Olympics Highlights: Day 12
— -- The women’s all-around gymnastic champion has had her gold medal taken away. Sixteen-year old Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan took a banned stimulant contained in two cold medicine pills the team doctor gave her. An IOC official says it was a common,over-the-counter drug.
But Raducan’s been stripped of her all-around gymnastics goldmedal. She’s being allowed to keep her team and vault medals.
The team doctor has been banned from the next two Olympics, 2002in Salt Lake City and 2004 in Athens, Greece.
Raducan is the first gymnast to be stripped of a medal becauseof failed drug test. Hers is the sixth positive drug test of theSydney Games.
That same IOC official says U.S. shot putter C.J. Hunter failed four separate tests for steroids this summer. Hunter, the coach and husband of runner Marion Jones, denied the allegations at a newsconference today and said he’d never do anything to jeopardize hisfamily’s opinion of him.
Jones attended a news conference with Hunter, and askedreporters to leave them alone so she can concentrate on her goal ofwinning five gold medals.
A Ugandan swimmer charged with raping a 17-year-old girl near the main Olympic venue had been granted bail.
Joe Atuhaire, 22, appeared in court Monday night after beingextradited from Adelaide in southern Australia, where he wasarrested Saturday.
Atuhaire was ordered to appear in court Oct. 19 to enter a plea.He faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison if convicted.
He was released on $10,940 bail and had his passportconfiscated. His Olympic credential, which acts as an entry visafor Australia during the Sydney Games, has been canceled.
Atuhaire was expected to be released from custody later Tuesdayafter a Ugandan official agreed to post the bail.
Atuhaire has been ordered to stay at an accommodation providedby the Salvation Army until authorities issue him a new visa.
Atuhaire, from the Ugandan capital of Kampala, was eliminatedfrom competition on the first morning of the games on Sept. 16. Herecorded 1 minute, 22.35 seconds in the first heat of the 100-meterbreaststroke, the slowest of 65 competitors.
Baseball
Orestes Kindelan, the cleanup hitter on Cuba’s two gold medalteams, drove in three runs with a pair of singles for a 3-0 victoryover Japan in the semifinals. The Cubans will play either theUnited States or South Korea, who met in the other semifinal.
Beach Volleyball
Americans Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana refused to wiltbeneath unrelenting Brazilian pressure, defeating favored Ze Marcode Melo and Ricardo Santos 12-11, 12-9 in the final.
It was a bitter defeat for the Brazilians, who won three medals— the silver and bronze in women’s and the men’s silver — but failed to grab the top prize in a sport they have dominated inrecent years.
Boxing
Felix Savon had just too much experience and size for MichaelBennett and the vaunted Cuban heavyweight took another step towarda record-equaling third Olympic boxing gold medal.
Bennett, who first boxed in an Illinois prison and has had fewerthan 50 fights in open competition, was stopped on the 15-pointrule (23-8) in the third round by the 6-foot-6 Savon. The put Savoninto the semifinals.
Jeff Lacy of St. Petersburg, Fla., showed virtually nothing inbeing stopped by Gaidarbek Gaidarbekov of Russia on the 15-pointrule (18-3) in the third round. Gaidarbekov became the fourthRussian to advance to the semifinals.
Canoe/Kayak
U.S. flagbearer Cliff Meidl and Phillipe Boccara were eliminatedin the two-man, 1,000-meter kayak event with the slowest time ofthe 18 entries. Meidl was picked to lead the U.S. Olympic team intothe opening ceremony to honor his amazing recovery from a30,000-volt electrical jolt that blew off several toes, cracked hisskull and burned his back.
Angel Perez, the former Cuban Olympian who won a legal battle torepresent the United States, helped guide his four-man squad intothe finals with a third-place finish in their 1,000-meter heat.
However, Jordan Malloch, the U.S. entry in the solo 1,000-metercanoe, failed to advance.
Cycling
Leontien Zijlaard of the Netherlands won her second gold medalof the Sydney Games, sprinting out of a soggy pack to win thewomen’s road race to add to her world record in the women’sindividual pursuit.
Beset by crashes and mechanical problems, Karen Kurreck of LosAltos Hills, Calif., and Mari Holden of Colorado Springs, Colo.,dropped out during the race. Nicole Freedman of Stanford, Calif.,finished 47th, almost 22 minutes behind Zijlaard.
Diving
Excluding the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games, the UnitedStates hadn’t missed out on a 3-meter men’s springboard medal sinceWilliam Howard Taft was president—until Tuesday.
Xiong Ni of China won the event. Troy Dumais of Ventura, Calif.,finished sixth, and American medal hopeful Mark Ruiz had an offnight and wound up seventh. The U.S. had medaled at everynonboycotted games since 1912.
Equestrian
U.S. dressage riders sat securely in third place midway throughthe team competition with the Germans and Dutch out to theiraccustomed lead.
The United States finished the day with 3,403 points, behindGermany with 3,765 and the Netherlands with 3,661.
Robert Dover of Flemington, N.J., and Susan Blinks ofWellington, Fla., rode for the United States.
Two riders from each team rode, and the last two will goWednesday, with the top three scores to determine the medals. TheGerman, Dutch and American teams finished 1-2-3 in 1996.
Field Hockey
Jay Stacy’s 62nd-minute goal sent Australia into the semifinalswith a 2-1 victory over South Korea. Australia’s victory gave it 11points from five matches, best in Pool B.
Sailing
Jonathan and Charlie McKee of Seattle won a bronze medal in thenew 49er class. They won the 16th and final match race.
It’s the first sailing medal for the Americans in these games,and leaves them just one short of matching their disappointingtotal in 1996.
The two U.S. 470 skippers, Paul Foerster of Rockwall, Texas, andJ.J. Isler of San Diego, are in position to join the McKees asmedalists.
Soccer
The American men took their first loss of the Olympic tournament3-1 to Spain in the semifinal at the Sydney Football Stadiumto tumble out of gold medal contention.
The win sent Spain, gold medalists at the 1992 BarcelonaOlympics, into the final Saturday against Cameroon, a 2-1 winnerover Chile in the other semifinal in Melbourne.
The U.S. men, who carried the tag of perennial underachieversinto the tournament, will play for bronze Friday night againstChile.
Midfielder Jose Mari Romero had two assists in the first halfand scored the clincher in the 87th minute, swooping in on arebound after U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel made a diving fingertipssave on Raul Tamudo.
The Cameroon-Chile was scoreless until the 78th minute when Chilescored through an own goal from Patrice Abanda, after a shot bysubstitute Sebastian Gonzalez rebounded off the goalkeeper.
Cameroon drew level six minutes later when Patrick Mbomashot in from the edge of the penalty area.
Then Lauren won the match with an 89th penalty coollyplaced to the right of the Chilean keeper.
Softball
The United States repeats as the Olympic softball champion.Japan’s left fielder misplayed Laura Berg’s liner to deep left inthe bottom of the eighth, allowing the Americans to score thedeciding run in a 2-1 victory. Stacey Nuveman hadsingled home the other U.S. run in the fifth with the team’s onlyhit of the game.
On their march through the playoffs, the Americans beat all threeteams that had beaten them in the preliminary round.
Synchronized Swimming
For the first time since the sport made its debut in 1984,Americans failed to climb the medal stand.
Anna Kozlova, a former Russian now living in Santa Clara,Calif., and Tuesday Middaugh, still on the mend from back surgery,settled for fourth behind a near-perfect Russian duo and teams fromJapan and France.
Americans have won five golds and two silvers in the past fourOlympics. Russians Olga Brusnikina and Maria Kisseleva used akarate routine performed to the beat of Japanese drums to defeat ateam from Japan.
Tennis
Venus Williams clinched her second Olympic medal, teaming withsister Serena for a semifinal victory in doubles.
The Williamses won 11 of the final 13 games to beat Els Callensand Dominique Van Roost of Belgium 6-4, 6-1.
The sisters’ opponents in Thursday’s final will be the winnersof the other semifinal between Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremansof the Netherlands and Olga Barabanschikova and Natasha Zvereva ofBelarus.
Monica Seles beat Australian Jelena Dokic to win the women’ssingles bronze medal.
The medal was the first for Seles, who also played at theAtlanta Games. She lost to U.S. teammate Venus Williams in thesemifinals.
In the mens singles, Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia and unseededTommy Haas of Germany will meet in the final. Kafelnikov beatArnaud Di Pasquale of France 6-4, 6-4, while Haas defeated RogerFederer of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.
Track and Field
World champion Inger Miller is officially out of the women’s 200meters. The left hamstring injury that forced her out of the 100last week has not healed.
A U.S. Track and Field official says Miller still hopes to run inthe 400-meter relay on the weekend.
Miller hurt her hamstring while training at UCLA earlier thismonth, two days before she left for Sydney.
Volleyball
The United States women’s volleyballteam is in the Olympic semifinals after a terrific quarterfinalbattle against South Korea.
The U.S. squad prevailed 3-to-2 in a very close match full oflong rallies. The scores were 26-24, 17-25, 25-23, 25-27, 16-14.
The Americans will face Russia in the semifinals.
Elena Godina provided crucial points for Russia, which wasdown 24-21 in the third game against China but struggled back to win 27-25.Godina’s kill put Russia ahead by one, and on match point LiobovChachkova drilled a comeback attempt to earn the 27-25, 25-23,27-25 victory.
Cuba, seeking an unprecedented third straight gold medal, willplay Brazil in the first of Thursday’s semifinals. Cuba and Brazilhad a memorable scuffle on the court and in the locker room whenthey faced each other in the semifinals in Atlanta.
Cuba advanced by shutting down Croatia’s Barbara Jelic, the topscorer in the tournament, in a 25-18, 25-23,25-21 victory.
Croatia rallied from a 16-10 deficit in the second game to getwithin 22-20. Ana Fernandez slammed a shot that froze the Croatiansfor a 24-21 lead before Croatia saved two straight game points toget within one. But Ruiz ended the comeback with a clean shot intothe back row.
Croatia trailed the entire third game but cut the lead to 22-20before Cuba closed it out.
Brazil cruised past Germany 25-22, 25-18, 25-17.
Brazil kept getting stronger as its match with Germany went on,but team leader Leila Barros kept pushing them. When Germany scoredto pull within 17-12 on a block off the hands of Janina Conceicao,Barros scolded her. Brazil went on to win 25-17, losing three ofthe points on service errors.
Water Polo
The American men’s water polo team led Hungary three times inthe second half but lost, 10-9. The Hungarians (3-1-0) controlledthe final quarter and, ultimately, the game. After the UnitedStates (1-3-0) took its last lead at 9-8 on Tony Azevedo’s goalwith 6:17 left, Tibor Benedek and Gergely Kiss scored to moveHungary into the Olympic quarterfinals.
Weightlifting
U.S. champion Shane Hamman set national records for the snatchand total lift while finishing second in the B group of the superheavyweight division.
Hamman substantially broke his U.S. record in the snatch,lifting 429¾ pounds or 16½ pounds more than the record he raisedduring the Olympic trials in July.
Hamman’s total lift of 925¾ pounds also broke his U.S. recordset at the trials.
Wrestling
Matt Lindland, who successfully overturned his loss in the U.S.trials with a lengthy legal fight, lost 3-0 to Mourat Kardanov ofRussia for the Olympic gold medal in 167½ pound in Greco-Romanwrestling.
Lindland wasn’t expected to get even a silver—he didn’t placein last year’s world championships, and he has had relatively fewhigh world finishes.
Another Russian, Varteres Samourgachev of Russia defeated JuanLuis Maren of Cuba to win 138¾ pound-class.
Sim Kwon-ho of South Korea captured the 119-pound class overLazaro Rivas of Cuba and Mikael Ljungberg of Sweden took the 213¾pound class with a 2-1 overtime victory over Davyd Saldadze ofUkraine.
Garrett Lowney of the United States won the bronze.