Olympics-Americans ready to hand over drug testing
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - As the Olympics approached their finale, American
track and field chiefs offered on Friday to hand over their drugs testing
operation to world anti-doping agency WADA, seeking to dispel suspicion once and
for all.
U.S. Track and Field (USATF) chiefs said the offer had been made to the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) who, despite the Americans' best efforts,
``do not have total confidence in how we have handled doping matters.''
A leading IOC medical commission chief had earlier in the Games accused the
United States of covering up five doping cases before the 1988 Seoul
Olympics....
Olympics-Synchron-Russians
rule in synchro pool
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Russia consigned North American domination of
Olympic synchronised swimming to the past with a stylish victory in the team
event on Friday to complete a sweep of the two Sydney synchro titles.
Olga Brusnikova and Maria Kisseleva, who won the duet title on Tuesday, featured
in a virtuoso display by the Russians, who performed an innovative free routine
of fluid movement and controlled artistry to the music of Mussorgsky's ``Night
on the Bare Mountain.''
Japan, who performed to a composition called ``The Bird of Wonder,'' ran them
close in intricate skill and even outscored them in perfect 10s -- five for
Japan, four of them for artistic impression compared with four for Russia, two
for technical merit and two for artistic impression....
Olympics-Athletics-Indian relay teams fail to go past 1st round
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - India's 4x400 metres relay teams failed on Friday to
make it beyond the first round of the men's and women's events at the Sydney
Olympics.
In the men's event, India's four -- Lijo David Thottan, Jata Shankar, P.
Ramachandran and Paramjit Singh -- finished in three minutes 08.38 seconds
behind winners Sri Lanka (3:06.25) in the second heat....
Olympics-Athletics-Indian relay teams fail in 1st round
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - India's relay teams failed on Friday to make it
beyond the first round of the men's and women's 4x100 metres and 4x400 events at
the Sydney Olympics.
In the men's 4x400, India's four -- Lijo David Thottan, Jata Shankar, P.
Ramachandran and Paramjit Singh -- finished in three minutes 08.38 seconds
behind winners Sri Lanka (3:06.25) in the second heat....
Olympics-Volleyball-Russia through to gold medal match
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Russia advanced to the final of the men's Olympic
volleyball tournament with a clinical 27-25 32-30 21-25 25-11 victory over
Argentina in Friday's semifinals.
The Russians, who won the men's volleyball gold in 1964, 1968 and 1980 as the
Soviet Union, will play either Italy or Yugoslavia in Sunday's final. Argentina
will contest Sunday's third-place playoff attempting to match the bronze they
won at the 1988 Seoul Olympics....
Olympics-Boxing-Rocky Juarez gives Americans a finalist
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Featherweight Ricardo Juarez demolished his Russian
opponent to become the first American finalist of the Olympic boxing tournament
on Friday.
World champion Juarez, whose middle name is Rocky in honour of professional
great Rocky Marciano, punched his way to a 22-12 victory over Kamil
Dzamalutdinov to set up a final with Kazakhstan's Bekzat Sattarkhanov....
Olympics-Athletics-Jones loses long jump and five-gold dream
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Marion Jones's hopes of winning a historic five gold
medals at a single Games were buried on Friday as she lost the women's long jump
final at the Sydney Olympics.
The 24-year-old American won the sprint double at Sydney and hopes to compete in
the finals of the 4x100 and 4x400 relays on Saturday, events that the U.S. are
favoured to win....
Olympics-Sailing-Briton Ainslie confirmed as Laser winner
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - British sailor Ben Ainslie was confirmed as winner
of the gold medal in the open Laser dinghy class at the Sydney Olympics on
Friday after rival Robert Scheidt of Brazil was disqualified from a tense final
race.
Ainslie won the gold medal and Scheidt the silver, reversing their placings in
Atlanta four years ago....
Olympics-Athletics-Japanese marathon runners haunted by past
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Japan's three Olympic marathon men may draw
inspiration from the Sydney victory of their women's champion Naoko Takahashi,
but some tough memories haunt them.
Led by world bronze medallist Nobuyuki Sato, they hope to make up for Japan's
poor showing at the Atlanta Games in 1996 when none of the runners from the
marathon-mad country made the top eight, the first time that had happened since
Moscow in 1980....
Olympics-Athletics-Olympic dream vanishes for Jones
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Marion Jones's Olympic dream of an unprecedented
five gold medals in one Games vanished in the long jump pit on Friday when she
managed only third place in the women's final.
Jones, who had already completed the 100-200 metres double, had planned to win a
further gold in the long jump and then add two more in Saturday's two relays....
Olympics-Athletics-Guerrouj weeps after 1,500m defeat
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The tears flowed. Hicham El Guerrouj's worst
nightmare had come true -- again.
At the Atlanta Olympics, one of the world's greatest middle distance runners
fell at the final bell in the 1,500 metres, a tumble that haunted him for four
years....
Olympics-Boxing-American beats Cuban in slugging match
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - American Ricardo Williams reached the
light-welterweight boxing final on Friday after beating Cuban Diogenes Luna in
the highest scoring and most remarkable fight of the Olympics.
In a slugging match between two fighters who never gave an inch, Williams beat
Luna 42-41 to set up a final against Uzbekistan's world champion Mahamadkadyz
Abdullaev....
Olympics-Hockey-Australia win third gold in four Olympics
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Australia reinforced their status as the greatest
women's hockey side in history with a 3-1 win over Argentina in the gold medal
match on Friday.
Inspired by brilliant play from former captain Rechelle Hawkes, Claire Mitchell-Taverner
and Nikki Hudson, Australia added the Sydney 2000 title to their victories in
Seoul in 1988 and Atlanta four years ago....
Olympics-Athletics-Kosgei barges to steeplechase gold
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Reuben Kosgei barged past team mate Wilson Boit
Kipketer to win the Olympic gold medal on Friday and confirm Kenya's
stranglehold on the steeplechase.
The three Kenyans in the race jumped the final barrier as one but Kipketer had
the better landing and looked set to win until he clashed with 21-year-old
Kosgei and lost his momentum....
Olympics-Taekwondo-Vietnam medallist hailed as hero
HANOI, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Vietnam's first Olympic medallist Tran Hieu Ngan was
hailed as a hero at home on Friday and her success seen as a turning point for
sport in the country.
Her home town Tuy Hoa, a poor fishing community in Phu Yen province on the
central coast, was stunned by Ngan's silver medal win in the women's taekwondo
in Sydney on Thursday....
Olympics-Boxing-Romanian to fight Kazakh for gold
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Light-middleweight Marin Simion kept Romania on
course for a first Olympic boxing gold since 1956 by reaching the final on
Friday.
World champion Simion, whose brother Dorel went out in Thursday's semifinals,
beat Thailand's Pornchai Thongburan 26-16 to set up a final with Kazakhstan's
Yermakhan Ibraimov....
Olympics-Diving-Sautin faces Chinese threat to highboard crown
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Tian Liang and Hu Jia threw down a formidable
challenge to reigning champion Dmitry Sautin on the men's highboard on Friday as
they threatened to give China their fifth diving title of the Sydney Olympics.
Tian, silver medallist behind the Russian at the 1998 world championships,
compiled 704.61 points from a combination of six dives from the morning's
preliminary round and four from the evening's semifinal on the 10-metre
platform....
Olympics-Volleyball-Yugoslavia, Russia through to final
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Yugoslavia upset Italy on Friday with a 27-25 34-32
25-14 semifinal win that broke Italian hearts and put them into the final of the
men's Olympic volleyball tournament against Russia.
Italy have won the last three world championships and came into the Olympics as
the gold medal favourites but once again fell agonisingly short in their bid to
capture the only major prize that has eluded them....
Olympics-Dreschler destroys Jones's dream of five golds
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Marion Jones's dream of becoming the first woman to
win five track golds at one Olympics ended in defeat on Friday as German Heike
Drechsler leapt to an emphatic victory in the long jump.
Jones, who had completed the 100 and 200 metres legs of her historic attempt,
was forced to settle for bronze as her lack of technique told against the
specialists....
Olympics-Athletics-S.Lanka men fail to make 4x400 final
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's 4x400 metres men's relay squad put up a
gritty performance at the Sydney Olympics on Friday to get into the semifinals
but failed to make the final.
They won their first round heat to go through, then finished sixth in their
semifinal in three minutes 02.89 seconds behind winners Nigeria in 3:01.06....
WRAUPUP
1-Olympics-Asia-Thai boxer in final, another gets bronze
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Thailand's Wijan Ponlid survived a close boxing
semifinal on Friday to put himself in position to win his country's second
Olympic gold medal.
Ponlid, turning the fight around in the third round after a nervous start, beat
Vladimir Sidorenko of Ukraine 14-11. In Sunday's flyweight final he will meet
Kazakhstan's Bulat Jumadilov, whom he defeated two months ago in Thailand....
Olympics-Basketball-U.S narrowly beats Lithuania to reach final
SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The heavily-favoured U.S. team advanced to the final
of the men's Olympic basketball tournament on Friday but only after narrowly
escaping a humiliating defeat by Lithuania.
The Americans won an 85-83 victory after the tightest possible finish....