Win helps Canada slip Dream Team

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 19, 2000

SYDNEY, Australia -- The men's basketball teams have played just one game, but it's clear which one is the big early winner -- Canada.

By defeating favored Australia in an opening-round game, Canada increased its chance of avoiding the United States until the gold medal game. In this tournament, that's about as big a victory as a team can get.

"You want to avoid the Americans," Canada coach Jay Triano said Monday, a day after his team defeated Australia 101-90 behind 29 points from Michael Meeks and 15 assists from Steve Nash.

If Canada can defeat Angola and Spain in its next two games, its chance of winning a medal for the first time since 1936 will have improved tremendously.

BASEBALL: Six-foot-11 Jon Rauch struck out 13 in seven innings and John Cotton drove in five runs as the unbeaten United States rolled to an 11-1 victory over winless South Africa.

The 10-run mercy rule kicked in after South Africa batted in the seventh, pre-empting the seventh-inning stretch and more strikeouts by Rauch. BEACH VOLLEYBALL: One of the U.S. men's teams, Rob Heidger and Kevin Wong, dropped an exhausting 17-15 match to Canadians Jody Holden and Conrad Leinemann. But Heidger amd Wong kept their medal hopes alive with a 20-minute 15-2 victory over France's Jean-Philippe Jodard and Christian Penigaud.

CYCLING: In the women's 3,000-meter individual pursuit, Leontien Zijlaard of the Netherlands finished in 3 minutes, 33.360 seconds to beat Marion Clignet of France, timed in 3:38.751.

EQUESTRIAN: Australia won the gold medal in the team three-day equestrian event. Britain won the silver and the United States won the bronze.

FENCING: Italy went ahead for the only time in the match on the final touch as it defended the team epee title it won in Atlanta by defeating perennial powerhouse France. Italy entered the final round trailing 38-36, but Alfredo Rota outscored Hugues Obry 3-0 to win the gold.

FIELD HOCKEY: Three-time gold medalist Pakistan stung the British men with their worst defeat in Olympic history, 8-1.

GYMNASTICS: China, the silver medalist in the last two Olympics, easily won the men's team gold medal, with Ukraine second and defending gold medalist Russia was third.

The Americans, looking for their first team medal since 1984 -- and their first in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1932 -- finished fifth. Despite a subpar night from five-time national champion Blaine Wilson, the Americans were only 0.448 points out of third.

JUDO: Coming in favored for the gold, world champion Jimmy Pedro of the United States came away empty-handed after a shocking first-round loss to South Korea's Choi Yong-sin. Pedro captured the 1999 world title in the 161-pound class and was 81-3 in the past four years. He was the 1996 bronze medalist.

ROWING: Both U.S. eights lost in heats and must go to another qualifying round.

SAILING: Race organizers announced there will be no 49er racing today because of possible faults in the spinnakers, which were provided by the International 49er Class Association. The spinnakers are to be replaced by Wednesday.

SHOOTING: Twelve years after winning his first gold medal, Tanyu Kiriakov of Bulgaria added a second, this time in the men's 50-meter pistol competition. Pia Hansen of Sweden won the gold medal in women's double trap.

TENNIS: Todd Martin, making his Olympic debut at age 30, became the first American eliminated from the tennis tournament when he lost to Rainer Schuttler of Germany 6-2, 6-0. Pat Rafter survived a tough first set and delighted a partisan crowd by handing Vince Spadea his latest loss in a miserable year, 6-4, 6-3. Monica Seles, playing the opening match on center court, beat Katalin Marosi-Aracama of Hungary 6-0, 6-1 in 48 minutes.

VOLLEYBALL: Two days after overpowering China in four games, the U.S. women's team took 55 minutes to dispatch Kenya 25-16, 25-6, 25-16.

WATER POLO: Australia's captain, Bridgette Gusterson, scored with 2:56 remaining to lift the home country to a 7-6 victory over the United States.

WEIGHTLIFTING: China's Xia Yang, who dropped down a weight class to give herself a better chance at a medal, broke world records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total lift to easily win the gold at 1161/2 pounds with lifts totaling 496 pounds.

Soraya Jimenez of Mexico won the gold medal in the women's 1271/2 pound class ahead of Ri Song Hui of North Korea. WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: With Chelsea Clinton watching, the United States overcame early foul problems and Cuba's hot-shooting center to stay unbeaten.

Katie Smith's outside shooting and strong play by the bench carried the United States to a 90-61 victory.

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