■ Gymnastics
Hamm gets gold despite fall
Paul Hamm fell onto the edge of the judges' table while landing his vault, but recovered with two of the most spectacular routines of his career to win the men's all-around gymnastics title Wednesday night by the closest Olympic margin ever. Needing a 9.825 on high bar, his best event, to tie Kim Dae-eun of South Korea for gold, Hamm hit three straight release moves to perfection and became the first US man to win gold in the event. Yang Tae-young of South Korea won the bronze. Brett McClure of the US was ninth. Hamm's margin of victory was .012. The previous closest margin in the event was .017 by Leon Stukelj of Yugoslavia over Robert Prazak of Czechoslovakia in 1924.
■ Athletics
Greek sprinters withdraw
Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou withdrew from the Athens Games on Wednesday, nearly a week after missing a drug test and being hospitalized following a suspicious motorcycle crash. The IOC's executive board proceeded with a hearing despite the runners' announcement and referred the case to the International Association of Athletics Federations. The IAAF will discuss the case Aug. 26 but won't rule until after the games. Kenteris, the reigning 200m Olympic champion, is the country's most celebrated athlete and was Greece's best hope for gold in track at the Athens Games.
■ Shot Put
Ukrainian perseveres
Ukrainian Yuriy Bilonog took a flag-draped victory lap while American Adam Nelson stood in the shot put ring for three minutes, pointing at officials and pleading. Nelson led the entire competition, but Bilonog's final throw tied Nelson for the best of the day. Nelson had one last chance to win and unleashed a great toss, but was called for his fifth consecutive foul. Since Nelson had no other good throws and Bilonog had several, the Ukrainian won. Denmark's Joachim Olsen won the bronze. Russian Irina Korzhanenko won the women's event while Yumileidi Cumba of Cuba won the silver and Nadine Kleinert of Germany took bronze.
■ Equestrian
Germany wins gold -- twice
The Olympic three-day team event degenerated into an unprecedented free-for-all before Germany ended up with the gold -- twice. First, the judges gave Germany the gold and France the silver, while Britain took bronze. Then they stepped in to investigate whether the clock was running when Bettina Hoy of Germany, riding Ringwood Cockatoo, crossed the start line. The judges ended up awarding France the gold and docking Germany 12 points, dropping it from first place to fourth in a decision that lifted the US to third. Germany responded by asking for a review by an appeals committee, which reversed the judges, and that helped the Germans reclaim their gold. In the individual three-day event, Hoy won gold, Leslie Law of Britain won silver with Shear l'Eau and Kimberly Severson of the US won bronze aboard Winsome Adante.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier