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.

No Americans competed in today’s races.

Diving

China’s Fu Mingxia, 22, rallied on her next-to-last dive to claim the3-meter springboard title, joining Americans Greg Louganisand Pat McCormick as the only divers with four gold medals.

Fu also became the first woman with five career medals.

After her Barcelona victory, Fu swept the springboard andplatform events in Atlanta, then won silver in synchronized 3-meterSaturday.

American Jenny Keim concluded a bitter day by finishing eighth,while teammate Michelle Davison was last in the field of 12finalists.

China swept the synchronized swimming events with Xiong Nitaking his second gold, teaming with Xiao Hailiang in the men’s3-meter springboard. Li Na and Sang Xue won the women’s 10-meterplatform.

Americans David Pichler and Troy Dumais were fourth, missing abronze by less than two points. Laura Wilkinson and Jenny Keimfinished fifth.

Equestrian

Germany won the team jumping event with Switzerland justbehind them in second spot and Brazil taking the bronze after adramatic jump-off against France.

Germany, with two riders backing up from the team which wonthe same event at Atlanta, had a best three-rider total of 15penalties after the two rounds, ahead of Switzerland on 16.Brazil and France were tied on 24.

The winning German quartet was Ludger Beerbaum, LarsNieberg, Marcus Ehning and Otto Becker.

Brazil’s Rodgrio Pessoa, the 1998 world equestrian gamesindividual champion, managed a clear round in the last ride ofthe jump-off to give Brazil the bronze medal.

Field Hockey

South Korea reached the men’s field hockey final for the firsttime, defeating Pakistan 1-0 when Song Seung-tae converted apenalty corner in the 56th minute took. South Korea will play forthe gold against the winner of the second semifinal betweendefending champion the Netherlands and Australia.

Gymnastics (Rhythmic)

One dropped club and Spain’s reign as Olympic champions was over, as thedefending gold medalists failed to qualify for the finals ofthe rhythmic gymnastics team competition.

With eight of 10 teams advancing to Saturday’s finals, itwas stunning defeat for the Spaniards, who captured the sport’sfirst ever team gold four years ago in Atlanta.

The first day of competition produced one other surprise,with Greece sitting on top the team rankings with a mark of39.400 ahead of Russia on 39.366 and Belarus with 39.316.

Since 1975 Russia, Bulgaria and Belarus have won ever worldchampionship team title, with the exception of a surprisevictory by Spain in 1991.

Handball

Korean handballer Huh Soon-Young celebrated her birthday by guiding herteam to an Olympic quarterfinal women’s handball victory.

Huh, who turned 25, scored twice in South Korea’s 35-24defeat of Brazil.

In another quarterfinal, Hungary’s Tamasne Zsembery,celebrating her 33rd birthday, grabbed two goals in her team’sdramatic 28-27 defeat of Austria.

Sailing

The United States has claimed a pair of silver medals insailing.

J.J. Isler of San Diego and crewmember Pease Glaser of LongBeach, Calif., took the women’s 470 silver. Paul Foerster ofRockwall, Texas, and crewman Bob Merrick claimed the men’s 470silver by winning the final fleet race. Australians took gold inboth races.

Star skipper Mark Reynolds of San Diego improved to sixth afterwinning the seventh fleet race. Laser skipper John Myrdal ofKailua, Hawaii, had finishes of one-two and is eighthafter nine races. Finn skipper Russ Silvesrtri of Tiburon,Calif., fell to ninth after seven races. And Courtenay BeckerDey of Oregon is 16th in the Europe class.

Soccer

Norway won the women’s Olympicsoccer title when they beat the reigning Olympic and worldchampion United States 3-2 with a dramatic golden goalwinner.

Substitute Dagny Mellgren scored the decisive goal after102 minutes of a pulsating match which saw the U.S. force extratime with an equalizer 20 seconds from the end.

Mellgren’s winner bounced off American defender Joy Fawcett.

American goalkeeper Siri Mulinix, at fault for Norway’ssecond goal, was slow to get down to Mellgren’s shot which slidunder her arm and into the net to give Norway its first goldmedal of the games.

Germany won its first Olympic soccer medal by shutting outBrazil 2-0 for the bronze medal earlier in the day.

Synchronized Swimming

The defending Olympic champion Americans struggled to fifth place in team synchronized swimming, while world champion Russia led after the technicalroutine.

Russia, unbeaten at the Olympic qualifying tournament anddominant in international meets for several years, picked up oneperfect 10 and seven 9.9s from the 10-judge panel for 34.580 pointsout of a possible 35.

The technical routine accounts for 35 percent of the totalscore, the rest to be determined in Friday’s final.

Taekwondo

Vietnam won its first Olympic medalafter 48 years of games participation when Tran Hieu Ngan captureda silver in the women’s taekwondo competition.

Tran lost 2-0 in the final to Jung Jae-eun of South Korea, theworld’s great taekwondo power, in the 57-kilogram (126-pound)division. That gave Jung the gold and Tran the silver.

Vietnam made its Olympic debut in 1952 and had taken part in 10games before Sydney. The country’s national committee wasrestructured in 1976 following the Vietnam War, which left thecountry shattered and impoverished.

Tennis

Serena and Venus Williams brought home the gold medal. They beatKristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-1 in a50-minute women’s doubles tennis final.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Tommy Haas in the final to win the men’ssingles gold medal.The match lasted more than 3½ hours to beforethe Russian beat the unseeded German 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Track

American sprinter Marion Jones won her second gold medal of the Sydney Olympics in her chase for five, finishing first in the women’s 200 final. Her timeof 21.84 seconds put her over four-tenths of a second aheadof the rest of the field, the event’s biggest winning margin at anOlympics in 40 years.

Next up for Jones is the long jump final Friday.

In the men’s 200, Konstantinos Kenteris became the first Greekman to win an Olympic medal in a running event since 1896. He tookthe gold, silver went to Darren Campbell of Britain, and Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago took the bronze. Other than the 1980 Moscow Games that the U.S. boycotted, it’s the first time since 1928 that Americans have been shut out of the medals in the men’s 200.

American Chris Huffins finished third in the decathlon, takingthe bronze medal behind gold-medal winner Erki Nool of Estonia.

Two Americans have qualified for the women’s 1,500, SuzyFavor Hamilton and Marlan Runyan, who is legally blind. Also, all three Americans in the women’s high jump, Karol Damon, Erin Aldrich and Amy Acuff, failed to advance to the final.

Ivan Pedroso of Cuba snatched gold in the men’s long jump while Yanina Korolchik of Belarus won the women’s shot.

Australian Jane Saville was on her way to a gold medal when shewas disqualified in the closing seconds of the women’s 20-kilometerwalk. China’s Wang Liping, way behind Saville, won the gold medal.Michelle Rohl of Black River Falls, Wis., was the topAmerican, finishing 17th.

Volleyball

Cuba, which fought Brazil during a semifinal victory in the lastOlympics, rallied to beat the Brazilians again 27-29, 25-19,21-25, 25-19, 15-9 in another semifinal.

Cuba will try for an unprecedented third consecutive gold medalSaturday (Friday night ET) against Russia, which beat the United States 25-15, 23-25, 25-15, 26-28, 15-8.

Brazil and the U.S. will compete for bronze.

China ended a disappointing Olympics with a small consolationprize, taking fifth place in women’s volleyball bydefeating Germany 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-18.

Germany, which stunned Italy in the final match of group play toreach the next round, took sixth to improve on its eighth-placeshowing in Atlanta.

Croatia finished seventh in its first Olympic women’s volleyballtournament by defeating South Korea 25-18, 24-26, 25-22, 25-21.

Wrestling

Texan Brandon Slay eliminated an Olympic champion at 167 anda-half pounds in freestyle wrestling, the third major upset of aRussian by an American wrestler at the Olympics. Slay’s in thequarterfinals.

Also advancing was two-time NCAA champion Sammie Henson, whomoved into the 119-pound quarterfinals.

Cary Kolat, a top U.S. medal hope, was eliminated at 139 pounds.

Melvin Douglas lost his two matches at 214 pounds and also waseliminated.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.