Summer olympics briefly

Men’s basketball

The United States routed overmatched Angola 89-53 in its final game of the preliminary round. Tim Duncan finished with a team-high 15 points in 13 minutes, and the Americans dominated with a 52-17 edge in rebounding as NBA commissioner David Stern watched from a seat 10 rows behind the American bench.

The Americans had to wait until Greece defeated Puerto Rico 78-58 in Monday’s final game to learn their next opponent, the unbeaten Spanish (5-0). The other quarterfinal matchups will be Greece-Argentina, Puerto Rico-Italy and China-Lithuania.

Robertas Javtokas scored 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Ksistof Lavrinovic added 18 as Lithuania remained unbeaten through five games with a 100-85 victory over Australia.

Spain beat New Zealand 88-84, knocking the Kiwis out of medal contention. Carlos Jimenez made two free throws for a four-point lead with 12.4 seconds remaining.

China then clinched the final quarterfinal berth in Group A by upsetting Serbia-Montenegro 67-66 behind 27 points from Yao Ming. Serbia-Montenegro, the two-time defending world champion, has no chance at a medal and will play Angola for 11th place.

Italy won 76-75 after Massimo Bulleri made two free throws with 3.9 seconds left and Carlos Delfino of Argentina missed a layup at the buzzer.

Track and field

Hungary’s Robert Fazekas won the discus with an Olympic-record toss of 232 feet, 8 inches, beating the past two gold medalists. Lithuania’s Virgilijus Alekna, the defending champion, settled for the silver. Hungary’s Zoltan Kovago took the bronze.

Frangoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon won the gold with a triple jump of 50 feet, 2 1/2 inches (15.30 meters). Chrysopigi Devetzi of Greece won the silver medal. Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia got the bronze.

Kelly Holmes of Britain won the gold medal in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.38. Hasna Benhassi of Morocco won the silver in 1:56.43, while Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia took the bronze with the identical time.

Athanasia Tsoumeleka of Greece won the gold medal in the 20-kilometer walk, holding off Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia in a personal best of 1:29.12. Jane Saville of Australia took bronze.

Meseret Defar of Ethiopia won gold in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 14 minutes, 45.65 seconds. Isabella Ochichi of Kenya won the silver in 14:48.19 seconds. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia took the bronze.

After the first day in the decathlon, Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan leads with 4,689 points, while Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic is second with 4,594. American Bryan Clay is third.

Canoe-kayak

Seven-time kayaking gold medalist Birgit Fischer of Germany — trying to become the first woman to win Olympic medals 24 years apart — had a strong start. Her four-person kayak never trailed in its 500-meter heat.

Cycling

Three quick races, about 40 seconds of hard pedaling time, and it was all over for U.S track cyclist Jennie Reed, who was eliminated from the opening rounds of the sprint competition.

She finished second in the consolation race, placing her 10th in a 12-woman field.

Australia easily defeated Britain for the gold medal in the 4,000-meter team pursuit, adding the Olympic title to its three consecutive world championships in the event. Australia finished in 3:58.233 seconds. Britain finished in 4:01.760.

Spain beat defending gold medalist Germany for the bronze.

Diving

Alexandre Despatie led the Olympic 3-meter springboard preliminaries, keeping the powerful Chinese out of their customary top spot. Despatie, the first Canadian to win a world title on the 10-meter platform last year, was first with 517.59 points. Peng Bo of China was second with 495.45. Russia’s Alexander Dobroskok was third with 489.75.

Equestrian

Debbie McDonald of Hailey, Idaho, moved into contention for an individual dressage medal with an energetic, fault-free round on Brentina that scored 74.840 percent. She moved to fourth overall, with a two-day average of 74.067 percent.

The United States hasn’t won a medal in individual dressage since 1932.

Table tennis

Ryu Seung-min beat China’s Wang Hao in six games, becoming the first South Korean to win the men’s table tennis gold medal since the sport was added at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

Ryu, ranked third in the world, won 11-3, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-13, 11-9, ending China’s long run of men’s singles titles. Wang Liqin of China won the bronze.

Men’s water polo

Hungary finished preliminaries unbeaten and secured an automatic semifinal place in Olympic water polo by edging Russia 7-6 in a rematch of the Sydney 2000 final.

Aleksander Sapic scored three goals to lead Serbia-Montenegro to a 9-4 win over the United States, ending American hopes of making the Olympic quarterfinals. The United States finished 2-3 after opening with wins against Croatia and Kazakhstan.

Weightlifting

Bulgaria’s Milen Dobrev lived up to his top seeding and took the gold medal in the 207-pound (94 kg) division of the Olympic weightlifting tournament.

Junior world champion Khadjimourad Akkaev, a 19-year-old from Russia, took silver, while fellow Russian Eduard Tjukin got the bronze.

Boxing

American super heavyweight Jason Estrada gave perhaps the most lackluster performance yet by a U.S. boxer, losing a chance for an Olympic medal by dropping a 21-7 decision to Cuba’s Michel Lopez Nunez.

Men’s volleyball

Defending gold medalist Serbia-Montenegro grabbed the top seed in its pool with a grueling five-set victory over upstart Greece. Veteran Vladimir Grbic slammed the winning kill off blocker Theodoros Chatziantoniou to give the Serbs their fourth straight win.

Poland qualified for the last open spot in the quarterfinals with a dramatic five-set victory over Argentina. The Poles (3-2) will play Brazil in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

The U.S. beat Brazil, the No. 1 team in the world, in a match where both teams used their reserves extensively. Both teams had already clinched spots in the next round. The Americans finished pool play at 3-2, winning a tiebreaker over Russia for third place, and will face host Greece in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Serguey Tetyukhin scored 18 points to help Russia hold on for a five-set victory over Italy, but the Italians — by avoiding a sweep — won the tiebreaker and took second in Pool B.

Beach volleyball

Brazilians Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar defeated Australians Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson 21-17, 21-16. Second-seeded Brazil will play top-seeded Americans Misty May and Kerri Walsh for the gold medal today.

In men’s action, Spaniards Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera ousted Australians Julien Prosser and Mark Williams 21-18, 21-18. In the gold medal match, Spain will face top-ranked Brazilians Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos, who outlasted fifth-seeded Swiss pair Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel 21-14, 19-21, 15-12 in the other semifinal.

Swimming

Russia and Japan held down their customary 1-2 spots, and the United States duo of Anna Kozlova and Alison Bartosik was in third after the duet technical routine of synchronized swimming.