Olympics roundup

By Compiled from Times wires

American doubles team falls

SYDNEY, Australia -- Second-seeded Alex O'Brien and Jared Palmer were upset in their opening match of doubles, dropping the United States to 1-4 in men's tennis.

The only American still alive was Jeff Tarango, who won his opening singles match.

O'Brien and Palmer, making their Olympic debut, lost Thursday to Mark Merklein and Mark Knowles of the Bahamas 6-2, 6-4.

Crowd favorite Patrick Rafter of Australia, seeded 13th, lost to Canadian Daniel Nestor 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).

In women's singles, fifth-seeded Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario advanced to a likely quarterfinal showdown against second-seeded Venus Williams. Sanchez-Vicario, a four-time Olympic medalist, beat Colombian Fabiola Zuluaga 6-2, 6-0.

ARCHERY: After sweeping the individual medals, three South Koreans joined up to easily win the women's team competition for the fourth consecutive Olympics after setting an Olympic record against the United States.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Americans Rob Heidger and Kevin Wong, the tournament's "lucky losers," received a forfeit into the quarterfinals when their Mexican opponents dropped out due to injury.

CYCLING: American Marty Nothstein placed fifth in the Keirin, slugging German rider Jan van Eijden as both came down the front straight out of medal contention.

The gold medal went to Florian Rousseau of France. Nothstein was trying to add to his medal haul after winning the match sprint Wednesday, the first Olympic gold by an American cyclist since 1984.

Nothstein faced a big disadvantage because the Germans had two riders in the Keirin final. The German strategy seemed to be to have van Eijden block Nothstein and deny him a line to the front of the pack.

Antonella Bellutti of Italy won the gold in the women's points race. Australia got its first cycling gold of the Sydney Olympics when Scott McGrory and Brett Aitken won the Madison, a frenzied 60-kilometer relay in which riders use handslings to go in and out of competition.

EQUESTRIAN: David O'Connor of the United States, aboard Custom Made, won the gold medal in the three-day event with a score of 34. Andrew Hoy of Australia, aboard Swizzle In, won the silver. The bronze went to Mark Todd of New Zealand, on Eye Sty II.

FENCING: Italy's Valentina Vezzali won the gold medal in women's individual foil, improving on her 1996 silver-medal performance. Vezzali beat Rita Koenig of Germany in the final match.

Mihai Claudiu Covaliu of Romania won the men's sabre, defeating Mathieu Gourdain of France 15-12.

FIELD HOCKEY: Argentina and Poland played a thrilling 5-5 tie in men's action. Jorge Lombi scored four goals for Argentina. Germany tied Pakistan 1-1, meaning both teams must win their next games to reach the semifinals. In women's action, New Zealand clinched a spot in the next round with a 1-0 victory over South Africa.

JUDO: World champion Kosei Inoue of Japan beat Nicolas Gill of Canada with a powerful ippon to win the 90-kilogram class. Tang Lin of China won the women's 78-kilogram, defeating Celine Lebrun of France. ROWING: The United States qualified two boats to the finals in five classes, and Britain's Steve Redgrave is still on target for golds at five straight Olympics.

The American pair of Ted Murphy and Sebastian Bea advanced along with a four headed by Michael Wherley, who moved from a three-time world champion eight to the four.

SHOOTING: Maria Grozdeva of Bulgaria won the gold in women's 25-meter pistol with a score of 690.3. Yang Ling of China won the gold medal in 10-meter running target with a score of 681.1. Zemfira Meftakhetdinova of Azerbaijan won the first women's skeet competition.

TABLE TENNIS: It will be an all-Chinese final in women's doubles. Li Ju and Wang Nan will face Sun Jin and Yang Ying. Li Ju and Wang Nan also won third-round singles matches.

VOLLEYBALL: The winless U.S. men's team was shut out by Yugoslavia 25-25, 25-20, 25-23. Though the Americans (0-3) aren't mathematically out of the tournament, they're at the bottom of Group B standings and need a lot of help to make the quarterfinals.

WATER POLO: Australia rallied from two goals down to defeat Russia 7-6 when Bridgette Gusterson backhanded the ball past Marina Akobia with 43.4 seconds left. Australia will meet either the United States or the Netherlands.