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Lavish farewell by China
With 51 gold, China reigns supreme
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Basketball
Cuban boxers leave without gold
Vijender no-show
And this too
10 stunning moments
Champions Trophy postponed
US Open
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Lavish farewell by China
Beijing, August 24 The appearance of Beckham on top of a red double-decker bus that unfolded into a hedge-clipped silhouette of London sent 91,000 fans into a frenzy in the futuristic Bird's Nest stadium. A grinning Beckham kicked the ball off the top of the bus into the hands of a delighted Games volunteer. The London segment was woven into a spectacular closing ceremony that wrapped up a $43 billion Games designed to showcase China's might, modernity and sporting prowess. A ring of fireworks exploded round the rim of the stadium. Two giant drums were hoisted into the sky with two pairs of suspended drummers thumping out a hypnotic beat. The stadium was turned into a kaleidscope of glittering colours with 200 acrobats taking giant leaps and somersaulting across a stage on spring-heeled stilts. Launching a huge party to wrap up the greatest sporting show on earth, thousands of athletes poured in from all four corners of the stadium, blowing kisses and waving flags. The towering figure of Chinese basketball player Yao Ming was seen grinning from ear to ear. Beckham, brought up in east London, hailed Beijing's success but told Reuters before the ceremony: "I'm sure we will be better than them, without a doubt." Britain's eight-minute chance to tell the world what the London Games would offer the world in 2012 featured guitarist Jimmy Page, who launched into the riff from "Whole Lotta Love". He was joined in the Led Zeppelin classic by TV talent show winner and chart-topping singer Leona Lewis. Queen Elizabeth also sanctioned a choral version of "God Save The Queen" backed by lush string arrangements. Mayor of London Boris Johnson, his normally dishevelled blond hair carefully coiffed for the occasion, took over the Olympic Flag and waved it proudly, especially after Britain's best gold medal performance for a century. "This is a short, sharp shock that fires the starting gun for London," said organiser Martin Green who rehearsed the British show for two weeks at a private airfield outside Beijing. — Reuters
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With 51 gold, China reigns supreme
Beijing, August 24 The formidable Chinese, who maintained their dominance right through the Games, added a couple of more medals to their impressive kitty on the concluding day to finish with 51 gold, 21 silver and 28 bronze for an overall tally of 100 medals. The USA finished in the second position with a tally of 36-38-36 while Russia had to be content with the third place with a tally of 23-21-28. Britain took the fourth position with 19-13-15, not being able to add any more medals to their overnight tally. The 21-year-old Wansiru hogged the limelight on the last day as he clinched the coveted gold medal in the gruelling marathon event with an Olympic record timing of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds. He thus became the first Kenyan to win the Olympic marathon title with an awesome display of stamina and skill in bright morning sunshine. Kenya had twice won men's marathon silver medals, most recently in 2000, but never a gold. The games will, however, be remembered for us swimming sensation Michael Phelp's incredible eight gold medals and Jamaican sprinter Usain bolt's golden treble in sprint events, feats which have been the high point of the Olympics. The script unfolded favourably for the USA regained the gold medal in men's basketball with a thrilling 118-107 victory over Spain. The Americans won their first gold medal since the 2000 Olympics. They led by just four points with less than three minutes remaining before pulling away to beat the same team they handled by 37 points in pool game. Dwyane Wade was the top scorer with 27 points and Kobe Bryant chipped in with 20 for the Americans. Rudy Fernandez had 22 and Pau Gasol 21 for Spain, the world champions who were trying for their first Olympic gold. In all, 12 gold medals were decided on the concluding day of the games and the Chinese scooped up two more to provide the finishing touches to their astounding dominance. In boxing, China's Zou Shiming defeated Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia to clinch the gold medal in the 48 kg category. — PTI
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US cagers make it 4 in a row
Beijing, August 23 ''I'm just so overwhelmed right now,'' said US captain Lisa Leslie, her gold medals from the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games clinking around her neck alongside her newest one. ''It's awesome to experience this for the fourth time. We didn't leave anything for anyone. We were the team that played the best basketball this whole Olympics.'' American coach Anne Donovan and her Australian counterpart Jan Stirling both said they would be stepping down. ''I'm not coaching the team anymore -- I can sleep at night now,'' said Donovan after exorcising the ghosts of a bronze medal finish at the 2006 world championships. European champions Russia took bronze for the second consecutive Olympics by overpowering tournament hosts China 94-81. The USA carried an astonishing 32-0 winning streak into Saturday's gold medal showdown, a run that was never threatened by an Australian team who came out flat. The Opals shot a woeful 22 per cent from the floor in the first half to go back to the locker room trailing by 17 points. The Americans, who had been crushing their opponents by an average of just under 40 points, were led by 15 points from Kara Lawson, while Leslie and Candace Parker added 14 each. — Reuters
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Cuban boxers leave without gold
Beijing, August 24 Cuban boxers won five gold medals in 2004 at the Athens Olympics, four each in the previous Olympics in Sydney and Atlanta and seven at Barcelona in 1992, but boycotted the 1988 and 1984 Games. The poor showing is further evidence that defections are seriously hampering the Communist nation’s boxing team. In the past two years, Cuba has lost five gold-medal winners from its 2004 Athens Olympics team as well as a 2005 World Championship. Four defected are boxing professionally, one was punished for attempting to flee, and another retired. However, head coach Pedro Roque said the lack of a gold medal was a cyclical thing and his fighters failed due to a lack of experience. “They came here with no experience and they’ve won eight medals. No gold I know, but nobody was expecting more than one or two medals from us,” he said. “When boxers like Teofilo Stevenson used to fight for Cuba, it was completely different because they had a lot of experience in international competitions,” said Roque.
— DPA |
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Kalmadi defends absence
Beijing, August 24 Kalmadi told PTI that he and IOA Secretary General Randhir Singh were scheduled to give away the medals and bouquets to the winners of the women's 4x400m relay event at the Bird's Nest, which made it impossible for them to attend Vijender's medal ceremony. "I'm startled by the criticism. Giving away medals and bouquets was an international commitment for me. After all, I'm also the President of the Asian Athletics Association. I just could not be at two places at the same time," said Kalmadi, also an IAAF Council member. "I went when it mattered most. I went to see his bouts and also visited him in the Olympic village to congratulate him. I think that was more important than attending his medal ceremony, which I would have done anyway but for this commitment to give away Olympic medals," he added. — PTI
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Soccer still No 1 game,
says David Beckham
Soccer will always be the world’s number one sport, England's David Beckham said at the Beijing Olympics. “Obviously for me, it’s the best sport in the world, so I think it should always be on top of the list,” Beckham said on a visit for the closing of the Games. Beckham was on a plane when Argentina beat Nigeria on Saturday to take an Olympic gold, so he missed the sight of both sets of players wilting in the midday sun. The teams suffered from a noon start in the main Bird’s Nest stadium because athletics take precedence in the evening. That symbolised the second-class status of soccer in the Games. It is restricted to under-23 teams, though each side can field up to three over-age players. World governing body FIFA does not want Olympics soccer to overshadow its own World Cup. “Obviously, it’s still important, there are still great players and great teams performing over here. So at the end of the day it’s still my Number One sport whether it’s looked at as different,” Beckham told Reuters and Britain’s Press Association. Baseball, softball make exits Softball and baseball made dramatic exits from the Olympic stage with Japan and South Korea pulling off shock gold medal wins. Neither county will have the opportunity to defend their crowns in London in 2012 because both sports have been trimmed from the Olympics line-up. Japan supplied one of the biggest shocks of the Beijing Games by upsetting unbeaten United States 3-1 to capture the softball gold and end the mighty Americans’ reign. Since softball was introduced in 1996 at the Atlanta Games, the U.S. had ruled supreme over the Olympic diamond, no other country having set foot on the top of the medals podium. Joy was mixed with bitterness as members of the U.S. squad symbolically laid their cleats on home plate at the end of the game and walked away. “It hurts a lot,” said U.S. slugger Crystl Bustos, who blasted an Olympic record six home runs. “You train your whole life and you want to win. In the bigger picture, I haven’t thought about it yet. It hasn’t sunk in, give it some time. In about a month we’ll look back and hope this isn’t the last time, but for right now it seems it is.” Savic wants team stabilityHaving won three Olympic water polo medals with three different countries, Serbia’s Dejan Savic wants a little stability when he contests the 2012 London Games. Savic won bronze with Yugoslavia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and a silver four years later in Athens when Serbia and Montenegro competed as a single team. The 33-year-old collected another bronze under a different flag on Sunday when Serbia beat their former compatriots from Montenegro, which seceded in July 2006 after an independence referendum. “It’s a little strange, I really don’t know which team I’ll be representing at the London Olympics,” said Savic. “I have feelings about it, I’m disappointed Montenegro and Serbia split. (Yugoslavia) separated after Sydney and we separated again after Athens. “Three medals is an amazing achievement for me. I just want to get one more in London, I don't think about anything else.” Diet of hamburgers and pizza
China’s first Olympic boxing champion slimmed down for his lightning victory which secured China’s 50th gold medal on a surprising diet of hamburgers and pizza. Zou Shiming, light-flyweight world champion, broke down in tears on the podium after taking a medal he had been aiming for since winning bronze in Athens. “We have been waiting four years for this,” he told reporters after the bout, which lasted just a couple of minutes because a shoulder injury forced his Mongolian opponent to throw in the towel. “You won gold faster than Liu Xiang,” one joked, referring to the Chinese 110 metres hurdler who retired injured from this Olympics but normally finishes races in little over 10 seconds. The charismatic champion, who had come out shadow boxing in a dragon robe and wore gold boots, said he took a month to slim down to his target weight on an easy diet. “Recently I have been eating pizza and hamburgers...I enjoy Western food. Pizza tastes pretty good,” the tiny fighter said with a smile. “Also Chinese food is greasy so Western food is helpful when I am trying to control my weight.”
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He thumped his chest in triumph over the last few metres before his ‘marksman’ celebration which became one of the lasting images of the Games. * * * *
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* * * Liu was the most popular sportsman in China and his grimacing departure clouded the Games for millions of home fans. *
* * * After she spent most of the competition lying under a towel, she broke her own world mark with a leap of 5.05 metres. *
* * * The Opening Ceremony. It emerged that some of the performance seen on television had been enhanced by computers, a child singer was replaced by a supposedly prettier face to mime to her voice and representatives of China's ethnic minorities were no such thing. But it was a jaw-dropping beginning to the Games, culminating in former gymnast Li Ning being swung up the roof of the stadium and 'running' around the top level before lighting the cauldron. *
* * * The super-heavyweight made the pledge to Susann at her bedside in hospital as she lay dying after a car crash in 2007. *
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* * * Usain Bolt breaks Michael Johnson's 200 metres record. Charging towards the finish line, Bolt has his eye on the clock all the way and once again celebrates his triumph in style — this time, after he completed his run. *
* * * Proof that no matter how tough the conditions you have to train in, Olympic success is achievable if you have the talent. *
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India beat Lanka by 33 runs
Colombo, August 24 After putting up 237 on board, India had the Lankans on the mat as the hosts were reduced to 94 for seven at one stage but visitors dropped as many as four catches to put themselves in an embarrassing situation in the flood-lit affair. A sloppy fielding allowed Jayawardene - dropped once and Thilan Thushara - dropped twice - to stitch an 81-run stand, raising hopes of a Lankan win. Zaheer Khan came to the rescue of his team when he bowled Thushara with a yorker but the tension was yet to evaporate from Indian faces as Jaywardene held on to his wicket. The Lankan skipper departed when he chipped one off Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar this time made no mistake in holding on to the chance, missing out on a well deserved century. Yet, he succeeded in teaching a few cricketing lessons to the Indian team. Earlier, half-centuries from captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina steered India to 237 for nine wickets. Raina and Dhoni shared a fifth-wicket stand of 54 off 45 balls after India, who had won the toss and chosen to bat first, had lost their way and were struggling at 91-4 in the 23rd over. — Agencies Scoreboard India Kohli run out 25 Gambhir lbw b Kulasekera 8 Yuvraj c J’wardene b Kulasekera 12 Raina run out 53 Badrinath c Vaas b Mendis 6 Dhoni c Jayawardene b Mendis 76 Rohit c Kapugedera b Thushara 32 Harbhajan c S’kkara b Mendis 2 Praveen not out 2 Zaheer c Muralitharan b Thushara 1 Extras (2-b, 6-lb, 1-nb, 11-w) 20 Total (50 overs, 9 wkts) 237 FoW: 1-39, 2-40, 3-62, 4-91, 5-145, 6-212, 7-229, 8-229, 9-237. Bowling: Vaas 10-2-33-0, Kulasekera 7-1-32-2, Thushara 9-1-36-2, Mendis 10-0-56-3, Muralitharan 9-0-48-0, Jayasuriya 5-0-24-0. Sri Lanka Jayasuriya c Dhoni b Praveen 13 Sangakkara lbw Zaheer 9 Kapugedera lbw Praveen 12 J’ dene c Praveen b Munaf 94 Silva lbw Zaheer 1 Dilshan c Dhoni b Munaf 16 Vaas b Harbhajan 0 Kulasekera lbw Yuvraj 11 Thushara b Zaheer 30 Mendis not out 6 Muralitharan b Munaf 6 Extras (lb-2, w-4) 6 Total (all out, 49 overs) 204 Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-26, 3-37, 4-40, 5-58, 6-59, 7-94, 8-175, 9-192, 10-204 Bowling: Praveen Kumar 10-0-62-2, Zaheer Khan 10-3-23-3, Munaf Patel 10-1-42-3, Harbhajan 10-0-29-1, Yuvraj 8-0-37-1, Rohit Sharma 1-0-9-0 Player of the match: M.S. Dhoni (India)
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Champions Trophy postponed
London, August 24 "The ICC Board today agreed unanimously to postpone the ICC Champions Trophy...until October 2009," the world governing body said in a statement. "Pakistan will retain the right to host the tournament but it was agreed that if other members continued to express reservations over issues of safety and security then the ICC Board would have the right to decide about the tournament's location," the statement added. The decision followed a teleconference of the ICC's executive board. England, Australia and New Zealand had also expressed their concerns about security after a series of suicide bombings. ICC president David Morgan said in the statement, "In those circumstances, it was considered prudent to postpone the event to October 2009, a time when we all hope conditions may be more acceptable for all the competing teams."
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Federer seeks to defend crown
New York, August 24 Federer, who surrendered his world number one ranking to Rafael Nadal early this week, is the four-time defending champion in the final Grand Slam of the season which begins tomorrow. "I know how to enter Grand Slams," second-seeded Federer said yesterday. "I know how to enter the US Open and what it takes to win. That's a huge advantage I have.” "I come here as the defending champion so I always have great feelings about this place." Federer, who turned 27 earlier this month, said he will draw on his enormous success here in the past to salvage something of what has been a disappointing season so far. "I believe it is an advantage if you know how to win a US Open," Federer said. "It is a tough tournament to win. "Rafael Nadal has never been beyond the fourth round so that is definitely the advantage that I carry." Federer says not being the top seed takes some of the pressure off him. His disappointing year was underscored when he lost the number one ranking which he had held for a record 237 weeks. Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal, who surged past Roger Federer into the world number one ranking this week, says he is not feeling any added pressure as the top seed for the first time in a US Open. "When you want to win, the goal is the same and the pressure is the same," Nadal said. "I am not thinking that I am number one or number two. I have been happy being number two for the last three years.” He is attempting to become the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in the same season. — AFP
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Elsewhere...
Usain Bolt breaks the 100 metres world record. Bolt already owned the record and in front of a packed Bird’s Nest stadium, he ran 9.69 seconds.
Michael Phelps roars in triumph and relief after American team-mate Jason Lezak overtook France's Alain Bernard on the final leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay to keep alive Phelps's dream of beating Mark Spitz's record from 1972 of seven golds in a Games — a dream he was to realise.
Liu Xiang dejectedly walks away from the track as he realises he has to withdraw from the defence of his 110 metres hurdles title because of a leg injury. 
Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva turns the Bird's Nest into her private theatre with a gold medal and world record-breaking pole vault performance that captivated the 91,000 crowd. 
German weightlifter Matthias Steiner kisses a picture of his late wife Susann on the gold medal podium, choking back tears over the promise he made to her that he would keep their Olympic dream. 
American Matt Emmons blows a 3.3-point lead on the very last shot of a 120-shot competition to throw away the gold medal in the "marathon" event of shooting. Four years ago in Athens he had fired at the wrong target and squandered a 3-point lead. 
Rohullah Nikpai wins Afghanistan’s first Olympic medal with a bronze in the men's 58-kg
taekwondo. 
Estonian Gerd Kanter celebrates his discus gold medal by sprinting down the 100 metre track at the Bird’s Nest and mimicking Bolt's marksman routine.
