Liukin and Johnson Have Only Gold Medals in Common

BEIJING — Each with an Olympic gold medal to call their own, the gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson prepared to part ways after sharing the long road to stardom.

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

U.S. gymnast Nastia Liukin wins the gold medal and U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson wins silver at Woman's All-Around Final at the National Indoor Stadium.

Liukin, the Olympic champion in the all-around, made her final rounds Wednesday before flying back to the United States to do a round of talk shows, including “The Tonight Show” next week. A welcome party was organized to greet her at the airport in Dallas-Fort Worth, not far from her home in Parker, Tex. A gala at a convention center is planned in her honor.

“It still seems surreal knowing that my dreams came true and I’m sitting here today as the Olympic champion,” she said, glowing as she spoke to reporters at a former imperial residence in one of Beijing’s biggest parks.

Her father and coach, Valeri, sat next to her and preened.

Johnson said she was still in shock after winning the gold medal in the balance beam Tuesday on the final day of gymnastics competition. She had come in as a favorite to win the all-around, but finished second to Liukin. In the end, she said, one gold was enough, for now.

“I want to hold onto this feeling forever,” said Johnson, who is from West Des Moines, Iowa.

The two friends are now setting out on their post-Olympic adventures. The question is which one will capitalize the most on her Olympic success?

Johnson’s agent, Sheryl Shade, contended that there were no worries about one of them stealing sponsors from the other. She said that Liukin, 18, and Johnson, 16, appealed to different demographics. Liukin has the elegance of a ballerina. Johnson is perky.

“I think America will embrace the two of them because they’re very different personalities,” said Shade, hinting that Johnson might make a deal with a certain cereal company that features athletes on its box. “Shawn is the next-door neighbor, the girl next door.”

Liukin’s agent, Evan Morgenstein, thought it less likely that the two could share the spotlight.

He said of Liukin, “She’s got the ability, if she wants it, to become iconic” because of what he called her “girly-girl” personality and her beauty. “There’s only one America’s sweetheart that comes out of the Summer Games — and she’s it,” Morgenstein said.

The gymnasts are not buying into a rivalry — as usual.

As the Games approached, Liukin and Johnson were billed as one another’s fiercest competitors, sometimes as catty competitors, but they say their friendship remained strong.

When Johnson’s gym in Iowa was flooded just before the Olympic trials, Liukin sent her a text message that said, “I love you!” Johnson sent the same words in return.

Liukin said there might have been a few little things, “little teenage girl things,” that would set off their competitiveness. Not long after Liukin bought True Religion jeans last year, Johnson showed up with a pair of her own.

“She was like, ‘Ooh, do you like my jeans?’ ” Liukin said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, I do. I already have a pair.’ ”

Martha Karolyi, the women’s national team coordinator, said they made a perfect pair to lead the national team and were the main reasons the team won eight medals here — more than any other women’s team.

“Definitely, if Shawn did not have Nastia there, and if Nastia didn’t have Shawn there, neither one of them would have been so good,” Karolyi said. “They also push the rest of the girls because they raise the bar so high.”

They do that in different ways.

Liukin, about 5 feet 3 inches and 100 pounds, is long and lean. “She kind of looked like a little spider when she was little,” her father said.

Johnson, 4-9 and about 94 pounds, is short and muscular. “She got the short genes from us, and the doctor said she probably won’t grow anymore,” her father, Doug Johnson, said.

Liukin is a Russian-born young adult, already accepted at Southern Methodist University. Johnson is a typical Midwestern teenager, going into her junior year of high school.

Liukin is typically stronger on the uneven bars and balance beam, while Johnson is better on the floor exercise and the vault.

The two celebrated their gold medals differently.

Liukin headed home. Johnson stayed at the Olympics, seeing some events and basking in her victory.

On Sunday, Johnson plans to march in the closing ceremony because the gymnasts missed the opening one.

But first things first, her parents said. They said their daughter’s ears had perked up when she heard True Religion jeans — another pair! — were just $12 at the Silk Market here.

“Shopping first, the Great Wall second,” her mother, Teri Johnson, said. “She is just a teenage girl, you know.”

Neither Johnson nor Liukin knows what the future holds in gymnastics.

Liukin said she could compete in the next world championships. There is a lure: the international gymnastics federation’s code of points is changing yet again next year, putting more emphasis on artistry, which is Liukin’s strong point.

Johnson said she would return to the 2012 Olympics, just to have a chance to feel as amazing as she said she felt now.

But first, Johnson and Liukin will team up again, albeit briefly this time, to go on a post-Olympics gymnastics tour in the United States.

“I really hope that young kids will watch TV and say, ‘I want to be like Nastia, or I want to be like Shawn,’ because gymnastics is such a unique sport,” Liukin said. “It’s a really fun sport.”

Bolt Breaks Another World Record in a Disqualification-Marred 200

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Usain Bolt of Jamaica after breaking the world record with a time of 19.30 to win the gold medal in the men's 200-meter final on Wednesday.

Multimedia

Bolt, Jamaica’s wunderkind, surged so far ahead of a stellar Olympic final field that final 50 meters elicited nothing but awe. Running hard through the finish, Bolt not only ran 19.30, breaking the world record by two-hundredths of a second less than two hours before his 22nd birthday, but he seemed to set new parameters on what humans can achieve. And he did it with trademark Jamaican style, taking off his spikes and dancing when it was over, seeming to wrap the entire crowd at the Olympic Stadium in his long embrace. He watched the replay on the big video scoreboard along with everyone else.

“I was saying, ‘I look cool,’ ” Bolt said. “I was just happy. I was just looking at myself and I was like, ‘That guy’s fast.’ I’m just proud of myself. It’s just a great feeling. You can’t really explain it.”

In this race, Bolt clearly wanted to show what he could do when he is serious in the race he considers to be his strongest. In the 100, he stopped racing with about 10 meters to go, threw out his arms and slapped his chest before he crossed the finish line. That made his time of 9.69 — .03 off the world record — that much more astonishing, because it could have been so much lower.

In the 200, Bolt overpowered the field in the turn. He entered the straightaway so far ahead that the only questions left were, how much he would win by and would he break the world record? The record was 19.32 seconds, set by the American Michael Johnson in his possibility-altering moment at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Until Wednesday, no one other than Johnson had run faster than 19.62. Bolt’s previous best was 19.67.

“A lot of people compare me to Michael Johnson,” Bolt said. “But I don’t like to compare myself to other people because I just try to be me. Michael Johnson was a great athlete. He revolutionized the sport, I just changed it a little bit.”

Bolt, though, clearly underestimated what he had done here at the Olympics. On the biggest stage for his sport, he rewrote two of its most revered records. The 200 record in particular seemed unassailable.

The most startling part is Bolt ability to do it so young. “It’s ridiculous,” said Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis, who finished seventh in the race. “How fast can you go before the world record can’t be broke? How fast can the human being go before there’s no more going fast?”

Behind Bolt’s staggering achievement, the rest of the race got very complicated. Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles crossed the finish line second and Wallace Spearmon of the United States crossed in third, but shortly after the three apparent medalists started a victory lap, the scoreboard showed Spearmon had been disqualified. But no one told Spearmon, who was celebrating by running around the track with the American flag.

Later, in protesting Spearmon’s disqualification — which was upheld because Spearmon ran out of his lane in the curve — American officials pointed out that Martina had stepped out. After a review, officials of the International Association of Athletics Federations, track and field’s international body, disqualified Martina.

That meant that the Americans Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix won the silver and bronze medals.

When he heard about the rulings, Crawford, the gold medalist in the 200 at the Athens Games, shook his head in disbelief.

“Oh Lord,” he said. “OK, so Wallace Spearmon stepped out? The second-place guy stepped out? Hopefully, Usain stepped out, too, and I’ll get the gold medal. If two people stepped out, it’s a gold medal for me.”

Crawford laughed when he said that, but he was genuinely empathetic toward Spearmon.

“He’s put in four hard years of work like everybody else here, worked his heart out like everybody else to make it to the final,” Crawford said. “It’s heartbreaking. I share his pain right now.”

The sports minister for the Netherlands Antilles, Omayra Leeflang, was furious about Martina’s disqualification and blamed the United States team.

“It goes against the whole spirit of the Olympics,” Leeflang said. “The spirit of the Olympics is to come together in the spirit of fair play. A small country like ours, we did not come here as victims. I think it’s a pity for a big country like the United States to make such a small statement.”

The confusion in the placements behind Bolt seemed to be part of another universe. He had finished so far ahead, won in such commanding fashion, that everyone else seemed to be participating in a separate event.

“What Bolt has done, he’s made history,” Crawford said. “He added spirit to the sport. He danced for us in the introduction. He danced for us at the end. He put on a show. To me, I feel like him and athletics is like Michael Phelps and swimming. He raised the bar for us in athletics.”

Bolt became the first person since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win both the 100 and 200 in the same Olympics, and the first ever to do it while breaking both world records.

“You have people who are exceptions,” said Stephen Francis, the coach of Bolt’s main Jamaican rival, the former 100 world-record holder Asafa Powell. “You have Einstein. You have Isaac Newton. You have Beethoven. You have Usain Bolt. It’s not explainable how and what they do.”

Now the biggest question is what might be next for Bolt and the sport he has changed forever.

“I didn’t think I’d see under .30 in my lifetime,” Renaldo Nehemiah, a former gold medalist in the 100 hurdles for the United States, said of Bolt’s 19.30. “He’s doing something we’ve never seen before, but he’s a freak of nature. He did it at 14 and he did it at 17. Most people aren’t surprised he could do it. They might be surprised he did it here, but it was inevitabl

First win for Tigers in Australia

Mashrafee bin Murtaza and Dhiman Ghosh combined for an unbeaten 97-run eighth-wicket partnership that gave Bangladesh their first win on their Australian tour. Thanks to the lower-order fightback Bangladesh got home with 31 balls to spare against the Australian Institute of Sports in Darwin.
After losing their opening tour match on Monday, Bangladesh were keen for a stronger bowling performance and although the AIS posted 8 for 284, there were some positive signs for the tourists. Shahadat Hossain picked up three wickets as the AIS batsmen made a good start but failed to register a huge score.
Economical spells from Mashrafee and Abdur Razzak also frustrated the AIS, who altered their batting line-up after Monday’s win. Michael Hill (59), the Victoria rookie, was the only man to manage a half-century, although their total appeared to be enough when Bangladesh’s middle-order struggled.
Ashraful’s 27-ball 41 provided some entertainment but again the AIS spinners proved a handful, with Steven Smith’s leg-breaks earning him 3 for 56. At 7 for 191 it seemed like Bangladesh might fall in three days for the second time, but the outstanding partnership between Mashrafee and Dhiman saved the day. Both of them finished unbeaten on 56 to level the series 1-1.
The third game between Bangladesh and the AIS takes place at the Gardens Oval on Saturday.

We will fight all the way - Ashraful

Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladesh captain, has stressed the need to be competitive after his side arrived in Darwin for their three-match one-day series against Australia.

"We want to show improvement all the way. This is a very challenging tour for us as Australia are a top side," he said. "But we want to be tough and competitive and will fight all the way. We have the ability and hopefully, we can bring our best cricket to this series."

Ashraful said Bangladesh had enough time to prepare for the series, with five warm-up matches in store. "We have come to Australia a little ahead of the series. We will play five practice matches before the ODIs, and that will give us a good idea about the conditions here."

The Marrara Stadium, which has a drop-in pitch, will host all the three matches. Ashraful felt that the experience of having played on the surface before, as well as the favourable weather conditions in Darwin, will be beneficial for his side. "The last time we were here [in 2003], the pitches did not have too much pace or bounce," he said. "And the weather here is almost similar to Bangladesh. I think we'll feel comfortable here."

Bangladesh's coach, Jamie Siddons, was pragmatic on his assessment of the series, saying that his side's goal was to be consistent. "I am sure they [Australia] remember the loss to Bangladesh in 2005 and they will come hard at us," he said. "We are an improving side and the objective remains the same here also. We have shown in the past, that if we get to scores in the region of 250, then we can put pressure on the opposition."

Bangladesh play all their five practice matches at the Gardens Oval, beginning their campaign on August 18, when they take on the Australian Institute of Sports. The first ODI will be played on August 30.

Argentina 3, Brazil 0 — Men’s Soccer Semifinal

Juan Riquelme of Argentina is closed down by Marcelo, Lucas and Anderson of Brazil during the men’s football semifinal match between Argentina and Brazil. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Good morning! Argentina versus Brazil in the semifinals from the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing, the game everyone wished was the soccer final. Follow our coverage below.

Brazil was favored heading into the game, what with its 11-0 goal difference, its hunger for an Olympic gold medal (the only major competition they have never won) and the presence of Ronaldinho. Argentina won the gold medal in Athens and has the talent to match Brazil, but it was missing its starting goalkeeper (injury) and a starting defender (suspension). The good news for the Argentines was they still had Lionel Messi, a sublime talent, up front.

A special plus for all of you today: AT&T pulled MSNBC from my channel lineup here in Connecticut about a month ago, so you’ll be spared snarky asides on the commentators (they are, of course, welcome in the comments). I’ll be watching on Telemundo, which I consider a superior viewing experience in most cases anyway given the dearth of U.S. anounncing talent. (O.K., you won’t be spared ALL the snarky comments.)

Game on. (Start at the bottom for the full experience.)

FULL TIME Less than a minute of added time, which was probably too much for Brazil. Wow. You don’t see them carved up like that every day.

Argentina’s victory was well earned. Aguero is your man of the match, scoring twice and drawing the penalty for the third goal. Riquelme and Messi rank right up there with him. Messi and Ronaldinho, former Barcelona teammates, shared a moment after the game, but it’s clear whose stock is higher now.

Argentina heads to the final against Nigeria. Should be super. I don’t know who I’d want to be less right now: Dunga, the Brazilian coach who will have to answer for this, or Belgium, which gets an embarrassed Brazil in the bronze-medal game.

Enjoy your day, everyone. Make a comment, and then get back to work.

90 Riquelme comes off for Jose Sosa. If this was in Buenos Aires they’d be roaring. I think the Chinese crowd is just stunned by what they’ve seen in the last half-hour. Don’t expect much extra time.

88 Messi has a shot deflected wide from 10 yards. A goal from him might just be the exclamation point. And when I said earlier that either team was capable of winning 4-0, I didn’t actually think it could happen.

85 RED CARD Make that nine men for Brazil. Thiago Neves is gone after clipping Mascherano, who didn’t get protection like this from his mother. (Just kidding; it’s hard to argue that either card was a foul, but a straight red there seems mean.) The Telemundo guys don’t seem to agree with either card, but they’re not really quibbling too much.

81 RED CARD The news gets worse for Brazil, which loses Lucas after he fouls Mascherano from behind. Considering the referee just warned him a few minutes ago, he doesn’t have much of a case. Not that it makes much difference at this point.

80 Aguero plays for Atletico Madrid, by the way.

77 Jo is on for Brazil. Didn’t see who came off, but I’m guessing it was Diego, who was invisible today.

76 GOAL!!!!! ARGENTINA 3-0! Riquelme buries the penalty in the bottom right corner! They’re hosing off Andres Cantor right now. That was a three-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLer. How do you say “good night” in Portuguese?

73 PENALTY! Breno pulls down Aguero, who can seemingly do no wrong, after a slick entry pass from Messi.

72 I can’t believe MSNBC was in commercial for the second goal. Did they miss Brazil’s nullified goal, too? Geez. Cover the game or don’t.

67 YELLOW Anderson on Mascherano. Touch foul; let them play ref!

65 YELLOWDi Maria got the yellow on the free kick. I didn’t see anything physical, so maybe it was something spoken.

64 Ronaldinho fires the second shot off the left post. Rebound — Goal!? No!! Pato put it in but was called offside.

63 Foul on Pareja gives Brazil a chance from 25 yards straight out front. Ronaldinho hits the wall. Unseen yellow-card foul gives him a second chance.

61 Brazil makes two changes — Thiago Neves for Hernanes, and Alexandre Pato for Rafael Sobis. I guess Dunga is putting aside his complaints about Pato, his teenage superstar.

60 There’s blood in the water now. Messi thwarted on a rush into the area.

58 ARGENTINA 2-0!!!! Another stunner. A wave drives Brazil back, cross from the right and Aguero has another!!! He just taps it in; where’s the defense? If Aguero missed it, Di Maria was free too, right behind him.

54 Dipping shot by Brazil beats Romero at his right post but clanks out. As deadly as Argentina was on its goal, they were fortunate there. A minute later Rafinha curls a right-footed ball over Romero, but it spins away from the left post and sails out.

52 ARGENTINA 1-0!!!! Stunner. Aguero scores, but really he merely got in front of a rocketed cross from the left. I think Di Maria sent it in.

51 Sergio Aguero is spring but is quickly closed down by three Brazilian defenders in the area.

48 Back under way. Rafael Sobis offside; I think that’s the first one of the game. Everyone seems muy cautious today.

HALFTIME 0-0 I think we’d all prefer it be 2-2 instead of scoreless, but each team seems to be weighting risk-reward. Good plan, since each knows the other is equipped to win 4-0 if they’re not careful on defense.

Re: Your style of play comments. I meant no slight to Argentina, a team that takes a back seat to no one in skills on the ball. Just that when a team strings together 8 or 9 smooth rolling passes, it always reminds me of Brazil circa 1970 and Carlos Alberto’s epic goal in Mexico. And thanks to those whoever corrected my Spanish. No, I don’t speak it, but it makes a nice soundtrack. (Try typing away while you’re watching and you can appreciate even poor English-language commentary.)

42 Hernanes from 35 yards — a rocket just over the bar! Nice idea; it wouldn’t kill Brazil to be a little more direct.

40 Or they could try this: Messi takes the ball on the touch line, dribbles through several players, muscles some space and fires a low shot that Renan can only parry. If only he had brought someone along to help with the rebound.

39 Argentina is funneling everything through the center, but they may need to go wider for a bit to stretch out the Brazilian defense and create some space.

30 YELLOW for Hernanes, who takes down Messi at the top right corner of the area. Dangerous tackle in that spot, and now a more dangerous free kick. Riquelme drives it into the wall, and a secondary chance is wasted by an off-target cross through the open center of the goalmouth.

28 Rafael Sobis, who replaced Alexandre Pato in Brazil’s lineup, fell on his wrist after losing the ball on the edge of the area. It appears he will live. Possession is starting to even out, thanks in large part to Ronaldinho’s escapability.

26 I should note that the winner today gets Nigeria in the final; Nigeria routed Belgium, 4-1, in Shanghai.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Nigeria reached the Olympic football final with a 4-1 victory over Belgium, getting long-range goals from Emmanuel Ekpo and Chibuzor Okonkwo.

The 1996 Olympic champions took control Tuesday with goals by Olubayo Adefemi and Chinedi Ogbuke Obasi. Ekpo then scored a spectacular 30-meter (yard) shot in the 72nd and Okonkwo’s 25-meter (yard) drive four minutes later went in off the post.

18 YELLOW for Brazil’s Breno. He probably could have gotten away with a talking-to if he hadn’t just assaulted another Argentine on the last corner.

16 Lots of possession by Argentina, which is keeping the ball on the ground. Would they be insulted if I said they look positively Brazilian?

12 Aguero frees himself inside four defenders in the Brazilian area, spins and pulls his shot just outside the right post. Two great chances. Looks like we could be going end to end here.

11 Rafinha burst forward up the right side, cut back into the area and –OOOOHH! — just misses a teammate in the center. Now you know why his German team wanted him to stay home.

6 YELLOW CARD on Argentina’s Zabaleta for a chop-down foul. So I guess Argentina hasn’t forgot everything about its game.

5 Danger again from Argentina. Messi and Riquelme working well in tight spaces to force a corner. The flash so far has been in blue and white, although the corner drifts harmlessly into the goalkeeper’s hands.

3 Ronaldinho up from with Sobis and Diego for Brazil, but first good shot from Mascherano of Argentina, who fired high and wide from the top of the area.

8:56 a.m. Oh, and Brazil has a peppier anthem, so that’s another check in its column today. The crowd certainly sounds like it is on Brazil’s side.

8:55 a.m. I think Estadio de los Tabajadores is a better-sounding name than Workers Stadium. But then I’m just a humble trabajador.

8:48 a.m. For those of you who haven’t followed the tournament, Brazil has yet to allow a goal while scoring 11. Coaches around the world are shuddering at the idea of Brazil with a lockdown defense. A cynic would argue that its path to today’s game — victories over Belgium, New Zealand, China and Cameroon — was easier than the one Argentina had to follow (Ivory Coast, Australia, Serbia and the Netherlands), but no one likes a cynic.

More than 100 scalpers caught with 340 Olympic tickets confiscated

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- A Beijing Olympics official said here Monday that police authorities have caught more than 100 scalpers and confiscated about 340 tickets for the Olympic Games.

Wang Wei, spokesman for the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG), said at a press conference that it is the police authorities that will decide how to deal with the confiscated tickets.

"I think policemen have done their best, as it's not easy to distinguish the situation in which tickets are actually transferred in a fair way and the situation in which the tickets are scalped

tickets are actually transferred in a fair way and the situation in which the tickets are scalped for high profits," Wang said.

Wang also said the BOCOG had no unused tickets. All the tickets were sold. "Of course, as a standard practice, there are some emergency tickets, about two percent of the total and scattered all over the venues, for dealing with emergencies, such as the certain part of a venue has to be blocked. Such kind of tickets must be kept and we do not have any other tickets."

Asked to make comment on scalping, Communications director Giselle Davies of the International Olympic Committee said, "We see actions have been taken by the authorities."

She also briefed journalists that the IOC, together with the United States Olympic Committee, have taken legal actions in the United States against one company that fraudulently sold tickets.

"That case is currently through legal process. I believe the case for injunction procedures will be due sometime at the end of this week," said Davies.

"There is nobody wanting to see this kind of business practice. It hurt those who want to come and join the Games and we were together working as hard as possible to stamp out these practices," Davies added.

Sri Lanka v India, 1st ODI, Dambulla Remorseless Sri Lanka thrash India

The actors were different from the Test series but the script remained the same. India were injected with fresh blood but couldn't escape the slow poison of M&M. Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara did the initial work before Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan blew away the rest to bowl out India for 146. Without having to contend with the pressure of a high asking rate, a serene Mahela Jayawardene weathered the minor hiccup of the loss of the openers and steered his side home in the company of Chamara Kapugedera.

You couldn't escape the sense of deja-vu. Having lost the toss, Jayawardene delayed the introduction of the spinners till the 20th over, but when Mendis finally appeared, it was evident his spell over the batsmen remained unbroken.

India's plight was best exemplified by the dismissal of Yuvraj Singh. He had struggled against the seamers, surviving a dropped chance at five against Kulasekara, before Mendis swallowed him in a spectacular first over. It was quite a sight. The first ball hastened past a mystified Yuvraj, the second-ball skidder fetched a plausible appeal for lbw, and the third saw a desperate counterattack clear the field and the boundary. The fourth was the carrom ball; thinking it would spin away, Yuvraj pushed his bat well outside the line but the ball straightened to sound the death knell.

And Mendis dealt the killer blow almost immediately when he drew Mahendra Singh Dhoni into edging his legbreak to slip. The tailenders resisted briefly but India folded up for a measly score. It was the culmination of the good start provided by the seamers. Aided by the seam movement on a two-paced track - grassy areas punctuated by patches of dry areas - both new-ball bowlers kept it simple: Vaas interspersed his angling full-length deliveries with ones that straightened while Kulasekara troubled the batsmen with his incutters to the right-hand batsmen.

Vaas, overshadowed by Mendis and Murali during the Test series, reminded India just why he is the highest wicket-taker in India-Sri Lanka ODI encounters by breaching the defences of the in-form Gautam Gambhir with the second ball of the match. Kumar Sangakkara stood up to the stumps right away to prevent Gambhir's usual walk down the track and Gambhir drove completely outside the line.

Smart Stats Sri Lanka's eight-wicket win is their fourth in succession in Dambulla against India, who have never beaten the home team here. India's 146 is their lowest ODI score in a 50-over game against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. In 24 ODIs in Dambulla, the team batting first has on 12 occasions failed to get to 200. Gautam Gambhir's wicket was Chaminda Vaas' 399th in ODIs, putting him just one short of joining Wasim Akram, Muralitharan and Waqar Younis in the 400-wicket club. Murali's 3 for 37 improves his record in Dambulla to 32 wickets in 13 ODIs at an average of 13.25 and an economy rate of 3.32. The extent of Sri Lanka's dominance can be gauged from the fact that in the first 15 overs of India's innings, they were forced to play out 69 dot balls, which is 11.5 overs. Over the entire innings India couldn't score from 204 out of 276 deliveries.

One by one, they stumbled. Suresh Raina never looked in, constantly flirting outside off, eventually succumbing to his urge to drive on the up. The debutant Virat Kohli, replacing Virender Sehwag who'd twisted his ankle in practice, was no better. He was unsure of whether to go forward or back during his stay and was caught dead in front by an incutter from Kulasekara.

Kulasekara should have got the next man, Yuvraj but Jayawardene fluffed a regulation chance at second slip. Yuvraj's start was typical: the bat was tentatively pushed away from the body a few times before he broke free with a well-timed clip through the on side. Emboldened, he went for the on-the-up flash and the resultant edge should have terminated his stay. After that, though he never looked completely at ease, he started to play close to the body. That was until Mendis arrived.

Rohit started cautiously, opening the bat face to pinch singles, before he suddenly, and against the run of play, walked down the wicket and swung a short-of-a-length delivery from Vaas over deep midwicket in the 16th over. However, immediately after Mendis sent Yuvraj packing, Rohit steered a delivery slanted across him straight to the solitary wide slip and India continued to free fall.

Sri Lanka, too, wobbled initially in the run chase against some disciplined bowling from Munaf Patel - who prised out the openers - and Zaheer Khan. On a day when the Indian batsmen were shamed, their bowlers provided brief moments of consolation. After six overs of stalemate, Sanath Jayasuriya lost his patience. He skipped down the track but skied the lofted carve to mid-on. Sangakkara, too, fell to the urge to dominate, getting a leading edge from an attempted whip across the line.

However, Jayawardene took charge, looking good from the go. He creamed the seamers through the covers, a gorgeous on-the-up off drive off Munaf in the 17th over being the highlight. Dhoni introduced spin in the 23rd over but even he would have known that neither Harbhajan Singh nor Pragyan Ojha could have produced any miracles. The target was simply not enough on this track.

Munaf was the best Indian bowler on the view. He repeatedly whipped the ball down from a loose-limbed action and got the ball to either cut back in or shape away from the off stump. He might have even bowled the best ball of the day by a medium-pacer when he got one to seam away late past Jayawardene's bat but, as in the Tests, the Indian batsmen hardly gave the bowlers any cover to fire. The Sri Lankan summer of mystery continues to taunt and tease the Indians.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at Cricinf

Phelps Climbs Out of the Pool and Into the World

BEIJING — A few dozen photographers lunged toward the stage where the swimmer Michael Phelps sat Monday morning, their surge reminiscent of Phelps’s finishing charge two days earlier in the Olympic final of the 100-meter butterfly.

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Mark Ralston/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Michael Phelps at a question-and-answer session, which was arranged by one of Phelps’s sponsors, Visa.

The four security officers who escorted Phelps to his seat were helpless to turn back the cresting wave of aggression. In the front row, Phelps’s mother, Debbie, switched seats to get out of the way of the swarm zooming in for a money shot.

Phelps, as unflappable as he was while winning eight gold medals, laughed at the commotion. The photographers, reacting to Phelps’s expressiveness, pressed even closer.

The first day of the rest of Phelps’s life as a sports icon was a trip. It was not unlike a transatlantic flight: tiring, thrilling and a little turbulent.

The question-and-answer session, arranged by one of Phelps’s sponsors, Visa, included journalists from The Harvard Lampoon, The Hollywood Reporter and a cheeky gentleman from New Zealand, a nonmedalist in swimming here, who, when called on, delivered a stand-up routine around the theme of Phelps’s greediness.

Phelps was asked to weigh in on whether light is a particle or a wave and describe love. His answer to both was, “I have no idea.”

Phelps, who won six golds and two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, had some idea how big Michael mania is in the United States. He said he had received a phone call from President Bush and over 4,000 messages on his BlackBerry in the 24 hours since winning his eighth gold medal, in the 4x100 medley relay.

President Bush, he said, told him he made everyone in America proud. “The biggest thing he said was, ‘Give your mother a hug and say the President sent it,’ ” Phelps said.

He heard that Bruce Springsteen, before playing “Born in the U.S.A.” at a concert in Jacksonville, Fla., dedicated the song to him.

Never mind that Phelps’s tastes run more toward hip-hop than rock. “It’s amazing,” he said, adding, “Every time I read a text message I’m smiling.”

The 24 hours since his last swim had been a whirlwind, Phelps said. “I’m just going every which way,” he said. “It’s a fun experience. Something I really didn’t have in Athens.”

In the course of the 36-minute media session, Phelps painted a vivid picture of the bunker from which he had just emerged. During the nine days of competition, his focus was so keen he didn’t notice until Sunday that the exterior of the aquatics site, the Water Cube, is lit up in a kaleidoscope of colors at night. “I had no idea,” he said.

Phelps talked about not seeing his mother except at the pool, and eating pasta and pizza when what he really craved was a big, juicy cheeseburger. He said that now that he is done swimming, he was looking forward to being able to eat whatever he wants.

He also has a stack of Baltimore Ravens press clippings to devour. Phelps, an ardent fan of the N.F.L., hasn’t followed the news from the Ravens’ training camp this month. He ignored an e-mail message that he received last week about an upcoming fantasy football league draft because it wasn’t the right time to have that on his mind.

“I’m excited for the football season to start,” he said, “and hopefully it’ll be a good season for the Ravens.”

The 23-year-old Phelps put on a cheerful face, but in an interview later, away from the cameras’ glare, his fatigue showed. His eyes were dull and he sat slumped in a chair, with his legs crossed underneath him.

He was operating on five hours of sleep. "I need a lot more than that,” he said. Phelps added, “I’m very tired right now. But it’s fun.”

From here, Phelps will travel to London, site of the 2012 Olympics, for an appearance connected to Sunday’s closing ceremony. After spending the last four years training at Michigan and the past two months sequestered with the rest of the United States Olympic swim team, Phelps said he was looking forward to returning to his hometown of Baltimore and settling back into his old life.

“That’s what I want,” he said. “As close to that as possible.”

Phelps’s public profile has changed so dramatically in the past week, is it realistic for him to expect his life to remain the same? “I have no idea,” Phelps said. “I’ll be able to answer that question when I get back there and see it firsthand. I have no idea what it’s going to be like.”

He sounded determined not to lose himself in the celebrity scene. “I’m going to live my life the way I always have,” he said. “I’m going to do the things I’ve always done and hang out with the people I’ve always hung out with.”

Phelps is willing to make a couple of exceptions. He said he would love to hang out with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, two people he has never met. Phelps is drawn to both because he wants to be like them. His long-term goal is to have the same impact on swimming that Jordan had on basketball and Woods on golf.

An avid cards player, Phelps said it would be cool to participate in the World Series of Poker. “My game is a little off right now,” he said, “so I’ll have to start improving it a little bit.”

After the 1972 Olympics, Spitz posed for a poster in his swimsuit, wearing his seven gold medals around his neck. If there is a similar photo shoot in Phelps’s future, he hasn’t seen the schedule.

“I have no idea,” he said. “I just woke up this morning and did a bunch of interviews. I’m just trying to get everything situated, recover and all that stuff before everything starts taking off again.”

The way his popularity has skyrocketed, it may be a while before Phelps returns to earth.

Unlikely Savior Rallies American Track Team

BEIJING — The United States track and field team’s savior draped an American flag over her shoulders Monday night and ran a victory lap wearing the biggest smile she could muster, a most unlikely heroine in an event that has been an American afterthought for decades.

Stephanie Brown Trafton took her place at the head of the American team with a surprising gold medal in the discus, the first by an American woman since 1932 and the only medal of any color since 1984. Hers was a dream spawned when she was 4 years old and watching the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics at her home in Arroyo Grande, Calif. Back then, she wanted to be a gymnast.

Now 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds at age 28, Brown Trafton has found a more fitting route to Olympic glory.

“I want to meet Mary Lou Retton, so please, someone hook me up,” Brown Trafton said. “She was my idol. I had a leotard like hers but I got too big to be a gymnast.”

After three mostly miserable nights of an Olympic track meet, the American team had won only three medals, a silver by shot-putter Christian Cantwell and bronzes by Walter Dix in the 100 meters and Shalane Flanagan in the 10,000. With the Jamaicans suddenly dominating the sprints, this meet started to feel like an American slide.

Brown Trafton not only halted that, she sparked a bit of a turnaround. By the end of the night, three American men swept the medals in the 400-meter hurdles and the pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski snared a silver medal.

So by the time Angelo Taylor, Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson soared across the finish line in the 400 hurdles and celebrated in one big American-flag hug, the mood around the team had lifted considerably.

“I knew America was struggling a bit but I knew we could be the heart of the team that could bring it back,” Jackson said.

The 400-meter hurdles is a traditional American event, built on the shoulders of runners like Edwin Moses, who won gold medals at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics and would have been favored to win a third had the United States attended the 1980 Games in Moscow. But while there has been an American sweep of the Olympic medals five times, it has not happened since 1960.

Taylor was not the most likely of the three competitors to lead them over the line. He is 29 and his life has taken several downturns since he won the gold medal in this event in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In 2004, he sustained stress fractures in both his shins, did not make the finals in the Athens Olympics and was forced to take a year off to heal. He went to work as an electrician in Atlanta. In 2006, he was given three years’ probation after pleading guilty to contributing to the delinquency of two under-age girls.

Just weeks ago he found out he would lose the gold medal he won in Sydney in the 4x400-meter relay after his teammate Antonio Pettigrew admitted to doping.

“I’m happy right now,” Taylor said. “This replaces all that. I feel like it replaces that medal. After eight years, to win after everything I’ve gone through, I’m so happy.”

The three Americans were openly talking about sweeping this event after the United States trials. They qualified for the final as the three strongest runners. Clement was also coming off a world championship last year and Jackson had won in 2005. But it was Taylor crossing the finish line well ahead, in 47.25 seconds, his personal best. Clement ran a 47.98.

Jackson had to fight hardest for the medal, losing his rhythm early in the race and fighting at the end to hold off Jamaica’s Danny McFarlane.

“We were all great candidates for the gold medal but the best guy won and that was Angelo tonight,” Jackson said.

In the pole vault, the best woman definitely won as the competition became another example of the domination by Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva. She won the gold with two jumps and then topped her own world record by clearing 16 feet 8 inches on her third try.

Stuczynski, in her first Olympics, cleared 15 feet 9 inches for the silver. She said she hoped to catch up to Isinbayeva in the coming years. Stuczynski was playing basketball in college when she first tried the pole vault in 2004.

“I think I just need more experience,” Stuczynski said. “In ‘04 I was a 12-foot pole vaulter. She’s been in the Olympics before. She’s been to the world championships. She’s jumped for a decade longer than me. It’s just a matter of time.”

For sheer audacity, all those American medalists took a backseat to Brown Trafton.

The women’s throwing events have been devoid of American contenders. They are usually dominated by Eastern Europeans, while Americans struggle just to make the finals in major international meets. The last American medal came courtesy of Leslie Deniz in 1984, the Games that were boycotted by the Eastern Bloc. The last American to win was Lillian Copeland in the first Los Angeles Games, in 1932.

“I hope this gives all the kids in high school and college the confidence that they can medal in the Olympics,” Brown Trafton said. “Myself, I have a great physique to be a thrower, long and lean. I’m going to get stronger and hopefully I’ll stay injury free.”

Brown Trafton is a bit of a throwback to the Olympics of old. For one, she has a job, working as a project manager for Sycamore Environmental Consulting in Sacramento. She trains in almost complete anonymity. She did not even with the United States trials, finishing third.

Her golden moment, though, came at just the right time for an American team that needed her badly.

Beiging Olempic-2008:Results - Monday 18 August

Athletics

Women's 100m hurdles qualifiers for final:

Lolo Jones (US) 12.43 seconds, Damu Cherry (US) 12.62, Dawn Harper (US) 12.66, Delloreen Ennis-London (Jam) 12.67, Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (Can) 12.68, Sally McLellan (Aus) 12.70, Brigitte Foster-Hylton (Jam) 12.76, Sarah Claxton (GB) 12.84

Women's hammer qualifiers:

Yipsi Moreno (Cub), Zhang Wenxiu (Chn), Martina Hrasnova (Svk), Manuela Montebrun (Fra), Clarissa Claretti (Ita), Anita Wlodarczyk (Pol), Betty Heidler (Ger), Darya Pchelnik (Blr), Elena Priyma (Rus), Kamila Skolimowska (Pol), Aksana Miankova (Blr), Stella Papadopoulou (Gre)

Men's 110m hurdles round 1 qualifiers:

Dayron Robles (Cub), Andrew Turner (GB), Wei Ji (Chn), Richard Phillips (Jam), David Oliver (US), Jackson Quinonez (Spa), Shamar Sands (Bah), Gregory Sedoc (Ned), Lee Jung-joon (Kor), Mikel Thomas (Tri), Damjan Zlatnar (Slo), Paulo Villar (Col), Ryan Brathwaite (Brb), Petr Svoboda (Cze), Shi Dongpeng (Chn), Ronald Forbes (Cay), Hector Cotto (Pur), Dudley Dorival (Hai), David Payne (US), Ladji Doucoure (Fra), Selim Nurudeen (Nga), Maurice Wignall (Jam), Artur Noga (Pol), Igor Peremota (Rus), Daniel Kiss (Hun), Anselmo de Silva (Brz), Konstadinos Douvalidis (Gre), Marcel van der Westen (Ned), Allan Scott (GB), Samuel Coco-Viloin (Fra), Mohammed Issa Al-Thawadi (Qat), David Ilariani (Geo)

Men's triple jump qualifiers:

Phillips Idowu (GB), Nelson Evora (Por), Arnie Girat (Cub), Igor Spasovkhodskiy (Rus), Marian Oprea (Rom), Jadel Gregorio (Brz), Viktor Kuznyetsov (Ukr), Li Yanxi (Chn), Leevan Sands (Bah), Onochie Achike (GB), Hector Fuentes (Cub), Momchil Karailiev (Bul)

Men's 200m round 1 qualifiers:

Shawn Crawford (US), Marcin Jedrusinski (Pol), Stephan Buckland (Mri), Brian Dzingayi (Zim), Christian Malcolm (GB), Christopher Williams (Jam), Amr Seoud (Egy), Shinji Takahira (Jpn), Thuso Mpuang (SA), Marlon Devonish (GB), Kim Collins (Skn), Marvin Anderson (Jam), Matic Osovnikar (Slo), Roman Smirnov (Rus), Walter Dix (US), Cruz Rolanda Castillo (Hon), Angel David Rodriguez (Spa), Rondell Sorillo (Tri), Usain Bolt (Jam), Kristof Beyens (Bel), Marc Schneeberger (Swi), Wallace Spearman (US), Jaysuma Saidy Ndure (Nor), Paul Hession (Ire), Obinna Metu (Nga), Ramil Guliyev (Aze), Churandy Martina (Ned), Sandro Viana (Brz), Aaron Armstrong (Tri), Brendan Christian (Atg), Jared Connaughton (Can), Visa Hongisto (Fin)

Men's 400m round 1 qualifiers:

Christopher Brown (Bah), Joe Milburn (Aus), Johan Wissman (Swe), Senga Gary Kikaya (Cod), Andrew Steele (GB), Lashawn Merritt (US), Martyn Rooney (GB), Leslie Djhone (Fra), Renny Quow (Tri), Sean Wroe (Aus), Michael Mathieu (Bah), Saul Weipogwa (Nga), Ricardo Chambers (Jam), David Neville (US), Jeremy Wariner (US), Claudio Licciardello (Ita), Jonathan Borlee (Bel), Nery Brenes (Crc) Tabarie Henry (ISV), Williams Collazo (Cub), Kevin Borlee (Bel), Godday James (Nga), Denis Alexeev (Rus), Cedric van Branteghem (Bel), Michael Blackwood (Jam), Ato Modibo (Tri), Sanjay Ayre (Jam), Tyler Christopher (Can), David Gillick (Ire), Young Talkmore Nyongani (Zim), Andretti Bain (Bah)

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Baseball

Preliminaries:

Japan 1-0 Canada

South Korea 9-8 Chinese Taipei

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Basketball

Men's group A:

Croatia 91-57 Iran

Australia 106-75 Lithuania

Men's group B:

Greece 91-77 China

Spain 98-50 Angola

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Boxing

Men's Bantamweight quarter-finals

Yankiel Alarcon (Cub) bt Worapoj Petchkoom (Tha) pts (10-2)

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Canoeing

Men's K1 1000

Qualified for final: Tim Brabants (GB), Adam van Koeverden (Can), Eirik Veras Larsen (Nor).

Repechage: Zoltan Benkoe (Hun), Markus Oscarsson (Swe), Emanuel Silva (Por), Shaun Rubenstein (SA), Dmitriy Torlopov (Kaz), Manuel Cortina (Mex), Stjepan Janic (Cro), Ben Fouhy (NZ), Jernej Regent Zupancic (Slo), Michael Kolganov (Isr), Rami Zur (US), Jorge Garcia (Cub), Ken Wallace (Aus), Max Hoff (Ger), Anton Ryahov (Rus), Pan Yao (Chn), Miguel Antonio Correa (Arg), Rudolf Berking-Williams (Sam).

Men's C1 1000

Qualified for final: Attila Sandor Vajda (Hun), Vadim Minkov (Uzb), David Cal (Spa).

Repechage: Marcin Grzybowski (Pol), Mikelis Ezmalis (Lat), Torsten Lachmann (Aus), Jose Cristobal (Mex), Fortunato Pacavira (Ang), Mathieu Goubel (Fra), Marian Ostrcil (Svk), Aliaksandr Zhukouski (Blr), Victor Melantev (Rus), Nivalter Jesus (Brz), Mikhail Yemelyanov (Kaz), Andreas Dittmer (Ger), Aldo Diaz (Cub), Thomas Hall (Can), Andreas Kiligkaridis (Gre), Iurii Cheban (Ukr), Calvin Mokoto(SA).

Women's K4 500

Qualified for final: Germany, China, South Africa, Hungary, Poland, Australia.

Repechage: Italy, Japan, Spain, Canada

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Cycling

Men's team pursuit

Gold medal race

1 Great Britain (Clancy/Manning/Thomas/Wiggins) 3 minutes 53.314 seconds WR Gold

2 Denmark (Morkov/Jorgensen/Madsen/Rasmussen) 4:00.04 Silver

Bronze medal race

1 New Zealand (Bewley/Roulston/Ryan/Sergent) 3:57.776 Bronze

2 Australia (Bobridge/Brown/Jamieson/Roberts) 3:59.006

Women's Points Race

1 Marianne Vos (Ned) 30 pts Gold

2 Yoanka Gonzalez (Cub) 18 Silver 3. Leire Olaberria (Spa) 13 Bronze

4 Maria Luisa Calle (Col) 13 5 Lesya Kalitovska (Ukr) 10

6 Katherine Bates (Aus) 10 7 Pascale Jeuland (Fra) 8

8 Olga Slyusareva (Rus) 8 9 Gina Grain (Can) 6

10 Li Yan (Chn) 6 11 Rebecca Romero (GB) 3 12 Svetlana Pauliukaite (Lithuania) 2

13 Lada Kozlikova (Cze) 2

14 Vera Carrara (Ita) 1

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Gymnastics

Men's rings final

1 Chen Yibing (Chn) 16.600 points Gold

2 Yang Wei (Chn) 16.425 Silver

3 Oleksandr Vorobiov (Ukr) 16.325 Bronze

4 Andrea Coppolino (Ita) 16.225

5 Danny Pinheiro (Fra) 16.225

6 Matteo Morandi (Ita) 16.200

7 Robert Stanescu (Rom) 15.825

8 Jordan Iovtchev (Bul) 5.525

Men's vault final

1 Leszek Blanik (Pol) 16.537 points Gold

2 Thomas Bouhail (Fra) 16.537 Silver

3 Anton Golotsutskov (Rus) 16.475 Bronze

4 Marian Dragulescu (Rom) 16.225

5 Benoit Caranobe (Fra) 16.062

6 Dimitri Kaspiarovich (Blr) 16.050

7 Flavius Koczi (Rom) 15.925

8 Isaac Botella (Spa) 15.737

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Football

Women's semi-finals

Germany 1-4 Brazil

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Handball

Group A - men:

Spain 36-35 Brazil

Croatia 33-22 China

Group B - men:

Iceland 32-32 Egypt

Russia 29-22 South Korea

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Hockey

Women's group A:

South Korea 5-2 South Africa

Netherlands 2-0 Spain

Women's group B:

Germany 1-0 Japan

Great Britain 0-0 USA

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Sailing

Mixed 49er Skiff final standings

1 Denmark 61.0 pts Gold

2 Spain 64.0 Silver

3 Germany 66.0 Bronze

4 Italy 66.0

5 Australia 73.0

6 United States 89.0

7 Brazil 99.0

8 Austria 99.0 pts

9 Great Britain 100.0

10 France 109.0

11 Portugal 100.0

12 Japan 103.0

13 Norway 128.0

14 Canada 134.0

15 Ukraine 139.0

16 Poland 147.0

17 Croatia 158.0

18 Sweden 163.0

19 China 176.0

470 women's two person dinghy final standings:

1. Australia 43 pts

2. Netherlands 53 pts

3. Brazil 60 pts

4. Israel 66 pts

5. Italy 75 pts

6. Great Britain 82 pts

7 Czech Republic 83 pts

8 Austria 84 pts

9 Germany 90 pts

10 Spain 92 pts

470 men's two person dinghy final standings:

1. Australia 44 pts

2. Great Britain 77 pts

3. France 78 pts

4. Netherlands 78 pts

5. Spain 87 pts

6. Italy 91 pts

7 Japan 97 pts

8 Portugal 102 pts

9 Croatia 107 pts

10 Argentina 110 pts

Star men's keelboat ranking after race 7:

1 Sweden 23 pts

2 Great Britain 26

3 France 32

4 Poland 33

5 Germany 36

6 Portugal 37

Mixed tornado multihull ranking after race 7:

1 Spain 20 pts

2 Australia 20 pts

3 Greece 32 pts

11 Great Britain 42 pts

Women's laser radial one person dinghy after race 9:

1. Anna Tunnicliffe (US) 33 pts, 2. Gintare Volungeviciute (Lit) 40 pts, 3. Xu Lijia (Chn) 44 pts, 10 Penny Clark (GB) 98 pts

Men's laser one person dinghy after race 9:

1 Paul Goodison (GB) 45 pts

2 Rasmus Mygren (Swe) 63 pts

3 Gustavo Lima (Por) 66 pts

Women's RSX windsurfer ranking after race 9:

1. Alessandra Sensini (Ita) 30 pts, 2. Yin Jian (Chn) 32 pts, 3. Marina Alabau (Spa) 37 pts, 4. Bryony Shaw (GB) 39 pts

Men's RSX windsurfer ranking after race 9:

1 Tom Ashley (NZ) 38 pts

2 Nick Dempsey (GB) 41

3 Julien Bontemps (Fra) 42

Mixed tornado multihull ranking after race 5:

1 Spain 12 pts

2 Australia 13

3 Greece 16

11 Great Britain 35

Women's laser radial one person dinghy after race 9:

1 Anna Tunnicliffe (US) 33 pts

2 Gintare Volungeviciute (Lit) 40

3. Xu Lijia (Chn) 44

10 Penny Clark (GB) 98

Men's laser one person dinghy after race 9:

1 Paul Goodison (GB) 45 points

2 Rasmus Myrgren (Swe) 63

3 Gustavo Lima (Por) 65

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Softball

Preliminaries:

Netherlands 4-2 Chinese Taipei

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Synchro swimming

Duet technical routine

1 Russia (Davydova/Ermakova) 49.334 pts

2 Spain (Fuentes/Mengual) 48.834

3 Japan (Harada/Suzuki) 48.250

4 China (Jiang T/Jiang W), 48.084

5 United States (Jones/Nott), 47.750

6 Canada (Boudreau/Rampling) 47.417

7 Italy (Adelizzi/Lapi) 46.834

8 Ukraine (Iushko/Sydorenko) 46.084

9 Greece (Makrygianni/Solomou) 45.834

10 Netherlands (B van der Velden; S van der Velden) 45.584

11 France (Dreyfuss/Meessemann-Bakir) 44.750

12 Brazil (Figueira/Teixeira) 44.334

13 Switzerland (Brunner/Schneider) 44.250

14 Great Britain (Allison/Randall) 43.917

15 Israel (Gloushkov/Yoffe) 43.583

16 North Korea (Kim Yong Mi/Wang Ok Gyong) 42.917

17 Belarus (Kulpo/Parfenava) 42.667

18 Czech Republic (Bernardova/Dufkova) 42.500

19 Mexico (Cifuentes/Delgado) 42.334

20 Kazakhstan (Kerey/Toktagan) 41.750

21 Austria (Brandl/Mahn) 41.250

21 Australia (GlezLeal-Ramirez) 41.250

23 New Zealand (L Daniels/N Daniels) 40.750

24 Egypt (Abdalazem/El Gebaly) 40.417

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Table tennis

Women's singles first round

Fen Yang (Cgo) bt Crystal Huang (US) 4-11 11-8 9-11 11-5 13-11 11-9

Pan Li-Chun (Tai) bt Shaimaa Abdul-Aziz (Egy) 11-4 11-4 11-2 11-1

Margaryta Pesotska (Ukr) bt Marina Shumakova (Kaz) 11-8 11-6 11-6 11-6

Miao Miao (Aus) bt Cecilia Otu Offiong (Ngr) 11-7 11-5 11-5 14-12

Lian Qian (Dom) bt Victorine Agum Fomum (Cam) 11-3 11-1 11-6 11-5

Ruta Paskauskiene (Lit) bt Mariany Nonaka (Brz) 11-3 11-6 15-13 11-3

Mo Zhang (Can) bt Paula Medina (Col) 11-5 11-5 12-10 11-8

Dana Hadacova (Cze) bt Zeina Shaban (Jor) 11-3 11-6 11-8 11-5

Fabiola Ramos (Ven) bt Judy Long (Can) 5-11 16-14 11-8 11-7 11-9

Tetyana Sorochinskaya (Ukr) bt Noha Yossry (Egy) 11-5 11-4 12-10 11-7

Jian Fang Lay (Aus) bt Neha Aggarwal (Ind) 10-12 11-8 13-11 11-8 11-4

Stephanie Xu Sang (Aus) bt Bose Kaffo (Ngr) 11-8 10-12 11-9 11-2 11-7

Eva Odorova (Svk) bt Priscila Tommy (Van) 11-5 11-7 11-2 11-3

Andrea Bakula (Cro) bt Yadira Silva (Mex) 12-10 11-8 11-2 11-8

Men's team bronze medal match

Korea bt Austria 3-1 (3-1 1-3 3-0 3-0)

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Women's triathlon:

1 Emma Snowsill (Aus) 1 hour 58 minutes 27 seconds Gold

2 Vanessa Fernandes (Por) 1:59:34 Silver

3 Emma Moffatt (Aus) 1:59:55 Bronze

4 Laura Bennett (US) 2:00:21

5 Juri Ide (Jpn) 2:00:23

6 Nicola Spring (Swi) 2:00:30

7 Daniela Ryf (Swi) 2:00:40

8 Andrea Hewitt (NZ) 2:00:45

9 Kiyomi Niwata (Jpn) 2:00:51

10 Debbie Tanner (NZ) 2:01:06

Others:

21 Helen Tucker(GB) 2:02:55

37 Emma Davis (Ire) 2:06:29

Hollie Avil (GB) DNF

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Volleyball

Beach - men's quarter-finals:

Rogers/Dalhausser (US) 2-0 Klemperer/Koreng (Ger)

Geor/Gia (Geo) 2-0 Nummerdor/Schuil (Ned)

Gomes/Terceiro (Geo) 2-0 Nummerdor/Schuil (Ned)

Indoor - men's group A:

Bulgaria 3-1 Venezuela

Men's Group B

Germany 0-3 Brazil

Poland 3-2 Russia

Egypt 0-3 Serbia

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Water Polo

Men's Group A

Spain 10-6 Greece

Hungary 12-3 Canada

Montenegro 5-5 Australia

Croatia 16-4 China