left the court at halftime. Nopunches were thrown, but there was plenty of shoving and shoutingas yet another American opponent showed no fear.
In an earlier game, five-time Olympian Andrew Gaze scored 13 of Australia’s last 15 points to lead the host country into the semifinals of the men’s basketballtournament with a 65-62 victory over Italy.
The 35-year-old guard is the second-leading scorer in Olympichistory to Oscar Schmidt of Brazil. None of the 757 points havebeen any bigger than the ones down the stretch against Italy, asAustralia’s hopes for a gold medal stayed alive despite losing a10-point lead midway through the second half.
Australia will meet France, which beat Canada 68-63 in oneSemifinal. Lithuania, which beat Yugoslavia 76-63, will meet the U.S. in the other.
BoxingSlick bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeauxsnapped a five-bout losing streak for Cuban boxers and ended theOlympic gold medal hopes of American Clarence Vinson.
Rigondeaux, who will turn 20 Saturday when he boxes for thegold, used his lanky arms and powerful punches to get an 18-6victory at 119 pounds.
Vinson, who attends Northern Michigan University and trains atU.S. Olympic Education Center there, will go home with a bronzemedal, which he earned by winning three bouts, including oneagainst world champion Olteanu George-Crinu of Romania.
The first boxer to reach the finals was Rafael Lozano of Spain,who is competing in his third Olympics and earned a bronze medal in1996. The 4-foot-11 Lozano, a left-hander, scored effectively withleft leads to the head and outpointed Kim Un-chol of North Korea at106 pounds.
Lozano will box Brahim Asloum of France for a gold medalSaturday afternoon (Friday night ET). Asloum built a 7-2 leadafter two rounds then held off Maikro Romero of Cuba for a 13-12victory in a bout marked by toe-to-toe exchanges. Romero was anOlympic gold medalist at 112 pounds in 1996.
Canoe/Kayak
Martin Doktor of the Czech Republic, the reigning Olympicchampion in the 500- and 1,000-meter men’s canoe events, wasreinstated in the shorter event after an appeal. He wasdisqualified in Wednesday’s heats for drifting too close to theleader.
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