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Gatlin blazes to 100-meter title

Russian gold medalist in shot put test positive for drugs

Stuart Franklin / Getty Images
Justin Gatlin, right, crosses the finish line first ahead of Francis Obikwelu of Portugal, left, and U.S. teammate Shawn Crawford in Sunday's 100 meters.
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Denmark's Olympic champion women's handball team celebrate gold at Athens 2004 Olympic Games
  Visions of gold: Aug. 29
Demark throws for handball gold, Argentina takes it to the net and Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis jumps for joy.
updated 7:42 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2004

Justin Gatlin ran the race of his life, barely holding off a fast field to win the men's 100 meters in 9.85 seconds.

Francis Obikwelu of Portugal won the silver in 9.86, and defending champion Maurice Greene won bronze in 9.87. A third American, Shawn Crawford, was fourth in 9.89.

Five runners broke the 10-second mark, and another — world champion Kim Collins — finished in exactly 10 seconds.

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It was the closest finish in an Olympic 100 final since the U.S.-boycotted 1980 Moscow Games, when Allan Wells of Britain held off Silvio Leonard of Cuba as the two were timed in 10.25.

Gail Devers, the most talented yet star-crossed hurdler of her generation, failed once again in the Olympics as she was struck by injury in preliminaries of the 100-meter hurdles.

Devers, 37, who has three world championships in the 100-meter hurdles, pulled up short and screamed as she slid under the first hurdle. She hurt her leg in practice a week ago but has refused to discuss the injury in detail.

Mizuki Noguchi of Japan won the marathon in 2:26:20, retracing the historic route from Marathon to Athens. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya won the silver, and American Deena Kastor got the bronze — the first U.S. medal in the event since Joan Benoit’s gold 20 years ago.

Fani Halkia of Greece thrilled the sold-out Olympic Stadium crowd with an Olympic record of 52.77 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles semifinals. The old record was 52.82, set by Jamaica’s Deon Hemmings at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Stefan Holm of Sweden won the high jump, clearing 7 feet, 8¾ inches (2.36 meters). Matt Hemingway of the United States took the silver and Jaroslav Baba of the Czech Republic the bronze. Both cleared 7-8 (2.34).
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Best of Athens 2004
  Emotional Moments: Aug. 29
Trouble mars the marathon but the Olympic spirit prevails.

Christian Olsson of Sweden won the gold medal with a triple jump of 58-4½ (17.79 meters). Marian Oprea of Romania won silver and Danila Burkenya of Russia got bronze.

Adrian Annus of Hungary won the hammer throw gold medal with an effort of 272-11 inches (83.19 meters). Koji Murofushi of Japan won the silver medal, and Ivan Tikhon of Belarus got the bronze.

Meanwhile, Russian shot put gold medalist Irina Korzhanenko was under investigation for a positive drug test, international and Russian Olympic officials confirmed.

Korzhanenko, the first woman to win a gold medal at the sacred site of Ancient Olympia, tested positive for the steroid stanozolol after Wednesday’s competition, Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets said.

The backup B sample was being analyzed to verify the result. Stanozolol is the same steroid that cost Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson his gold medal in the 100 meters at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Also, Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis was stripped of his bronze medal and expelled from the Olympics for a doping offense, another embarrassment for the host nation. He was the first athlete in Athens to lose his medal because of doping.

Gymnastics
Americans Terin Humphrey and Courtney Kupets took the silver and bronze medals on uneven bars, giving the United States its sixth and seventh gymnastics medals of the Athens Olympics.

Emilie Lepennec of France won the gold. Two-time Olympic champion Svetlana Khorkina of Russia fell during her routine and finished last of he eight competitors.

Humprhey and Kupets joined Annia Hatch, who won silver on the vault, as medalists in the event finals. The Americans also won silver medals in both team competitions and golds in both all-arounds.

The seven medals are the most for the United States in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1932. At the boycotted 1984 Los Angeles Games, the Americans won 16.

Kyle Shewfelt won the men’s floor exercise, giving Canada its first Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. Marian Dragulescu of Romania was second with the same score as Shewfelt, a 9.787, but tiebreakers dropped him to second. Jordan Jovtchev of Bulgaria won bronze.
Paul Hamm, who became the first U.S. man to win all-around gold Wednesday in what has become a disputed finish, was fifth on floor.

Dimosthenis Tampakos of Greece sent the gym into a frenzy, winning gold on the rings with 9.862 points. Jordan Jovtchev of Bulgaria took silver with 9.850 points. Five-time world champion Yuri Chechi of Italy won bronze with 9.812.

Monica Rosu of Romania won the gold medal in the vault, followed by Hatch and Anna Pavlova of Russia.

Teng Haibin of China won gold on the pommel horse with a score of 9.837. Marius Daniel Urzica of Romania won silver with 9.825. Takehiro Kashima of Japan won bronze with 9.787.

In a controversy over men’s gymnastics scoring, South Korean team leaders met with lawyers to plan an appeal of the all-around gold medal given to American Paul Hamm. However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport indicated it won’t take the case.

“If it’s a dispute related to scoring or judging, it would be very difficult for CAS to review the decision of the gymnastics federation,” general secretary Matthieu Reeb said. “As a practice, CAS does not review field-of-play decisions.”

Judges failed to give enough points for the parallel bars routine by Yang Tae-young, and he ended up with the bronze. Had it been scored correctly, he would have beaten Hamm for gold.

Softball
Lisa Fernandez pitched a three-hitter, and Crystl Bustos drove in two runs as the Americans rolled to their eighth shutout in eight days, beating Australia 5-0 to put them in the gold medal game.

Natasha Watley had three more infield hits, Kelly Kretschman homered, and the U.S. team (8-0) dominated again. The Americans have won 78 straight games since July 2003, and have yet to yield a run in the Athens Games.

Reika Utsugi hit an RBI double in the eighth inning, and Yukiko Ueno pitched a shutout, giving Japan a 1-0 win over China. It wasn’t sealed until Li Chunxia was thrown out at the plate to end the game.

Kerry Wyborn hit a three-run double, and Tanya Harding pitched her fourth shutout of the tournament as Australia beat Japan 3-0, setting up a rematch Monday with the United States in the gold medal game.

Baseball
Japan earned the top seed in the medal round by defeating Greece 6-1, while Cuba beat Italy 5-0 to complete group play.

Canada routed Australia 11-0 to earn the No. 3 seed in the semifinals, where it will face Cuba. Australia, which beat Japan 9-4 on Wednesday, will face the Japanse again in the other semifinal.

Taiwan beat the Netherlands 5-1 to take fifth place.

Tennis
Nicolas Massu of Chile won his second gold medal of the Athens Olympics — twice as many medals as the entire star-studded U.S. tennis team managed.

Massu got past American Mardy Fish 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in an error-strewn men’s singles final that lasted 4 hours.

Chile had never won a gold medal in any sport until Massu and Fernando Gonzalez won the doubles title in a match that lasted more than 3½ hours and ended early Sunday.

Gonzalez won the singles bronze, beating Taylor Dent of the United States. Fish’s silver is the only tennis medal for a U.S. squad that included Andy Roddick, Venus Williams and Martina Navratilova.

Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won China’s first Olympic tennis medal ever by beating Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-3, 6-3.

Beach Volleyball
It will be an all-American final Monday in women's beach volleyball. Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs beat the German pair of Stephanie Pohl and Okka Rau 21-17, 21-17, and top-seeded Misty May and Kerri Walsh beat Canadians Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin, 21-19, 21-14.

In men's competition, Americans Stein Metzger and Dax Holdren lost to Swiss pair Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel 21-16, 21-19 in the quarterfinals, ending U.S. hopes of a third-straight gold medal on the men’s side.

Americans Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes won the first Olympic beach tournament in 1996, and Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana won in 2000.

Women’s Volleyball
Desperate for a victory and in danger of an embarrassing elimination from the women’s volleyball tournament, the United States finally played like a gold medal contender in defeating Cuba in straight sets.

Logan Tom scored 19 points to lead the Americans to a win over Cuba and a spot in the quarterfinals. Zoila Barros Fernandez had a team-high nine points for three-time defending gold medalist Cuba, which fell to third in the group and will play Italy in the next round.

Gold medal favorite China, behind 16 points from Hao Yang, beat Russia in three sets to earn the top spot in Group B. The Chinese will face Japan in the quarterfinals.

Germany swept the Dominican Republic but failed to advance to the next round.

Kana Oyama had 13 points for the Japanese in a sweep of winless Kenya.

The Brazilians completed a perfect first round with a sweep of South Korea and will play the United States.

Boxing
Heavyweight Devin Vargas couldn’t land the big punch he needed against Viktar Zuyev of Belarus, dropping a 36-27 decision in the latest in a string of losses for the U.S. boxing team.

Vargas would have been guaranteed at least a bronze if he had won.

Three U.S. boxers remain in medal contention, and none have an easy road to the semifinal medal round. Middleweight Andre Dirrell and super heavyweight Jason Estrada must beat Cubans to win medals, and light heavyweight Andre Ward faces two-time world champion Evgeny Makarenko of Russia.

Cycling
World champion Sarah Ulmer of New Zealand continued her dominance in the 3,000-meter pursuit, breaking her own world record to win the gold medal.

Ulmer finished in 3:24.537, nearly two seconds faster than her world record set in Friday’s qualifying. Australia’s Katie Mactier won silver while retiring Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel of the Netherlands got bronze — her sixth and final Olympic medal.

Diving
Chantelle Newbery won Australia’s first gold medal in diving since 1924, easily holding off China’s Lao Lishi and Aussie teammate Loudy Tourky in women’s 10-meter platform.

American Laura Wilkinson, the defending Olympic champion, finished fifth.

Rowing
The American men’s elite eight crew ended a 40-year drought in rowing gold medals, taking a big lead and fending off a late charge by the Netherlands. Australia won the bronze.

The U.S. women’s eight won the silver medal in a disappointment. The favored Americans finished behind a Romanian boat they had edged in the initial heat.

The American men, who set a world record in last week’s qualifying, started quick and turned a half-second lead at 500 meters into a commanding 3.26 at 1,000.

From there, it was only a matter of maintaining the lead. The Netherlands closed the gap by nearly 2 seconds over the final 1,000 meters but the U.S. never appeared threatened, finishing in 5:42.48.

The Romanian women’s eight posted a 1.86-second victory, finishing in 6:17.70. After the United States, the Netherlands won bronze.

In women’s quadruple sculls, the Germans led all the way. Germany has won the event in all five Olympics since it was added to the games. Britain won the silver, and Ukraine got the bronze.

Russia won men’s quadruple sculls in 5:56.86, followed by the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

Romanians Constanta Burcica and Angela Alupei erased a 2-second deficit in the last half of their 2,000-meter race to defend their Olympic title. Germany won silver and the Netherlands took bronze.

In men’s lightweight double sculls, Poland held off France for the gold, while Vasileios Plymeros and Nikolaos Skiathitis gave Greece its first Olympic rowing medal, the bronze.
Denmark won the men’s lightweight four, followed by Australia and Italy.

Sailing
U.S. skipper Paul Cayard lost his lead in the Star class with a bad afternoon, finishing 15th and 10th to tumble to seventh place. He had to make two momentum-killing, 720-degree penalty turns and dropped out of contention.

John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree had a better day aboard their Tornado catamaran. They finished first and sixth to take first overall, two points ahead of defending gold medalists Roman Hagra and Hans Peter Steinacher of Austria with four of 11 races sailed.

The U.S. 49er crew, Tim Wadlow of Boston and Pete Spaulding of Miami, dropped from third to sixth with finishes of 13th and eighth. There are five races left in the 16-race series.

Also, two more gold medals were awarded. Brazil’s Robert Scheidt won the Laser class, giving him three straight Olympic medals to go along with an unprecedented seven world championships. He won the gold in 1996 and the silver in 2000.

Norway’s Siren Sundby won the Europe class for her first Olympic gold medal.

Shooting
American shooter Matt Emmons fired at the wrong target on his final shot, blowing a commanding lead in the 50-meter three-position rifle event and allowing Jia Zhanbo of China to take the gold.

The mistake dropped Emmons into eighth place with a score of 1,257.4 points. Jia won with 1,264.5. Michael Anti of the United States moved into second with 1,263.1 points. Christian Planer of Austria took the bronze at 1,262.8.

Had Emmons fired at the right target, he would have needed only a 7 to win gold.

Andrea Benelli of Italy won the gold in skeet shooting, beating Marko Kemppainen of Finland in a shoot-off. Juan Miguel Rodriguez of Cuba won a three-way shoot-off with Nasser Al-Attiya of Qatar and Shawn Dulohery of the United States for the bronze.

Table Tennis
China’s Zhang Yining won her second table tennis gold medal of the Athens Games, beating surprise finalist Kim Hyang Mi of North Korea 4-0 in the women’s singles final.

Top-seeded Zhang dominated for a 11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 victory. South Korea’s Kim Kyung-ah won bronze with a 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 win over Jia Wei Li of Singapore.

Tennis
Nicolas Massu of Chile won the tennis singles gold medal, beating Mardy Fish of the United States 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Fernando Gonzalez of Chile won the bronze.

Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian won China’s first Olympic tennis medal ever by beating Conchita Martinez and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-3, 6-3.

Women’s Basketball
Katie Smith, the U.S. team’s best outside shooter, reinjured her right knee early in a 100-62 win over China. The initial diagnosis was a sprain and Smith will undergo an MRI on Monday.

Oxana Rakhmatulina scored 15 points to lead Russia to a 93-58 win over Nigeria. The Russians had already had secured a berth in the quarterfinals and closed out the preliminary round by shooting 56 percent (35-for-62) from the floor.

Lauren Jackson had 24 points and seven rebounds for unbeaten Australia in a 84-66 victory over Brazil. Hana Machova scored 21 points to the lead the Czechs over New Zealand 74-57. Both teams advanced to the quarterfinals.

Evanthia Maltsi’s three-point play gave Greece the lead for good as the host team rallied to defeat Japan 93-91.

Water Polo
Tania di Mario scored three goals as Italy defeated Hungary 8-5 and advanced to the semifinals against the United States, setting up a rematch of the last world championship game.

Greece upset Russia 7-4 and next faces defending Olympic champion Australia. Russia was bronze medalist at the Sydney Olympics and last year’s world championships, where Greece placed 9th.

Australia and the world champion Americans had byes, securing automatic semifinal spots by finishing atop their groups in the league round. Canada beat Kazakhstan 10-4 in a classification match for seventh and eighth places.

Wrestling
Patricia Miranda was the only American women’s wrestler who didn’t lose. Sara McMann advanced into the semifinals despite a loss but U.S. star Toccara Montgomery was hurt by a terrible draw at 72 kilograms.

Montgomery was matched with five-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan in a blind draw, and lost 8-4, costing her any chance of medaling.

Tela O’Donnell was eliminated from medal contention at 55 kilograms with an 11-1 loss to Canada’s Tonya Verbeek.

Equestrian
American show jumping riders were solid in qualifying. Beezie Madden and Peter Wylde had problem-free rounds, putting the United States among the favorites for the gold when 16 countries compete for team medals Tuesday.

Fencing
French fencers earned their third gold medal in Athens, defeating Hungary 43-32 in the men’s team epee final. The United States placed sixth.

France’s Brice Guyart won the individual foil gold earlier, as did the French men’s saber team. France has won six total fencing medals.

Germany beat Russia to take the bronze on the last day of fencing competition. The Germans’ other fencing medal came in women’s team epee.

Women's Field Hockey
Two-time defending Olympic gold medalist Australia failed to advance from the first round after a 1-0 loss to the Netherlands, which is unbeaten in four games.

Dutch captain Mijntje Donners scored on a penalty corner in the 47th minute.

Australia’s loss, combined with Germany’s 3-2 victory over South Korea, put the Germans into the semifinals.

China finished first in Group A with four wins after defeating Argentina 3-2. Tang Chunling scored off a rebound on a saved penalty corner to break a 2-2 tie. Argentina was second in the group and will play the Netherlands in Tuesday’s semifinals. China, which beat Argentina 3-2, plays Germany, a 3-2 winner over South Korea.

New Zealand earned its first victory of the tournament with a 3-2 triumph over against winless Spain.

Table Tennis
China’s Zhang Yining won her second table tennis gold medal of the Athens Games, beating surprise finalist Kim Hyang Mi of North Korea 4-0 in the women’s singles final.

Top-seeded Zhang dominated for a 11-8, 11-7, 11-2, 11-2 victory. South Korea’s Kim Kyung-ah won bronze with a 9-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5, 11-8 win over Jia Wei Li of Singapore.

Team Handball
World champion Croatia finished group play unbeaten in five matches with a 30-22 victory over Spain, which placed second in the group with a 4-1 record to also qualify for the quarterfinals.

France finished 5-0 in Group B after a 27-22 win over Germany. Hungary maintained second place with a 26-22 victory over Greece, advancing to meet South Korea in Tuesday’s quarterfinals. Carlos Perez, a former Cuban, led Hungary with seven goals.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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