Olympics Highlights: Day 9
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Adelaide police have arrested a 22-year-old Olympic athlete from Uganda sought in connection withthe sexual assault of a 17-year-old woman.
Investigators will fly to the South Australian state capital 685miles southwest of Sydney to interview the man, New South Walespolice said.
Police had announced Friday that a warrant had been issued forthe athlete’s arrest. A police statement said the alleged assaultoccurred in the early hours of Wednesday at a western Sydney suburbadjoining the main Olympic site.
No further details were released.
Sydney’s trouble-free Olympics are facing an unlikely bug — big, fat, hairy moths calledbogongs.
The dive-bombing moths, something of an Aboriginaldelicacy, have hit town early on their annual migration andheaded straight for the games.
The insects, which are quite harmless, have descended onOlympic Park in their millions over the past two nights, drawnby the glare of floodlights from Stadium Australia and othervenues.
They had spectators ducking and swatting at Friday night’sathletics. At tennis, Australian doubles player ToddWoodbridge had to flick one into submission with his racketwhen it would not leave the court.
Sydney Olympics organizers said today they had turned toa scientific research body and some of the best expertson the 200,000 types of insect in Australia for advice on howto deal with the bogong swarms.
Badminton
Ji Xinpeng of China beat Hendrawan of Indonesia in two games towin the men’s singles gold medal. Xia Xuanze of China beat PeterGade of Denmark for the bronze.
Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China beatteammates Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei in the women’s doubles. GaoLing and Qin Yiyuan won the bronze to make it a Chinese sweep.
Baseball
Jose Ibar struck out eight in seven innings as Cuba shut downthe United States 6-1 in a game that was as raw and one-sided as inthe old days, when Cuba never lost.
Except for the shouting and the cussing, it wasn’t veryentertaining. There could be a rematch, though — both teams are 5-1and headed for the medal round.
Benches cleared in the fourth when Ernie Young was hit by apitch and got into it with the Cuban catcher. Tempers flared whenfirst baseman Doug Mientkiewicz dove and took down a Cuban runnerin the bottom of the inning.
Finally, 37-year-old catcher Pat Borders cussed a Cuban runnerwho flew into home plate spikes-high as he scored in the eighth.
Basketball
After a close game against Lithuania,the U.S. men’s basketball team is back to blowing out the opponent.
The Americans scorched winless New Zealand 102-56.
Vince Carter had 18 points, Allan Houston 17, Antonio McDyess15, and Kevin Garnett 14.
The U.S. squad was up by 10 points eight minutes into the game,and up by 20 by the 12-minute mark.
In other basketball games, Lithuania beat China 82-66, Yugoslavia downed Spain 78-65, and Australia defeated Angola 86-75.
Beach Volleyball
Both U.S. women’s beach volleyball teams lost Olympicquarterfinal matches to end medal hopes each thought were in reach.
Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis tried smashing kills,power serves and anything else, but had no answer to the precisionshots of Japan’s Yukiko Takahashi and Teru Saiki in losing 15-9.
Then Holly McPeak and Misty May came up short against Brazil’sAdriana Samuel and Sandra Pires, losing 16-14.
Pires and Samuel now face defending bronze medalists NatalieCook and Kerri Pottharst of Australia in the semifinal. Takahashiand Saiki take on the other Brazilian team — Adriana Behar andShelda Bede.
In men’s play, both U.S. men’s teams advanced to thequarterfinals and face each other Sunday (Saturday ET).
Boxing
Rocky Juarez helped set up an Olympic quarterfinals matchbetween featherweight champions with a narrow victory in asecond-round bout today.
The 20-year-old Juarez, the world 125-pound champion fromHouston, will box Somluck Kamsing of Thailand, the 125-poundchampion at the 1996 Olympics on Wednesday.
Jermain Taylor of Little Rock, Ark., became the fifth Americanto reach the round of eight by pounding out a 23-9 decision overScott McIntosh of Canada at 156 pounds.
Then super heavyweight Calvin Brock of Charlotte, N.C., becamethe fourth U.S. boxer to lose. He took a standing out count, wasknocked down and stopped in the fourth round on the 15-point rule(21-5) by Italy’s Paolo Vidoz.
Cycling
Paola Pezzo of Italy won the women’s cross-country mountain bikerace in 1 hour, 49 minutes, 24 seconds. She survived a collisionthat dropped another racer on the fourth of five laps, successfullydefending the Olympic title she won in Atlanta.
Diving
Mark Ruiz paired with David Pichler for a disappointingseventh-place showing on the men’s 10-meter platform assynchronized diving made its Olympic debut.
The Russians swept the first two events, also taking the women’s3-meter springboard gold. Both times, they defeated the powerfulChinese.
Dmitry Sautin added to the individual gold medal he won inAtlanta, teaming with Igor Lukachin on platform to score 365.04points. They edged the Chinese team of Hu Jia and Tian Liang, whotook silver with 358.74.
Jan Hempel and Heiko Meyer of Germany captured bronze at 338.88.
Vera Ilina, in her third Olympics, teamed with Yulia Pakhalinato give Russia the gold in springboard.
China’s Fu Mingxia was denied a record-tying fourth gold medal,taking silver with Guo Jingjing. The bronze went to Ganna Sorokinaand Olena Zhupina of Ukraine.
Fencing
It was a tough way for the U.S. women’s fencers to be denied amedal again.
The foil team, bidding to become the first women’s squad to wina fencing medal, lost a thrilling bronze medal match 45-42 toGermany. The final point was awarded when Ann Marsh was penalizedfor covering her target on the last touch by Germany’s Rita Koenig.
Italy — the world champion, which beat the United States 45-38in the semifinals — knocked off Poland 45-36 to win the gold.
Gymnastics (Trampoline)
Russia’s Alexandre Moskalenko,who came out of retirement and lost weight to realize hisOlympic dream, claimed the first gold medal awarded in themen’s trampoline.
Moskalenko’s winning effort of 41.70 points gave Russia asweep of the trampolining gold with Irina Karavaeva havingcaptured the women’s title on Friday when the sport made itsofficial Olympic debut.
Australia’s Ji Wallace brought the soldout Superdome crowdof 15,000 to its feet taking the silver with a mark of 39.30.
Canada’s Mathieu Turgeon got the bronze with 39.10.
Rowing
Missy Ryan and Steven Redgrave can compare the scars they’veacquired since Atlanta. The rowers also can show off the medalsthey won.
Ryan won a bronze in the women’s pairs, with American teammateKaren Kraft, capping her comeback after donating a kidney to herbrother weeks after winning a silver medal in 1996.
Redgrave fought diabetes, appendicitis and an arm injury in thepast four years, but still pulled his British crew to victory inthe men’s fours, making him only the third person to win gold atfive straight Olympics.
Sailing
Light, shifting winds plagued the Olympic regatta again,bringing mixed results for two Americans sailing their first races.
Star skipper Mark Reynolds and Finn skipper Russ Silvestri eachhad a third-place finish and a bad race in the fluky winds andchoppy seas.
Silvestri, in his first Olympics, was eighth overall in the25-boat Finn fleet. Reynolds, in his fourth straight games, was10th in the 16-boat Star fleet.
The 49er class gold medal was secured by Finland’s ThomasJohanson and Jyrki Jarvi with one race to go.
After a two-hour delay in Sydney Harbor, brothers Jonathan andCharlie McKee of Seattle struggled a bit, but remained incontention for a medal.
The 470 class had a reserve day. Paul Foerster of Rockwall,Texas, sailed into the lead in the men’s class by winning twostraight races on Thursday.
J.J. Isler of San Diego is in fifth place in the women’s 470class.
Shooting
Todd Graves of Laurel, Miss., won the bronze medal in men’sskeet to join Nancy Johnson as the only Americans to win shootingmedals at the Sydney Games.
Slovenia’s Rajmond Debevec had an Olympic-record 1,275.1 to winthe men’s 50-meter rifle three-position. Juha Hirvi of Finland wonthe silver and Harald Stenvaag of Norway took the bronze.
Mykola Milchev of Ukraine won the skeet gold medal, tying theworld record with a perfect score of 150. Petr Malek of the CzechRepublic won the silver.
Graves, a three-time Olympian, joins Matt Dryke as the onlyAmericans to win an Olympic skeet medal.
China led the overall shooting competition with three of the 16gold medals.
Soccer
U.S. substitute Sasha Victorine blasted a penalty kick just pastthe desperate dive of goalkeeper Seigo Narazaki for a 5-4 shootoutvictory over Japan and a berth in the Olympic men’s soccersemifinals.
The Americans won the shootout after tying the game 2-2 on PeteVagenas’ penalty kick in the final minute of regulation.
Japan, which led twice, stood back bewildered, jaws dropped.
In other quarterfinal matches, Cameroon edged Brazil 2-1 indouble overtime, Spain defeated Italy 1-0 and Chile easily beatNigeria 4-1.
Softball
The Olympic softball medal round has its field: Japan,Australia, China and the United States.
The Americans were the only ones that needed to win to make theplayoffs, and they advanced easily with a 6-0 victory over Italy.Lisa Fernandez retired all six outs on strikeouts before hitting ahomer that made it unnecessary for her to pitch anymore.
The United States will play China in the medal round, whileAustralia takes on Japan. The loser of the U.S.-China game will beeliminated and the winner will play the loser of the othersemifinal.
The Australia-Japan winner earns a berth in the gold medal game.
Swimming
Gary Hall Jr. anchored the United States to a world-recordvictory in the 400-meter medley relay after the American women seta world relay mark on the final day of Olympic swimming.
The team of Lenny Krayzelburg, Ed Moses, Ian Crocker and Hallwon in 3 minutes, 33.73 seconds, lowering the mark of 3:34.84 setby Americans at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
The United States won 33 medals, including 14 golds, during themeet in which 14 world records were set or tied. Australia claimed18 medals and five golds.
Jenny Thompson won her eighth career relay gold — her 10th medaloverall — as the United States women cruised to their world recordof 3:58.30 in the 400 medley relay.
With eight gold medals — all in relays — Thompson ended herswimming career one short of gymnast Larissa Lathynina of theformer Soviet Union for most golds by a woman.
B.J. Bedford, Megan Quann, Thompson and Dara Torres erased themark of 4:01.67 set by China at the 1994 world championships.Australia’s men and women settled for silver in both medley relays.
Torres also won bronze in the 50 freestyle.
Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands won the 50 freestyle for herthird individual Olympic gold. Grant Hackett of Australia won thegrueling 1,500 freestyle.
Table Tennis
Wang Liqin and Yan Sen of China defeated teammates Kong Linghuiand Liu Guoliang to win the men’s table tennis doubles title.
Patrick Chila and Jean-Philippe Gatien of France won the bronze.
Tennis
Venus and Serena Williams recovered from a slow start to reachthe quarterfinals in doubles, beating Elena Likhovtseva andAnastasia Myskina of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
The Williams sisters, who have three Grand Slam doubles titles,won for the 30th time in their last 31 matches.
Two-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten became the firstquarterfinalist in men’s singles, beating Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia7-6 (2), 6-3 in the third round.
Kuerten, seeded second, is one of only six seeded men remaining.
Track and Field
Marion Jones barely finished her victory lap when Maurice Greenejoined her as an Olympic 100-meter champion.
Jones won the women’s 100-meter final in 10.75 seconds rightbefore fellow American Greene won the men’s event in 9.87 seconds.
Jones, shooting for five medals in these games, won by 37hundredths of a second over Ekaterini Thanou of Greece — the secondbiggest in Olympic 100-meter history.
The only bigger winning margin in an Olympic 100-meter final,either men’s or women’s, was Marjorie Jackson’s win by .38 overDaphne Hasenjager in 1952.
Greene defeated training partner and Sydney housemate Ato Boldonof Trinidad & Tobago, who took silver after getting the bronzemedal in Atlanta. Boldon finished in 9.99 seconds. Obadele Thompsonof Barbados was third in 10.04.
Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic won his third straight Olympicjavelin title and broke his own Olympic record with a throw of 295feet, 9½ inches.
Michael Johnson and Cathy Freeman easily won second-round heatsin the 400 and advanced to Sunday’s semifinals.
All three American men in the 800 meters — Mark Everett, BryanWoodward and Richard Kenah — flopped in the first round.
Lance Deal, a silver medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games and thegrand old man of U.S. hammer throwing, ended his Olympic career indisappointment.
Volleyball
Once again making too many blunders, giving up too many easypoints and making a lesser team look great, the U.S. men’svolleyball team lost its fourth straight match, eliminated fromcontention in the tournament by South Korea.
The U.S. team needed to defeat both South Korea and gold medalfavorite Italy to have any chance of overtaking Argentina for thefourth and final qualifying spot from Group B.
Now, the Americans face the likelihood of going winless inSydney, making their ninth-place finish in Atlanta look decent bycomparison.
Water Polo
The American men’s water polo team lost to Atlanta silvermedalist Croatia, 10-7 in the tournament opener forboth.
It doesn’t get easier Sunday for the U.S. team as it meetspowerful Yugoslavia, which won gold medals in 1984 and 1988, bothtimes beating the United States in the final.
In a wild ending to the first-ever women’s Olympic water polotournament, Yvette Higgins scored with 1.3 seconds left asAustralia beat the United States 4-3 for the gold medal.
It was one of the United States’ best storylines: A team fewknew about led by Maureen O’Toole, the greatest player in thehistory of water polo, playing her final game.