Olympics Highlights: Day 10

— -- Top News of the Day

Latvian rower Andris Reinholds has been kicked out of the Olympics after testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone. He’s the fifth athlete sent home after a positive drug test.

Gymnastics’ governing body has reprimanded officials who didn’t notice the vault was almost two inches shorter than it should have been during the women’s all-around competition.

The shortened vault resulted in a series of falls and crashes.

“It is very unfortunate that this situation occurred during theOlympic Games and FIG regrets the duress that the situation placedon some gymnasts,” the International Gymnastics Federation said ina statement.

The federation didn't release details of the officials’punishment.

Baseball

Showing the type of offense missing all tournament, the UnitedStates completed its Olympic preliminaries with a 12-1victory over host Australia. The game ended after seven innings to due the 10- run mercy rule.

A day after taking its only loss against Cuba, the United States(6-1) headed into the medal round on an upbeat note. BrentAbernathy had four hits as the Americans played their most completegame of the tournament.

It was a bitter finish for Australia (2-4), which had hopes ofcontending for a medal with former major league All-Star DaveNilsson behind the plate. Rather than play in the majors this year,Nilsson passed up millions of dollars and played in Japan so hewould be eligible for the Olympics.

In other baseball action, Orestes Kindelan hit a three-runhomer as Cuba clinched the top seed for medal-round play by beatingJapan 6-2.

Basketball

The United States and Australia closed out the preliminary round of the women’s Olympic basketball tournament with wins to stay on course fora gold medal clash.

The Americans cruised past Poland 76-57 to run theirGroup B record to 5-0 and extend their Olympic winning streakto 14 consecutive games in a bid for a fourth gold in the lastfive Olympics. The advance to the quarterfinals.

Australia, which also finished the preliminary round at 5-0after teenage sensation Lauren Jackson lifted her squad to a69-62 victory over France, is looking to blur that goldenimage.

The 19-year-old Jackson had 17 points and 12 rebounds toinflict the first loss of the tournament on France (4-1).

Slovakia kept alive its hopes of reaching the quarterfinals witha 68-32 smashing of Senegal. Russia, already guaranteed aquarterfinal berth, crushed New Zealand 92-54. And South Korea topped Cuba 69-to-56.

Beach Volleyball

Americans Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana, penalized a pointfor wasting time late in their semifinal against Portugal’s LuisMaia and Joao Brenha, went on a five-point run that gave the U.S.team a 15-12 victory and a place in the gold medal match.

Blanton and Fonoimoana will play for the gold against Brazil’sZe Marco de Melo and Ricardo Santos.

Boxing

With his father and older brother cheering him on, Jose Navarroscored half of his 12 points in the fourth round for a 12-9decision over Hicham Mesbahi of Morocco at 112 pounds.

Ricardo Williams also won, stopping Olusegon Ajose of Nigeria onthe 15-point rule (21-6) in the fourth round at 139 pounds to givethe United States seven boxers in the quarterfinals. So far, eightCubans have reached the quarters.

Another American was eliminated. Army Sgt. Olanda Anderson, whodrew a first-round bye, was beaten 13-12 at 178 pounds when RudolfKraj of Czech Republic landed a scoring blow with three secondsleft.

Cycling

Miguel Martinez of France added an Olympic gold medal to the onehe claimed three months ago at the mountain bike worldchampionships.

Martinez took control late in the sixth lap, passing silvermedalist Filip Meirhaeghe of Belgium. Then he steadily pulled awayfrom the field, adding a gold medal to the bronze he won inAtlanta.

Diving

Laura Wilkinson jumped from fifth to capture the women’s10-meter platform diving.

Wilkinson, of The Woodlands, Texas, was diving on a foot brokenin March. She wore a kayak shoe to protect the bones in her foot,then tossed it off the 33-foot tower before diving.

Wilkinson took over first place for good on her third dive andheld on to break up the Chinese stranglehold on the platform, wherethey had won four-straight Olympic titles.

Wilkinson finished first with 543.75 points, just 1.74 pointsahead of China’s Li Na, who had 542.01. Anne Montminy of Canadaearned bronze with 540.15.

Fencing

Russia closed out the fencing competition of the Sydney Games by beating Franceto win the men's team sabre, winning the final match 45-32. Germany defeated Romania 45-27 to take the bronze.

Russia won four medals in fencing, including gold in men’sindividual epee and women’s team epee.

Italy also finished with three golds and five medals overall.South Korea, Romania, France and Hungary each won a gold.

The Russians won seven of the nine bouts in the team sabre finaland had draws in the other two.

Stanislav Pozdniakov, who surprisingly failed to medal in theindividual event, won three of his bouts. Sergei Charikov, whoappeared to hurt his ankle in today’s quarterfinals, performedwell, as did final team member Alexei Frossine.

France’s Damien Touya, the 1999 world champion, lost his threebouts.

Gymnastics

Alexei Nemov has a medal of every color after the Russian wonthe silver medal in the floor exercise. He also has a bronze fromthe team competition.

Svetlana Khorkina got a new haircut and a gold. Khorkina, wholost her shot at the all-around gold Thursday when she fell on avault that was set two inches two short, won the gold medal on theuneven bars

In the event finals, Igors Vihrovs gave Latvia its firstgymnastics medal since it regained its independence following thebreakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Vihrovs outperformed everyoneon the floor exercise.

Marius Urzica of Romania won the gold in the pommel horse andSilveszter Csollany of Hungary won the gold in the still rings.

Yelena Zamolodtchikova, a last-minute replacement for Khorkinain the vault, ended up with the gold medal in that event.

Handball

In team handball, Slovenia beat Tunisia 22-20, and South Korea beat Cuba 35-28. France also beat Australia 28-16, and Egypt was victorious over Germany 22-21.

Rowing

The U.S. men’s eight crew thought it had fixed all its problems.A fifth-place finish in the Olympics proved otherwise.

It was a huge failure for a boat that won the last three worldchampionships, one that was supposed to revive an Americantradition in racing’s most glamorous event. Instead, they wound upwith the same finish as in 1996.

The women’s eight was almost as big of a flop as the men,finishing last by more than 10 seconds. The lone saving grace was abronze medal in the lightweight women’s double sculls. ChristineCollins and Sarah Garner led for the first half of the race, thensaw Romania and Germany zip by.

The United States won only three won medals — one silver, twobronze — for the worst performance since 1972.

Sailing

The strongest winds yet in the Olympics blew U.S. Soling skipperJeff Madrigali right out of the regatta.

Madrigali, the 1996 bronze medalist from Novato, Calif., andreigning world champion, won just one of five match races and waseliminated.

Christoph Sieber of Austria won the Olympic gold medal in men’swindsurfing.

Soccer

Moments after she drew a third yellow card from a Brazilianplayer for a hard tackle, Hamm scored a disputed goal in the 60thminute as the defending champion United States advanced tothe gold medal game with a 1-0 victory.

The goal came when Brandi Chastain took a free kick 40 yardsaway from the Brazil net. Lorrie Fair outleaped a defender in thebox to head the ball toward the net. Tiffeny Milbrett gave chaseand collided with goalkeeper Andreia, leaving Hamm alone beyond thefar post to tuck the ball in for her 127th international goal.

The Brazilians thought Swiss referee Nicole Petignat should havedisallowed the goal for interference with the goalkeeper.

Synchronized Swimming

Anna Kozlova, in her first major international competition sincebecoming an American citizen, was fourth with Tuesday Middaughafter the technical routine in duet synchronized swimming.

Eight years ago, Kozlova was competing for the Unified Team as aRussian in the event.

Russia, which hasn’t lost a duet since 1997, was first and Japanwas second.

Tennis

Monica Seles and Venus Williams will meet in the semifinals.Seles advanced to the semifinals by beating Dominique Van Roost ofBelgium 6-0, 6-2. She will meet second-seeded Venus Williams, whoeliminated No. 5 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.Sanchez-Vicario was the last player to beat Williams, more thanthree months ago.

Unseeded Jelena Dokic, the only Australian still in singles,beat No. 7 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.

In men’s play, No. 6 Alex Corretja of Spain lost to Tommy Haasof Germany 7-6 (7), 6-3. Max Mirnyi of Belarus beat MarianoZabaleta of Argentina 7-6 (4), 6-2.

Track and Field

Naoko Takahashi, running alone in the women’s marathon for thelast four miles, overcame 91 percent humidity to win in anOlympic-best 2 hours, 23 minutes, 14 seconds. She is the firstJapanese woman to win an Olympic track and field gold medal.

Sergei Kliugyin of Russia ignored the rain in the eveningsession and won the high jump.

In the men’s 110-meter hurdles, defending champion Allen Johnsonignored a hamstring injury that still requires regular treatmentand breezed to victory in his first-round heat in 13.50 seconds andnarrowly lost in the second round but still advanced to thesermifinals as did fellow Americans Mark Crear and TerrenceTammell.

Volleyball

The U.S. women’s volleyball team stole one game from Brazil, andthat was enough — even in the Americans’ first Olympic loss.

The United States gained valuable confidence in a 25-17, 20-25,25-15, 25-15 defeat and still exceeded everyone’s expectations byfinishing second in Group A.

The U.S. team will enter the quarterfinals with a 4-1 record.

Water Polo

Yugoslavia, the water polo team that made the United States mensettle for silver medals in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, has againleft the Americans in hot water after an 8-5 loss — the UnitedStates’ second straight defeat.

The Americans still must deal with gold-medal favorite Hungaryand an improved Greek team to advance out of its six-team pool.

The top four teams move on.

Weightlifting

Kakhi Kakiasvilis of Greece, forced to set world records on hisfinal lift to win in the last two Olympics, needed onlyone attempt in the clean and jerk to win in the 207-poundweight class.

Kakiasvilis, who emigrated to Greece after winning in 1992,became the second Greek in as many nights to join Naim “PocketHercules” Suleymanoglu of Turkey as a three-time gold medalist.Pyrros Dimas won at 187¼ pounds.

Wrestling

The United States had one of its best days ever in Olympic Greco-Romanwrestling as three wrestlers advanced.

An American newcomer to major international competition pulledoff a mammoth upset. Twenty-year-old Garrett Lowney of Minneapolisreached his division’s quarterfinals by beating a Russian five-timeworld champion Gogui Koguachvili.

Matt Lindland, the former Nebraska wrestler whose legal appealto make the team went all the way to the Supreme Court, won three matches to reach his weight division’s semifinals.

Lindland, saying he wasn’t fatigued from a legal battle thatextended to the Supreme Court, won 3-0 over Tarieli Melelashvili ofGeorgia at 167½ pounds.

Kevin Bracken moved into the quarterfinals at 138¾ pounds.

Steven Mays of Pensacola, Fla., lost at 119 pounds.