Olympics Highlights: Day 5
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Four people who were the victims of a carjacking near the main site of the Olympics might have becomehostages if not for an alert prison guard.
Prison officials say the guard grappled with two escapedconvicts long enough to allow the four occupants of a minivan toflee, before the convicts drove off.
The van leased to the South Korean Olympic Committee wascarrying a South Korean Olympic official and three volunteerworkers. They were all treated for shock after the incident.
The van has been recovered but the escapees from a minimumsecurity prison adjacent to the Olympic site are still on theloose.
Alexander Bagach of the Ukraine, the 1999 world indoor shot put champion and 1996 Olympic bronzemedalist, has been suspended from competition for testing positivefor steroids for a third time.
Simon Kemboi, a member of the Kenyan 1,600-meter relay team,also was suspended for testing positive for steroids.
Neither will be allowed to compete in the Sydney Games.
The ruling council of the International Amateur AthleticFederation announced the suspensions Tuesday after an eight-hourmeeting.
Archery
South Korea swept the medals as 17-year-old Yun Mi-jin, stilleligible for junior competition, beat teammate Kim Nam-soon in theindividual competition.
Yun broke the Olympic record by five points by scoring 173earlier in the day. She beat Kim Soo-nyung in the semifinal; Kimwas the individual gold medalist in 1988 and silver medalist in1992 before retiring, then making a comeback this year.
Kim beat North Korea’s Choe Ok Sil in the bronze medal match.
The three South Koreans set a team world record earlier in theOlympics.
Badminton
World champion Camilla Martin of Denmark and three Chinese madeit to the quarterfinals all with easy straight-set victories in thequarterfinals.
Martin downed Mia Audina Tjiptawan, 11-2, 11-1. Martin was theonly non-Asian in the final eight.
Baseball
Kurt Ainsworth settled down after a shaky first inning and shutdown a lineup spiced with former major leaguers, leading theunbeaten United States to a 6-2 victory Tuesday over theNetherlands.
Ernie Young, a 31-year-old outfielder, doubled home a pair ofruns and hit a solo homer.
Basketball
Slam dunks by Ray Allen and Antonio McDyess and a rejection byAlonzo Mourning as part of a 14-0 run near the midpoint of thesecond half that spurred the United States to a 93-61 victory overItaly.
The Italians gave the U.S. team something to think about bykeeping the game close for longer than many would have expected. Itwas a two-point game with less than three minutes left in the firsthalf, but it became a blowout not long after.
Vince Carter led the Americans with 13 points, Mourning had 12and Vin Baker 11.
Beach Volleyball
Americans Rob Heidger and Kevin Wong kept their medal hopesalive with a quick 15-2 victory over France’s Jean-Philippe Jodardand Christian Penigaud. The U.S. pair now has a chance to advanceto the final 16 with another victory.
Boxing
Jose Navarro, after nine silver medals from variouscompetitions, took a step toward what he hopes will be Olympicboxing gold by outpointing Hermensen Ballo of Indonesia 16-10 at112 pounds.
Watching and shouting instruction was Navarro’s older brother,Carlos, who failed to make the 1996 Olympic team, but who is 22-1as a pro featherweight.
Jermain Taylor became the eighth American to advance when helanded three more rights before a final crushing right droppedDimitriy Usagin of Bulgaria before the referee stopped the fightwith 10 seconds remaining in the first round.
Cycling
Germany broke the four-minute barrier as its 4,000-meter teampursuit set a world record of 3 minutes, 59.710 seconds in beatingUkraine, which broke the world record in the semifinal.
Ukraine received the silver but was its final time was more thanalmost four second slower than it did in the afternoon.
Britain took the bronze medal.
Marty Nothstein, of Trexlertown, Pa.advanced to the semifinalsof the match sprint.
Equestrian
Australia won the gold for the third consecutiveOlympics,leading from the start with rider Andrew Hoy on all threeteams. Britain took the silver.
The U.S. team won a bronze in the three-day event, helped whenNew Zealand had to drop out because two horses went lame after thecross-country section.
Fencing
In the team epee women’s final Russia defeated Switzerland forthe gold medal.
China took the bronze, upsetting favored France in thequarterfinals. France had won the team event in 1996 with theindividual gold and silver medalists among its team. They managedjust one medal now in both events.
Field Hockey
Eight-time gold medalist India earned a 2-2 draw with favoredAustralia in the preliminaries to keep alive its chances of makingthe semifinals after 20 years.
India has not made the Olympics semifinals since winning thegold in 1980 after dominating the sport.
Off the field, Britain’s head coach Jon Royce was suspended bythe sport’s governing body after allegedly making “crude andinappropriate language to a female doping control escort followingBritain’s 1-0 loss to Argentina on Monday.
Gymnastics
Four years after winning the gold medal in Atlanta, theAmericans finished fourth in the women’s team final competition.
World champion Romania won its second gold medal, clinching itwith 154.608 points. Russia, which beat the Romanians at theEuropean championships, won the silver and China took the bronze.
The United States just didn’t have the tricks it needed to geton the medals podium. Still, after a humiliating sixth at lastfall’s world championships it was progress for the U.S. team.
Judo
Japan won its third gold medal in judo out of six events asMakoto Takimoto of Japan defeated Cho In-chul of South Korea to winthe men’s 81-kilogram judo.
World champion Graeme Randall of Britain showed his frustrationafter a loss by not bowing to the referee or his Iranian opponent.The referee insisted that Randall complete the bows before leavingthe mat.
Severine Vandenhende of France defeated Li Shufang of China towin the women’s 63-kilogram.
Rowing
Carol Skricki and Ruth Davidon of the United States doublesculls tandem advanced to the finals on Tuesday through asecond-chance classifying heat.
The other three U.S. teams that competed Tuesday advanced toThursday’s semifinals: single scullers Monica Tranel Michini andDon Smith, and the men’s double scull of Henry Nuzum and MikeFerry.
Another round of repechage will be held Wednesday for the otherseven rowing events. The United States is the only country thatqualified for all 14 events and so far is on pace to make all thefinals.
Sailing
The Olympic sailing regatta continued at a snail’s pace withjust marginal racing affected by light breezes for the thirdstraight day.
U.S. skipper Madrigali, of Novato, Calif., finished second inthe first Soling race of the da then finished 15th — next-to-last —in the second race to drop into ninth place overall after fourraces.
The final two Soling fleet races are scheduled for Wednesday,and each crew gets to drop its worst race. The 16-boat fleet willbe pared to 12 for a series of match races, with the medals to bedecided in the harbor off the Sydney Opera House on Sept. 30.
Shooting
Tanyu Kiriakov of Bulgaria, a gold medalist at the 1988Olympics, won the men’s 50-meter pistol ahead of Igor Basinsky ofBelarus, who also won the silver at Atlanta.
Martin Tenk of the Czech Republic took the bronze. Wang Yifu ofChina, the current world champion, finished sixth. Wang was the10-meter air pistol silver medalist in these games.
Pia Hansen of Sweden won gold in the women’s double trapshooting. Deborah Gelisio of Italy won the silver, Kim Rhode of theUnited States the bronze.
Soccer
The U.S. men’s team advanced out of the first round of anOlympic soccer tournament for the first time, beating Kuwait 3-1.
Danny Califf scored in the 40th minute, Chris Albright in the63rd and Landon Donovan in the 89th as the Americans dominatedtheir Middle East opponents.
It was only the fifth victory for an American men’s soccer teamin 25 games (5-12-8) in 12 Olympic appearances dating to 1924. Twoof those wins have come against Kuwait.
Softball
Dot Richardson committed two errors in the top of the 11thinning as Japan beat the United States 2-1 to snap the defendingOlympic champions’ 112-game winning streak.
“I apologized to everyone because I feel responsible,” saidRichardson, who is an orthopedic surgeon when not playing secondbase for the U.S. team. “The two mistakes I made cost us thegame.”
The loss doesn’t diminish the team’s gold medal hopes. The topfour in the eight-team tournament advance to the medal round andthe United States is still favored.
Swimming
Another night, another American victory and yet even more worldrecords.
American Tom Malchow won Olympic gold in the 200-meter butterflyTuesday, swimming an Olympic record time of 1 minute 55.35 ingiving the U.S. team its sixth gold medal.
Dutchman Pieter Van den Hoogenband broke the world record in the100 freestyle in winning the semifinals in 47.84 a night aftertying his own world record in the 200 freestyle.
Then Ian Thorpe, whom Van den Hoogenband beat for the 200 gold,led off Australia’s 800-meter relay which finished in 7:07:05,another world record. The United States won the silver and theNetherlands won the bronze.
Australia’s record was the 11th world mark set or tied in fourdays at the Olympic pool.
Australian Susie O’Neill added another gold for Australia,winning in the women’s 200 freestyle. Also, Ukraine’s YanaKlochkova won her second gold of the games in an Olympic record inthe 200 individual medley.
Tennis
Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Venus Williams started herOlympics with an easy 6-2, 6-2 victory over Henrieta Nagyova ofSlovakia. American Monica Seles played the opening match on centercourt and beat Katalin Marosi-Aracama of Hungary 6-0, 6-1 in 48minutes.
American Vince Spadea (2-25 in 2000), missed an overhead on aset point and lost to former two-time U.S. Open champion PatRafter, 6-4, 6-3.
The U.S. men, who are without Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi,started 0-2. Todd Martin, making his Olympic debut at age 30, lostto Rainer Schuttler of Germany 6-2, 6-0.
American Monica Seles played the opening match on center courtand beat Katalin Marosi-Aracama of Hungary 6-0, 6-1 in 48 minutes.
Volleyball
Another loss for the U.S. men’s volleyball team. At least thistime, it was to powerful Russia, 25-18, 25-23, 21-25, 25-17.
The U.S. team showed vast improvement after its surprisingopening-round defeat, but still dropped to 0-2 in Olympic poolplay.
Russia has beaten the Americans seven out of the eight timesthey have played since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The U.S. wonthe world title in 1986 and the 1988 gold medal over the SovietUnion.
Water Polo
The U.S. women’s water polo team lost 7-6 to Australia, itsfirst-ever Olympic loss but it meant little. It had alreadyqualified for the medal round.
The Americans’ last preliminary comes Wednesday againstKazakstan, considered the weakest of the group here. It has beenoutscored 27-11 in losing its first three games.
Weightlifting
China added two gold medals in women’s events.
Chen Xiaomin set two more world records by winning the goldmedal at 138¾ pounds. Chen lifted world records of 248 pounds inthe snatch, added 286½ pounds in the clean and jerk for an overallworld mark of 534½ pounds.
Lin Weining won the the 152 pounds with a total of 534½ pounds.