China made a winning start to their Olympics on Saturday but the murder of a relative of a US volleyball coach in Beijing dashed hopes for a peaceful Games.
A 47-year-old Chinese man attacked two American relatives of the coach and a Chinese tour guide at a popular tourist site, leaving one man dead, Beijing police said.
The assailant then jumped to his death from high up the Drum Tower, a 700-year-old 45-metre (yard) high monument once used to sound time for the Chinese capital’s residents.
Attacks on foreigners in Beijing are rare. Olympic organisers have deployed a 100,000-strong security force to protect the 10,500 athletes and thousands of spectators, citing the threat of terrorism but sparking criticism they were blocking protests.
Chinese hopes of quick wins were partly met as competition got under way in earnest. A woman’s weightlifting gold and men’s shooting gold came their way, though they lost the first medal to be awarded after the Chinese favourite buckled under pressure.
Katerina Emmons won the first gold, in the women’s 10-metre air rifle, for the Czech Republic. Pre-Games favourite Du Li of China finished fifth and left in tears.
“There was pressure for all of us but for her it was even harder,” Emmons said of her rival. “I’m sorry, but the Chinese press is putting a lot of pressure on Chinese athletes.”
“I wasn’t fully prepared for the pressure of competing at home,” said Du, who won gold in Athens in 2004.
Pang Wei restored home pride in the shooting with victory in the men’s 10-metre air pistol, the second gold for China after Chen Xiexia won, as expected, in the women’s 48kg weightlifting.
US swimming sensation Michael Phelps set off on his quest for a record eight gold medals, diving into the pool at the bubble-wrap Water Cube building to win his heat in the 400 meters individual medley in an Olympic record.
Phelps first gold could come on Sunday, when the mighty US swim team is well-placed to triumph in three of the four finals being staged.
In the first event to test athletes’ ability to withstand the heat and smog of a Beijing summer, Spain’s Samuel Sanchez won the men’s cycling road race along a gruelling 245-km route from the Forbidden City in Beijing to the Great Wall.
More than a third of contestants dropped out, including favourites like German Stefan Schumacher who said the humidity and smog made a hard course even tougher.
“I have a very, very strong headache,” said Schumacher, after abandoning the race. “I suppose it’s the pollution.”
The 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador could not handle the heat either. “I just didn’t have any more strength in the legs,” said Contador after giving up.
Sanchez’s Spanish teammates said they had decided to work together to support whichever of them had the best chance to win.
“In the end it turned out that Samuel felt the best and so we played his card,” said Spain’s Carlos Sastre, this year’s Tour de France winner. The women’s cycling road race is along the same route on Sunday when it is forecast to be wet and cooler.
Tennis officials said they may allow heat breaks during matches to help players cope with stifling humidity and heat in the high 90s Fahrenheit (above 35 Celsius). Competitors have said the conditions are among the toughest say they have faced.
Warnings smog would hinder performance have persisted despite an 18-billion-dollar campaign to clean the air around the city by shutting down smokestack industry and forcing cars off the roads.
US President George W Bush watched the American beach volleyball teams practice, joining the women on court to volley a few balls, hitting two but missing the third.
At one point, 2004 gold medal winners Misty May-Treanor jokingly bent over and offered Bush a chance to give her a pat on the rear. Instead, he playfully tapped her back.
Categories: Sports, World News
