Speed leads to crashes - Oman Daily Observer

LONDON — Tunisia's Oussama
Mellouli won the gold
medal in the men's swimming
marathon at the London Olympics
yesterday to become the
first swimmer to get medals in
the pool and open water.
Mellouli won the 1,500 metres
freestyle gold at the 2008
Beijing Olympics and used his
superior speed to burst clear of
his rivals and win the gruel-
ling 10-kilometre race in the
Serpentine in London's Hyde
Park. "I can't explain it, I can't
really describe it," Mellouli
said after pumping his chest
when he finished.
"I don't think this has ever
been done before. This is probably
one of the toughest things
to do. I'm a pretty solid guy
and I never react but you saw
that reaction, that says it all."
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 2012
Tunisia’s Mellouli wins open water gold medal
SWIMMERS compete in the men’s 10 km open water swimming at Hyde Park in London, yesterday. — AFP
Nevin stuns Cuban, eyes more Irish gold
LONDON — Ireland's John Joe Nevin
upset Cuban world bantamweight champion
Lazaro Alvarez Estrada to move a
step away from emulating team mate Katie
Taylor's rare Irish gold after 10 men's
Olympic finalists were decided yesterday.
Men's semifinal day, when the fights
come thick and fast, is often the highlight
of boxing's two weeks at the Olympics
but after the women's stunning exploits
on Thursday, the opening session felt like
one big come down.
While Nevin sprung the surprise of
the session, Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk
produced one of the tournament's best
rounds, scoring more points in three minutes
than most have managed in nine, and
China's Zou Shiming just about kept his
hopes of a second successive Olympic
gold alive.
Yet the women, who capped an absorbing
debut at the Games with three
wonderful finals, were still the talk of the
arena and Nevin said Taylor's victory in
front of a huge Irish crowd had inspired
the rest of the team.
"We're still not done yet, I've still got
to go out and get the gold but to see Katie
yesterday was amazing, to see her do
so well," Nevin, twice a bronze medallist
at the world amateur championships, told
reporters.
"No one deserves it more than her, the
commitment she has and the work she
puts in. She's been inspiring to see."
LONDON — Great Britain,
inspired by skipper Kate Walsh
who broke her jaw just a week
ago, beat New Zealand 3-1
yesterday to earn an Olympic
bronze medal, something they
last achieved 20 years ago in
Barcelona.
It did however take a long
time to break down the wellordered
and fiercely motivated
Kiwis who were as close to
a women's Olympic hockey
medal as they have ever been
and already certain of their
best finish.
The crucial phase of the
match began 10 minutes into
the second half, when Great
Britain began to make their
extra pressure count, and during
which they scored three
IRELAND’S John Joe Nevin is
declared the winner over Cuba’s
Lazaro Alvarez Estrada after their
bantam (56 kg) semifinal bout.
Nevin proved too quick for Estrada,
catching the Cuban time and again with
decisive left upper cuts to boss every
round and take the contest 19-14.
He next faces Britain's Luke Campbell
in a rematch of their razor tight world
championship semifinal of a year ago.
The pair's families are friends and while
Campbell eased through his semifinal,
yesterday's evidence suggested that the
Nevin clan might be the happier after today's
Anglo-Irish final.
Estrada's team mate Roniel Iglesias
goals in 17 minutes.
All of them came from
penalty corners, as befitting a
team with the best conversion
rate in the tournament, of more
than 40 per cent.
And all of them were taken
by Walsh, who fractured her
jaw last week and yet came
back to play an influential
part.
"I don't think it will hit
me what a crazy fortnight it's
been until a few weeks' time,"
Walsh said.
"We were heart-broken after
the semifinal (with a 2-1
loss to Argentina) and vowed
we would not go away from
here empty-handed.
"The result was that we
played our best game of the
tournament by miles. It's
amazing."
Walsh also claimed that fitness
was a factor in their being
able to break down the Kiwi
defence more often in the last
quarter of the game, though
Sotolongo, one of three Cuban fighters
left going for a gold that evaded the great
amateur boxing nation four years ago,
was an impressive winner in his lightwelterweight
semifinal and takes on Berinchyk
next.
Ukrainian Berinchyk trailed all-action
Mongolian Munkh-Erdene Uranchimeg
by three points after the first two rounds
of their bout only to score an incredible
17 points in a blistering final round to end
up a comfortable 29-21 winner.
Fellow Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk,
who like Berinchyk sports one of the
most interesting haircuts of the Games,
bulldozed his way to the heavyweight
final where he should be too strong for
Beijing silver-medallist Clemente Russo
of Italy, a lucky winner over Azerbaijani
teenager Teymur Mammadov.
Brazil will go for a first boxing gold in
today's middleweight final after Esquiva
Falcao Florentino was far too good for
Britain's Anthony Ogogo.
While Japan's Ryota Murata stands in
Falcao's way of a first gold, little Kaeo
Pongprayoon of Thailand is all that separates
three-time world champion Zou
from a successful defence of his Olympic
light flyweight title.
Zou sneaked through his semifinal
against Irishman Paddy Barnes, winning
on a count-back after the scores were
tied at 15-15, a sharp contrast from the
31-year-old's 15-0 victory over Barnes at
the same stage four years ago. — Reuters
Sweden’s handball team keep gold hopes alive
LONDON — Sweden held on to reach a
fourth men's Olympic handball final and
set up another shot at a first gold medal
after they beat Hungary 27-26 in the semifinals
yesterday.
The Swedes will play either holders
France or twice winners Croatia in tomorrow's
gold medal game while Hungary,
seeking a first men's podium finish, will
contest the bronze medal match.
Like in their quarterfinal defeat of Denmark,
it was the Swedish defence which
saved the day while goalkeeper Mattias
Andersson, on the bench for almost the
entire last eight clash, came good.
Hungary threatened another late show
like they produced to pip Iceland in the
first knockout round but this time it was
not to be, Gergely Harsanyi denied an
equaliser in stunning fashion by Andersson
with just over a minute left.
Kim Ekdahl du Rietz took the excellent
Hungarian shotstopper Nandor Fazekas
by surprise, the left wing being unaware
he had more time to release the ball.
"I thought the referee had his hand up,
so I had to take a shot," the Swede said.
Sweden's men reached three consecutive
finals from 1992-2000 although
they did not qualify for the 2004 Athens
Games or Beijing four years ago.
The reached their fourth gold medal
decider by chiselling away at the solid
Hungarian defence to open up a four-goal
lead in the first half and entered the tunnel
three strikes to the good, which their opponents
could not claw back.
Niclas Ekberg bagged six goals and
showed the way for the victors, who
prevailed despite a constant backdrop of
boos and jeers when they took penalties.
"I had a feeling we were going to win
this morning. I woke up with a smile on
my face and a great feeling in the stomach.
It's the first time I've felt like that,"
said Ekberg.
Gabor Csaszar was top scorer with
eight goals for the Hungarians, who
walked off the court after the defeat to
a standing ovation from their passionate
fans. Laszlo Nagy, standing almost lifeless
as team mates spoke to media, hoped
Hungary could lift themselves for tomorrow's
clash.
"We've got to prepare ourselves mentally,
above all so we can scrap for the
bronze medal," he said.
Britain clinch bronze for best finish in 20 years
also important was scoring the
first goal, which enabled the
under-pressure home team to
play with more freedom.
When that happened the
goals came amidst bursts of
extra support and adrenaline
with Alex Dawson, Crista
Cullen and Sarah Thomas all
netting, though even then the
New Zealanders' resistance
never slackened.
They were rewarded with
a goal three minutes from the
end when a Stacey Michelson
instigated attack produced a
penalty corner from which she
herself scored.
Three-time Olympic champions
Australia finished fifth
after chiselling out a 2-0 win
over China. — AFP
Germany's Thomas Lurz
won the silver medal and Richard
Weinberger of Canada
the bronze but no-one could
keep up with the 28-year-old
Mellouli after he charged into
the lead on the fifth of the six
loops.
He quickly opened up a
three-body-length lead over
the chasing pack and maintained
his advantage to the
end, slapping the overhead
touch pads to win gold in
one hour 49 minutes 55.1
seconds.
"I've been struggling, with
my shoulder, my elbow, I had
a virus. What happened today
is a miracle if you believe in
miracles," Mellouli said.
"This thing just hurts.
You're in pain. Once you hit
a wall you just keep pushing,
when you hit a wall again you
keep pushing."
Lurz was 3.4 seconds behind
in second place, with
Weinberger a further 1.8 seconds
back, in a race contested
at the recreational lake in Hyde
Park that was constructed in
1730 and remains an tourist
destination.
A huge crowd lined the
banks to watch the race, which
was introduced into the Olympic
programme in Beijing four
years ago.
A national hero in his
homeland, Mellouli became
his country's first double
gold medallist. He also won
the world championship for
800 metres in 2007 but was
stripped of his title and banned
from competing for 18 months
after testing positive for amphetamines
at a meeting in the
United States in late 2006.
Mellouli, a student at the
University of Southern California
at the time of the offence,
said he had taken an
Adderall pill two days before
he tested positive so he could
stay awake to finish a university
assignment.
Mellouli entered the
1,500 in London and won
a bronze medal, but was no
LONDON — Russia reached the Olympic
men's volleyball final with a testing 3-1 win
over underdogs Bulgaria yesterday to keep
alive their hopes of winning gold in the event
for the first time since 1980.
Russia, ranked second in the world, had
too much raw power for the slighter and more
nimble Bulgarians and despite slipping up in
the third set, edged their semifinal clash 25-21,
25-15, 23-25, 25-23 at Earls Court.
The imposing Maxim Mikhaylov, who
stands at 2.02 metres, proved to be the Russians'
principal weapon, scoring 25 of the
team's 98 points.
"It's our country's dream, fans' dream, everybody's
dream to win gold at the Olympics,"
Mikhaylov told reporters.
After going two sets down, Bulgaria stepped
up a gear and got a foothold in the match, but
their chances of success ultimately floundered
as they struggled to get a handle on the Russian
serve.
"The difference in the end was the service,
they made quite a few aces and we couldn't,"
Bulgaria captain Vladimir Nikolov said.
"We just tried to defend the ball but they
served really strong, they are pretty good on
that fundamental and we knew this before the
game, but we couldn't find the power to neutralise
it."
Bulgaria had surprised many by reaching
this stage of the tournament after their pre-
Games preparations were plunged into turmoil
when the coach and two leading players quit.
"Of course this was a very big problem for
the Bulgarian national team because we lost
match for China's Sun Yang,
who smashed his own world
record.
The top 14 finishers completed
yesterday's exhausting
event within a minute of each
other. The last finisher in the
25-man field was Benjamin
Schulte, a 16-year-old from
the South Pacific island of
Guam.
Schulte, who trains in Australia
alongside Sun, took just
over two hours to reach the
end in the murky waters inhabited
by fish, geese, ducks
and swans, finishing nearly 14
minutes behind Mellouli but
getting as big a roar from the
crowd as the gold medallist.
Russian spikers reach final
LONDON — India's male
wrestlers started their Olympic
campaign on a disappointing
note with both Amit Kumar
and Narsingh Pancham Yadav
crashing out of their respective
weight categories in freestyle
wrestling at the ExCel Arena
here yesterday.
The 18-year-old Amit
Kumar, the youngest ever
Indian wrestler in Olympics,
raised hopes of a bronze
medal as he moved into Repechage
2.
But he lost 0-3 to Bulgarian
Radoslav Marinov Velikov,
a Beijing Games bronze medallist,
failing to qualify for the
Netherlands fire nine past
Britain to reach final
LONDON — The Netherlands
crushed Great Britain
9-2 on Thursday to reach the
men's hockey final where they
will tackle defending champions
Germany for the gold
medal.
The Dutch, who last
took the title in 2000, overwhelmed
Britain who struggled
to contain the pace and
unpredictable movement of
Rogier Hofman, Billy Bakker
and Valentin Verga.
By halftime the Dutch already
had a firm grip with a
4-1 lead.
Two Roderick Weusthof
goals put them two up inside a
quarter of an hour, the second
TUNISIA’S gold medallist Oussama Mellouli salutes after
the men’s 10 km marathon. — Reuters
55kg category's bronze medal
match.
His compatriot Narsingh
Yadav also bowed out, losing
his first round bout in
the men's 74kg event. Amit
Kumar, who had received a
first round bye, won 3-1 over
Iran's Hassan Sabzali Rahimi
in the pre-quarterfinal.
The Indian, however,
failed to repeat his perform-
of them after fans had cheered
a Dutch failure to score from
a penalty corner, only for the
ball to be played straight back
into the danger zone.
Although the prolific
Ashley Jackson pulled one
back, the home crowd were
soon quietened by goals from
Mink van der Weerden and by
Bakker.
Bakker scored twice more
after halftime, and both Floris
Evers and the 36-year-old
Teun de Nooijers, who was a
member of both the 1996 and
2000 Olympic gold medal
winning squads, got on the
score-sheet before Weusthof
too completed his hat-trick.
RUSSIA’S Sergey Tetyukhin (left) spikes
the ball in front of Bulgaria’s Nikolay
Nikolov during the semifinal match.
two of our best players in Andrey Zhekov and
Matey Kaziyski," Bulgaria's Georgi Bratoev
said.
"All teams need players like them and it
would have been easier if they were here."
Russia claimed men's volleyball gold at the
Moscow Olympics and have been losing finalists
twice in the intervening years.
They will play either Italy or Brazil in tomorrow's
gold-medal match with Bulgaria
playing off for the bronze. — Reuters
Indian wrestlers Amit, Narsingh out
ance and lost his quarterfinal
bout 1-3 to Georgian Vladimer
Khinchegashvili. However,
it was Khinchegashvili, who
gave Amit Kumar a lifeline
by qualifying for the final
round. But the Indian found it
tough against the Bulgarian, a
former World Champion.
Meanwhile, Narsingh
Yadav suffered a first round
loss to Canadian Matthew
Judah Gentry. He went down
1-3 to Gentry. Gentry lost his
quarterfinal bout 1-3 to American
Jordan Ernest Burroughs
that ended Narsingh Yadav's
hopes of making it to the repechage
round.
MEDAL TALLY
Country G S B T
United States 39 25 26 90
China 37 25 19 81
Great Britain 25 15 16 56
Russian Fed 13 21 24 58
South Korea 12 7 6 25
Germany 10 17 11 38
France 8 9 12 29
Hungary 8 4 3 15
Australia 7 14 10 31
Italy 7 6 7 20
Kazakhstan 6 0 3 9
Japan 5 14 15 34
Netherlands 5 5 8 18
Iran 4 4 1 9
New Zealand 4 3 5 12
North Korea 4 0 2 6
Belarus 3 3 4 10
Cuba 3 3 3 9
Jamaica 3 3 3 9
Ukraine 3 1 6 10
South Africa 3 1 1 5
Spain 2 7 3 12
Romania 2 5 2 9
Denmark 2 4 3 9
Czech Rep 2 3 3 8
Brazil 2 2 7 11
Kenya 2 2 3 7
Poland 2 1 6 9
Croatia 2 1 1 4
Switzerland 2 1 0 3
Ethiopia 2 0 2 4
Canada 1 5 11 17
Sweden 1 3 3 7
Slovenia 1 1 2 4
Norway 1 1 1 3
Tunisia 1 1 1 3
Georgia 1 1 1 3
Dominican Rep 1 1 0 2
Ireland 1 0 2 3
Latvia 1 0 1 2
Lithuania 1 0 1 2
Turkey 1 0 1 2
Venezuela 1 0 0 1
Grenada 1 0 0 1
Algeria 1 0 0 1
Mexico 0 3 2 5
Azerbaijan 0 2 2 4
Colombia 0 3 2 5
Egypt 0 2 0 2
Mongolia 0 1 3 4
India 0 1 3 4
Slovakia 0 1 3 4
Belgium 0 1 2 3
Armenia 0 1 2 3
Serbia 0 1 1 2
Thailand 0 1 1 2
Chinese Taipei 0 1 0 1
Malaysia 0 1 0 1
Estonia 0 1 1 2
Indonesia 0 1 1 2
Bulgaria 0 1 1 2
Portugal 0 1 0 1
Botswana 0 1 0 1
Finland 0 1 0 1
Cyprus 0 1 0 1
Guatemala 0 1 0 1
Greece 0 0 2 2
Uzbekistan 0 0 1 1
Moldova 0 0 2 2
Qatar 0 0 2 2
Singapore 0 0 2 2
Argentina 0 0 1 1
Hong Kong 0 0 1 1
Afghanistan 0 0 1 1
Puerto Rico 0 0 1 1
Trinidad & Tob 0 0 1 1
Tajikistan 0 0 1 1
Morocco 0 0 1 1
Saudi Arabia 0 0 1 1
Kuwait 0 0 1 1
Australia, NZ
win 470 sailing
WEYMOUTH, England
— Australian favourites
Mathew Belcher and Malcolm
Page won the gold
medal in the men's 470 class
Olympic sailing yesterday.
British duo Stuart Bithell
and Luke Patience took silver
and Argentina's Lucas
Calabrese and Juan de la
Fuente won bronze in a race
rescheduled from Thursday
because of lack of wind.
It was the third overall
sailing gold for the Australian
duo, who had a comfortable
lead over the rest of
the field going into the final
race, which they finished in
second place.
On the women's side, Jo
Aleh and Olivia Powrie of
New Zealand won the final
race and took the gold after
coming second and third at
the 2010 and 2011 world
championships.
Reigning world champions
Hannah Mills and Saskia
Clark lost all their title
chances for Team GB when
the wind died down halfway
through the race and had to
settle for silver. — dpa
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
Athletics: (0800) Men's 50 km walk; (1600) Women's 20 km walk;
(1800) Women's high jump final; (1820) Men's javelin final; (1830)
Men's 5,000m final; (1900) Women's 800m final; (1925) Women's
4x400m relay final; (2000) Men's 4x100m relay final
Basketball: (1600) Women's third place play-off Australia v Russia;
(2000) Final United States v France
Boxing: (1930) Finals: 49 kg, 56 kg, 64 kg, 75 kg, 91 kg
Canoe-Kayak Sprint: (0830) Men's K1 200m final, Men's C1 200m
final, Women's K1 200m final, Men's K2 200m final
Cycling - Mountain-biking: (1130) Women's cross-country
Football: (1400) Men's final Brazil v Mexico at Wembley
Rhythmic Gymnastics: (1410) Individual all-around final
Handball: (1600) Women's third place play-off South Korea v Spain;
(1930) Final - Norway v Montenegro
Hockey: (0730) Men's 11th place play-off South Africa v India; (1030)
5th place play-off Spain v Belgium; (1430) 3rd place play-off Australia
v Great Britain; (1900) Final - Germany v Netherlands
Freestyle Wrestling: (1200) Men's 60 kg, 84 kg, 120 kg
Modern Pentathlon: (0745) Men's fencing; (1220) Men's swimming;
(1420) Men's riding; (1745) Men's combined
Diving: (0900) Men's 10m platform semifinals; (1930) Men's 10m platform
final
Taekwondo: (0800) Women's +67 kg, men's +80 kg
Sailing: (1100) Women's Elliott 6m final
Volleyball: (1030) Women's third place play-off Japan v South Korea;
(1730) Final - Brazil v United States. (All times GMT) — AFP