■DIVING
Guo leads after preliminaries
Guo Jingjing kept China on its path toward a sweep of all eight diving gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, leading after the women’s 3m springboard preliminaries yesterday. She totaled 373.90 points after the five-round preliminaries in front of a packed, partisan crowd at the Water Cube. South Africa’s Jenna Dreyer belly-flopped out of the competition with a failed dive. Dreyer appeared to falter as she bounced on the end of the board, but was too far into her dive to stop and bounded up into a forward three-and-a-half somersault that she did not quite have the momentum to complete. The judges rated it a zero points no-dive, killing her chances of progressing.
■BASKETBALL Aussies remain unbeaten
Lauren Jackson scored 30 points as Australia’s women remained unbeaten with a 96-73 victory over Latvia yesterday. Latvia provided the stiffest challenge so far for the Australians, playing them tough for the first half before Australia went on a 21-8 run to start the third quarter. Penny Taylor scored seven straight points during the spurt as Australia extended a three-point lead to 16. Jackson hit two three-pointers to close out the quarter and give Australia a 76-56 lead. Russia struggled in their 74-64 victory over winless Brazil. In the other early game yesterday, the Czech Republic beat New Zealand 90-59.
■BEACH VOLLEYBALL Reigning champs advance
Athens gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor overcame five set points in the first set to beat Belgium 24-22, 21-10 yesterday and advance to the quarter-finals. Liesbeth Mouha and Liesbet van Breedam led 18-12 and 20-17 in the first set of the best-of-three. The other US women’s team, Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, also advanced after beating Cubans Dalixia Fernandez and Tamara Larrea 21-15, 21-13. In other matches early yesterday under the first blue skies of the tournament, China’s Wang Jie and Tian Jia eliminated the Norwegian team of Nila Haakedal and Ingrid Toerlen 21-13, 21-15. Australia’s Natalie Cook and Tasmin Barnett advanced with a 22-20, 19-21, 15-12 victory over the Greek team of Efthalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani.
■ARCHERY Ruban claims individual gold
Ukraine’s Viktor Ruban took advantage of a mistake by South Korea’s Park Kyung-mo to win 113-112 and the gold medal match in men’s individual archery yesterday. Ruban had a 103-95 edge after his 11th arrow when Park scored just 8 on his 11th to make it an even score. Ruban responded with a 10, forcing Park to get a perfect score on his final shot. Park missed the center section by a few millimeters. Russian Bair Badenov claimed the bronze with a 115-110 win over top-seeded Juan Rene Serrano of Mexico.
■SHOOTING Ukraine win second gold
Artur Ayvazian of Ukraine won the gold medal in the men’s 50m prone rifle yesterday, holding off American Matt Emmons in the final round. Ayvazian was the top qualifier with 599 points. Emmons, who won the event in Athens four years ago, was two points behind. Ayvazian scored at least 10 points on each of his 10 shots in the final, making it difficult for Emmons to catch up. Ayvazian finished with a score of 702.7, Emmons finished at 701.7 for the silver and Warren Potent of Australia took the bronze. It was the second gold in less than 24 hours for Ukraine, which won a team title in women’s saber fencing on Thursday night.
■DOPING CASES
Two athletes sent home
A North Korean shooter was stripped of his two medals and expelled from the Beijing Olympics along with a Vietnamese gymnast yesterday after they failed doping tests. They are the second and third athletes caught doping in Beijing, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is conducting a record 4,500 drug tests. The IOC said shooter Kim Jong-su tested positive for propanolol after winning the silver medal in the 50m pistol and bronze in the 10m air pistol. Propanolol is a banned betablocker, which can be used to prevent trembling in events such as shooting and archery. The bronze medal in the 10m event now goes to American shooter Jason Turner. In the 50m event, China’s Tan Zongliang moves up to the silver and Russia’s Vladimir Isakov is upgraded to the bronze. Gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do, who finished in last place in the women’s floor exercise, tested positive for the diuretic furosemide.
■FIELD HOCKEY
Aussies win to stay top
Defending champions Australia powered to a 3-1 win over Pakistan in the men’s tournament yesterday, taking them a further big step toward the semi-finals. Pakistan, who must now pray for a miracle if they are to advance, having taken just three points from three games, opened the scoring through a Shakeel Abassi field goal after a quarter-of-an-hour. Grant Shubert struck back four minutes later, then the Aussies finished the job off in the second half with a penalty corner goal from Jamie Dwyer and a field goal from Travis Brooks. The encounter left Australia — with goals a-plenty to their credit after the 10-0 trouncing of South Africa — still atop pool B, ahead of the Netherlands, who in their earlier match beat Canada 4-2. In Pool A, Spain took their unbeaten record to three with a 2-1 win against bottom-of-the-table China to ensure they stay top. New Zealand beat Belgium 4-2 to edge Germany into third place.
■WEIGHTLIFTING
Cao, Lu win golds for China
Grieving Cao Lei won the women’s 75kg title yesterday, giving China their seventh weightlifting gold medal after her mother died in the run-up to the Games. The two-time world champion hoisted 128kg in the snatch and 154kg in the clean and jerk for a total lift of 282kg, all three being new Olympic records. “This medal is dedicated to my motherland and to the people, but also to my dear mother who had passed away recently,” Cao said, holding the medal before her as she broke down at a news conference after the awarding ceremony. Later, Lu Yong won the men’s 85kg title to give China their eighth weightlifting gold medal. Lu lifted 180kg in the snatch and 214kg in the clean and jerk for a total heave of 394kg, equaling the total of silver medalist Andrei Rybakou who had broken the world record with a total lift of 394kg moments earlier. Lu won the title because he had a lower body weight than the 26-year-old world champion. Tigran Varban Martirosyan of Armenia won the bronze with a total lift of 380kg.
■FENCING
France take epee title
France won the team gold medal in the men’s epee yesterday, easily defeating Poland in the title bout. The French trio of Jerome Jeannet, Fabrice Jeannet and Ulrich Robeiri won 45-29 in the gold medal bout. Fabrice Jeannet, the individual silver medalist, outscored his opponents 17-7. After he won five straight points against Radoslaw Zawrotniak, France led 30-14. He later returned to win seven of the final 11 points to clinch the title. Poland took the silver and Italy won the bronze.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB