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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Briefly

Compiled From Wire Services

Basketball

With a 111-87 victory over Brazil, the United States women won the final gold of the games. The Americans swept through eight Olympic opponents, moving their record to 60-0 since they began their quest for the gold less than a year ago. (See page C1.) Lisa Leslie led the Americans with 29 points.

The Australians won the country’s first basketball medal with a 66-56 victory over Ukraine in the bronze medal game. Michelle Brogan led the Aussies with 19 points and 12 rebounds.(See page C1.)

Boxing

American David Reid needed a knockout to get a gold medal. He got one against Alfredo Duvergel, finishing off the Cuban at 36 seconds of the third round in their 156-pound final. The knockout came with Reid trailing on points 16-6. (See page C1.)

When Duvergel hit the floor, Reid spun and went to a neutral corner. “I looked back and saw he couldn’t get up and I was excited,” Reid said. “I finally fulfilled my dreams. Oh man!”

Reid was complimented by Muhammad Ali.

Americans also earned five bronze medals, and the total of six doubled the total the U.S. team won at Barcelona four years ago.

Cuba picked up two more golds medals and finished with five golds and two silvers. Maiko Romero rallied for a 12-11 decision over Bulat Dzumadilov of Kazakstan, and Hector Vinent, a 1992 Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion, outpointed European champion Oktay Urkal of Germany at 139 pounds.

In other finals, Vasilii Jirov of Kazakstan outpointed Lee Seung-Bae of South Korea 17-4 at 178 pounds, and Vladimir Klichko of Ukraine outpointed Paea Wolfgram of Tonga 7-3 at super heavyweight.(See page C1.)

Canoe-Kayak

Martin Doktor of the Czech Republic came from behind in the men’s 500-meter canoe to win his second gold medal. Italian policeman Antonio Rossi also earned a second gold, winning the 500-meter kayak by defeating Knut Holmann of Norway, winner of the 1,000 kayak.

Birgit Fischer of Germany tied an Olympic record for the most canoe and kayak medals, getting a silver in the two-woman kayak to give her eight overall medals. Germans Kay Bluhm and Torsten Gutsch successfully defended their championship in the 500 meters.

Rita Koban of Hungary won the women’s singles 500 kayak.

Equestrian

Ulrich Kirchhoff of Germany, on Jus de Pommes, won the gold medal in show jumping. The silver medal went to Willi Melliger of Switzerland, on Calvaro, while Alexandra Ledermann of France, on Rochet M, took the bronze.

Rhythmic gymnastics

Ekaterina Serebryanskaya of Ukraine earned perfect 5s in composition for each of her four routines and finished with 39.683 points to win the individual all-around gold medal.

Team handball (Men)

Croatia won its first-ever gold medal before a record crowd of some 32,000 for men’s team handball, beating Sweden 27-26. Croatia fans sang through much of the game and waved their nation’s red-and-white checkered flag and bundles of red-and-white balloons.

Spain got the bronze with a 27-25 victory over world champion France.

Track and field

In the closest marathon in Olympic history, Josia Thugwane pulled ahead to stay over the final mile and became the first black South African to win Olympic gold. Thugwane won by three seconds over Lee Bong-ju of South Korea in 2 hours, 12 minutes, 36 seconds. Eric Wainaina of Kenya was third, only eight seconds behind the winner.

Volleyball (Men)

The Netherlands’ streak of second-place finishes ended with a 15-12, 9-15, 16-14, 9-15, 17-15 victory over Italy. The gold medal game was befitting a matchup between the top two teams in the world. It was the second time in less than two months that the No. 2 Dutch beat the No. 1 Italians.

Yugoslavia beat Russia 15-8, 7-15, 15-8, 15-9 for the bronze. Yugoslavia had been kept out of the 1992 Games because of United Nations sanctions due to the civil war.