Briefly

Badminton

Both Americans in singles badminton - Kevin Han and Erika Van Heiland - lost in the opening round.

Baseball

The Americans (3-0) hit four homers, two by Mark Kotsay, who also doubled and had four RBIs, in a 15-3 win over Italy.

Beach volleyball

USA’s Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes were 15-7 winners over Italy’s Andrea Ghiurghi and Nicola Grigolo. USA’s Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh won 15-10 over Australia’s Julien Prosser and Lee Zahner.

Boxing

Light heavyweight Antonio Tarver struggled to a 5-2 opening-round win over Russia’s Dmitry Vybornov in a nearly punchless bout that left even U.S. fans booing his performance. At 139 pounds, David Diaz stopped Jacobo Garcia of the Virgin Islands in the third round to give Americans a 9-1 record.

Cycling

Erin Hartwell won America’s first silver medal in cycling since the 1984 Games, finishing second in the 1-kilometer time trial.

Equestrian

Australia won the gold medal in the three-day event. The United States took the silver, with New Zealand taking the bronze.

Fencing

Russia beat Hungary 45-25 for its second straight gold medal in team sabre.

Field hockey

The U.S. men remained winless after a 4-0 loss to India.

Gymnastics

China’s Li Xiaoshuang, the world champion, won the all-around title, edging Russia’s Alexei Nemov. Six-time gold medalist Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus finished third. The Americans turned in their best performance in the all-around since 1984, as John Roethlisberger finished seventh, Blaine Wilson 10th and John Macready 29th.

Judo

Kenzo Nakamura beat Kwak Dae-sung of South Korea 2-1 for the men’s gold in the lightweight division. American Jim Pedro earned the bronze. Driulis Gonzalez of Cuba won the women’s lightweight gold.

Rowing

The U.S. women’s eight caught Canada in the final 100 meters to win its repechage and reach the finals.

Soccer

The U.S. team was eliminated by a 1-1 tie with Portugal. The Americans have never advanced past the first round at the Olympics. The game drew 58,012, a record for a sports event at RFK Stadium in Washington.

Softball

The unbeaten U.S. softball team won its fourth game, topping Taiwan 4-0.

Shooting

Aleksandra Ivosev of Yugoslavia won the women’s three-position rifle event.

Swimming

Ireland’s Michelle Smith won her third gold medal, taking the 200-meter individual medley (See Page A1). The Americans won their eighth gold and 18th overall medal as the women took the 400 medley relay. Russia’s Denis Pankratov broke his world record in the men’s 100 butterfly (52:27 seconds).

Team handball

Sweden posted a 23-19 victory over the United States in the opening game for both teams.

Tennis

American Richey Reneberg, slated to play both singles and doubles, aggravated a groin injury and had to quit in the third set of his opening match. American women went 3-0 in first-round singles, with Mary Joe Fernandez and Lindsay Davenport winning.

Volleyball

The Chinese took advantage of American mistakes and earn a 15-8, 15-2, 12-15, 15-12 win.

Water polo

The United States beat Croatia 10-8 to finish second in its preliminary group.

Weightlifting

Cuba’s Pablo Lara tore a callus on his right ring finger during the second of his three lifts in the snatch, missed his final one, but came back in the clean-and-jerk to win the 167-1/2-pound weight class. Lara combined to lift 810 pounds, 11 shy of his world record.

Yachting

For the second time in three days, a thunderstorm forced the postponement of many races.