 |
GB CELEBRATE GOLD AND SILVER
|
Britain won a first gold of the Games on another successful day in Athens to take their overall medal haul to eight.
Sailors Shirley Robertson, Sarah Webb and Sarah Ayton wrapped up victory in the Yngling class with a race to spare.
Badminton mixed doubles duo Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson had to settle for silver after losing a thrilling final.
And team GB narrowly missed out on two further medals in archery and swimming, where American Michael Phelps stole the headlines with his fourth Olympic gold.
While the Yngling crew celebrate victory, fellow sailors Ben Ainslie, in the Finn, and Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield, in the 470s, have secured silver at least.
Ainslie, who like Robertson won gold four years ago, holds a 14-point lead over Spain's Rafael Trujillo in the overall standings after winning race 10. There is one race remaining on Saturday.
In the 470s, Rogers and Glanfield have slipped back to second in the standings and must finish better than the USA in Saturday's final race.
But the biggest celebration on the coast came when Greece's Sofia Bekatorou and Aimilia Tsoulfa won the women's 470 sailing, giving the hosts a third gold.
In the pool Phelps won his fourth gold with an Olympic record in the 200m medley, before booking his spot in the 100m butterfly final with another Olympic record within the hour.
|
ACTION AT THE POOL
|
It proved a good night in the pool for the USA with Aaron Peirsol winning the 200m backstroke and Amanda Beard the 200m breaststroke.
Australia's Jodie Henry denied them a clean sweep of titles with victory in the women's 100m free, although Peirsol's win was in doubt for a while.
The world record holder stormed to gold, coming home more than two seconds ahead of Austria's Markus Rogan, only to be disqualified.
That saw Britain's James Goddard move up into the bronze before the secondary result was overturned and Peirsol reinstated.
Team GB's Katy Sexton squeezed into Friday's 200m backstroke final in eighth place.
Like Goddard, archer Larry Godfrey missed out on a medal by the narrowest of margins.
The Briton lost to Tim Cuddihy by a single point in the bronze-medal match, the Australian getting the eight points he needed with his final arrow. Italy's Marco Galiazzo took the title.
A day of shocks saw Pieter van den Hoogenband and Alexandre Popov fail to qualify from the heats of the 50m free in the pool, but that was nothing compared to Kosei Inoue.
The three-time world champion, widely regarded as one of the best judokas in history, failed in the defence of his 100kg Olympic title. Ihar Makarau of Belarus took gold.
China have enjoyed a hugely productive Games to date and a gold from weightlifting teen sensation Liu Chunhong was their latest success. She beat all three of her world records to win the women's 69kg title by a huge margin.
But even two further golds in badminton, including Zhang Jun and Gao Ling's 15-1 12-15 15-12 victory over Robertson and Emms, were not enough to keep them on top of the medal table.
|
TENNIS SEMI-FINAL LINE-UP
Men:
T Dent v N Massu
M Fish v F Gonzalez
Women:
J H-Hardenne v A Myskina
A Molik v A Mauresmo
|
Carly Patterson's victory in the women's gymnastics all-around gave USA a 14th gold to edge ahead of China in pole position.
The semi-final line-up in both tennis singles tournaments was finalised.
Spain's Carlos Moya, the highest seed left in the men's draw, was the major casualty, losing to Chile's Nicolas Massu.
Massu also made the final of the doubles in partnership with Fernando Gonzalez. The pair will play Germany's Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler in Saturday's final.
The women's draw has panned out largely to plan with the top three seeds all progressing, the triumvirate being joined by Australia's Alicia Molik.
And there was a shock in the doubles where Martina Navratilova bowed out with American counterpart Lisa Raymond after a 6-4 4-6 6-4 defeat to Japan's Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama.
In men's hockey, Pakistan beat Sydney silver medallists South Korea 3-0 in Group A and Spain overwhelmed Great Britain 5-1. In Group B, the Netherlands edged out South Africa 3-2.
The USA's "Dream Team" had another narrow escape in the basketball when they came from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Australia 89-79.
Away from the action, the Athens Games continue to be dogged by controversy.
France, Britain and the USA announced they will launch an appeal over the results of the three-day eventing.
And the International Olympic Committee revealed that five weightlifters tested positive for drugs before the Games began.
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
The defining images