Briefly

Basketball

The U.S. men overcame a strong performance by Yugoslavia in the first 25 minutes and won the gold medal with a 95-69 victory. (See page C1.)

A second-half fight slightly injured one player and led to the ejection of another, marring Russia’s 91-74 victory over Cuba in the women’s fifth-place game. Japan, in its first appearance since 1976, registered an 81-63 victory over Italy in the seventh-place game.

Boxing

Felix Savon of Cuba, a five-time world champion, won his second straight heavyweight gold medal with a 20-2 victory over David Defiagbon of Canada. Savon’s teammate, Ariel Hernandez, also won a second consecutive gold in the 165-pound class with an 11-3 victory over Malik Beyleroglu of Turkey.

Istvan Kovacs of Hungary took the gold medal in the 119-pound class with a 14-7 decision over Arnaldo Mesa of Cuba. Another Cuban, Juan Hernandez, a three-time world champion, lost 14-9 to Oleg Saitov of Russia in the 147-pound final. Daniel Petrov of Bulgaria won the gold medal in the 106-pound class with a 19-6 decision over Mansueto Velasco of the Philippines.

Canoe-kayak

Germany dominated the six finals, winning three golds and a silver. No Americans competed after all U.S. boats lost in the semifinals. World champion Knut Holmann of Norway beat Beniamino Bonomi of Italy for the gold medal in the 1,000-meter kayak.

German golds came in the 1,000-meter four-woman kayak, the 1,000-meter two-man canoe and four-man, 1,000-meter kayak. Martin Doktor of the Czech Republic won the 1,000-meter canoe final. World champions Antonio Rossi and Daniele Scarpa of Italy won the 1,000-meter, two-man kayak.

Cycling

Miguel Indurain of Spain, five-time winner of the Tour de France, won the gold medal in the men’s cycling time trials with a time of 1 hour, 4 minutes, 5 seconds. His countryman, Abraham Olano, took the silver medal and Chris Boardman of Britain got the bronze in 1:04:36. Bjarne Riis of Denmark, who ended Indurain’s string of five straight victories this year, finished 14th.

Lance Armstrong, the best men’s cyclist in America, was sixth, in 1:06:28. Russia’s Zulfiya Zabirova won the gold in the women’s individual time trials in 36:40.

Equestrian

Isabell Werth of Germany won the gold medal in individual dressage, beating two Dutch riders. Werth, aboard Gigolo, had an overall score of 235.09 points. After holding third place for the first two days, American Michelle Gibson faltered in the freestyle and finished fifth.

Rhythmic gymnastics

Ekaterina Serebryanskaya did poorly in her second event, the clubs, but came back with two near-perfect routines to finish first in the semifinals with 39.332 points. Her Ukranian teammate, Elena Vitrichenko, was second with 39.266.

Team handball (women)

Denmark rallied to force overtime, then won the gold medal in its first Olympic appearance, defeating two-time defending champion South Korea 37-33.

In the bronze-medal game, goalie Aniko Meksz made a key last-minute save on a penalty shot, enabling Hungary to defeat Norway 20-18.

Tennis

Top-seeded Andre Agassi won the men’s gold medal, defeating two-time French Open champion Sergi Bruguera of Spain 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. Bruguera committed 60 unforced errors. Agassi is the first American to win the gold in men’s singles since Vincent Richards in 1924. Leander Paes claimed India’s first Olympic medal in any sport since 1980, beating Brazilian Fernando Meligeni 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 for the bronze.

Americans Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez defended their title in women’s doubles, defeating Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (8-6), 6-4. The American team also won in 1992 in Barcelona.

Track and field

The U.S. men’s 400-meter relay team, minus Carl Lewis, was beaten by Canada. It was the first outright loss in Olympic history for the Americans.

Gwen Torrence, who had hoped to win three gold medals at her hometown Olympics, finally got her first by anchoring the U.S. women’s 400-meter relay team to victory in 41.95 - the fastest time in the world this year.

The U.S. also won both 1,600-meter relays.

World champion Noureddine Morceli of Algeria won a rough men’s 1,500 meters in 3:35.78. Russia’s Svetlana Masterkova added the women’s 1,500-meter title to the 800 she won previously, winning in 4:00.83. World record-holder Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria won the women’s high jump at 6-8-3/4. And world record-holder Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic repeated as men’s javelin champion at 289-3.

Burundi’s Venuste Niyongabo was the surprise winner in the men’s 5,000, becoming the first athlete from his country ever to win an Olympic medal. (See page C1.)

Volleyball (women)

Cuba defeated China 14-16, 15-12, 17-16, 15-6 to win the gold medal. Brazil won its first volleyball medal, beating Russia 15-13, 4-15, 16-14, 8-15, 15-13 for the bronze. The loss left Russia off the medals stand for the first time in the eight Olympics it has competed.