Gardner ends with bronze medal

Published 12:00 am Thursday, August 26, 2004

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Rulon Gardner was in another Olympic wrestling upset - his own.

One of the biggest stars of the 2000 Summer Games, Gardner was thrown to the mat in overtime Wednesday by Kazakhstan's Georgi Tsurtsumia and lost 4-1 in his Greco-Roman semifinal match. He won the bronze medal later in the day, defeating Sajad Barzi of Iran 3-0.

Gardner was as surprised as anyone when Tsurtsumia somehow pulled off the winning 3-point move in their 264 1/2-pound (120kg) match, especially after spending much of the match visibly wearing down the younger wrestler.

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Tsurtsumia looked upward at the scoreboard, still unsure for just a moment that he'd won, then jumped jubilantly into his coach's arms.

Gardner went from obscurity to celebrity after his stunning upset four years ago of the once-invincible Alexander Karelin, generally considered the greatest wrestler of all time. But Gardner has fought through a long succession of physical ailments since Sydney.

He lost a toe - and nearly his life - after a February 2002 snowmobiling accident left him stranded for 18 hours in the wilderness of Wyoming. He survived a motorcycle crash earlier this year, only to severely dislocate his right wrist in a pickup basketball game.

The short version of the match from Gardner: He aggressively went at Tsurtsumia, trying to take the lead against a tiring opponent, but left himself unguarded and Tsurtsumia stepped around and took him to the mat.

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Track and Field

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Marion Jones will be part of the U.S. Olympic 400-meter relay team, coach Sue Humphrey announced.

Jones' participation had been a subject of speculation because she is being investigated by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. However, she has not been charged with any doping offense.

Jones also qualified for the long jump finals with the seventh-best jump of the qualifying round: 21 feet, 11 3/4 inches.

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Women's basketball

Quarterfinals

U.S. 102, Greece 72

Russia 70, Czech Republic 49

Brazil 67, Spain 63

Australia 94, New Zealand 55

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The United States hushed a boisterous crowd, putting six players in double figures and advancing to the semifinals.

Shannon Johnson and Tina Thompson led the Americans with 20 points each.

Russia beat the Czech Republic and will meet the Americans in the semifinals, a rematch of the final of the 2002 world championships, which the U.S. team won.

Janeth Arcain went 6-for-6 from the free throw line over the final 37 seconds, and Brazil advanced to the semifinals for the third straight Olympics.

Lauren Jackson had 28 points and nine rebounds to lead Australia over New Zealand.

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Sailing

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A windsurfer whose first name means ''wave'' in Hebrew gave Israel its first Olympic gold medal ever.

Gal Fridman sailed a remarkably consistent regatta, never finishing worse than eighth in the 11-race series. He placed second in Wednesday's decisive race.

After Fridman crossed the finish line, he took a victory dip and then wrapped himself in an Israeli flag when he came out of the water.

In 12 previous Olympics dating to 1952, Israel had won only one silver and three bronze medals. Fridman won a bronze in his event in 1996.

Faustine Merret of France won the gold in the women's race.

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Women's Triathlon

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Kate Allen of Austria passed half of the field during the final leg of the swim-cycle-run endurance test, finishing in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 43.45 seconds.

Closer to the rear of the pack than the front for most of the race, she passed everyone during the closing 10-kilometer run, including leader Loretta Harrop of Australia only a few strides before the finish.

Susan Williams, the last American to qualify for the race over the summer, won the bronze despite crashing early in the cycling leg.

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Equestrian

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Anky van Grunsven and her horse Salinero danced their way to gold in the Olympic individual dressage finals.

Van Grunsven of the Netherlands finished first in the musical freestyle to overtake Germany's Ulla Salzgeber on Rusty, who had been leading. Final scores were 79.278 percent for Van Grunsven to 78.833 percent for Salzgeber. Bronze went to Spain's Beatriz Ferrer-Salat on Beauvalais, who finished with 76.667 percent.

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Cycling

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Ryan Bayley of Australia added the Keirin title to his sprint gold medal, highlighting Australia's overwhelming dominance of cycling at the Athens Games.

Bayley is the double individual gold medalist, and teammate Graeme Brown won gold in both the team pursuit and Wednesday's Madison.

Brown teamed up with Stuart O'Grady for the Madison.

Russian veteran Olga Slyusareva controlled the points race from start to finish and finally added an Olympic gold to her impressive list of titles.

The United States failed to win a track cycling medal for the first time since 1976.

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Baseball

Cuba 6, Australia 2

Japan 11, Canada 2

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - With a relentless, balanced offense, Cuba rolled over upstart Australia to win the gold medal - its third in four tries since the sport gained Olympic status.

The Cubans pounded out 13 hits, including a two-run home run by Frederich Cepeda, a two-run double by Eduardo Parent and a two-run single by Eriel Sanchez.

With the United States failing to even make the eight-team field, Cuba had been expected to vie for the gold medal with a Japanese ''dream team'' stocked with top pros. But Australia stunned the favored Japanese 1-0 in the semifinals.

Openly frustrated by its loss, Japan routed Canada to win the bronze medal. Kenji Jojima hit a two-run home run, and Tsuyoshi Wada struck out six in five innings.

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Diving

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Yulia Pakhalina of Russia led the Olympic preliminaries of 3-meter springboard diving, beating out Canada's Blythe Hartley and China's Guo Jingjing.

The Americans had another frustrating day at the pool. Rachelle Kunkel advanced to the semifinals with a 12th-place showing, but Kimiko Soldati was quickly eliminated from her only event.

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Canoe-Kayak

SCHINIAS, Greece (AP) - Atlanta Olympic champion Martin Doktor of the Czech Republic will get a chance to regain his flatwater canoe crown in a race against the man who took it from him in Sydney.

Doktor easily won his semifinal heat in the 1,000-meter single canoe (C-1), setting up a showdown in the finals with defending gold medalist and three-time defending world champion Andreas Dittmer of Germany.

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Men's Water Polo

Quarterfinals

Russia 12, Germany 5

Serbia-Montenegro 7, Spain 5

Classification Round

Australia 10, Kazakhstan 5

Croatia 12, Egypt 1

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Revaz Chomakhidze scored three first-half goals, and Russia overpowered Germany to set up an Olympic water polo semifinal against defending champion Hungary.

Aleksandar Sapic scored three times - including twice in a minute in the last quarter to break a 5-5 deadlock - to propel Serbia-Montenegro into a semifinal against Greece.

Pietro Figlioli and Nathan Thomas scored twice each to help Australia beat Kazakhstan.

Damir Buric scored three goals for Croatia.

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Men's Volleyball

Russia 3, Serbia-Montenegro 1 (29-27, 23-25, 27-25, 28-26)

Italy 3, Argentina 1 (22-25, 25-22, 26-24, 28-26)

United States 3, Greece 2 (25-20, 22-25, 25-27, 25-23, 17-15)

Brazil 3, Poland 0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-18)

ATHENS, Greece - Russia defeated defending Olympic champion Serbia-Montenegro in a four-set quarterfinal match - avenging a loss in the 2000 final in Sydney to the team then known as Yugoslavia.

Serguey Tetyukhin scored 22 points, including the winning kill in the crucial third set after Russia fended off game point twice.

Up next for the Russians in Friday's semifinals is Italy, which beat Argentina in four sets.

The United States beat Greece with a wild five-set comeback and advanced to play Brazil in the other semifinal. The Americans overcome a 20-12 deficit in the fourth set and fended off match point in the fifth.

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Beach Volleyball

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Emanuel Rego and Ricardo Santos, the world's top-ranked beach volleyball team, overpowered Spain's Javier Bosma and Pablo Herrera 21-16, 21-15 to capture the gold medal.

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Synchronized Swimming

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Americans Alison Bartosik and Anna Kozlova earned a bronze medal in the Olympic duet final, finishing behind the Russians and Japanese.

Anastasia Davydova and Anastasia Ermakova won the gold with 99.334 points. Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda took silver with 98.417.

Bartosik and Kozlova totaled 96.918.

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Field Hockey

Netherlands 3, Germany 2

Australia 6, Spain 3

Pakistan 3, India 0

New Zealand 4, South Korea 3

Britain 4, Argentina 1

South Africa 5, Egypt 1

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Australia and the Netherlands advanced to the final of the men's Olympic field hockey tournament, with the Aussies overcoming Spain and the Dutch defeating Germany in the semifinals.

Grant Schubert and Michael McCann each scored twice for Australia.

In a highly anticipated classification showdown, Pakistan won its sixth game in six meetings with India this year.

Greg Nicol scored three goals for South Africa.

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Weightlifting

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Iran's Hossein Rezazadeh won the Olympic super heavyweight lifting title. He had a 581-pound (263.5-kg) clean and jerk, setting a world record and matching the record total lift of 1,041.7 pounds (472.5 kg) he set four years ago in Sydney.

Silver medalist Viktors Scerbatihs of Latvia was 38.6 pounds (17.5 kg) behind Rezazadeh. Velichko Cholakov of Bulgaria won the bronze.

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Boxing

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Andre Dirrell of the United States narrowly beat Cuba's Yordani Despaigne to advance to the Olympic middleweight semifinals.

In another quarterfinal, Thailand middleweight Suriya Prasathinphimai upset Ukraine's Oleg Mashkin 28-22.

Suriya next faces Russia's Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov, the silver medalist four years ago in Sydney. Gaydarbekov beat Cameroon's Hassan Ndam Njikam 26-13.