Canadian coach ejected, suspended
Canadian men’s water polo coach Dragan Jovanovic was ejected from yesterday’s match against Australia, a penalty that comes with a one-game suspension from Olympic competition. Jovanovic will not be allowed to coach in tomorrow’s match against Greece. “Honestly, I don’t care,” said Jovanovic, whose team lost 8-5 and dropped to 0-3 in Group A preliminary play. “The ones who are playing are in the water and they’re going to do a good job for sure. I’m going to prepare the team the next couple of days for the game against Greece, but execution is coming from the players in the water.” Jovanovic received a red card in the third quarter for arguing a call with the referees. He was escorted from the bench and off the pool deck, but he emerged a few minutes later and watched from about 20 metres (50 feet) away. He even had an Olympic volunteer retrieve his water from the bench.
Italian Minguzzi surprises at Greco 84 kg
Andrea Minguzzi was the surprise winner of the Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling 84-kilogram gold medal, defeating Zoltan Fodor of Hungary. Fodor won the first period 1-1 on tiebreaker, but Minguzzi won the second by the same score before throwing Fodor in the third to win 4-0. Minguzzi, who upset 2004 gold medallist Aleksey Mishin of Russia in the quarterfinals, was 45th in last year’s world championships and has never finished higher than 18th in four world championship appearances. Fodor was eighth in the world last year.
Cainero tops American, German in shoot-off
Chiara Cainero of Italy won the gold medal in women’s skeet shooting yesterday, beating Kim Rhode of the United States and Christine Brinker of Germany in a shoot-off. The three finished tied at 93 targets and Cainero hit the first two targets of the shoot-off. Rhode and Brinker each missed one. The shoot-off continued to determine second place. Rhode ended up winning the silver, and Brinker took the bronze. It rained throughout the competition, with the downpour intensifying near the end of the finals.
Light winds stall Olympic sailors
All racing at the Olympic sailing venue was cancelled yesterday due to lack of wind and low visibility, forcing the starts to be moved to today, when stronger winds are predicted, organisers said. Even though the sailing venue of Qingdao, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of Beijing, is notorious among sailors for its light summer winds and fog, yesterday was the first full day of racing lost due to wind conditions. On Wednesday, attempts to start the day’s second races for the Finn, Yngling, Laser and Laser Radial classes were dropped due to light winds.
Chinese swimmer disqualified in 100 free
Pang Jiaying of China has been disqualified after winning her semi-final heat of the women’s Olympic 100-metre freestyle. Pang touched first in 53.49 seconds yesterday, but she was disqualified for flinching slightly at the start of the two-lap race. That cleared the way for world record-holder Libby Trickett of Australia to get into the final. Trickett’s time of 54.10 was good enough to secure the eighth and last spot, which she would have been denied if Pang had not been disqualified.
Germany beats US 4-2 in field hockey
Germany scored three second-half goals to beat the United States 4-2 in Olympic women’s field hockey yesterday. The 2004 gold medallists improved to 3-0 in Pool B and greatly improved their chances of making the medal round again. The United States dropped to 0-1-2. Although the Americans have been competitive with draws against top-five teams Argentina and Japan, they will be hard-pressed to earn one of the top two slots in the six-team pool that qualify for the medal round.
American saber team eliminated in semis
The Ukrainian women’s saber team shocked the top-seeded US in the semi-finals yesterday, eliminating an American team that featured all three individual medallists. Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson and Becca Ward swept the saber medals yesterday, but the best they can do as a group is win bronze. Ukraine defeated the US 45-39 to advance to the gold medal bout.
US pair still perfect in beach volleyball
Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, who won the gold medal in Athens, beat Nila Ann Hakedal and Ingrid Torlen of Norway 21-12, 21-15 yesterday to improve to 3-0 in Olympic beach volleyball. Kerri Walsh is used to playing every day – sometimes three times a day – on the professional beach volleyball tours. To her, the Olympic schedule is gruelling. “Three matches in six days; that’s mentally wearing on me,” she said after she and May-Treanor wrapped up the round-robin with a perfect record. “That’s one of the challenges of the Olympics. We’re so eager when we get out on the court. You have to bottle up the energy and make sure you don’t wear out.”