Beijing Olympics 2008 news, information and result

China made history today by winning its first Olympic gold medal in the Team event of Women's Gymnastics. China won the gold medal with a total of 188.900 points.

The United States won the silver medal with a total of 186.525 points and Romania won the bronze with a total of 181.525 points.

China entered the Team final as favorites, but it was pushed all the way by a determined United States. The two sides' first rotation was the Vault, with the United States taking a slender lead.

The second rotation for China and the United States was the Uneven Bars, which is regarded as China's specialty. China did not disappoint, gaining the lead with a dominant display on the apparatus.

He Kexin and Yang Yilin were outstanding in the Uneven Bars, scoring 16.850 and 16.800 respectively. Despite the best efforts of the United States' Nastia Liukin, who scored 16.900, the United States could not overcome China's dominance of the apparatus.

The United States gained slightly more points than China in the Balance Beam, a rotation that was marked by the mistakes of the United States' Alicia Sacramone and China's Cheng Fei. Sacramone was clearly affected by her mistake and also performed poorly in the next rotation, the Floor Exercise.

August 13, 2008

Paes-Bhupathi enter Olympic quarter-finals

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi cruised into the quarter-finals of the Beijing Olympics with a straight sets win over Brazilian duo of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa.

The seventh seeded Indian pair beat Melo-Sa 6-4, 6-2 in the pre-quarters on Wednesday.

They will meet the winner of the match between fourth seeds Roger Federer/Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov/Mikhail Youzhny.

Tennis world No 1 Roger Federer was effusive in praise of American swimming sensation Michael Phelps after he became the greatest Olympian of all time at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old American won two more gold medals — from the men’s 200 metre butterfly and 200m freestyle relay — in Beijing to take his career tally to an unprecedented 11 victories. That saw him overtake an elite group including Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis who had won nine golds.

“What he’s doing is quite incredible. He has been doing it for so many years,” said Federer who is attempting to win a first Olympic tennis gold.

“He’s doing it in different competitions at different lengths. He’s very impressive and he’s one of the greatest athletes out there at the moment.”

Australia’s Stephanie Rice won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s swimming 200 metres individual medley on Wednesday, breaking the world record.

Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry won the silver and Natalie Coughlin of the United States the bronze.

American cyclist Kristin Armstrong won the women’s Olympic time trial on Wednesday, beating Britain’s Emma Pooley who took home the silver.

Switzerland’s Karin Thurig won bronze in the 23.5-km race against the clock.

Although the cyclists were spaced two minutes apart, Armstrong passed two riders — the last one about 100 metres from the finish — as she raced her way to a gold medal.

Taiwan Olympic baseball player Chang Tai-shan has tested positive for a banned substance in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) check, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday.

Taiwan were playing their opening Olympic game against the Netherlands on Wednesday morning and Chang was not part of the starting line-up.

The island’s baseball association has applied to WADA to have Chang take another urine test, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.

The player may have taken a Chinese cold medication that contains a banned substance, an official with Taiwan’s Olympic Committee told Reuters. Players were advised to avoid these medications during the Games, he said.

India’s archery challenge in the Beijing Olympics came to an end with Mangal Singh Champia failing to replicate his ranking round form and crashing out in pre-quarterfinals in the men’s individual section in Beijing on Wednesday.

Champia, who sizzled in the ranking round to finish overall second, was pipped by Russian Bair Badenov 109-108 at the Olympic Green Archery Field.

Incidentally, Badenov had shot 658 — way below Champia’s 678 — in the ranking round but when it mattered the most, it was the Russian archer who raised his game and clinched the issue.

Earlier in the day, Champia had little problem in sweeping aside Vaezi Hojjatolah of Ireland 112-98.

China made history on Wednesday by winning its first Olympic gold medal in the Team event of women’s gymnastics. They won the gold medal with a total of 188.900 points.

The United States won the silver medal with a total of 186.525 points and Romania won the bronze with a total of 181.525 points.

Michael Phelps claimed his fourth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics and then helped his American team win the 4 x 100 m freestyle and make it five wins from five, in fact five world records from five, at these Games.

He now has 11 Olympic gold medals.

He is still on course to break the old record of seven golds at one Games, held by Mark Spitz.

He first shaved 0.06 seconds off the World 200m butterfly record and then he and his team mates - Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay — sliced 4.68 seconds off the World record to win the 4 x 100m freestyle gold in 6:58.56 second, with Russia a distant second and Australia third.

Australia’s Eamon Sullivan regained the world record for the men’s 100 metres freestyle within minutes of losing it to Frenchman Alain Bernard during the semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.

Bernard shaved 0.04 off Sullivan’s previous record of 47.24, set during the final of Monday’s 4×100 freestyle relay, when he won his semi-final in 47.20.

But Sullivan snatched it straight back when he won the second semi-final in 47.05 to go into Thursday’s final as the fastest qualifier.

Federica Pellegrini broke her own world record to win the women’s 200 meters freestyle at Beijing’s Water Cube on Wednesday and become the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming.

Pellegrini powered her way to victory in one minute 54.82 seconds to shave 0.63 off the previous world record of 1:55.45 she set in Monday’s heats.

Slovenia’s European champion Sara Isakovic finished second to take the silver medal in 1:54.97 while the bronze went to China’s Pang Jiaying in 1:55.05 as the first three finishers all went under the old world record.

Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal bowed out of the women’s singles in the badminton competition at the Olympics, losing to Indonesia’s Kristin Maria Yulianti in the quarter-finals.

The 18-year-old, playing in her first Olympics, was beaten 28-26, 14-21, 15-21 by the world No 16.

American swimmer Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympian of all time when he won his 10th gold medal on Wednesday and his fourth of the Beijing Games.

The mighty Phelps broke his own world record to continue his dominance in the Water Cube pool and overtake an elite group including Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis who had won nine golds.

The 23-year-old showed little apparent emotion after winning the men’s 200 metre butterfly in 1.52.03, knocking six hundredths of a second off his world record. Each of his four medals in Beijing have come in world best times.

Phelps is now halfway to surpassing Spitz’s record of seven golds in one games.

Alain Bernard of France broke the men’s swimming 100 metres freestyle world record in the semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.

Bernard clocked 47.20 seconds to beat the previous world record of 47.24 set by Australia’s Eamon Sullivan as the lead-off swimmer in the 4×100m freestyle relay final on Monday.

BEIJING – Michael Phelps winning his second gold of the Beijing Olympics and his teammates set a record in winning the 4x100 freestyle relay, barely beating France in three minutes, 8.24 seconds. Michael Phelps is trying to win eight golds at the Beijing Games. “You could tell I was pretty excited, “I lost my voice and I was definitely pretty emotional out there." said Phelps.

Kosuke Kitajima of Japan defended his 100-meter breaststroke Olympic title in a record time of 58.91 seconds, and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe shaved two tenths of a second off the 100-meter backstroke record to win her semifinal in 58.77 seconds.

The first positive doping test at the Beijing Games also was announced Monday. Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno was ousted from the games after testing positive for EPO, a blood-boosting hormone that enhances endurance.

The International Olympic Committee said Moreno, who was to compete in the women’s individual time trial, was tested in the athletes’ village on July 31 and left China later that day before the result was in.

Moreno is the first athlete caught under the IOC’s Beijing drug-testing program, which includes a record 4,500 doping controls.

In the swimming pool, Phelps’ hopes of breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in a single games appeared doomed when the French team took the lead of the relay at the 250-meter mark.

They were 4.03 seconds under world-record pace at 350 meters before Jason Lezak, the oldest American male swimmer at 32, rallied over the closing strokes. Nearly a body length behind Alain Bernard at the final turn, he overtook the Frenchman at the wall by a fingertip.

After winning seven straight golds in the event, the Americans were beaten by Australia and South Africa at the last two Olympics.

“I’ve been on the last two relays where we come up short," Lezak said. “To be honest with you I got really tired of losing. I finished real strong."

The US team shattered the world record of 3:12.23 they set Sunday in the preliminaries. Australia won bronze in 3:09.91.

Phelps, who swam the first leg, thrust both arms toward the roof after Lezak’s incredible finish.

“I was going nuts," Phelps said. “As soon as (Lezak) came off that last wall, I started going crazy. We’re a team. We went in as a team and now we’re exiting as a team — and we’re going out with that gold that we needed to get back."

Phelps also advanced to the 200 freestyle final, qualifying fourth-fastest in his semifinal in 1:46.28, a day after he shattered the 400 individual medley world record to win his first gold medal. The American lost his heat to teammate Peter Vanderkaay, whose time of 1:45.76 made him the leading qualifier for Tuesday’s final. Park Tae-hwan of South Korea was second-fastest, followed by Jean Basson of South Africa.

Coventry broke the record of 58.97 set by Natalie Coughlin at last month’s US trials. The two are the fastest going into Tuesday’s final.

In the men’s 100 breaststroke, Kitajima rallied from third after 50 meters to break the 59.13 world record set by Brendan Hansen of the United States two years ago.

“It was perfect," Kitajima said.

Libby Trickett captured her first Olympic gold in the women’s 100 butterfly in 56.73 seconds, just 0.12 off the world record, and Rebecca Adlington of Britain rallied in the final meters to overhaul Katie Hoff of the United States and take the gold in the 400 freestyle in 4:03.22.

Hoff was second in 4:03.29, Joanne Jackson of Britain won the bronze in 4:03.52.

Medals will also be awarded Monday in weightlifting, with the women competing in the 58-kilogram category and the men at 62 kg, and in the women’s individual foil in fencing. Shooting will hold the men’s 10-meter air rifle and the women’s trap finals, while the men will compete for the 10-meter platform synchronized diving gold.