Trackback URL
Download PDF Michael Phelps claimed his sixth Beijing gold and sixth world record as the United States mounted a gold rush on Friday, but the gloss of the Games was tarnished with the first drug failures.
North Korean shooter Kim Jong-Su, who had won a silver and bronze medal, and unplaced Vietnamese gymnast Do Thi Ngan Thuong had both tested positive, the IOC said.
They were the first doping failures in competition since the Games began a week ago.
In an age where superlative performances spark suspicion, Phelps was moved to say his superhuman exploits are achieved fairly.
“Anyone can say whatever they want, I know, for me, I am clean,” he said after shaving 0.57sec of his own record in winning the 200m medley.
A day after drawing a golden blank, the United States staged a four-gold blitz, three in world record time in swimming and one in gymnastics, raising spirits after the traditional sporting powerhouse had struggled through the first week.
China picked up two weightlifting and a judo title to have 25 gold medals and the United States are second with 14, nearly half of them from Phelps as he moved within one of Mark Spitz’s record seven gold at one Games.
Phelps, whose current career haul of 12 Olympic gold medals is a record in itself, is set to overtake Spitz if he wins his remaining two races — the 100m butterfly and 4×100m medley relay.
Rebecca Soni, who underwent heart surgery two years ago, started the US run in the pool when she upset Australia’s world champion Leisel Jones to win the 200m breaststroke gold in world record time.
Ryan Lochte followed with a world record win in the men’s 200m backstroke and 40 minutes later he was back in the pool to take the bronze medal behind Phelps in the medley.
Britta Steffen broke the US stranglehold taking the women’s 100m freestyle crown, and giving Germany their eighth gold to be third on the table.
Track and field opened with the world’s three fastest men of all time — American Tyson Gay and Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt — cruising through the first round heats of the men’s 100m, ahead of Saturday’s highly-anticipated final.
Russian-born Nastia Liukin, whose father Valeri won two gold medals for the Soviet Union in 1988, snapped China’s stranglehold on gymnastics when she and Shawn Johnson produced a US one-two in the women’s all-round final leaving Yang Yilin of China third.
China continued to dominate weightlifting, having won eight of nine divisions after further success by Cao Lei and Lu Yong.
Cuba’s 5-4 victory over the United States in baseball ended in bitterness and accusations of targetted violence as American batter Jayson Nix was taken to hospital with a serious eye injury when an attempted bunt deflected into his face.
US manager Davey Johnson accused the Cuban pitcher of deliberately aiming at Nix’s head, a charge the Cuban manager Antonio Pacheco described as “a lack of respect”.
Tennis upsets continued when US number one James Blake was unable to back up from bundling top seed Roger Federer and lost a marathon semifinal to Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, the Athens bronze medallist, won the near three-hour encounter 4-6, 7-5, 11-9.
Britain won the first track cycling medal when they beat world champions France to the coveted team sprint gold.
While Beijing basked in sunshine, the women’s football quarterfinal between the United States and Canada was halted when a torrential thunder and lightning storm broke over the ground.
The players were called from the pitch 20 minutes into the game with the United States leading 1-0.
Brazil became the first women’s football team into the semifinals when they beat former Olympic champions Norway 2-1.
Comments are not moderated and only expresses personal views of visitors. BangladeshNews.com.bd is not responsible for commets posted by visitors.
Leave a Reply