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| Sunday,
October 1, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Africans bask in glory;
Jones misses target Holland retain hockey title Grunsven dethrones Isabell Werth
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Savon wins historic gold Percy gives Britain 3rd gold Gold for
Michael Johnson, track queen Jones Ethiopia’s Tulu sets record
Cameroon fight back for gold Cuban spikers
win
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Africans bask in glory; Jones misses target SYDNEY, Sept 30 — (Reuters) — African nations triumphed on the penultimate day of the Olympics today but US track star Marion Jones fell far short of her goal of five gold medals despite a scorching performance in the 4x400 metres relay. Cameroon won Africa’s second successive gold in the Olympic soccer tournament and African athletes won the men’s 5,000 and women’s 10,000 metres, while taking silver in the men’s 4x400 relay, where the dominant US quartet won gold. Jones, who took gold in both the 100 and 200 metre sprints earlier in the week, ran a blistering third leg in the 4x400 metres relay to propel her team to victory. But her dream of taking her place in the parade of Olympic greats with an unprecedented five gold medals was dashed by failure in her weakest event, the long jump on Friday, and in the 4x100 meters on Saturday, where the US favourites were well beaten by the Bahamas and Jamaica. Joines ends the Games with three gold medals and two bronze, an impressive total for any athlete, but well short of her ambitious target. The USA were dominant in the 4x400 metres relay for men as well as women with the great Michael Johnson finishing his Olympic career by anchoring them to a superlative victory. Johnson has an extraordinary record of 14 World Championship and Olympic gold medals. Nigeria took the silver after an exciting battle for second place with Jamaica. The Americans, anchored by 100 metres gold
medallist Maurice Greene, also dominated the 4x100 metres relay but despite perfect conditions they finished well outside their own world record. The Sydney Olympics, held in often cool southern hemisphere spring weather, have produced no track and field world records. The Ethiopians maintained their domination of long distance running. Derartu Tulu won the 10,000 metres gold medal for the second time after a devastating run in which she set a new games record of 30 minutes 17.49 seconds to win by around 30 metres ahead of fellow Ethiopian and world champion Gete Wami and Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal. Millon Wolde, a training partner of 10,000 metres gold medallist Haile Gebrselassie, sprinted to victory in the men’s 5,000 metres. The top six finishers were African. Algerian Nouria Merah-Benida pulled off a shock in the women’s 1,500 meters by winning a dramatic sprint finish to beat Romania’s Violeta Szekely. The men’s 1,500 metres on Friday also ended in big surprise with Moroccan favourite Hicham El Guerrouj beaten by Kenyan Noah Ngeny. There was more African triumph in the Olympic soccer where Cameroon won the title for their continent for the second time following Nigeria’s win in 1996. Cameroon, grabbing their first gold in any sport, beat Spain 5-3 on penalties in nail-biting finale after an extraordinary match. Trailing 2-0 at half time, Cameroon turned the match around with two goals in five minutes. The game, a highlight of the penultimate day of the Games, went to a penalty shoot-out after 30 minutes of extra time in the searing afternoon sun failed to produce a result. The Olympic final pushed overall attendance at the soccer tournament over the one million mark. Cuba’s Felix Savon matched the three gold medals of his countryman Teofilo Stevenson to take his place alongside the greatest heavyweight in Olympic boxing history. Convincingly beating Russian Sultanahmed Ibzagimov despite a bad cut under his eye, Savon led Cuba out of the tournament as the top boxing nation. French light-flyweight Brahim Asloum gave his country their first Olympic title since the 1936 Berlin Olympics where Adolf Hitler was discomfited by the playing of the Marseillaise at what was supposed to be a triumph for German athletes. Drugs, which have repeatedly distracted attention from sport at these Games, again made an appearance. Russia’s European indoor 400 metres champion Svetlana Pospelova registered positive for the banned steroid stanozolol in an out-of-competition drug test carried out at the Games. However, the test cannot be regarded as a complete positive case until all the details have been discussed and analysed, athletics officials said. The test was taken a few days after Pospelova failed to reach the second round of the 400 metres eight days ago. The 20-year-old athlete has already left the Games. If the positive is confirmed she faces a compulsory two-year ban for a steroid offence. Five competitors, none of them from athletics, have tested positive for banned drugs in tests carried out during the Olympics although several athletes were banned from the Games for failing out-of-competition tests before the start. The USA has come under strong criticism here from Olympic leaders, who accuse it of hiding positive doping results from high profile athletes. According to US Olympic committee figures released on Saturday, 33 American track and field athletes tested positive for banned drugs last year. |
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Holland retain hockey title SYDNEY, Sept 30 — Defending champions Holland extended its lease over Olympic hockey supremacy for yet another period of four years at Homebush Hockey Centre here tonight besides becoming the first team since 1956 to win the men’s title for second consecutive time. Holland beat Korea 5-4 in the tie-breaker after the two teams were level 3-3 after 15 minutes of extra time in an action-packed final. The triumph for Holland marked a rare achievement for their skipper Stephan Veen, who became the first player in the past 40 years to score a hat-trick of goals in the final of the Olympic hockey event for men. He capped it with a neat penalty flick in the tie-breaker to put a final stamp of superiority of Holland over the gold medal in the first Olympic Games of the new millennium. Earlier, Australia inflicted a crushing defeat on Pakistan to take the bronze medal. Australia won 6-3 which has been perhaps their biggest and first major triumph against Pakistan in recent years in major international tournaments. And the win for Holland did not come before a scare as the underdogs , South Koreans, playing their first-ever Olympic final, in a two-minute blitzkrieg , five minutes before the final whistle, almost wrested the initiative from them to draw level at 3-3 after trailing 1-3. The Koreans continued their fight until last second of the 15 minutes of extra time but went down fighting to their experienced opponents in the penalty shootout. For Holland, it has been their second successive triumph in penalty shootout in the medal round matches. On Thursday, they had taken the measure of the hosts, Australia, 5-4 in the tie-breaker, after a goalless draw in the semi-finals. At one stage, they almost looked out of the tournament. But as it progressed and other teams played indifferently, much below their expectations, they gained in strength. With luck favouring them and experience on their side, they overcame two tough hurdles against Australia on Thursday and South Korea today to enter the record books to become the first team in the past 44 years to win back-to-back titles. Undoubtedly, hero of the day was Stephan Veen. But it was certainly a great team effort. Today, Ronald Jansen had no role to play in the penalty shootout as Seung-Tae Song himself flicked far off from the target to put Koreans under pressure when the penalty shootout competition was half way through. Rest all nine converted their strokes. Koreans started as if they were in a hurry to wrap up the match with a flourish. After a dull and drab start, including award of a penalty corner in the third minute, Holland were slow to start and took their time to settle down against fast moving Koreans. Though Holland scored at regular intervals and worked out an impressive 3-1 lead by the middle of second half, the quality of the game never rose to expected standards. It picked both pace and excitements when only five minutes were left with Holland leading 3-1. The Koreans in a major blitzkrieg, hardly witnessed in this level of hockey, not only upset the applecart of the defending champions but literally wrested away the match. Goals by Kyung-Seok Kim following Korea’s first penalty corner in the 66th minute and a brilliant flick into net by skipper Keon-Wook Kang in the next minute off a cross from Seung-Tae Song shocked the Holland players. Elated at their two successes, the Koreans were all over their opponents goal for the remaining four minutes of the game but could do n further wonders. Even in the extra time, they were content to play out the time as probably they were confident of their prowesses in the penalty shoot out. But the shootout proved them wrong. A mis-hit by Song dashed their hopes. In fact Koreans drew the first blood when the ultimate defaulter, Seung-Tae Song put them ahead in the ninth minute with a brilliant piece of opportunism. After Keon-Wook Kang had attempted a shot at the goal, a melee followed from which he made no mistake in finding the target. But that was the end of their showing till they erupted again in the 65th minute. In between, the limelight was cornered by Stephen Veen with good goals in the 19th minute with a penalty stroke conversion following Holland’s second penalty corner; culmination of a beautiful move between Teun de Noojier and Jeroen Delmee and a deflection into empty goal of a centre by Jaap derk Buma gave him his hat-trick, perhaps the first in the final since 1956. There was some confusion when the game was to start for the second half of the extra time. One of the technical officials, Mr Vijaynathan of Malaysia, detected that Holland had 12 players on the field. Van Wijk had to leave the field. Earlier in the day, Aussies scored at will against lacklustre Pakistan to gain a bronze medal, a poor consolation to their gold medal hopes on the home ground. Aussies started with a flourish taking the lead in the third minute through a brilliant field goal by Tomy Elder. Pakistan, however, fought back immediately to draw level through an equally good field goal by Atif who deflected a free hit into the net from outside the striking circle. Elder repeated his performance with yet another goal from a deflection in the ninth minute. And before the teams broke for lemon break, Australia had consolidated its position with another goal from Steven Davies who converted a penalty corner. Sohail Abbas, the second top scorer of the tournament after Jorge Lombi of Argentina, put Pakistan back into the game with a neat penalty corner conversion with a low flick in the beginning of the second half. But within four minutes of his goal, Australia struck back again. This time Elmer scored following a beautiful move with Jay Stacy. A fine pass from Brennan saw Troy Elder hoisting Australia’s fifth goal in the 59th minute before Brennan, while making amends for his earlier misses a the open goal, slammed a powerful reverse flick to pelt in Australia’s sixth goal with just four minutes remaining. It was in the dying seconds of the game that Kashif Javad scored from a beautiful cross from right flank by Sameer
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Grunsven dethrones Isabell Werth SYDNEY, Sept 30 (Reuters) — Dutchwoman Anky van Grunsven finally got the better of her long-term rival Isabell Werth to win the Olympic gold medal in the individual dressage event today with a world record freestyle test. Van Grunsven finished on 239.18 points after the three dressage rounds — grand prix, grand prix special and freestyle — ahead of German Werth, the 1996 gold medallist, on 234.19. Germany’s Ulla Salzgeber won bronze with a score of 230.57. “I don’t think that somebody could be more happy than I with my gold medal today,” a beaming Van Grunsven said. “I think everybody knows well the story of Isabell and I ‘fighting’ for the last years, and it’s always been very close,” Van Grunsven said. It was Van Grunsven’s first Olympic gold. She has previously won three silver medals — one individual and two team — and each time Werth had picked up the gold ahead of her. Werth also narrowly pipped her in the 1998 world championships. Van Grunsven was the leader after two rounds, but she had been in the same position in Atlanta and at the 1998 world championships in Rome, only to lose to Werth on the final day |
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German Fischer clinches
sixth gold SYDNEY, Sept 30 (DPA) — Veteran Birgit Fischer won a sixth Olympic gold medal in the K4 race at her fifth Olympics today as canoe powerhouse Germany dominated the six races with two golds, one silver and one bronze. Fischer, who also has three silver medals, is now the most successful German Olympian, moving ahead of dressage rider Reiner Klimke, who has six gold and two bronze. The 38-year-old Fischer teamed up with Anett Schuck, Manuela Mucke and Katrin Wagner as they came from behind to win the 500m gold in 1 minute 34.532 seconds. The long-time race leaders Hungary had to settle for the silver in 1:34.942 and Romania got the bronze in 137.010. Fischer won her first gold for then East Germany at the 1980 Moscow games in the K1. She won that event again in 1992, has a K2 gold from 1988 and now three K4 Olympic titles after 1988 and 1996. It could have been more had East Germany not boycotted the 1984 games, but Fischer will get another chance in the K2 on Sunday. Besides her three Olympic silvers Fischer also boasts 27 world championship titles. |
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Savon wins historic gold SYDNEY, Sept 30 (AFP) — Felix Savon became enshrined in Olympic boxing history with his third consecutive heavyweight gold medal as Cuba won four finals here today. But Savon almost missed out on his regal coronation having to survive the drama of an ugly gash beneath his left eye with seconds remaining in his title fight with Russian Sultanahmed Ibzagimov. Australian referee Wayne Rose halted the bout to inspect the slit just under his eye. Blood was trickling from the cut, first opened during his semifinal win over German Sebastian Kober, and it was feared the fight might be stopped in the Russian’s favour. But Rose allowed the fight to continue after wiping Savon’s wound and the Cuban colossus kept out of harm’s way over the final seconds to win the fight on points 21-13 and enter Olympic boxing immortality. The 33-year-old Cuban legend, who has dominated amateur boxing since 1986 winning six world titles, equalled the Olympic record of Hungarian Lazlo Papp and countryman and fellow heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson with three boxing golds each. “I have won to create history for Cuban sport,” said Savon, who has persistently refused to cash in on his talents and turn professional preferring to box for the glory of his Communist island. Savon’s crowning achievement and the likelihood that it will be his final Olympic fight capped a magnificent day in the ring for Cuba. The Caribbean boxing superpowers cleaned up all four of their finals on the first day of semifinals to repeat their success at the last Atlanta games of four gold. Cuba’s other gold medallists were bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux, lightweight Mario Kindelan and middleweight Jorge Gutierrez. France were celebrating their first Olympic boxing gold medal in 64 years with the victory of light-flyweight Brahim Asloum over Spain’s Rafael Lozano. Asloum, with the greater reach and much taller than the ‘mighty midget’ Lozano, controlled the final winning every round for a comprehensive 23-10 decision. The last gold medal won by France was in Berlin in 1936 when middleweight Jean Despeaux and light-heavyweight Roger Michelot won their weight divisions. Russian Oleg Saitov fended off Ukraine’s Sergey Dotsenko to successfully defend his gold medal in the Olympic welterweight final. |
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Percy gives Britain 3rd gold SYDNEY, Sept 30 (AFP) — Iain Percy gave Britain their third gold medal in the Sydney Olympic regatta Finn class today, while the USA won the open star class after Brazil threw away a glorious victory opportunity. In the final gold medal to be won in the spectacular setting of Sydney Harbour, Denmark edged Germany 4-3 to clinch the open soling gold medal. That victory saw Danish skipper Jesper Bank emulate his gold medal-winning feat in the same category in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. But if Bank was the hero of the day then Brazilians Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira were the fall guys in the star class. The Latin Americans threw away victory when they were disqualified for false starting in the 11th and final race. Instead the USA team skippered by Mark Reynolds and crewed by Magnus Liljedahl won the gold with Britain’s Mark Covell and Ian Walker taking silver. Grael and Ferreira had to settle for the bronze after going into the final race with a five point buffer. Reynolds admitted he was unaware that it was the Brazilians, who enjoyed a five-point buffer before the last race, who had jumped the gun. Covell and Walker’s silver finish came hot on the heels of the victory in the Finn class of Percy, who won the third gold in the Sydney regatta for a buoyant British team, making them the most successful sailing nation at the games. Percy triumphed with a race to spare in the Finn class when his principal rivals Fredrik Loof of Sweden and Italy’s Luca Devoti could not get near enough to post a challenge in the penultimate race. Devoti took silver with 46 points and Loof settled for the bronze on 47 with Percy well over the horizon on 35. Percy said: “In this sport you have to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. They’re all pretty talented at our position and I just had a good regatta. “Although on paper it looked like everything was simple I was still very nervous,” he said. “But I knew what I had to do and I found myself in a position halfway through the race where I knew it was going to happen. At that point, suddenly I started to relax.” Shirley Robertson and Ben Ainslie who had won Britain’s two previous sailing golds in Sydney Harbour. Denmark and Germany disputed the third gold medal on offer Saturday in the open soling category. Denmark triumphed 4-3 in the best of seven series with the German team skippered by Jochen Schumann and crewed by Gunnar Bahr and Ingo Barkowski, denying Schumann a fourth Olympic gold. Danish skipper Bank was supported by crew members Henrik Blakskjaer and Thomas Jacobsen. Norway had earlier taken bronze, defeating the Netherlands 3-1. Open soling is the only sailing class decided by match racing rather than involving the whole fleet. |
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Gold for Michael Johnson, track queen Jones SYDNEY, Sept 30 (AFP) — American track queen Marion Jones completed her Olympic debut with a third gold here today while Michael Johnson ended his Olympic career with a final flourish. With only Sunday’s marathon left in the athletics programme, the American duo brought down the curtain on the track and field in Stadium Australia in spectacular style. For the 24-year-old Jones, her gold in the 4x400metres relay took her Sydney 2000 tally to three golds and two bronzes — a stunning performance. Jones admitted she was disappointed she did not get the record busting five she had planned. “I wanted five and didn’t get them. That was disappointing,” said the former basketball star from North Carolina, who managed the sprint double when she took the 100m and 200m titles and bronzes in the long jump and 4x100m. For Johnson, his gold in the 4x400m, topped a record breaking showing that saw him became the first man in history to defend the 400m individual title. “Now I am going to take time out and think about my future and decide if I should call it a day,” said Johnson. “This was my last major meet. I will not be running at the World Championships. There is nothing to be gained.” “Tonight I was just happy to go out with gold. I sure as hell did not want to finish with silver or bronze,” he added. Ethiopia’s Million Wolde came of age when he won the Olympic 5,000 metre title. The 21-year-old who won the world junior title two years ago and finished eighth at the World Championships in Seville a year ago, ran his race to perfection, beating out second placed Ali Saidi-Sief of Algeria and Morocco’s Brahim Lahlafi. With no one prepared to set a fast pace, Wolde bided his time before pouncing 200 metres out. He burst past the 22-year-old Saidi-Sief who had taken the lead but simply had no answer to the Ethiopian’s power. “I did not think I could win gold before coming here but when there were two laps to go I decided it was possible and went for it,” said Wolde. Olympic 100 metre champion Maurice Greene collected his second gold of the Games when he anchored the American 4x100metres team to victory. The Americans clocked 37.61secs ahead of Brazil (37.90) and Cuba (38.04). It was a sweet moment for Greene, who led America to their 15th 4x100m Olympic title. “I’m bringing the gold back to the USA. It is hugely important the relay gold returns to America,” he said. Four years ago the USA were beaten by Canada for the sprint relay title — the only time they have been beaten across the line. Their two other defeats were through disqualification. Algeria’s Nouria Merah-Benida declared it a victory for Arab women when she pulled off a stunning upset to win the women’s 1,500 metre Olympic title. Merah-Benida won in a slow 4mins 05.10 seconds ahead of Violeta Szekely of Romanian and her team-mate Gabriela Szabo, who added the bronze to her gold from the 5,000 metres earlier in the week. World number one Suzy Favor-Hamilton, who had lead for almost half of the race, appeared to get tripped coming down the final straight and crashed to the track. She managed to get up and finish but even before the fall she had faded out of medal contention. It was later revealed that Favor-Hamilton had collapsed from exhaustion. The 29-year-old Merah-Benida kissed her vest before taking an Algerian flag and going on a victory lap as she followed in the footsteps of compatriot Hassiba Boulmerka who won the 1500m in Barcelona eight years ago. “This was a victory for Arab women,” she said. “Europeans have sponsorship and facilities but we have courage and heart.” Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia won a gripping women’s 10,000 metre final. The 28-year-old Barcelona Olympic champion clocked 30mins 17.49 seconds to finish more than five seconds ahead of her team-mate Gete Wami with Atlanta gold medallist Fernanda Ribeiro of portugal taking the bronze. The previous record of 31:01.63 had been set four years ago by Ribeiro. “I am more experienced than in Barcelona. It was always going to be an Ethiopian race. The others were just not up to it,” said Tulu. It was a devastating run by Tulu, who proved her comeback from the birth of her child and a series of injuries as she made her break with 400 metres to go. Tulu simply swept out in front and neither Wami, the current world champion, nor Ribeiro could answer. “I realised from early on I was running for the minor medals,” admitted Ribeiro. “The two Ethopians were too strong tonight.” Norway’s Trine Hattestad breezed to the Olympic javelin gold medal, her first-round 68.91-metre throw killing off the competition. Greece’s Mirella Maniani-Tzelili took the silver with a personal best while Cuba’s Osleidys Menendez finished with the bronze. By throwing so close to her own World Record, which she set at 69.48m in July, Hattestad put the gold out of the reach of all her rivals. Russia’s Yelena Yelesina ended a 10-year wait to claim the Olympic high jump title. The 30-year-old mother last won a major title when she took the European Junior Championship in 1989.But the wait ended when she sailed over 2.01 metres at her second attempt, beating South Africa’s Hestrie Cloete, who also clear 2.01m but had more failures at lower heights. There was a tie for the bronze medal between Kajsa Bergqvist, of Sweden, and Oana Manuela Pantelimon, from Romania. Both cleared 1.99m. |
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Ethiopia’s Tulu sets record SYDNEY, Sept 30 (AFP) — Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia won a gripping women’s 10,000 metre final here tonight in a new Olympic record. The 28-year-old Barcelona champion clocked 30 minutes 17.49 seconds to finish more than five seconds ahead of her team-mate Gete Wami with Atlanta gold medallist Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal taking the bronze. The previous record of 31:01.63 had been set four years ago by Ribeiro. It was a devastating run by Tulu, who proved her comeback from the birth of her child and a series of injuries as she made her break at the 400 metre mark. Tulu simply swept out in front and neither Wami, the current world champion, nor Ribeiro could answer. It was heartbreak from Britain’s Paula Radcliffe who had led from the gun. Radcliffe instantly set a cracking pace that split the field wide open. Within eight laps there were only five runners in it — Radcliffe, Tulu, Wami, Ribeiro and Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe. |
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Expert comments The Netherlands are the second team to win back-to-back gold in the men’s hockey event after India did it in 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Stephan Veen did all the right things to score an important hat-trick and also convert the winning penalty stoke. He has rightfully defended his title of World Player of the Year and will be a strong contender for the following year too after yesterday’s performance. Saturday’s final was way below expectations, except for the last five minutes of the game when South Korea came back and the other being the hat-trick from the Dutch captain. The Netherlands starting as favorites could not put their game together as in their group matches and it was very unusual to watch them not use the breadth of the pitch and have the mid-fielders overlap which is their normal way of play. They gave the Koreans a lot of respect and in the bargain were not playing the ‘flowing hockey’ they are known for. Right enough, Korea surprised them and the packed stadium going ahead through Song, off a defensive mistake from Delmee. This goal saw the Dutch push up and show more urgency in their game and started to control the game towards the 25th minute. They managed to equalize off a penalty stroke awarded to them off a penalty corner taken by Lomans. With both teams preferring to defend from the centre line, there was hardly any opening for attractive hockey. I thought Korea did extremely well to go into the break on even terms considering they were the underdogs. The second half started off with a bang where Veen got his second goal in the third minute after some great skills from Eilkeboom. After this goal, the Dutch started to play with a lot more precision in their build-ups but this again was only in patches. The Dutch deep defense, in particular, Eric did extremely well in defending the Korean attacks by always channeling them away from the goal. Korea did come up with a few stray attacks and had a couple of shots on goal and were looking like coming back into the game, until a slack clearance from a 16-yard hit gave the Netherlands their third goal. This goal was a beauty. Veen dived for the ball and scored, surprising three Korean defenders who were around the ball and late in clearing. I must add that Veen has always scored in major finals and I am sure he would cherish yesterday’s hat-trick the most. With the Dutch 3-1 up, many in the stadium thought that they had the game wrapped up but what was more surprising to me was the fact that they could still not dictate terms having a two-goal lead and looked very much like they had got complacent. With five minutes left, Korea had nothing to lose and made the most of their opponent’s bad play by pushing up the players and were rewarded with two quick goals in the 31st and 33rd minute to even the scores at 3-3. The Koreans were back in the match and had the whole stadium miss a heart- beat when Song’s shot on goal in the dying minutes missed the mark narrowly. Going into extra time, both teams played very defensively taking no risks and preferring to go to penalty flicks. In the penalty flicks, the Dutch converted all their five to Korea’s four. I guess the Dutch’s past experience of their flickers and some delaying tactics from Jansen their keeper when defending saw them through. The writer is a former international who represented India in 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics. |
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SYDNEY, Sept 30 (Reuters) — Cameroon staged one of the most astonishing fightbacks in a major soccer final today beating a nine-man Spanish side 5-3 on penalties to win the Olympic title. It was the West African country’s first Olympic gold medal. Trailing 0-2 at halftime, they turned the match around with two goals in five minutes, an own goal by Amaya after 53 minutes and a close-range goal from Real Madrid’s Samuel Eto’O after 58 minutes. They were only denied a fairytale winner in the last minute of extra time when Eto’O, had the ‘’winning’’ goal disallowed for being inches offside. Instead the outcome of an outstanding 16-team tournament, which began two days before the official Olympic opening ceremony, was decided by penalties. Spain must have fancied their chances with penalties against 16-year-old goalkeeper Carlos Idriss Kameni, but he kept his nerve. Spanish defender Amaya cracked his spot-kick against Kameni’s bar leaving Cameroon 3-2 ahead with two penalties left. Lauren scored his to make it 4-2, Albelda replied for Spain making it 4-3 before Patrick Wome lashed home Cameroon’s fifth penalty to make it 5-3 and secure Cameroon’s first Olympic medal since they won a silver and bronze in boxing in 1984. The Cameroon players, some of whom had also lifted the African Nations Cup earlier this year, celebrated as the Spaniards collapsed on the pitch in tears. An afternoon which started so well for them had ended in a defeat which seemed unlikely at halftime. It took spain only 75 seconds to open the scoring when Barcelona midfielder Xavi curled a freekick low into the side netting from 18 metres out. Gabri, who had come on for injured Spanish skipper Toni Velamaxan after 27 minutes, put Spain 2-0 up on the stroke of half-time with his third goal of the tournament. He made no mistake after being sent clear with a long ball out of defence, and at that stage, Spain looked set for their second soccer gold medal in eight years after taking the title at Barcelona in 1992. But Cameroon are not known as the Indomitable Lions for nothing. They began to reel Spain in after 53 minutes when Patrick Mboma’s cross took a deflection off Amaya and bounced past Aranzubia for their first goal. Mboma also provided the pass for Eto’s equaliser. By now, Spain had not only lost skipper Velamazan but also the influential Tamudo who was injured in the first half and limped off four minutes after the break. After 70 minutes Spain lost Gabri who was sent off for a late and high tackle on Nicolas Alnoudji and in the last minute of normal time Jose Mari was red-carded after the referee decided he had taken a dive in the penalty area. After Jose Mari’s exit, Spain were left to defend for almost all the extra time period and although both sides went desperately close to scoring, the decisive goal never came. “This is absolutely wonderful, said their coach Jean-Paul Akono afterwards. “The spirit was fantastic, the players never accepted they were beaten even when they were 0-2 down.” Lauren, who grew up in Spain and played for Real Mallorca before a summer move to Arsenal added: “The spirit in the side is tremendous. We knew we could get back into the game and we knew we could beat them. I have won four major titles in my career, but nothing compares to this,” he said pointing to the gold medal Cameroon richly deserved. |
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Cuban spikers
win SYDNEY, Sept 30
(Reuters) — Cuba won an unprecedented third successive Olympic gold medal in women’s volleyball today, fighting back from two sets down to defeat Russia. The Cubans, led by the dynamic leaper Yumilka Ruiz, overcame a much taller Russian team 25-27, 32-34, 25-19, 25-18, 15-7 to become the first volleyball team, men’s or women’s, to win three golds in a row. |
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Medal tally Given in the following order: Country,
Gold, Silver, Bronze USA 33 19 27 China 26 15 15 Russia 20 19 22 Australia 16 22 15 France 12 13 8 Italy 11 7 11 Germany 10 13 21 Romania 10 4 4 Britain 8 9 5 Netherlands 8 8 4 South Korea 7 8 9 Cuba 6 8 2 Poland 6 4 1 Japan 5 8 5 Bulgaria 5 3 2 Greece 4 5 1 Sweden 4 3 1 Ukraine 3 7 7 Hungary 3 2 1 Belarus 3 1 10 Spain 3 1 4 Turkey 3 0 1 Canada 2 2 6 Czech Republic 2 2 3 Kenya 2 2 2 Finland 2 1 1 Austria 2 1 0 Lithuania 2 0 2 Iran 2 0 1 Slovenia 2 0 0 Switzerland 1 6 2 Indonesia 1 3 2 Slovakia 1 3 1 Norway 1 3 1 Mexico 1 2 2 Latvia 1 1 1 Kazakhstan 1 1 0 New Zealand 1 0 3 Ethiopia 1 0 2 Estonia 1 0 2 Croatia 1 0 1 Mozambique 1 0 0 Colombia 1 0 0 Azerbaijan 1 0 0 Brazil 0 5 3 Denmark 0 3 1 Belgium 0 2 3 Jamaica 0 2 2 Argentina 0 2 2 Nigeria 0 2 0 Taiwan 0 1 4 South Africa 0 1 3 North Korea 0 1 2 Morocco 0 1 1 Trinidad 0 1 1 Yugoslavia 0 1 0 Vietnam 0 1 0 Uruguay 0 1 0 Saudi Arabia 0 1 0 Moldova 0 1 0 Ireland 0 1 0 Bahamas 0 1 0 Georgia 0 0 4 Algeria 0 0 2 Costa Rica 0 0 2 Armenia 0 0 2 Thailand 0 0 1 Qatar 0 0 1 Portugal 0 0 1 Sri Lanka 0 0 1 Kuwait 0 0 1 Kyrgyzstan 0 0 1 Iceland 0 0 1 India 0 0 1 Chile 0 0 1 Barbados 0 0 1 |
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