Olympics: Richards leads the way to gold in women’s relay

By Jaime Aron, The Associated Press

BEIJING — Sanya Richards took the baton for the final lap of the 1,600-meter relay with the U.S. in second place. Three turns later, Richards remained several strides behind, yet another disappointment looming.

Then she made her move.

Richards steamed through the fourth and final turn and caught the front-runner heading into the stretch. The Russian leader looked at the stadium monitor to see Richards closing on her, but couldn’t do anything about it. Richards ended up far enough ahead to throw a celebratory punch and scream, “Yes!” before crossing the line.

It didn’t make up for a different set of U.S. women dropping the baton in qualifying for the sprint relay, but it did keep alive a streak of going home with at least one relay gold at every Olympics since 1984.

There was far less drama in the men’s version — which was to be expected considering the U.S. went 1-2-3 in the 400. With those guys on board, the Americans won in an Olympic-record time. The U.S. has now won that race at seven straight Olympics. It, too, helped erase the disappointment of a flub in the sprint relay.

“To end it with an Olympic record after everything those guys have been through, that shows you they care about representing America,” U.S. men’s coach Bubba Thornton said. “They wanted to end it with a good dose of good ol’ American apple pie.”

The relay golds were Nos. 32 and 33 at these games for the United States, with the women’s basketball team making it No. 34 Saturday night. The women’s volleyball team had a shot at gold, too, but lost to Brazil.

Baseball

It came down to the bottom of the ninth, with Cuba facing a one-run deficit. The bases were loaded with one out.

The pitch, the swing ... double play. Game over. Gold medal for South Korea, finishing the tournament unbeaten with a 3-2 victory in the final Olympic baseball game until at least 2016.

If indeed baseball never returns to the Olympic agenda, at least the United States can say it went out a winner.

Behind home runs by Matt LaPorta, Matt Brown and Jason Donald, the Americans beat Japan 8-4 to claim the bronze medal. LaPorta returned after missing a few days following a concussion sustained when a pitch hit him in the head. Jayson Nix had a hit and scored a run in his first game back since a week ago Friday, when he fouled a ball off his left eye and underwent microsurgery.

IOC president Jacques Rogge sat behind home plate for part of the U.S-Japan game with International Baseball Federation president Harvey Schiller. The IBAF is campaigning to get baseball back on the Olympic program in 2016 after being voted off for 2012. Baseball became a medal sport in 1992. The U.S. got bronze in 1996 and gold in 2000.

Track and field

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele won the 5,000 meters in an Olympic-record time, completing a distance double. World champion Bernard Lagat of the United States finished ninth.

A three-time world champion at 10,000, Bekele just missed a double at the Athens 2004 Olympics when he got the 10,000 gold and finished second to Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj in the 5,000.

It was the second double here for Ethiopia after Tirunesh Dibaba won an unprecedented women’s 5,000-10,000 combination.

Kenya got a double of sorts, with Wilfred Bungei taking the men’s 800 meters and Nancy Jebet Langat winning the women’s 1,500.

Also, Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway defended his javelin title with an Olympic-record throw, and Belgium’s Tia Hellebaut won the women’s high jump.

Women’s volleyball

The U.S. gals had all sorts of emotions, from their coach Jenny Lang Ping being in her hometown, where she remains a star, to the attack on the parents of former player Elisabeth “Wiz” Bachman McCutcheon, wife of the U.S. men’s coach.

They rode the wave to the finals. But the Brazilians proved to be too tough.

Brazil won a tight and tense deciding set to defeat the U.S., 25-18, 18-25, 25-13, 25-21, and finish the Olympic tournament without a loss.

“We have nothing to be disappointed for,” U.S. player Logan Tom said. “You see tears; they’re tears of happiness, though. We came a long way this tournament.”

The United States has never won this event, taking silver in 1984 and bronze in 1992.

China, which won gold four years ago, settled for the bronze by beating three-time gold medal-winner Cuba, a three-time Olympic gold medalist.

“The whole team walked together side by side to win this game,” captain Feng Kun said.

Taekwondo

Cuba’s Angel Matos was winning 3-2, with 1:02 in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov. He was sitting there, awaiting medical attention, when he was disqualified for exceeding the one minute he’s allowed.

Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge, then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden. Matos then spat on the floor and was escorted out.

“He was too strict,” said his coach, Leudis Gonzalez, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering the referee money.

Then came this release from the World Taekwondo Federation: “Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the (federation) and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased.”

Earlier, a women’s match was overturned, the first time that’s happened since taekwondo became an official Olympic sport in 1990.

South Korea’s Cha Dong-min won the men’s over 80-kilogram class, bringing the fourth gold to his country in its native sport. Mexico’s Maria del Rosario Espinoza, the 2007 world champion, won the women’s over 67-kilogram class.

Diving

The Chinese divers came close, but they couldn’t match Michael Phelps’ feat of going 8-for-8 at the Water Cube.

With seven down, all they needed was the men’s 10-meter platform. But Matthew Mitcham of Australia earned four perfect 10s on his last dive to send this title Down Under for the first time. Zhou Luxin earned the silver for China.

In going 7-for-8, China claimed 11 of the 24 medals awarded in the sport that has produced the host nation’s most Olympic medals.

The Americans, meanwhile, went 0-for-8 — not a single medal. For the second straight Olympics, too. The best the U.S. could muster in this event was David Boudia getting 10th; Thomas Finchum was 12th.

Boxing

Russian heavyweight Rakhim Chakhkiev and British middleweight James Degale were among the winners of the first five gold medals.

So was Ukrainian featherweight Vasyl Lomachenko, who was so dominant that the referee mercifully stopped his title bout with nine seconds left in the opening round and Lomachenko already up 9-1.

“I made very precise hits,” Lomachenko said.

Also, Thai flyweight Somjit Jongjohor won his first gold at age 33, and light welterweight Felix Diaz claimed the Dominican Republic’s first boxing title with an upset of defending Olympic champion Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand.

Men’s soccer

In temperatures that topped 107 degrees, Angel di Maria scored off a pass from Lionel Messi in the 58th minute, helping Argentina defeat Nigeria 1-0 and win its second straight Olympic soccer title.

“This group deserved this,” Messi said. “We knew coming in that we may never have this experience again, so we are lucky that everything went well and we got what we wanted.”

Di Maria’s strike was a goal to lift a game in which play obviously was affected by the searing temperatures. The referee took the rare step of twice allowing players to stop and take drinks.

The game was the only one to be played in Beijing’s main Olympic stadium, and it was watched by a crowd of 89,102 that included former Argentina great Diego Maradona.

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Synchronized swimming

Russia’s Anastasias and their friends won synchronized swimming’s team title. The bigger news was a Japanese competitor passing out on the pool deck.

After Japan’s number concluded, two men in swimsuits jumped into the pool to assist Hiromi Kobayashi to the side of the pool. After the men lifted her, she buckled to her knees. Her body and head went limp as they carried her. She was wrapped in a white sheet and rushed away on a stretcher, attended to by several volunteers and medical personnel.

Japanese team officials said Kobayashi made a complete recovery. Their team finished fifth, tied with the Americans. It was the first time Japan hasn’t won a medal since the team event began in 1996.

The Americans unfurled a banner that read “Thank you, China!” in both Chinese and English when the team was introduced. With a routine called “The Rebirth of Christ,” the U.S. swimmers performed to a mix of eclectic music and displayed some never-before-seen moves, notably a foot in the face gesture.

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Mountain bike

South Korea might be a great place this time of year. But training there didn’t serve much benefit to the U.S. mountain bike team.

Mary McConneloug was seventh and Georgia Gould finished eighth in the 16.6-mile women’s race, both losing sight of eventual gold medalist Sabine Spitz of Germany early and never catching up.

In the 22.1-mile men’s race, American Adam Craig went a lap down just as the race was ending and was officially credited with a 29th-place finish. Todd Wells dropped out a lap earlier, placing 43rd. Neither challenged France’s Julien Absalon, who won his second straight gold medal.

“I’m more disappointed to miss the opportunity to have people fired up about mountain biking back at home,” Craig said. “Maybe next time.”

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Women’s handball

Norway got its first gold medal in this sport, taking an 8-1 lead on the way to a 34-27 victory over Russia. South Korea beat Hungary to claim the bronze.

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Men’s field hockey

They’re busting out the beers in Munich: Germany beat Spain 1-0 to reclaim gold for the first time since 1992.

In the bronze match, Australia beat the Netherlands, just as it did in the 2004 gold-medal competition.

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Table tennis

China clinched all six individual medals, with Wang Liqin winning bronze in men’s singles. China’s Ma Lin outlasted teammate Wang Hao to take gold.

“They played perfectly to create this perfect ending for the pingpong competition at the Beijing Olympics. I never dreamed it would be so easy,” Chinese coach Liu Guoliang said.

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Rhythmic gymnastics

Russia’s Evgeniya Kanaeva won the individual all-around competition, posting the high score in all four rotations.