Olympics-Swimming-Bennett retains women's 800 freestyle crown

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Brooke Bennett retained her 800 metres freestyle crown for her second gold medal of the Sydney Olympics and took the U.S. tally to 10 titles in the pool on Friday.

Bennett, who won the 400 metres freestyle on Sunday, led by the first turn from Yana Klochkova and stretched away from the 18-year-old Ukrainian to build up a substantial lead by the halfway mark....

Olympics-Sailing-Austrians take first sailing gold

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Former world champions Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher of Austria built an unassailable lead in the Tornado catamaran class on Friday to sew up the first gold medal of the Sydney Olympics sailing regatta.

The Austrians, world champions in 1999, outclassed their opponents to finish Friday's three races with two first placings and a second. They cannot now be beaten, with the final two races of their 11-race series to be sailed at the weekend....

Olympics-Swimming-Hall and Ervin share 50 freestyle title

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Americans Gary Hall and Anthony Ervin dead-heated for gold and ended the eight-year reign of Alexander Popov in the Olympic 50 metres freestyle on Friday.

It was the first dead-heat for a gold medal in the history of men's Olympic swimming competition....

Olympics-Swimming-De Bruijn breaks women's 50m freestyle record

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands broke the women's 50m freestyle world record at the Sydney Olympics on Friday in a time of 24.13 seconds.

It beat the previous best of 24.39 seconds set by de Bruijn herself in Rio de Janeiro in June this year....

Olympics-Athletics-Harju finds perfect peak

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Finland's Arsi Harju peaked to perfection on Friday as he followed up a personal best in qualifying with a 21.29 metre effort in the final to win the Olympic men's shot put.

America took silver and bronze through Adam Nelson (21.21) and Atlanta silver medallist and twice world champion John Godina (21.20).

The 26-year-old Harju, the first Finn to win the title since 1920, had come into the Games as an outsider for a medal....

Olympics-Athletics-Jones completes successful first day

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Marion Jones completed a successful first day at the Sydney Olympics on Friday with untroubled victories in the first two rounds of the women's 100 metres.

The 24-year-old American world champion, who plans to win five gold medals at the Games, clocked 11.20 seconds in the morning's first round and 10.83 in the second to win both races....

Olympics-Swimming-U.S. pair make history with fingertips

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Americans Anthony Ervin and Gary Hall made swimming history with their fingertips at the Sydney Olympics on Friday while Dutchwoman Inge de Bruijn smashed her second world record on the penultimate day of competition in the pool.

Ervin and Hall touched the wall at exactly the same time of 21.98 seconds to share the gold medal in the fastest race in the sport -- the 50 freestyle ``splash and dash'' -- which ended in a dead heat for the first time in the men's swim events at the Games....

Olympics-Athlete sought for alleged sexual assault

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Police in Sydney have issued an arrest warrant for a 23-year-old Olympic athlete in connection with an alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl, a police statement said on Friday.

It did not identify the athlete or his nationality....

Olympics-Boxing-Asloum takes revenge on Viloria

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - French light-flyweight Brahim Asloum sent U.S. world champion Brian Viloria out of the Olympics on Friday and savoured his revenge....

Olympics-Athletics-Indian tops qualifying in women's 400 metres

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - K M Beena Mol of India qualified first in the women's 400 metres heats on Friday, ahead of Olympic gold medal favourite Cathy Freeman of Australia.

The unknown 25-year-old finished in 51.51 seconds to move into the second round on Saturday....

Olympics-South Africa calls for fewwer Olympic sports

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Sept 22 (Reuters) - South Africa called on Friday for several team sports to be axed from the Olympic games because they were unnecessary and put the event beyond the financial reach of most developing countries....

Olympics-Athletics-Jayasinghe makes 100 semifinals

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Controversial Sri Lankan sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe qualified for the women's 100 metres semifinals at the Summer Olympics on Friday.

American Marion Jones was the quickest overall in a time of 10.83 seconds, followed by Ekaterini Thanou of Greece in 10.99....

Olympics-Weightlifting-No way back for Bulgarians, say IWF

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Weightlifting's world governing body said on Friday there was no question of Bulgaria's disgraced lifting team paying a $50,000 fine to gain readmission to the Olympic Games.

But in a decision which appeared to contradict their earlier stance, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said Bulgaria's Galabin Boevski and Georgi Markov could keep the gold and silver medals they won on Wednesday....

Olympics-Tennis-Weakened U.S. men's team falls in Olympics

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. men's team, weakened by the absence of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, failed to play up to even limited expectations in the Sydney Olympic tennis tournament and completed a disastrous showing on Friday.

Every member collapsed at the first hurdle except former bad boy Jeff Tarango, who beat the unranked Diego Camacho of Bolivia in the first round before being blown off the court in his second match by Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina 6-2 6-3....

Olympics-Marathon woman Bennett sets sights on Evans record

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - At the age of eight, Brooke Bennett hung an autographed poster of fellow American Janet Evans on her bedroom wall after the mighty ``marathon woman'' won three gold medals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Eight years later, Bennett was up on the podium in Atlanta at the age of just 16 after winning the 800 metres freestyle....

Olympics-Sydney heads for ``magic'' Games--IOC's Pound

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A senior Olympic official paid Sydney a glowing tribute at the midway stage of the Summer Games on Friday for putting on what he said could turn out to be a ``magic'' Olympics....

Don't Miss a Step of Olympic Track & Field Events and Other Hot Weekend Happenings With NBCOlympics.com's Comprehensive Online Coverage

Get Up-To-The-Minute News; Check Out Previews of All Weekend Events; Read


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SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Marion Jones, Michael Johnson and
Maurice Greene are considered the fastest humans in the world, and they are
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NBCOlympics.com Track & Field Race Highlights (subject to change, Sydney
daytime):


U.S. Men's


September 23, 2000  Maurice Greene in the 100m final


September 25, 2000  Michael Johnson in the 400m final


September 28, 2000  Ato Boldon and John Capel in the 200m final


October 1, 2000     Men's Marathon


U.S. Women's


September 23, 2000  Marion Jones in the 100m final


September 24, 2000  Women's Marathon


September 25, 2000  Stacy Dragila in the pole vault final


September 28, 2000  Marion Jones in the 200m final


September 29, 2000  Marion Jones in the long jump final


September 30, 2000  Amy Acuff in the high jump final


September 30, 2000  Marion Jones in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays


Other NBCOlympics.com Event Highlights


September 23, 2000  Beach Volleyball -- Women's quarterfinals and


semifinals


September 24, 2000  Diving -- Women's platform final


September 24, 2000  Soccer -- Women's semifinal


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tribulations and successes of training and competing. With the Games under
way, www.nbcolympics.com will also offer digital media coverage from Sydney.

Olympics-Athletics-Perec gives media the slip

PARIS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Triple Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec returned home still running from the media on Friday after telling France's sports minister she had fled Sydney because she ``cracked under the pressure of the Australian press.''

The minister, Marie-George Buffet, spoke to the athlete by telephone from Sydney while Perec was in Singapore on Thursday awaiting a flight to France.

On arrival at 6:20 a.m. (0420 GMT) in Paris, Perec and her companion Anthuan Maybank were ushered away by Air France personnel without passing the normal customs checks and the reporters waiting for her at Charles de Gaulle airport....

Olympics-Runners take the stage

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The superstars of athletics inaugurated Sydney's Olympic track on Friday but the Games were once again tainted by drugs with the expulsion of Bulgaria's entire weightlifting team for cheating.

All but one of the big money-spinners of men's and women's sprinting cruised through their heats on the first day of track and field competition before a 110,000-capacity crowd....

Olympics-Athletics-'Innocent' Baumann quits Olympics

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Banned former German Olympic 5,000 metres champion Dieter Baumann has given up his fight to take part in the Sydney Games but claimed he was innocent of charges of drug taking.

Baumann was still considering taking his case to an Australian civil court after his final appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sport's highest court, failed to get him reinstated....

Olympics-Swimming-Training partners dead-heat for gold

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - After spending every day of the past year training together, Americans Gary Hall and Anthony Ervin knew when they raced each other at the Olympics that it was going to be close.

But neither of them guessed it would be so tight they would dead-heat for gold in the men's 50 metres freestyle final as they did on Friday....

Olympics-Swimming-Hall, Ervin dead-heat for gold, dethrone Popov

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Americans Gary Hall and Anthony Ervin pulled off a rare dead-heat for gold in swimming's shortest race and dealt the final blow to Alexander Popov's dream of a historic Olympic treble on Friday.

Dutch power-swimmer Inge de Bruijn smashed her third world record in six days in the women's 50 metres freestyle semifinals to hoist the Sydney Games tally to 12 world marks broken and one equalled in seven days of swimming in the Homebush Bay pool....

Olympics-Athletics-Sprint champ Bailey makes sad exit

SYDNEY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Canada's Donovan Bailey, the defending Olympic 100 metres champion, bowed out of the Sydney Games on the opening day of the athletics competition on Friday.

Weakened by a virus, Bailey, who won in Atlanta in 9.84 seconds -- then a world record -- finished last in his second round heat in a disastrous 11.36 seconds....