Day 14 Review

(BEIJING, August 22) -- So much to talk about from Day Fourteen of Beijing 2008 – The Unites States "Dream Team" redeeming itself by reaching the Men's Basketball final and China's triumphant trio of Women's Table Tennis medalists, is just one part.

But where else can we start than the National Stadium where the undisputed king and queen of the track have reigned supreme: middle distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba and the sprint-king man of the moment Usain Bolt, whose world record breaking, gold medal grabbing antics just keep on rolling.

Let's start with Bolt. Tonight was Jamaica's chance to seize their first 4 x 100 meters final – a relative breeze with defending champions Great Britain and traditional powerhouse, the United States, both disqualified.

So did Bolt, Asafa Powell, Nesta Carter, and Michael Frater simply stroll around the Birds Nest – not for a moment. Instead they set a new world record of 37.10. Bolt's third this week. Trinidad and Tobago captured silver, while Japan took the bronze.

However it wasn't quite the same Jamaican joy in the Women's 4 x 100m though, who joined in the baton-dropping mayhem that beset the United States Men's and Women's teams.

Guilty parties this time were 100m silver medalist Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart of Jamaica, who fumbled the baton, and knocked Great Britain off track with them.

The Russia quartet Evgeniya Polyakova, Aleksandra Fedoriva, Yulia Gushchina and Yuliya Chermoshanskaya seized their chance to win in a time of 42.31. The silver medal went to Belgium and bronze to Nigeria.

That overtook what was an equally enthralling performance of the night - Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia lapping the competition to win the gold medal in the Women's 5000m in a time of 15:41.40, and in the process grabbing a unique middle distance double after also winning the Women's 10000m gold medal earlier in the week.

The race was billed as a showdown between 23-year-old Dibaba, and defending champion, fellow Ethiopian Meseret Defar. However Dibaba proved too strong for her compatriot, and indeed Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey, who once again trailed in behind Dibaba as she had in the 10,000 meters, claimed her second silver medal of the Beijing Games, to accompany the couplet of medals she collected from the 2007 World Championship over the same distances.

No doubt about the iron man of the last two days. American Bryan Clay of the United States led the Decathlon from start to finish with a gold medal total of 8791 points

Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus took the silver medal with 8551 points, and Leonel Suarez of Cuba, the bronze with 8527 points. Decathlon world record holder and defending Olympic champion, Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic, came in sixth.

Elsewhere in the field events, Maurren Higa Maggi won Brazil's second gold medal of the Games when she leaped a season's best of 7.04m to win the Women's Long Jump to end Russian Tatyana Lebedeva's dominance in the event. The Athens 2004 champion, who won three of the last four world championships, took silver. The bronze medal went to Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria, who jumped a personal best 6.91m. Athens 2004 Heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft of Sweden, who decided to concentrate on the Long and Triple Jumps in Beijing 2008, finished a disappointing ninth.

Australia's Steve Hooker won the Men's Pole Vault in a new Olympic record height of 5.96 meters, which nudged the United States' Tim Mack's Athens 2004 effort of 5.95 meters off the record books.

World Indoor champion Evgeny Lukyanenko of Russia, couldn't better 5.85m, so had to settle for the silver medal. Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine claimed bronze.

Earlier in the day, Alex Schwarzer of Italy won the Men's 50km Walk in a new Olympic Games record time of three hours and 37.09 minutes. The silver medal went to Jared Tallent of Australia, who was bronze medalist in the Men's 20km Walk last Saturday (August 16), with Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia taking bronze.

Great Britain were top finishers in the Men's 4 x 400m Relay heats, with The Bahamas and the United States the second and third top-qualifying teams.

Defending Olympic champion the United States qualified fastest in the Women's 4 x 400m relay ahead of Jamaica and Russia.

Away from athletics, no doubt where the most domestic interest was - the Peking University Gymnasium where China's Women's Singles Table Tennis players scoped gold, silver and bronze medals in line with their world ranking status.

World No. 1 Zhang Yining beat teammate Wang Nan 4-2 to win the Women's Singles gold medal, while Guo Yue downed Singapore's Li Jiawei to claim the bronze.

From trebling up to doubling up -- Philip Dalhausser and Todd Rogers made it a United States' Men's and Women's Beach Volleyball double gold by defeating Fabio Magalhaes and Marcio Araujo of Brazil in the Men's final. Athens 2004 gold medalists Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego also of Brazil, thumped Georgian duo Jorge Terceiro and Renato Gomes in straight sets today to take the bronze medal.

 

However, it was Europe's day among the six finals, with another six to come tomorrow (August 23) at the culmination of the Beijing 2008 Canoe/Kayak competition at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

Germany won two of the day's gold medals: Fanny Fischer, Nicole Reinhardt, Katrin Wagner-Augustin and Conny Wassmuth retained their country's title from Athens 2004 in the Women's Flatwater Kayak Four (K4) 500m; while Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle edged out defending Olympic champion Swedish pair, Markus Oscarsson and Anders Gustafsson in the Men's K2 1000m final.

Belarus hadn't won an Olympic Canoe/Kayak gold medal before today – then suddenly found itself with two in the space of 15 minutes.

First, Andrei Bahdanovich and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich claimed the Men's Flatwater C2 1000 meter title, beating defending Olympic champions Christian Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek of Germany into second spot –then teammates Aliaksei Abalmasau and Artur Litvinchuk triumphed in the Kayak Four (K4) 1000 meter final.

It was a case of just what the doctor ordered for Great Britain's Tim Brabant, winner of the Men's Kayak Single (K1) 1000m final. The 31-year-old Sydney bronze medalist ranked fifth in Athens and went into semi-retirement while concentrating on the completion of his medical studies and to begin work as a doctor. He returned to the water in 2006 and two years on has an Olympic medal to swing next to his stethoscope.

Hungary's Attila Sandor Vajda took the day's other gold medal in the Men's Flatwater C1 1000 meter class.

The first-ever Olympic BMX Cycling medals were awarded. World Champion Maris Strombergs of Latvia kept a cool head in the Men's race to carve a narrow victory ahead of Americans Mike Day and Donny Robinson.

Anne-Caroline Chausson of France won the Women's gold with pre-race favorite Shanaze Reade of Great Britain crashing out to finish last.

Lena Schoneborn of Germany took the Women's Modern Pentathlon title in with a total score of 5792 points. Heather Fell added to Great Britain's amazing Beijing medal tally by taking silver with 5752 points, with Ukraine's Victoria Tereshuk claiming the bronze with 5672 points. France's Amelie Caze, ranked world No.1 by the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) finished a disappointing ninth.

In the day two Taekwondo finals, Hwang Kyung-seon of the Republic of Korea defeated world champion Karine Sergerie of Canada 2-1 to win the Women's -67kg weight division, while Iranian veteran Hadi Saei won his second Olympic gold medal by defeating Italian Mauro Sarmiento in the final of the Men's -80kg division.

Elsewhere it was pretty much men's semifinals day except for one women's final – with host China appearing in its first ever Women's Hockey final against the Netherlands.

Alas, China couldn't repeat their stunning semifinal victory over world champion Germany, with the Dutch team coming out on top 2-0 to claim their first Olympic Women's Hockey gold since Los Angeles 1984.

And so to that glut of men's semifinals, where else can we start than arguably the best known team at Beijing 2008 – Team USA – basketball's so-called "dream team" which some commentators have sneakily suggested are more a "redeem team" on a mission to rescue the United States wounded pride at losing the coveted Olympic Men's Basketball crown in Athens to ….yep, you guessed it ….their semifinal opponents Argentina.

So did the dream team get revenge? You bet – wracking up another century of points to win 101-81. They will now face Spain in the final, which edged out Lithuania 91-86.

The United States are also through to the Men's Volleyball final after coming though a gritty 25-22, 25-21, 25-27, 22-25, 15-13 semifinal against Russia, and will face World No.1 Brazil, which defeated Italy 19-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22, in Sunday's (August 24) final.

And the US will contest the Men's Water Polo final, having easily disposed of Serbia 10-5, with Hungary coming from behind to beat Montenegro 11-9 to take the place in another final scheduled for Sunday.

However it didn't go the USA's way -- in the day's Baseball semifinal, Cuba's sluggers clobbered five pitchers with four homeruns to seize a berth in the final to defeat the United States, 10-2. The Republic of Korea beat Japan 6-2 in the all-Asia clash, to take its place in the final.

The Men's Handball semifinals saw France narrowly carve out 25-23 victory over defending champions Croatia and they will now meet Iceland in the final - 36-30 victors

It was also Boxing semifinals day with bouts in all 11 weight categories. Too many to list here but some of the highlights include light-flyweight Zou Shiming taking a step closer to winning China's first-ever Boxing gold medal when he comprehensively defeated Paddy Barnes of Ireland.

Zou's opponent in the final will be Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia, who has fought cleverly throughout the tournament.

Great Britain's James DeGale continues to be a breath of fresh air as he rampages through the tournament. The British middleweight easily beat Darren John Sutherland of Ireland 10-3. However, the British boxer may need to temper his natural exuberance in his gold medal bout against Cuban Emilio Correa Bayeaux – and world champion heavyweight Clemente Russo of Italy beat the United States' Deontay Wilder but made an unimpressive start to the bout.

Finally in the Men's Football bronze medal play off Brazil easily beat Belgium 3-0 thanks to two goals from Jo and one by Diego.

That is your round up of another busy day in Beijing – just two more action-packed days to go.