Doping scandals cast a long shadow over the Athens Olympics as
an Indian weightlifter and a shot putter from Uzbekistan were
booted out of the Games on Friday following positive drug
tests.
Greek weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis, a bronze medalist in 62kg
class Monday, tested positive for a banned substance in his "A"
sample.
If his "B" sample turns out positive, he will be the first
Athens medalist to be stripped of medal and kicked out.
India's Sanamacha Chanu and Uzbekistan's Olga Shchukina were
expelled by the International Olympic Committee executive board on
Friday.
Chanu, who came fourth in Sunday's women's 53kg weightlifting,
tested positive for furosemide, a banned diuretic.
Shchukina, last in her qualifying group in Wednesday's shot put
at Ancient Olympia, tested positive in last Saturday's check for
the steroid clenbuterol.
Chanu was the sixth weightlifter, and second from India,
expelled from the Olympics. Kenyan boxer David Munyasia was earlier
kicked out after flunking a pre-games check.
The Games opened with a high-profile doping scandal as Greek
heroes Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou were withdrawn for
missing a drugs test.
Drugs aside, the Olympics saw a highly competitive day as the
United States nailed the top ranking on the medal tally with its
prodigy Michael Phelps lifting his fifth gold and three world
records tumbled in cycling and weightlifting.
Adding three golds for the day, the United States tops with 17
golds. China, front-runner for six days, has secured 16 golds as
Zhang Yining and Wang Nan won the women's table tennis doubles and
Chinese swept the final berths for the women's badminton
doubles.
Japan remains third with 12 golds including eight from the
14-event judo.
The 19-year-old Phelps got his fifth gold in Athens - his
seventh medal - by winning the 100m butterfly in an Olympic record
of 51.25 seconds, 0.04 clear of teammate and world record holder
Ian Crocker, who picked the silver.
Gary Hall won the U.S. second swimming gold for the night,
out-touching Croatian Duje Draganja by one-hundredth of a second to
take the men's 50m freestyle in 21.93.
Zimbabwe ended its Athens gold drought thanks to Kirsty
Coventry, who touched home first in 1:07.11 in the women's 200m
backstroke.
Japan pocketed a surprise gold from the women's 800 freestyle
final, where Ai Shibata made a late surge to beat Laure Manaudou of
France for a winning time of 8:24.54.
Russia, first overall in the 1992 Olympics and twice second in
1996 and 2000, is languishing in fifth with five golds, including
two won Friday.
Russia defeated Germany 34-28 to take the women's epee team
crown and compatriot Lioubov Galkina grabbed the women's 50m rifle3
position gold.
Matthew Emmons shot down the men's rifle prone gold, the
Americans' second in the sport.
Japan swept the last two judo titles with Maki Tsukada
triumphing in the women's 78kg class and Keiji Suzuki winning the
men's 100kg.
South Korea lifted two golds from archery and badminton.
As defending champion, South Korea released a 10-point shot on
its last arrow to nail a 241-240 narrow triumph over China in the
women's archery team final.
This victory means that South Korea has clean-swept all the
women's golds since the 1984 Olympics and all the women's team
titles since 1988.
Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon won an all-South Korean final in
the men's badminton, beating Lee Dong Soo and Yoo Yong Sun 15-11,
15-4.
South Koreans Ra Kyung Min and Lee Kyung Won, the only
non-Chinese duo in the women's badminton semifinals, lost Friday
and an all-Chinese title clash will take place Saturday.
In table tennis, Chinese second seeds Wang Nan and Zhang Yining
rolled over third-seeded South Koreans Lee Eun Sil and Seok Eun
Mi11-9, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 for the gold.
Thailand's Pawina Thongsuk lifted a total of 272.5kg to set a
new world record and win the women's 75kg weightlifting gold.
Natalia Zabolotnaia of Russia, 19, who snatched 122.5kg for a
new world mark, had to settle for a silver.
A world record was also created in velodrome, where Anna
Mearesof Australia won women's 500m time trial in 33.952 seconds,
beating the previous world standard of 34.000 and finishing ahead
of Chinese Jiang Yonghua.
British cyclist Chris Hoy took the men's 1km time trial in
1:00.711, a new Olympic record.
On the second day of athletics, former world 50km walk champion
Ivano Brugnetti won the men's 20km event in 1:19:40.
Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele kicked away in the last lap to win
the men's 10,000m in 27:05.10, leaving his idol Haile Gebrselassie
in fifth place.
In canoe and kayak, Slovakia's Pavol Hochschorner and Peter
Hochschorner nabbed the men's C2 canoe pair top honor and Benoit
Peschier of France landed the men's K1 kayak gold.
In trampoline's only second Olympic appearance, Anna Dogonadze
took Germany's fifth gold in Athens.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2004)