Czech shooter claims first gold of Olympics
BEIJING, China (AP) — Chinese athletes won two gold medals on Saturday on a first day of Olympic competition marred by the stabbing death of an American volleyball coach’s relative and two doping controversies.
Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic celebrates Saturday with her husband after winning gold.
A knife-wielding Chinese man attacked two relatives of the coach at a tourist site in Beijing, killing one and seriously injuring the other, team officials said.
The man then committed suicide by throwing himself from the second story of the site, the 13th century Drum Tower five kilometers (three miles) from the main Olympic site.
China quickly got on the gold medal tally board when Chen Xiexia won the women’s 48-kilogram weightlifting and 2006 world champion Pang Wei took the men’s 10-meter air pistol.
“I had low expectations of myself, but my coach and teammates created ideal conditions for me to win,” Pang said.
Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic had the distinction of winning the first of 302 golds to be awarded before the games end August 24 when she took the 10-meter air rifle on Saturday morning.
The Greek national Olympic committee said 29-year-old Tassos Gousis, who competes in the 200 meters, tested positive for the steroid methyltrienolone on Monday. He has been sent home from a pre-games training camp in Japan after being informed of the result.
Russian steeplechase runner Roman Usov has also been pulled out amid reports he failed a drug test conducted at the selection trials last days.
Meanwhile, Samuel Sanchez of Spain won the gold medal in the men’s cycling road race, emerging from a pack of six contenders who sprinted madly to the finish in the shadow of the Great Wall.
Italy’s Davide Rebellin won silver on his 37th birthday, while Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara took the bronze after the furious 100-meter sprint to the finish.
Sanchez prevailed in the 152-mile event after enduring six hours, 23 minutes, 49 seconds in the sultry, hazy air of China’s capital city.
The Spaniards were widely tabbed as the favorites before the race, but the five Americans in the field disappointed with Levi Leipheimer the top U.S. finisher in 11th place.
Mariel Zagunis won the United States’ first gold medal, leading an American sweep in women’s saber fencing.
Zagunis, the 2004 Athens champion, triumphed with a 15-8 victory over Sada Jacobson, who took the silver. Becca Ward took the bronze.
Romania’s Alina Dumitru won the first gold medal in the Olympic judo competition, stunning Japanese double gold medalist Ryoko Tani in the 48-kilogram class semifinal and then flipping Cuba’s Yanet Bermoy to the mat in the final.
Tani, previously unbeaten in major international competition since the Atlanta Games in 1996, saw her hopes of a third straight gold evaporate when judges awarded penalties to Dumitru after both failed to show much aggression.
South Korea’s Choi Min-ho, who won bronze in Athens, threw all of his opponents to win the men’s 60-kilogram division.
Defending Olympic champion Park Sung-hyun tied an Olympic record to help South Korea dominant on the opening day of the women’s archery competition.
Park’s score of 673 in the individual ranking round equaled the record set by Lina Herasymenko of Ukraine in 1996. Park set the world record of 682 in the same round in 2004.
South Korean Yun Ok-hee, ranked No. 1 in the world, finished second with a score of 667, while teammate Joo Hyun-jung followed at 664.
Americans Jennifer Nichols finished 24th and Khatuna Lorig finished 26th to advance to the elimination round.
Later, golds were to be awarded in men’s 10-meter air pistol and the women’s individual saber in fencing, where Americans were favored to sweep the medals.
In women’s basketball, the United States began their quest for a fourth successive gold medal with a 97-57 rout of the Czech Republic.
Up next for the U.S. are hosts China, who beat Spain 67-64 in their first game.
Lauren Jackson, the WNBA’s most valuable player last year with the Seattle Storm, scored 18 points to lead Australia to an 83-64 win over Belarus.
Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser, the defending beach volleyball world champions and the overwhelming favorites to win the Olympic gold medal, lost their opening match on Saturday night to a Latvian team that was seeded 23rd in the 24-team field.
The Americans, who had won 21 straight international matches, must win their next two matches in pool play to be assured of a spot in the medal round.
Martins Plavins and Aleksandrs Samoilovs, former junior world champions who are the first Latvian team to qualify for the Olympics, won 21-19 21-18 in the best-of-three set match.
Lucinda Fredericks was in first place after the first two sessions of dressage on Saturday, giving Australia an early equestrian eventing lead.
Fredericks earned 30.0 penalty points on Headley Britannia in the morning session, while teammate Megan Jones earned 35.4 on Irish Jester to finish third.
The standings after Saturday’s competition showed Australia in first with 102.8 points, followed by the United States with 121.5 points and Germany with 135.3 points.
Karin Donckers of Belgium was in second with a score of 31.7 on Gazelle de la Brasserie in the last ride Saturday night. Donckers is competing as an individual, because Belgium did not send a complete team of at least three riders.
Britain’s Tracey Hallam coasted to a straight-sets win over Hong Kong’s Yip Pui Yin on Saturday in the first round of the Olympic badminton tournament.
Hallam, who is 14th in the world rankings, downed 12th-ranked Yip 21-15, 21-17 to advance to the second round to face Kristina Ludikova of the Czech Republic.
All the top-seeded players had a first-round bye.
Russia and South Korea were deadlocked 29-29 at the end of the highest-profile matchup on Saturday’s women’s handball slate.
World champions Russia led 16-13 at halftime and increased that margin to 26-18 with 16 minutes to play before the South Koreans — runners-up in 2004 — rallied to level.
In other games, Norway defeated hosts China 30-23, Germany held off Brazil 24-22 and Hungary pulled away late to beat Sweden 30-24.
Other preliminary competition began Saturday in boxing, men’s artistic gymnastics, rowing and sailing.
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