Summer olympics briefs

Track and field

Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas won the gold medal in the 400-meter run with a time of 49.41 seconds. Ana Guevara of Mexico got the silver medal and Natalya Antyukh of Russia won the bronze.

Kenyans swept the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Ezekiel Kemboi won the gold in 8:05.81. Brimin Kipruto got the silver medal and Paul Kipsiele Koech took the bronze.

Women’s basketball

In women’s classification games, Nigeria earned its first win of the competition, beating winless South Korea 68-64 to finish 11th. The Nigerians, making their first appearance at the Olympics, celebrated in the middle of the court after the game. China outscored Japan 31-15 in the fourth quarter, to win 82-63 for ninth place.

Men’s basketball

Serbia-Montenegro, the two-time defending world champion, beat Angola 85-62 to finish 11th in the Olympic men’s tournament. Australia’s Shane Heal was carried off the court on his teammates’ shoulders after Australia beat 98-80 in the game for ninth place. The four-time Olympian scored 30 points in his last game. Heal, 33, has announced his retirement from basketball.

Baseball

Brendan Kingman’s sixth-inning single sent Australia to a 1-0 victory over stunned Japan, putting the Aussies in the gold medal baseball game.

Australia will play Cuba for the title, after the Cubans rallied to beat Canada 8-5 in the other semifinal. Japan faces Canada for the bronze.

Wrestling

Rulon Gardner, trying to become the first U.S. Greco-Roman wrestler to win two golds, had a busy day.

He started in the 264 1/2 -pound (120kg) competition with a workmanlike 3-0 victory over Lithuania’s Mindaugas Mizgaitis, followed it with a tie-breaking decision over 1996 Olympic bronze medalist Sergei Moreyko of Bulgaria and, about five hours later, a 3-0 decision over Poland’s Marek Mikulski.

The other three Americans, Dennis Hall, Petr Svehla and Brad Vering, were all eliminated. Oscar Wood, of Fort Carson, Colo., lost three bouts at 145 1/2 pounds (66kg).

Boxing

Andre Ward saved the U.S. boxing team from its most embarrassing Olympics ever by upsetting two-time world champion Evgeny Makarenko of Russia in a light heavyweight bout few gave him a chance to win. Ward won 23-16.

Women’s water polo

Manuela Zanchi scored with two seconds left to give Italy a 6-5 upset victory over the world champion Americans, setting up a matchup against Greece in the women’s final.

Greece beat defending Olympic champion Australia 6-2. The United States will play Australia for bronze in a rematch of the Sydney 2000 final.

Volleyball

Erika Coimbra scored 20 points to lead unbeaten Brazil to a five-set quarterfinal victory over the United States.

The Americans overcame erratic serving and several unforced errors to rally from two sets down and send it to a fifth set. The drama quickly disappeared, though, when the Brazilians took an 8-2 lead, and the gold medal hopes of the U.S. team vanished a few minutes later.

The Brazilians advance to play Russia in the semifinals on Thursday.

China, which beat Japan in straight sets, will face Cuba, which outlasted Italy in five sets, in the other semifinal.

Canoe-kayak

Kayak racer Rami Zur, a former Israeli Olympian with American citizenship, nearly won his 500-meter single kayak (K-1) heat race, finishing only .26 seconds behind winner Alan van Coller of South Africa.

Meanwhile, the German pair of seven-time gold medalist Birgit Fischer and 22-year-old Carolin Leonhardt (born four years after Fischer’s first gold in Moscow in 1980) led their 500-meter race from beginning to end, getting a bye straight to Saturday’s final.

Women’s field hockey

In a matchup of 2000 medalists, the Netherlands defeated Argentina 4-2 on penalty strokes after playing to a 2-2 tie score after regulation and overtime.

The Dutch will face Germany, who beat China 4-3 on penalty strokes after a 0-0 tie, for the gold medal Thursday.

Men’s team handball

Hungary beat South Korea 30-25 to advance to the semifinals and will face 2003 world champion Croatia, which defeated host Greece 33-27.

In the other semifinal, Russia, the defending Olympic champion, eliminated France 26-24 and will meet a German team that beat Spain 32-30 in a shootout. The two teams were tied at 27 after regulation, 28 after one overtime and 30 after two.

Sailing

American sailors Tim Wadlow and Pete Spaulding finished 10th and 11th in their first two races, losing their chance to win a medal in their first Olympics because of the fickle shifts in the Meltemi wind.

In one race, they picked the left side of the course and watched the wind swing dramatically to the right. In the next race, they went to the right and the wind went left. They won their third race, but by then it was too late.

Cycling

Ryan Bayley rallied to upset Dutch world champion Theo Bos 2-1 in the track sprint final, taking his first major title and confirming Australia’s dominance of the Olympic cycling tournament. Rene Wolff of Germany won the bronze.

In the women’s event, Canadian veteran Lori-Ann Muenzer beat Russia’s Tamilla Abassova for Canada’s first cycling gold medal. Australia’s Anna Meares, the time trial gold medalist, took bronze.

Russian teenager Mikhail Ignatyev upset the favorites to win the points race, relying on his endurance to beat Spain’s Joan Llaneras (silver) and German Guido Fulst (bronze).

Swimming

Russia, with 99.001 points, and Japan, with 98.000, have locked up the top two spots in the duet free preliminary routine. Americans Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova were third with 96.751.

The top 12 teams advanced to tonight’s final.

Diving

China’s Peng Bo held off Canadian teenager Alexandre Despatie and four-time Olympian Dmitri Sautin of Russia to win the 3-meter springboard, giving the Chinese men their third straight gold medal in the event.

American Troy Dumais finished sixth.

Weightlifting

Dmitri Berestov of Russia won the Olympic 231 pounds (105kg) weightlifting gold — his first title against world-level competition.

Ferenc Gyurkovics of Hungary was the silver medalist, putting up an Olympic record 429 pounds in the snatch that was quickly matched by Berestov.

Bronze medalist Igor Razoronov of Ukraine missed a final attempt of 511 1/2 pounds in the clean and jerk that would have given him the gold.

Equestrian

The Germans clinched their third equestrian team gold in as many Olympics — even before their last rider finished with eight total faults — followed by the United States and Sweden for silver and bronze.