Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - Page 2

**nobodynoone** · 10-08-08, 04:23

Day 1 Review: Perfect Emmons sets the pace

Good Emmons: Katerina claims shooting gold.

(BEIJING, August 9) -- A dazzling first day at Beijing 2008 got off to a storming start with seven gold medals seized by competitors in five separate sports and challengers in a further 13 sports beginning their Olympic quest.

The pace was set by the first gold medalist of the Games,24-year-old Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic, who claimed a new Olympic record in the Women's 10m Air Rifle of 103.5 points in the final, which gave her an overall total of 503.5. Emmons also broke the Olympic qualification record with a perfect score of 400.

The silver medal went to Russia's Lioubov Galkina and the bronze to Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia.

Home-favorite and defending champion Du Li of China finished a disappointing fifth, while World No. 1 Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany failed to reach the final -- however China didn't have long to wait to claim its first shooting gold of the Games.

Twenty-two-year-old Pang Wei took the Men's 10m Air Pistol gold, with the Republic of Korea's Jin Jong-oh claiming silver and Kim Jong-su collecting bronze for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Emmons' Czech teammate David Kostelecky stands in first place after the first three qualification rounds in the Men's Trap. Italian shooters, Athens 2004 silver medalist Giovanni Pellielo and Erminio Frasca are one target behind, with the two remaining qualification rounds continuing tomorrow morning, August 10. The final round begins at 3:00 p.m. local time (UCT/GMT +8 ).

Heave: China's Chen XieXia hoists gold.

Pang Wei wasn't China's first medalist of the day -- that honor went to 25-year-old world record holder Chen Xiexia, who won the 48 kilogram Weightlifting competition with a new Olympic Record total score of 212kg. Turkey's Sibel Ozkan won the silver medal with 199kg, and Chen Wei-Ling of Chinese Taipei seized bronze with 196kg.

Defending gold medalist and previous Olympic Record-holder Nurcan Taylan of Turkey bombed in the Snatch, which knocked her out of the competition.

Spaniard Samuel Sanchez captured Cycling gold in the Men's Road Race. Sanchez out sprinted Italy's Davide Rebellin in a tight finish. Rebellin took silver with the bronze medal going to Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland.

America seized gold, silver and bronze in the Fencing Women's Individual Sabre with reigning Olympic Champion Mariel Zagunis defeating teammate Sada Jacobson 15-8 in the final to retain her crown, and Rebecca Ward beating Russian fencer Sofiya Velikaya 15-14 to claim the bronze medal. Reigning world champion Elena Nechaeva of Russia crashed out early on, while Athens 2004 silver medalist Tan Xue of China lost in the quarterfinals.

Magnificent Mariel: Zagunis grabs fencing gold for USA.

Alina Alexandra Dumitru of Romania defeated Cuba's Yanet Bermoy with an ippon in 1:20 to win gold in the Judo Women's -48kg final. Japanese defending champion Tani Ryoko defeated Lyudmila Bogdanova of Russia, also with an ippon, to claim a bronze medal.

The legendary 33-year-old joins an elite list of Olympians to win medals at five consecutive Games, having struck gold in Athens and Sydney, and silver in Atlanta and Barcelona. Paula Belen Pareto of Argentina defeated Pak Ok-song of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to win the other bronze medal.

In the Men's -60kg contest, Choi Min-ho from the Republic of Korea won gold by defeating World No.1 Ludwig Paischer of Austria with an ippon in 2:14. Choi took just four seconds to beat World No. 2 Dutch judoka Ruben Houkes in the semifinal. Houkes took a bronze, with Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan claiming the other bronze medal.

Away from the medals, 13 other sports began on Day 1.

Records tumbled at the Water Cube as the Beijing 2008 Swimming competition splashed into style with Michael Phelps of the USA setting a new Olympic record of 4:07.82 in the heats for the Men's 400m Individual Medley. Also through to Sunday (August 10) morning's final are Ryan Lochte (USA), Gergo Kis (Hungary), Alessio Boggiatto (Italy), Brian Johns (Canada) and Thiago Pereira (Brazil).

Five swimmers broke the old Olympic Record of 1:00.01 in the Men's 100m Breaststroke. Alexander Dale Oen of Norway was the top finisher with a time of 59.41. Japan's Kitajima Kosuke, Hugues Duboscq of France, Australian Brenton Rickard and Cameron van der Burgh of South African also fractured the previous best.

Jensen Larsen from the United States leads the eight qualifiers in the Men's 400m Freestyle preliminaries clocking 3:43.10. Favorite for the event, Grant Hackett of Australia, came in at an unexpected fifth fastest qualifier for the final, which will be held at 10:24 a.m. local time (UCT/GMT + 8 ) on Sunday, August 10.

Another US swimmer, 15-year-old Elizabeth Beisel finished first in the heats of Women's Individual Medley with a time of 4:34.55, ahead of compatriot World record holder Katie Hoff. Stephanie Rice (Australia), Alessia Filippi (Italy), defending Olympic champion Yana Martynova (Russia), Li Xuanxu (China), Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) and Hannah Miley (Great Britain) will contest Sunday's final.

The Beijing 2008 Basketball tournament tipped off with six women's round-robin preliminary matches.

In group A, Australia comfortably beat Belarus by a 19-point margin, 83-64 with Boomers captain Lauren Jackson netting 18 points. Asian Champion Republic of Korea edged out World No. 4 Brazil 68-62 in overtime, and Russia beat Latvia 62-57.

Mali gave New Zealand a surprise run for their money in group B -- leveling the scores briefly in the final quarter at 64-64, before the Kiwis ran out winners, 76-72. China edged out Spain 67-64 in another close encounter, and tournament favorites the USA thrashed the Czech Republic 97-57 in the final group game of the day.

The Beijing 2008 Women's Football tournament continued with 1-0 group game wins for Sweden, Germany, the United States and Norway. Brazil defeated the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 2-1, while Canada and China drew 1-1.

In the Women's Volleyball tournament, there were 3-1 pool A wins for Italy, who edged out Russia and Serbia, with World No. 1 Brazil recording a straight sets win over Algeria. In pool B, defending Olympic champion China defeated Venezuela, Cuba beat Poland in straight sets and the USA beat Japan 3-1 in the final game of the day.

In Women's Handball, there were opening game wins for France, Hungary, Romania, Norway and Germany.

Elsewhere, the opening day saw the start of competition in Artistic Gymnastics, Equestrian Eventing, Rowing and Sailing, and opening rounds of the Olympic Boxing and Badminton tournaments.

Those are the highlights from Day 1. There are 15 more days like this to come -- so hold on to your hats, folks -- it's going to be a thrilling 16-day ride.

Hassan Kachal · 10-08-08, 04:42

in bashar mese mahi shena mikone

emsal shart mibandam 8ta medal tala migire

Men's 400m Individual Medley: Phelps smashes WR for Gold

(BEIJING, August 10) -- Michael Phelps (USA) made a blistering start to his quest to win eight gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Aquatics Center on Sunday when the 23-year-old smashed the world record in winning the Men's 400m Individual Medley.

Phelps was the defending Olympic champion, world record holder and world champion going into the event, and had everything to lose with determined Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and Ryan Lochte (USA) chasing him home.

Phelps broke his own world record by a massive 1.41 seconds finishing in a time of 4min 03.84sec.

Phelps took the field out fast and was always well in front of world record pace. Cseh and Lochte were able to cut Phelps' lead momentarily during the backstroke and breaststroke legs, but Phelps increased his advantage on the final freestyle leg.

The fastest qualifier from the heats, Phelps defended his Athens 2004 title in style in his first event of a busy program in Beijing. This comprehensive victory will send shivers through the rest of his competitors due to swim against him in the coming days.

Cseh swam a great last freestyle leg to win the silver medal in a European Record 4:06.16, relegating Lochte to the bronze medal in 4:08.09.

Lochte, the Silver medalist from the 2007 world championships, will be bitterly disappointed that he not only was unable to challenge Phelps but dropped to third behind the Hungarian.

It is the perfect start for Phelps, the man known as the 'Baltimore Bullet', as he aims for a perfect eight Gold medals to break Mark Spitz's (USA) record of seven gold medals at a summer Olympic Games.

**nobodynoone** · 10-08-08, 14:51

Day 2 Review: It was 'Emotional'

Michael Phelps

(BEIJING, August 10) -- The lightning above the Beijing skies matched the sparks of brilliance that crackled inside the Water Cube as three world records crashed and Olympic records tumbled almost event-by-event during day two of Beijing 2008.

Michael Phelps of the United States got his Water Cube quest of becoming the first competitor to win eight medals at a single Olympic Games off to an "emotional and exciting" start by smashing the Men's 400m Individual Medley world record by an incredible 1.41 seconds.

"It's a really good way to start," said the wobbly-jawed 23-year-old defending Olympic champion, after watching the US flag flutter above the pool, as it surely will several times in the next few days.

Australian Stephanie Rice shattered the Women's 400m Individual Medley world record to win gold. The 20-year-old's winning time of 4:29.45 beat the previous record of 4:31.12 set by American Katie Hoff on July 29, 2008.

A Phelps-less US Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay team also established a world record of 3:12.23.

Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia

Park Tae-hwan of the Republic of Korea won the Men's 400m Freestyle in a new Asian record time of 3:41.86, ahead of China's Zhang Lin, who claimed silver. Larsen Jensen (USA), who qualified fastest for the final, took bronze.

The Netherlands confirmed their dominance of the Women's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay by striking gold. The team that broke the world record for the event in March, Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis, comfortably beat silver medalists the United States, for whom 41-year-old Dara Torres swam a blistering final leg, by more than half a second. Defending world and Olympic champions Australia were well back in third.

Several Olympic records tumbled in the evening session: Alexander Dale Oen of Norway reset the Men's 100m Breaststroke in his semifinal; Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe and Leisel Jones of America undercut the previous Olympic bests in the Women's 100m Backstroke and 100m Breaststroke prelims; and in the Men's 100m backstroke prelim, Matt Grevers, USA, knocked 0.04 of a second off the previous record.

The poor old Women's 400m Freestyle record also took a battering -- beaten first by Katie Hoff in heat five, and then lowered by Federica Pellegrini of Italy.

Also making a splash, literally, though an elegant one, were China's golden diving duo Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia, who successfully defended their Women's Synchronized 3m Springboard crown with a score of 343.50. Russians Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova finished second, with Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer of Germany finishing third.

Outside, the soggy weather couldn't prevent the Republic of Korea (ROK) Women's archers from setting a world and Olympic record on their way to winning their sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal. Park Sung-hyun nailed the all-important 10 ring, in a repeat final of four years ago when again China missed out. The ROK team set a 24-arrow world record score of 231 points -- an Olympic record, as the format is being featured for the first time in this Olympic Games.

Nicole Cooke

France edged out Great Britain in the bronze medal match – however there was GB joy on the road when Nicole Cooke won the gold medal in the Women's Cycling Road Race in a wet, teeth-gritting and thrilling race that lasted over three and a half hours. Cooke's late uphill burst sealed victory ahead of Emma Johansson of Sweden, who took sliver, and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, who earned bronze.

Fifty-year-old former Olympic gold medalist and nine-time world champion Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli of France, competing in her seventh Games, finished in 24th place.

World No. 1 Guo Wenjun of China was another Olympic record breaker in the Women's 10m Air Pistol gold medal. The 24-year-old scored 102.3 for an Olympic record overall score of 492.3. The silver medal went to Natalia Paderina of Russia (489.1 points) who shot an Olympic record 391 in the qualification round. Bronze went Nino Salukvadze of Georgia (487.4 points). Forty-two-year-old, five-time Olympic medalist Jasna Sekaric of Serbia came sixth.

Czech Republic sharp-shooter David Kostelecky put in a near perfect second day to seal the Men's Trap Shooting title. Kostelecky missed just one target in the two qualification rounds of the day, then blew the competition away by hitting 25 consecutive targets in the final.

Seventeen-year-old Long Qingquan of China became the new Olympic champion of the Men's Weightlifting 56 kilogram class after hoisting a total weight of 292kg, while Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon of Thailand took the 53kg Women's Weightlifting crown with a total of 221kg.

The defending champions of the Women's Judo -52kg weight and Men's -66kg divisions,

Long Qingquan of China

Xian Dongmei of China and Japan's Uchishiba Masato kept a firm grip on their titles -- Xian beat An Kum-ae of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) with a yuko, while Uchishiba defeated Benjamin Darbelet with an ippon.

The Beijing 2008 Fencing tournament was far less predictable. With reigning world champion Krisztian Kulcsar of Hungary and defending champion Jerome Jeannet of France eliminated early on, the door opened for Matteo Tagliariol to secure the Men's Individual Epee gold for Italy for the first time in 40 years.

Australia and Italy both broke world records in the heats of the Men's Quadruple Sculls on the second day of the Rowing competition. Three Olympic records tumbled during the day for: Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter of Great Britain in the Lightweight Men's Double Sculls; Denmark, in the Men's Lightweight Fours; and China in the Women's Quadruple Sculls.

Australia defended their position at the top of the rankings at the end of the Dressage phase of the Olympic Equestrian Eventing competition. The team is on 102.80 penalties, ahead of Germany on a score of 110.50. The United States is third on 115.60.

In the Men's football matches; Côte d'Ivoire defeated Serbia 4-2 to seize second place in group A, behind Argentina, who have won both their opening games after beating Australia 1-0.

The United States drew with the Netherlands 2-2 to top group B with four points, followed by Nigeria, who defeated Japan 2-1 to record their first victory of the tournament. Brazil thrashed New Zealand 5-0 in group C, with Belgium beating China 2-0, and In group D Cameroon beat Honduras 1-0 And Italy beat DPR Korea 3-0.

The most intriguing match of the Men's basketball tournament saw the USA's star-studded team overwhelm China 101-70. Elsewhere there were wins for Croatia, Lithuania, Spain Germany and Russia.

The rain in Beijing badly affected the start of the Olympic tennis tournament with only handful of games competed before play was suspended for the day.

In the Men's Singles First Round there were comfortable wins for Russian No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko, No. 8 seed James Blake of the United States and Athens bronze medalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, while another match ended prematurely when Canada's Frederic Niemeyer retired with a sore elbow.

There was lots more action -- but, frankly, after such a record–breaking day of action we're too exhausted to tell you about it. Phew!

**nobodynoone** · 11-08-08, 06:11

Hassan Kachal · 11-08-08, 07:56

wtfffffffffff

**nobodynoone** · 11-08-08, 13:11

Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra's mother Babli, and father A S Bindra celebrate their son's Olympic gold medal at their residence in Zirakpur near Chandigarh, India, Monday, Aug. 11, 2008. Bindra won the gold medal in the 10-meter air rifle Monday, giving India its first medal of the Olympics.

Tibetans in exile shout slogans during a protest outside The United Nations office in New Delhi on August 11, 2008. India is home to more than 100,000 Tibetan refugees, including exiled spiritual leader The Dalai Lama and radical youth groups, and they have been protesting against The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games since an outbreak of unrest in Tibet on March 10

Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates a point against Italy's Potito Starace during a men's singles first round tennis match of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre in Beijing on August 11, 2008. Nadal won 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Australia's Megan Jones rides on "Irish Jester" at the cross country eventing competition in Hong Kong on August 11, 2008. Germany won the team event at this section of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games competition at Beas River.

Britain's Thomas Daley (R) and Blake Aldridge compete during the men's synchronised 10m platform at the National Aquatics Center in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 11, 2008. China's Lin Yue and Huo Liang won the Olympic men's synchronised 10m platform dive gold medal ahead of Germany's Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein and Russia's Gleb Galperin and Dmitriy Dobroskok.

China's Lin Yue and Huo Liang dive during the men's synchronised 10m platform at the National Aquatics Center in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 11, 2008. China's Lin Yue and Huo Liang won the Olympic men's synchronised 10m platform dive gold medal ahead of Germany's Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein and Russia's Gleb Galperin and Dmitriy Dobroskok.

Italy's Maria Valentina Vezzali celebrates after winning the Women's individual Foil round of 16 match over China's Zhang Lei (unseen) on August 11, 2008 at the Fencing Hall of National Convention center, as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. Vezzali won 10-7.

Italy's Margherita Granbassi celebrates after defeating Russia's Evgenia Lamonova (unseen) in the Women's individual Foil quarterfinal 3 match on August 11, 2008 at the Fencing Hall of National Convention center, as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. Granbassi won 12-7.

President Bush poses with Chinese men's baseball team catcher Yang Yang and U.S. team catcher Lou Marson after throwing out a first pitch to each prior to a practice game against the U.S. men's baseball team at the 2008 Summer Olympic games in Beijing, China Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.

US President George W. Bush (C) poses with the Chinese and US Olympic baseball teams ahead of a practice 2008 Beijing Olympic Games baseball game between the US and China at the Wukesong Culture and Sports Center Baseball Stadium in Beijing on August 11, 2008. Bush, who earlier in the morning took in the swimming competition, joined thousands of boisterous Chinese fans for a late night match up on August 10 between Yao Ming-led China and the NBA-laden Team USA in men's basketball at the Beijing Olympics.

US basketball playerKobe Bryant (L) chats with an International Olympic Committe (IOC) unidentified woman after watching the Brazil vs Georgia Beach volleyball match of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 11, 2008 at Beijing's Chaoyang Park Beach volleyball ground.

Kosuke Kitajima of Japan celebrates finishing the Men's 100m Breaststroke Final in first place and wins the gold medal held at the National Aquatics Center on Day 3 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 11, 2008 in Beijing, China. Kosuke Kitajima of Japan finished the race in first place in a time of 58.91 and wins the gold medal and set a new World Record.

Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak of the United States pose with the gold medal during the medal ceremony for the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay held at the National Aquatics Center on Day 3 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 11, 2008 in Beijing, China. The United States finished the race in first place in a time of 3:08.24 and wins the gold medal and set a new World Record.

Cuba's Milagros Crespo (R) shows a code to her team-mates as they play against the Netherlands during a 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Women's preliminary beach volleyball match at Beijing's Chaoyang Park on August 11, 2008. Cuba won 2-0.

(L-R) Eamon Sullivan of Australia, Michael Phelps of the United States and Amaury Leveaux of France compete in the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final held at the National Aquatics Center on Day 3 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 11, 2008 in Beijing, China. The United States finished the race in first place in a time of 3:08.24 and wins the gold medal and set a new World Record. Eamon Sullivan of Australia set a time of 47.24 in the first leg, a new World Record.

Ashkan-k56 · 11-08-08, 14:03

yek khabare khandeh dar wa jadid
emam jome Mashad lotf farmoodan:

پرچم داری زن ایرانی در المپیک سرپیچی از فرمایشات معصومان(ع) است

kourosh_kabir · 11-08-08, 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashkan-k56

پرچم داری زن ایرانی در المپیک سرپیچی از فرمایشات معصومان(ع) است

adam chi bege vaghean ,,,ajab olaghhaii nazar midand

**nobodynoone** · 11-08-08, 17:30

Day 3 Review: Records fall, champions to the fore

Japanese swimmer Kitajima Kosuke

(BEIJING, August 11) -- No rain in Beijing today – just a shower of records, a sprinkling of surprises and cascading gold as Day 3 athletes surpassed the amazing feats of the previous days of Beijing 2008.

The Cube was the place to be if you like to see records go a-tumbling. Count them: five swimming world records were feverishly scribbled into the notebooks of stat-freaks alongside a liberal smattering of Olympic, continental, national records and a generous dose of personal bests. Oh, and there was plenty of gold on the horizon too.

That Michael Phelps fellah was in the thick of it as expected, notching up his second gold medal of the Games in (yep, you've guessed) a new world record time, with his American colleagues in the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay, keeping his quest to crack Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one Games (Munich 1972) on track.

Australian lead-off man, Eamon Sullivan, set a world record in the opening leg of the event – however his Aussie comrades were soon left trailing in the wake of Phelps, Garret Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak, who audaciously slashed almost four seconds off the previous world record the team had only set the day before. The French team, which briefly led in the third leg, held onto silver, ahead of Australia, which claimed the bronze.

The other world records came from Kitajima Kosuke of Japan, who defended his Men's 100m Breaststroke Olympic title by fracturing his own world record in the event by clocking 58.91 seconds.

In heats, Zimbabwean Kristy Coventry cracked her own World Record (again, set yesterday) in the Women's 100m Backstroke, while Federica Pellegrini of Italy established a new world best of 1:55.45 in the Women's 200m Freestyle prelims.

Phelps broke his own Olympic record in the Men's 200m Butterfly prelims, clocking 1:53.70, while the Olympic Men's 100m Backstroke record was lowered three times in Monday's semifinals -- in heat one by Arkady Vyatchanin of Russia, and then by Australian Hayden Stoeckel and Mark Grevers of the USA.

Medal-wise, Lisbeth Trickett of Australia recorded an Oceana record to strike gold in the Women's 100m Butterfly. Christine Magnuson of the United States took silver. Jessicah Schipper of Australia won the bronze.

However the biggest surprise in the pool came in the Women's 400m Freestyle with Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain taking gold with a time of 4:03.22, pushing Katie Hoff of the United States to the silver spot. The 800m short course world champion outreached Hoff on the line. Another Briton, Joanne Jackson, won bronze.

What did you do during your school holidays, kids? Well, 14-year-old British diver, Tom Daley will surely have a better answer for his teachers than his school pals. "I competed in an Olympic diving final."

Sadly, young Mr. Daley and his Men's Synchronized 10m Platform partner, Blake Aldridge, came last as China's divers kept on course to scoop all eight diving gold medals.

Reigning world champions Lin Yue and Huo Liang took gold with 468.18 points. Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding of Germany won silver, while Dmitriy Dobroskok and Gleb Galperin of Russia earned bronze.

Chinese divers Lin Yue and Huo Liang

Surpassing the Chinese diving dynasty isn't easy – but hats off to the Republic of Korea's men's archers who claimed the Men's Team gold medal for the third Games in a row (not as good as their women's team, which yesterday claimed their sixth title in a row, but never mind lads, I'm sure you can catch up.)

The ROK team of Im Dong-Hyun, Lee Chang-Hwan and Park Kyung-Mo outscored Italy by two points in a thrilling final, while China took third place after a closely fought victory over Ukraine in the bronze medal match.

Maria Valentina Vezzali of Italy became a triple Olympic gold medalist after her third consecutive Women's Individual Foil Fencing title. The World No.1 beat Nam Hyun-hee of the Republic of Korea, who took silver, in a 6-5 bout.

Italian fencer Maria Valentina Vezzali

On the Judo mat, another World No. 1 Elnur Mammadli of Azerbaijan needed just 13 seconds to defeat Wang Ki-chun from the Republic of Korea with an ippon to claim gold in the Men's -73kg category. Giulia Quintavalle of Italy claimed gold in the Women's -57kg class on her Olympic debut by defeating Deborah Gravenstijn from the Netherlands with a yuko.

Indian hot-shot Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the Shooting Men's 10m Air Rifle final with an incredible total score of 700.5 points. China's Zhu Qinan, gold medalist at Athens 2004, won the silver medal with 699.7. Bronze went to Finland's Henri Hakkinen, who led after the qualification round.

Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra

Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland took the Women's Trap title despite missing four targets in the final round. Slovakia's Zuzana Stefecekova, who had tied with Makela-Nummela after the qualification round, took silver. Corey Cogdell of the United States, won a four-way shoot-off between the other finalists to take bronze.

It was Chen and Zhang to the double as China hoisted the gold medals in the day's two weightlifting finals. Chen Yanqing set a new Olympic record to retain her Women's 58 kilogram crown by lifting a total weight of 244kg. Then Zhang Xiangxiang won his first Olympic gold medal by lifting 319kg in the Men's 62 kilogram final.

Away from the medals there was a smattering of surprises.

The biggest shocks came in the tennis tournament with home favorite Li Na of China defeating Women's No. 3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, while in the Men's Singles, Great Britain's Andy Murray, seeded No. 6 and fresh from victory in the Cincinnati Masters, lost 7-6(5), 6-4 to World No. 77 Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei.

All the other seeds progressed in the Men's and Women's singles. Although, soon-to-be crowned Men's World No.1, Rafael Nadal of Spain, dropped a set against Potito Starace of Italy, before winning by 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

In the Badminton qualification rounds, the shocks were positively seismic. In the Women's Doubles quarterfinals, World No. 8 pair Maeda Miyuki and Suetsuna Satoko of Japan stunned World No. 1 duo, Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen of China 8-21, 23-21, 21-14, while in the Men's Singles round of 32, World No. 10 Lee Hyun-il of the Republic of Korea knocked out World No. 6 Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark. In the Women's Singles round of 16, World No. 15 Saina Nehwal of India beat sixth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong, and Maria Kristin Yulianti of Indonesia, ranked World No. 21, ousted fourth seed Tine Rasmussen of Denmark.

There were eyebrows raised in Rowing too, which featured re-scheduled Men's and Women's Eights heats. The US Women's crew justified their status as pre-regatta favorites with an emphatic win to put them into Sunday's (August 17) final, where they will meet three-time consecutive defending champions Romania.

However, Great Britain delivered an upset to the Men's US team by beating them, while the Canadians were untroubled in advancing into Sunday's final.

Germany leads the Equestrian Eventing competition by a slender margin ahead of early leaders Australia after Monday's Cross-Country phase. The German team, for who Hinrich Romeike heads the Individual rankings, has an overall lead of 158.10 points, with Australia less than one jumping penalty behind on 162. Great Britain is third on 173.70, Italy fourth on 127.40 and Sweden in fifth position at 200.50.

The competition concludes tomorrow with the Jumping event and Team and Individual medals on the line/at stake.

The Olympic Women's Basketball tournament continued with World No. 3 Russia pulling away from Asian champion Republic of Korea in the last minute for a 77-72 win in their preliminary round, the group A match. Belarus and Australia also recorded convincing wins.

In group B, the US demolished China 108-63 (to show anything their men's team could do the evening before, the girls could do even better). And there were more comfortable wins for the Czech Republic and Spain.

In the Women's Volleyball tournament, Cuba cruised to a 25-15, 26-24, 25-17 straight sets win over an uninspiring USA side and is now in top spot in pool A.

Brazil are on top in pool B after gaining revenge for their defeat against Russia in Athens 2004 by beating their old rivals 25-14, 25-14, 25-16. Serbia, second and Italy, third, enjoyed easy straight-sets wins over Algeria and Kazakhstan and now have two victories each. Kazakhstan, Russia and Algeria are winless and will vie for the fourth quarterfinal spot in the pool.

Favorites in the Women's Water Polo tournament, the United States, beat Olympic newcomers China in a 12-11 nail-biter in the group A preliminary round opening game. Italy achieved a narrow one-goal win over Russia, 9-8, in the other group A game. In group B, Australia beat Greece 8-6, and Hungary defeated the Netherlands 11-9.

Those are the highlights of a record breaking, legend making, Day 3 of Beijing 2008.

**fenor003** · 11-08-08, 21:00

man too in chand rooze ke kamo bish donbal kardam in shena az hamechi behtar bood bishtar be delam neshast.