Olympic roundup: Bolt eyes
double
BEIJING (AP) - Welcome to the
rest of the Beijing Olympics - the Summer Games of 2008, A.P.
After Phelps.
The games continued Monday in
search of a new headliner now that Michael Phelps has toweled
off for the last time. The Bird's Nest seemed the likeliest place
for someone to emerge and, indeed, the big news of the day came
from the track.
However, it wasn't good news.
It was the sad sight of Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang limping to
the starting blocks, trying to race through injuries and quickly
finding out he couldn't.
To understand how big a deal
this is, you have to understand how big a deal he is.
Liu is China's first-ever male
gold medalist in track, having won the 110 meters in Athens.
Folks have spent the last four years expecting him to do it again
on home turf, and in this land of 1.3 billion people, he's nearly
as much of a celebrity - not just sports star, full-fledged celebrity
- as their main man, Yao Ming.
That's why people inside the
stadium cried. Why folks watching at subway stations gasped.
Why his personal coach was too overcome with grief to speak at
a news conference.
The Olympics, however, still
went on Monday, without Liu or Phelps. At least there's still
Usain Bolt and his bid to become the first winner of the 100-
and 200-meter races since Carl Lewis in 1984.
Bolt was second in his opening-round
heat of the 200 in the morning, then easily won his quarterfinal
heat at night, jogging down the stretch and still topping the
reigning champ Shawn Crawford of the United States by several
strides.
Other notable events included
another rout by the U.S. men's basketball and softball teams,
a frustrating silver for gymnast Nastia Liukin and a bad break,
in more ways than one, for U.S. cyclists.
The United States still tops
the medals table, now with 72, but China continues to run away
with the most golds. With four more Monday, the Chinese are up
to 39 (more than the overall count for any country but the U.S.),
while the Americans have 22.
Also, Britain is up to 12 gold
medals, its most since 1920, and kudos to male long jumper Irving
Saladino for picking up Panama's first-ever gold in any sport.
---
Track and field
The U.S. flag finally rose at
the Bird's Nest, and it came from an unexpected source when Stephanie
Brown Trafton won the women's discus. It went up again later
when Angelo Taylor won the 400-meter hurdles, with Americans
Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson taking silver and bronze.
After capturing only one of six
possible medals in the men's and women's 100, watching the 1,500-meter
team of Bernard Lagat, Lopez Lomong and Leo Manzano all fail
to advance past the semifinals, and seeing Terrence Trammell
get hurt in the opening heat of the 110 hurdles, Brown Trafton's
victory was a much-needed lift. The 400 sweep was awfully nice,
too, something no country had done since the U.S. in 1960.
Also, Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva
won her second consecutive gold in women's pole vault, topping
American rival Jenn Stuczynski and then upping her own world
record to 16 feet, 6- inches; Brimin Kipruto made it seven straight
Olympics that Kenyans have won the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase;
and 18-year-old Pamela Jelimo led a 1-2 Kenya finish in the women's
800.
Despite the pain of a lingering
hamstring problem and the added bother of a tendon flare-up in
his right foot, national pride carried Liu to the start line.
He took off at the gun, took
three strides and then began hopping on his left leg, the good
one. Someone else false-started, so he could have tried again,
but there was no way. He peeled the lane-assignment number off
each leg and headed for a tunnel.
"He couldn't imagine the
pain he was suffering," said China's track and field coach,
Feng Shuyong. "Let me repeat: Liu Xiang will not withdraw
unless the pain is unbearable."
So the guy who croons in a music
video, appears in TV commercials and looms on billboards will
no longer have his gold-medal defense play out daily Monday through
Thursday.
"After Liu Xiang's injury,
I won't bother coming back to the Bird's Nest for more,"
a 67-year-old Chinese fan said as he left the stadium.
---
Gymnastics
It's a good thing Nastia Liukin
already won the all-around, because the way she got silver in
the uneven bars is enough to drive a gal nuts.
Liukin and China's He Kexin got
the same score, requiring a tiebreaker because dual medals are
no longer awarded in gymnastics. The details are pretty crazy;
all that matters is He won and Liukin didn't. He, by the way,
is among the girls who many believe is too young to be eligible
for these games.
This was Liukin's fourth medal
of the games, matching her dad's haul when he competed for the
Soviet Union. Coincidentally, one of Valeri Liukin's golds, on
high bar in 1988, came in a tie.
Oddly, there also was a deadlock
for the men's vault gold, which went to Poland's Leszek Blanik.
Chen Yibing extended China's
perfect run of gold by winning the still rings competition. That
string ended only because no Chinese men qualified for vault.
Liukin's silver gave the United
States six overall medals. China has five, including team gold.
Also, China's He Wenna won the
women's trampoline.
---
Men's basketball
The "Redeem Team" keeps
powering through the Olympics, crushing Dirk Nowitzki and Germany
106-57. Next up: A quarterfinals game against Australia, which
gave the U.S. team its only close competition thus far in an
exhibition game two weeks ago. The winner goes to the semifinals
against the Argentina-Greece winner.
"We feel like we're playing
very well right now, but you have to keep in mind it's single
elimination," Kobe Bryant said. "You can't afford any
slip-ups."
China secured a spot in the medal
round despite losing 91-77 to Greece. Yao Ming and his pals will
next play Lithuania, while Spain will face Croatia, the winners
of those games meeting in the other semifinal.
---
Swimming
Yes, the meet is over, but Phelpsmania
continues.
People magazine, The Hollywood
Reporter and "Access Hollywood" were all represented
at an appearance, with photographers piling on each other to
capture his every move. There will be more appearances here until
Thursday, when he'll head to London to help in the handover from
China to the 2012 host during Sunday's closing ceremony.
He has taken time to hold all
eight golds at once. What was it like? "Pretty cool,"
he said.
---
Baseball
The U.S. team beat China 9-1
in a game that featured rough play such as a home-plate collision
that knocked out China's top player, a retaliatory hit batsman
and three ejections.
Also, American second baseman
Jayson Nix - still recovering from a foul ball off his left eye
that resulted in surgery, stitches, bruises and fuzzy vision
- said he hopes to still return to Olympic play.
"If the doctors say he can
go, he says he can go and (manager Davey Johnson) says he can
go, he can go," said Paul Seiler, USA Baseball's executive
director. "Time will tell, but he's not a guy you write
off."
South Korea remained unbeaten
with a wild 9-8 victory over Taiwan and Japan beat Canada 1-0.
---
Softball
Feel free to move on to the next
section if the details of the latest U.S. rout bore you.
It was a nine-run first inning
against the hostesses on the way to a 9-0 win over China, leaving
the Americans two wins from another gold medal. Their win streak
is up to 23; two more and they get another gold before their
sport goes off the docket until at least 2016.
Up next is Japan, already a 7-0
loser to the U.S., although their ace was saved for the rematch.
Canada lost to Japan 6-0, but
advanced to a semifinal game against Australia.
---
Diving
Guess the nationality of the
men's 3-meter springboard leader coming out of prelims? China,
of course.
He Chong is on top, with two
Americans chasing. Chris Colwill finished seventh and Troy Dumais
was 12th, getting them into a semifinal Tuesday morning. The
final is Tuesday night.
---
Beach volleyball
There won't be an all-American
men's final.
Although top-ranked duo Todd
Rogers and Phil Dalhausser rolled into the semifinals with a
win over a German team, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal lost to
the defending Olympic champions from Brazil.
Next up for Rogers and Dalhausser
is surprising Georgia on Wednesday.
---
Women's soccer
Get ready for a rematch. Just
like 2004, the final will pit the United States and Brazil.
The Americans advanced by beating
Japan 4-2. Brazil got there with a 4-1 victory over Germany.
---
Cycling
The U.S. appears headed toward
a second straight Olympics without any medals from the velodrome.
American Sarah Hammer appears headed toward a layoff after breaking
her left collarbone in a fall during the women's points race.
Jennie Reed also lost in the sprint quarterfinals.
Britain continued to dominate,
knocking nearly 2 seconds off the world record it set a day earlier
to win the men's team pursuit. The medal gave Britain 12 golds
for the Olympics so far, already its best showing since 1920.
It also was its fifth gold medal in track cycling in Beijing.
World champion Marianne Vos of
the Netherlands won the women's points race.
---
Boxing
Mauritius is a tiny island nation
560 miles off the eastern coast of Madagascar. That's worth knowing
because it has produced a bantamweight medalist, although Bruno
Julie isn't done fighting.
Julie beat Venezuela's Hector
Manzanilla in the quarterfinals, securing no worse than bronze.
Ukrainian featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko also clinched a medal
with his third virtuoso performance of the Olympics, pounding
China's Li Yang.
Super heavyweight Zhang Zhilei
knocked down Kazakhstan's Ruslan Myrsatayev twice in a 12-2 victory
that assured China of at least two boxing medals in Beijing after
winning just one in its previous history.
Moldova bantamweight Veaceslav
Gojan clinched his nation's second boxing medal with an upset
victory over India's Akhil Kumar.
Cuba secured its fourth medal
with bantamweight Yankiel Leon's victory over Worapoj Petchkoom
of Thailand, but Azerbaijan's Shahin Imranov upset young Cuban
featherweight Idel Torriente, just the second of Cuba's 10 fighters
to lose in Beijing.
---
Weightlifting
Word to the wise: Don't mess
with Andrei Aramnau of Belarus.
The heavyweight broke three world
records to win his country's first Olympic gold in weightlifting.
He set world records in the snatch, becoming the first man in
the weight class to lift 200 kilograms (440.9 pounds); the clean
and jerk (236 kg, or 520.3 pounds) and with his total (436 kg,
or 961.2 pounds).
---
Men's volleyball
The U.S. squad wrapped up pool
play a perfect 5-0, beating winless Japan in three sets. This
was their second game with coach Hugh McCutcheon back on the
sideline. He missed the first three matches after his in-laws
were attacked at a tourist spot in Beijing.
The Americans are off to the
quarterfinals Wednesday against Serbia.
---
Women's triathlon
Australia took first and third,
with Emma Snowsill pulling away early in the 10-kilometer run
to finish more than a minute ahead of the field. American Laura
Bennett finished fourth, less than 30 seconds shy of a medal.
"I'm very pleased,"
Bennett said. "I had bike issues somewhere in the middle
of the bike leg. I gave everything I had."
---
Sailing
After a morning decision to give
Denmark the gold medal in the 49er skiff class - even though
they used a boat borrowed from Croatia - the regatta continued
with Australia taking the men's and women's double-handed 470
dinghies.
Medal races in the men's Laser
and the Laser Radial for women were slated for Tuesday. American
favorite Anna Tunnicliffe led overall after nine Laser Radial
races, seven points ahead of Lithuanian Gintare Volungeviciute
and 11 points ahead of China's Xu Lijia.
---
Men's water polo
The U.S. beat Germany and won
its preliminary group, earning an automatic berth in the semifinals.
The Americans are guaranteed of finishing at least fourth, which
would match their best since 1988.
"It's a great feeling,"
captain Tony Azevedo said. "We're definitely the underdog
story."
The Americans will face the Serbia-Spain
winner Friday. There was chatter that the Serbs lost a game to
get into an easier bracket - the one the Americans are in.
"If Serbia gets that far,
we'll be ready for them," U.S. coach Terry Schroeder said.
---
Women's field hockey
No goals. No more Olympics for
the U.S. women, who were eliminated after a scoreless draw with
Britain. The Americans went 1-1-3, remaining without a medal
since 1984. This was their first Olympics since 1996, when they
got in automatically as the host nation.
---
Canoe-kayak
Rami Zur, the only American to
compete in the men's 1,000-meter kayak single, advanced to the
semis. He's much better in the 500-meter race, where he'll also
compete Tuesday.
Also, Hungarian canoers and kayakers
wore black armbands to remember Gyorgy Kolonics, a canoeing gold
medalist at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics who died last month after
collapsing in his canoe while training for the Beijing Games.
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Synchronized swimming
The only thing better than one
swimmer named Anastasia? Two, of course, especially in synchro.
Russia's tandem of Anastasia
Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova led the duet technical routine,
more than a point ahead of Spanish duo that featured a Gemma
and an Andrea.
Using music composed by Elton
John, the American pair Christina Jones and Andrea Nott were
fifth.
"Our theme was anger,"
Jones said. "We tried to get that across."
---
Table tennis
China beat Germany 3-0 to win
the men's team event. South Korea got bronze.
---
Equestrian
The U.S. won team jumping, making
it two Olympic titles in a row.
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