S P O R T S

Drechsler dashes Jones’ hopes
SYDNEY, Sept 29 — Marion Jones’s bid for five Olympic gold medals was dashed by veteran German long jumper Heike Drechsler today and Hicham El Guerrouj shed bitter tears after suffering a shock 1, 500m defeat to Kenya’s Noah Ngeny and missing Olympic gold again.

Indian relay squads fall at the first hurdle SYDNEY, Sept 29 — Indian track and field stars continued with their dismal performances in the final phase of competitions here. The Indian 4x100 metre relay squad of Thirugnana Durai, Rajeev Balakrishnan, Ajay Raj Singh and Anil Kumar crashed out in the first heat of the event today morning. The Indians ran a disappointing 40.23 in a heat won by Cote d’Ivoire with a time of 39.06, with Thailand coming in second in 39.13

India's P. Ramachandran (left) and Paramjit Singh leap over Ireland's Robert Martin Daly at the final changeover of the heat of the men's 4x400 metre relay at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney on Friday. At right is Ireland's Paul Oppermann. — AP/PTI

Holland start favourites
WALKING towards the hockey pitch on the day India played Australia in the group matches, I saw an Indian supporter carrying a banner which read “India — New millennium’s old champion are back”. There was so much expectations to this writing after this match against Australia, but then everything came crashing down.

Aussie eves retain hockey title SYDNEY, Sept 29 — Australia became the first team in Olympic history to retain the women’s hockey title with a brilliant 3-1 victory over Argentina in the final here today.  Australian Kate Starre (left) battles for the ball with Argentina's Ayelien Stepnik in the field hockey final at the Olympics on Friday. Australia won the match 3-1 and took the gold medal — Reuters

Muthiah, Rungta re-elected
CHENNAI, Sept 29 — A.C. Muthiah, J.Y. Lele and Kishore Rungta have been re-elected president, secretary and treasurer, respectively at the 71st annual general meeting of the cricket board (BCCI) here today. Jyoti Bajpai has been re-elected as joint secretary.

Drechsler dashes Jones’ hopes

SYDNEY, Sept 29 (DPA)— Marion Jones’s bid for five Olympic gold medals was dashed by veteran German long jumper Heike Drechsler today and Hicham El Guerrouj shed bitter tears after suffering a shock 1, 500m defeat to Kenya’s Noah Ngeny and missing Olympic gold again.

The Kenyan win in the steeplechase was predictable with Reuben Kosgei getting the gold this time around, while Poland got gold medals from women’s hammer thrower Kamila Skolimowska and walking hero Robert Korzeniowski.

The USA ended a 32-year pole vault drought through outsider Nick Hysong with 5.90m, who won over compatriot Lawrence Johnson and world champion Maksim Tarasov, who also had 5.90.

“I was not surprised, I was fit and felt OK. Everyone was talking of him. It was my plan to stay behind him. Now I am very happy to be Olympic champion for at least four years,” said Ngeny.

The 17-year-old Skolimowska won the Olympic debut of the women’s hammer throw with a national record 71.16 metres in her third attempt. Olga Kuzenkova got silver for Russia with 69.77m and Kirsten Muenchow grabbed bronze for Germany with 69.28m.

“After the first throw of 66m I knew I had to do a little more. I am overwhelmed and have worked really hard for this,” said Skolimowska, who won a European title aged 14 in 1997.

She added that she was inspired by the men’s hammer gold won by compatriot Szymon Ziolkowski and the achievement of Korzeniowski earlier in the day.

A week after winning the 20km event when the initial first place finisher Bernardo Segura of Mexico was disqualified, Korzeniowski shook off his rivals after 40 kilometres to win the 50km event in 3:42:22 hours. Aigars Fadejevs got the silver for Latvia in 3:43:40 and the bronze went to Mexican Joel Sanchez in 3:44:36.

“The win is a big pleasure to me. My objective was especially to win the 50km,” said the 32-year-old Korzeniowski.

Korzeniowski is the second pole to get three athletics gold medals — he also won the 50km walk in Atlanta — following in the footsteps of women’s running Irina Szewinska.

The steeplechase gold went to Kenya yet again, but Moroccan bronze medallist Ali Ezzine prevented an East African sweep.

The gold went to junior world champion Reuben Kosgei in 8:21.43 minutes and the silver to compatriot and 1997 world champion Wilson Boit Kipketer in 8:21.77. Ezzene clocked 8:22.15 to deny world record holder Bernard Barmasai of Kenya (8:22.23) the bronze.

Jones still has a chance at two more medals at the Sydney Games — in tomorrow’s finals of the 4x100 and 4x400m relays. But the US teams are hurting from the absence of injured sprinters Gail Devers and Inger Miller.

Miller’s manager Emmanuel Hudson slammed insinuations that Miller hadn’t run in Sydney because she had failed a drugs test.

“There is no reason for these baseless rumours,” Hudson fumed. “They are throwing aspersions at someone who’s in a bad situation.”

While Jones and El Guerrouj had only themselves to blame or their opponents to credit in defeat, winning and losing was less clear-cut in taekwondo and sailing.

It took a jury decision to confirm Briton Ben Ainslie’s victory in the Laser single handed dinghy class, after silver medallist Robert Scheidt of Brazil protested that Ainslie blocked him and caused them to collide in the final fleet race.

Ainslie became the second British sailor of the day to capture gold, after Shirley Robertson’s victory in the women’s Europe class.

For Ainslie it was a neat turning of the tables on Scheidt, who won the gold in Atlanta when Ainslie was disqualified for a false start even though it was Scheidt who had jostled him.

“What goes around comes around,” Ainsley said. “Four years ago I was younger and a bit more naive.” Taekwondo, making its debut as an Olympic medal sport, was getting its own rude welcome to the Games.

Perceptions of unfair judging persisted for the third day, sparking protests from coaches and fighters, one of whom flouted convention and refused to leave the mat after he was beaten.

But as always happens at the Olympics, the show went on. Lee Sun-Hee grabbed South Korea’s second gold in the women’s under-67 kg class, and Cuba’s Angel Valodia Matos Fuentes won the men’s 80 kg title.

Russia won their second synchronised swimming gold of the Games, adding the team title to the duet crown won by Olga Brusnikina and Maria Kisseleva.

Australia became the first team in Olympic history to retain hockey gold after a brilliant 3-1 victory over Argentina in the championship match.

Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski also accomplished an historic repeat, successfully defending his 50 km race walk title and adding it to the gold he won in the 20 km event.

Nick Hysong ended a US drought in the pole vault becoming the first American to win Olympic gold at the Games since Bob Seagren in 1968. His career-best 5.90m was enough to give him the victory on countback from compatriot Lawrence Johnson.

Cuban appeals dismissed

SYDNEY, Sept 29 (Reuters) — Cuba formally protested after losing two Olympic boxing quarterfinals but their appeals were dismissed, amateur boxing’s ruling body said today.

“They were dismissed on the grounds that there was no evidence of any serious irregularity or bias,” said Loring Baker, Secretary-General of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA).

He said the Cubans had made a formal written protest after the defeats on Wednesday evening of featherweight Yosvany Aguilera and light-middleweight Juan Hernandez Sierra on the grounds that “the judges did not score properly”.

Aguilera was beaten 17-12 by Russian Kamil Dzamalutdinov and two-times Olympic silver medallist Hernandez, who is also a four times world champion, lost 16-9 to Kazakhstan’s Yermakhan Ibraimov.

The judges in the Hernandez fight came from Canada, South Korea, Bulgaria, Uganda and Italy with South Korean Yoo Jae-Joon also judging the Aguilera fight.

The other judges in the Aguilera bout were from Puerto Rico, Mauritius, Romania and Egypt.

It was Hernandez’s 3-5 defeat in the welterweight final at the 1999 world championships by Russian Timour Gaidalov that prompted the Cubans to walk out of that tournament in protest.

Hernandez was later reinstated as winner and four judges were suspended for a minimum of four years for “gross and blatant divergences”. Hernandez has since moved up a division.

Cuban coach Alcides Sagarra, who was in Hernandez’s corner as usual on Wednesday, was suspended for a year with five years further probation after the Cuban walkout.

Jose Barrientos, President of the Cuban Boxing Federation, was suspended for four years and Teofilo Stevenson, the only boxer so far to win three successive golds in the same weight division, banned for two years for leading the walkout.

Baker said the Cubans had also protested verbally after 1996 Olympic flyweight champion Maikro Romero, who has moved down to light-flyweight in Sydney, lost his semifinal to Frenchman Brahmin Asloum 13-12.

However, no formal written protest was made. “They just expressed their disagreement,” he said.

Baker said no other team had protested about their semifinal or quarterfinal results on Wednesday and Thursday.

The computerised scoring at Olympic boxing has been a rich source of controversy in the past and the AIBA have introduced “spy cameras” and other measures in Sydney to try and prevent the outcry that has overshadowed previous tournaments.

Cuba and Russia both have four boxers through to the finals so far, with three of those fights being between the two countries in a battle for amateur boxing supremacy.

The Cuban walkout at the 1999 championship meant they lost their coveted team trophy in that tournament to the USA, who managed to get only four boxers into the semifinals and lost their first one on Thursday night.

Three more Americans fight on Friday. If they fail to reach the final it will be the first time since 1948 — with the exception of the boycotted 1980 Moscow games — that the USA has not won an Olympic boxing gold.

Indian relay squads fall at the first hurdle
From Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

SYDNEY, Sept 29 — Indian track and field stars continued with their dismal performances in the final phase of competitions here.

The Indian 4x100 metre relay squad of Thirugnana Durai, Rajeev Balakrishnan, Ajay Raj Singh and Anil Kumar crashed out in the first heat of the event today morning.

The Indians ran a disappointing 40.23 in a heat won by Cote d’Ivoire with a time of 39.06, with Thailand coming in second in 39.13

India, with some awful baton-changes between runners number two and three and again, between three and four, were never in the race, finishing seventh — a good 1.17 seconds behind the leaders.

The heat produced a shock when the crack British team of Allyn Condon, Jason Gardner, Marlon Devonish and Dwain Chambers were disqualified, following an illegal baton-change in the second leg, with the British runner starting too early, and then ending up outside the zone when the baton changed hands.

In heat two, Brazil touched first in 38.32, with Italy coming second in 38.34. Heat three went to France in 39, while Greece, with newly crowned 200m sprint king Konstantinos Kenteris running the third leg, coasting through second in 39.21.

Heat four went to Cuba in 38.74, with Australia in second, with 38.76 on the clock. The final heat was taken by the USA in 38.15 — this, with the fancied USA not fielding their first team. Maurice Greene ran the last lap and, after a stutter on the baton exchange, powered away to touch home ahead of the field. Japan came in second in 38.52.

As the event is set up, the two top finishers from each group go through to the next round. The six fastest losers join them, to make up the second round of 16.

Nigeria, Jamaica and Slovenia, all from heat two, Canada from heat three, Trinidad and Tobago from heat four and Poland from heat five qualified as the fastest losers.

Forty teams entered, one did not line up to run, Great Britain were disqualified and of the other 38, India on timing finished 34th.

The Indian women’s quatret did no better as they finished just above Cameroon from a field of 24 teams. The 4x100m relay team of V Jayalaksmi, Vinita Tripathi, Saraswati Dey and Rachita Mistry, running in heat three of the event’s preliminaries, had a terrible race to finish last in their heat.

The baton exchanges, like their male counterparts, looked amateurish and unrehearsed, with splutter characterising each changeover, and the runners didn’t have the leg speed to make up in the sprints for the slow exchanges in the zones.

The Indians took 45.20 seconds, to finish far behind the winners who clocked 42.58 seconds.

Also to fade out of competition on a disappointing note was Gurmeet Kaur in the javelin throw event. She failed to qualify in the first found of event.

Gurmeet, who was drawn in group-A, finished 17th out of a total of 18 throwers, just ahead of Tatyana Sudarikova of Kyrgystan. Kaur’s first throw of 52.78 metres was in fact her best throw. Her subsequent throws were dismal and compartively much lower, registering 48.80 metres and 46.46 metres.

Germany’s Steffi Nerius (65.76), Trine Hattestad of Norway (65.44) and Mirella Maniani-Tzelili of Greece (63.34) each took just one throw to qualify for the finals, and walked off.

UNI: Men’s 4x100m relay team came seventh in heat 1 while the 4x400m team was fourth in heat 2. Both the teams came last in their respective events. Women’s 4x100m also came last in heat 3 and fifth in heat 2 of 4x400m.

The women’s 4x400m team — Paramjit Kaur, Jincy Phillip, Rosa Kutty and Beenamol — times 3:31.46 to finish second last in the heat. The race was anchored by K.M. Beenamol, the only runner who has salvaged some pride for the country’s athletes by making it to the semifinals of the 400m.

In the men’s 4x400m, last runner Paramjit Singh was off colour while the others — Lijo David, Jata Shankar and P. Ramachandran — were marginally better. India struggled to fourth position in the heat comprising six teams. Algeria and Qatar were disqualified.

The Indians clocked 3:08.38, almost six seconds slower than what they timed at home (3:02.78). Sri Lanka (3:06.25), anchored by Sugath Tillkeratne, were first in the heat, Kenya (3:06.77) came second and Ireland (3:07.42) third.

The women were hardly any better in the 4x100m heats. With Rachitra Mistry anchoring the relay. V. Jayalakshmi started off the race followed by Vinita tripathi and Saraswasti Dey. They were placed sixth and last clocking 45.20 seconds, as against their best of 44.44 seconds times back home.

Expert Comments

Holland start favourites
By Jude Felix

WALKING towards the hockey pitch on the day India played Australia in the group matches, I saw an Indian supporter carrying a banner which read “India — New millennium’s old champion are back”. There was so much expectations to this writing after this match against Australia, but then everything came crashing down.

The new millennium could see a new champion in Korea when they take on the defending Olympic and world champion the Netherlands today and I am sure the majority of the crowd will be backing Korea to see them upset the Netherlands.

The Netherlands have picked up their game after that fine showing against Australia in the semifinals and the whole team look confident after a couple of dismal performances in the group matches. They seem to have peaked at the right time and will be using their experience, which they have in plenty in many of their players who have been part of the Dutch team that won all the major titles in the past. The other key area that they will be looking forward to excelling in is their penalty corner’s where they have Bram Lomans who will be psyching himself up for the big occasion. And they have Van Wijk who is the specialist of all free hits around the top of the opponent’s circle to get his carpet hits in for the deflection or pressure in for penalty corners. This has been their strategy against all teams. Their teamwork was excellent in the semis though Stephan Veen and Tuen de Nouier could not show their individual brilliance, but they would definitely want to capitalise on the Koreans’ inexperience of this big stage event.

Korea on the other hand have, nothing to lose as they have achieved much more than their expectations and so should go into the match without any pressure. They need to psyche themselves up and play to all their strong points and forget that they are playing against the world and Olympic champions. Having lost just one game against Australia in the group matches, they are sure to come up with some tactical play and could give the Netherlands a tough time. If Korea’s one-on-one tackling is good to stop the individual skills of Stephan Veen and Tuen de Nouier they can half dent the Dutch attack. Korea, will be banking on their teamwork, the one thing that they have always possessed and they are the only team that could be compared with the likes of Germany or even the Netherlands of the past. They are well known for their tactics of slowing down their game and their ball winning skills where they always close down with three players against one.

We could expect some surprises with new variations on Korea’s penalty corner attack. Their strong point on defending penalty corners is in their first runners who did so well in the semis and will be prepared to take on Lomans, the Dutch penalty corner flicker. If the Dutch team coach had watched the Korean defence of penalty corners, I’m sure we could get to see a variation or indirect conversion. Korea will use their speed and strong basics by defending and trying to attack only on counters and will be depending on Song to get their goals.

A keen affair is on the cards and for me personally, I would like the title to be in Asia.

The writer is a former international who represented India in 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Aussie eves retain hockey title

SYDNEY, Sept 29 (AFP) — Australia became the first team in Olympic history to retain the women’s hockey title with a brilliant 3-1 victory over Argentina in the final here today.

Alyson Annan, Juliet Haslam and Jenny Morris scored for the Hockeyroos in a one-sided final before 15,000 screaming home fans at the State Hockey Centre.

Argentina, who trailed 0-2 at half-time, earned a consolation goal through Vanina Oneto in the second half.

The win was a fitting farewell for the Hockeyroos’ lord and master Ric Charlesworth, a former Australian men’s captain, who ended his seven-year tenure as coach after the match.

It also helped senior pro Rechelle Hawkes join swim legend Dawn Fraser and equestrian star Andrew Hoy as the only Australians to win gold medals in the same event at three Olympics.

Hawkes, who read the players’ oath at the opening ceremony two weeks ago, was part of the team that won their first gold at Seoul in 1988 and repeated the feat at Atlanta in 1996.

The gold medal made amends for the disappointment of the hosts, who had seen the men knocked out by the Netherlands in a penalty shoot-out during yesterday’s semifinal.

The victory also helped Charlesworth’s girls overcome the humiliation of failing to qualify for the Champions Trophy final in May, their first defeat in a major since 1993.

There was, however, no disgrace for Pan-American champions Argentina, who won the silver against all odds in their first appearance at the Olympics in 12 years.

Muthiah, Rungta re-elected

CHENNAI, Sept 29 (PTI) — A.C. Muthiah, J.Y. Lele and Kishore Rungta have been re-elected president, secretary and treasurer, respectively at the 71st annual general meeting of the cricket board (BCCI) here today. Jyoti Bajpai has been re-elected as joint secretary.

Narhari Amin replaced union minister and president of the Mumbai Cricket Association Manohar Joshi as vice-president from West Zone. Prabhat Kumar Mishra has replaced A.N. Singh in East Zone.

C.K. Khanna (North Zone), Kamal Morarka (Central) and K.M. Ramprasad (South) have retained their post as vice presidents.

Madhya Pradesh’s Sanjay Gajdle has replaced Anil Deshpande from Central Zone in the national senior cricket selection committee.

Chandu Borde (Chairman-West Zone), Madan Lal (North) Ashok Malhotra (East) and T.A. Sekhar (South) have retained their posts.sandeep1 Add-Lele (comp)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will decide on the appointment of a national coach before the tour of Zimbabwe to India and if a foreign coach is appointed, an Indian will be his deputy, president A.C. Muthiah announced today.

Mr Muthiah, who along with secretary J.Y. Lele was re-elected to the post at the 71st annual generalbody meeting (AGM) here, told newsmen after the meeting that former West Indies pace bowler Andy Robers, New Zealand captain John Wright, former Aussie batsmen Dean Jones and Jeoff Marsh have offered to take up the assignment.

“We will shortly interview the four and decide. If we opt for a foreign coach, we will have an Indian as his assistant”, Mr Muthian said.

Mr Muthian refuted a suggestion that the BCCI was opting for a foreign coach as Indian coaches were found inadequate. “Cricket is becoming global now. If there is a talented foreign coach suited for us, there is nothing wrong in appointing him, we have an open mind.”

But right now, we don’t have any offers from any Indian opting to be the national coach, he said.

Mr Muthiah also announced that the AGM has decided to appoint Anshuman Gaekwad as the coach for the Bangladesh tour for a one off Test after the Nairobi ICC knock-out tourney and Sharjah competitions.

The new national coach will be appointed after this, he said.

RCF, CR in last eight
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 29 — Former champions Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, Central Industrial Security Force, and Central Railway joined the quarter-final line-up of the 30th SN Vohra Gurmit Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Sector 18 hockey stadium here today. While RCF beat PSB Academy 2-0, Central Railway prevailed over Sikh Regimental Centre 3-2 and CISF edged out Air-India Academy by a solitary goal.

In the first match, RCF overpowered PSB Academy by two goals without reply. M. Ekka opened the account for RCF in the 31st minute through a field goal. In the 45th minute, Ekka was again on target for RCF when he scored another field goal to make it 2-0 in favour of his team.

In the second match, CISF managed to get past Air-India Academy by a solitary goal. After a barren first half, CISF scored the match winner in the 37th minute through Mangra Munde who converted a penalty corner.

Central Railway, who beat Sikh Regimental Centre, went into arrears in the 32nd minute when SRC’s Mangra Minz scored a field goal. However, Central Railway equalised three minutes after the interval through Arif Baig who converted a penalty corner. In the 49th minute Central Railways Shamin Baig scored another field goal to make it 2-1.SRC hit back by scoring the equaliser through Suman Kumar but Central Railway’s Shamin Baig scored another field goal in the dying minutes to seal the fate of the Army outfit.