Olympics Highlights: Day 6

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Two athletes, including a Bulgarian weightlifting medalist, have tested positive for banned drugs atthe Sydney Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee has said it has stripped thesilver medal in the 56-kilogram weightlifting class from IvanIvanov. He tested positive for a diuretic. Diuretics are used toflush fluid from an athlete’s body to reduce weight, but also canbe used to mask the presence of other performance-enhancing drugs.

The other athlete was a hammer thrower from Belarus whoseidentity was not immediately released. He tested positive fornandrolone in an out-of-competition test in the athletes’ village.

Archery

Simon Fairweather of Australia beat Vic Wunderle of Chula Vista,Calif., for the gold medal in men’s archery. Wunderle trailed fromthe start of the final round as Fairweather won in windyconditions, 113-106.

The two finalists were a surprise after the South Korean menwere expected to dominate, going 1-2-3 in the individual rankings.

Badminton

Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat, the world No. 2 singles player, lostout in the quarterfinals to China’s unheralded Ji Xinpeng, 15-12,15-5.

Kim Dong-moon’s quest for a third Olympic badminton gold failedwhen the world’s top-ranked Indonesian duo knocked the South Koreanand partner Ha Tae-kwon out of the men’s doubles.

Tony Gunawan and Candra Wijaya took 59 minutes to beat the SouthKoreans in the semifinals, 15-3, 15-10.

Another South Korean pair did make the final. Lee Dong-soo andYoo Yong-sung beat Malaysia’s Tan Fook Choong and Wan Wah Lee,15-12, 7-15, 15-4.

Baseball

Netherlands beat Cuba 4-2 to give the Cubans their first Olympicbaseball loss. Hensley Meulens’ bases-loaded double drove in threeruns and the Netherlands held on.

Cuba (3-1) had breezed through the first two official Olympictournaments, winning the gold in Barcelona and Atlanta while goingunbeaten.

Basketball

Down by as many as eight points, the U.S. women finally wentahead to stay early in the second half and got three key basketsfrom Ruthie Bolton-Holifield en route to a 88-77 victory overRussia.

Now 3-0 in Sydney, the U. S. squad secured a berth in nextweek’s quarterfinals and is just about assured of winning its pool.The Americans have only New Zealand and Poland left to play andneither has the talent to match the United States.

Boxing

Ricardo Williams Jr. of Cincinnati became the ninth American toadvance.

Williams fell behind 3-0 to Australia’s Henry Collins and wastied 3-3 after one round. The 19-year-old Williams then routedCollins and the 139-pound bout was stopped in the fourth round onthe 15-point rule, 21-5.

Canoe/Kayak

Thomas Schmidt of Germany won the men’s one-kilometer slalomkayak gold medal, with Paul Ratcliffe of Britain taking the silverand Pierpaolo Ferrazzi of Italy the bronze.

A 2-point penalty for touching a gate on his first run keptnine-time U.S. champion kayaker Scott Shipley from winning hisfirst Olympic medal.

Shipley finished fifth with a score of 226.67. Without theinfraction, he would have finished ahead of Ferrazzi.

Cycling (Track)

Marty Nothstein of Trexlertown, Pa., won the gold medal in themen’s match sprint, delivering the first American cycling goldsince the boycott-marred Los Angeles Olympics.

Nothstein beat Florian Rousseau of France 2-0 in the gold medalrace after sweeping two races against Jens Fiedler, the two-timedefending Olympic champion who beat Nothstein at Atlanta.

In the women’s gold medal match, five-time world championFelicia Ballanger of France beat Oxana Grichina of Russia 2-1.

Equestrian

David O’Connor of The Plains, Va., was in first place after theopening day of the individual three-day event.

O’Connor performed a graceful, mistake-free test on Custom Madeto score 29.0. He was part of the U.S. bronze medal-winningthree-day team.

Fencing

Kim Young-ho won South Korea’s first-ever Olympic gold medal inthe sport defeating Ralf Bissdorf of Germany 15-14 in the men’sfoil.

Kim’s surprising run to the gold included a quarterfinal victoryover Ukrainian Sergiy Golubytsky, who has won the last three worldchampionships and most world titles since 1992.

Sailing

Wind finally blew across the Olympic sailing courses andAmerican sailors responded by posting several strong finishes.

Leading the way was J.J. Isler of San Diego, who won the secondfleet race in the women’s 470 class to take the overall lead.Isler, 36, the 1992 bronze medalist, had to take time off fromtraining for this Olympics after giving birth to her seconddaughter.

Brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee of Seattle won the fourthfleet 49er fleet race to move into second place overall.

Soling skipper Jeff Madrigali, the 1996 bronze medalist,finished second in each of the final two fleet races, losing thelead both times to Roy Heiner of the Netherlands. Madrigali willget a high seeding for the match races.

Each skipper will toss out his worst score and the fleet will bepared from 16 to 12 for match racing.

Shooting

Richard Faulds of Britain won the men’s double trap in ashootoff with defending gold medalist Russell Mark of Australia.

Mark led through most of the competition, but faltered in thefinal regulation round and the playoff, taking silver.

Renata Mauer-Rozanska of Poland won the gold medal in thewomen’s 50-meter rifle.

Soccer

The defending champion U.S. women’s soccer team advanced to theOlympic medals round by beating Nigeria 3-1. It was joined in thesemifinals by Norway, which beat China 2-1.

Swimming

American Misty Hyman stunned defending champion Susie O’Neill towin Olympic gold in the 200-meter butterfly.

Hyman led all the way to win in an Olympic record 2 minutes,5.88 seconds, just missing O’Neill’s world record. O’Neill finishedsecond in 2:06.58.

Jenny Thompson swam the anchor leg to beat Australia in the women’s800 relay to gain her seventh gold, an all-time record for women —but with no individual golds.

Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands won the 100-meterfreestyle in 48.30 seconds, far off the world record of 47.84 heset in the semifinals. Alexander Popov of Russia won the silver andGary Hall Jr. of the United States the bronze.

Domenico Fioravanti of Italy won the 200-meter breaststroke.

Lenny Krazyelburg, who already has one gold at the Sydney Games,cruised to an Olympic record in preliminaries of the 200-meterbackstroke in 1:58.40.

Inge de Bruijn of Netherlands broke her own world record in the100 freestyle semifinals with 53.77, her second world record of thegames.

Table Tennis

Jun Gao Chung of Gaithersburg, Md., the only American ever tomake it past the preliminary phase of the Olympic competition, lostin the second round to Ryu Ji-hye of South Korea, 21-17, 15-21,21-15, 21-10.

Tennis

Jeff Tarango, the fiery Californian better known for his temperthan his tennis, beat Diego Camacho of Bolivia 6-0, 6-1 to becomethe only American man to pass the first round.

The other remaining American, No. 16 seeded Michael Chang, thenlost to Sebastien Lareau of Canada 7-6 (6), 6-3. Todd Martin andVince Spadea were eliminated Tuesday.

U.S. Open winner Marat Safin lost to Fabrice Santoro of France1-6, 6-1, 6-4,

On the women’s side, top-seeded Lindsay Davenport, the 1996 goldmedalist in women’s singles, won her opening match against PaoloSuarez of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2, to make the U.S. women 3-0.

Water Polo

Veteran Maureen O’Toole scored the Americans’ first goal andassisted on the one that put ahead in a 9-6 victory over Kazakstan.

Brenda Villa had four goals for the United States, 3-1-1, in thefirst-ever women’s Olympic tournament.

Weightlifting

With China limited to four weightlifters in the seven classes,other countries took advantage and won gold.

Maria Isabel Urrutia won the first gold medal in any sport forColombia in 165-pound weightlifting, because she weighed less thanthe other two medalists who also lifted the same total.

Galabin Boevski of Bulgaria won 152 pounds with a total of 788pounds.