Olympics: Olympics briefs

Olympics briefs

By Compiled from Times wires

Venus goes for the gold in singles

SYDNEY, Australia -- Venus Williams double faults too much. She overhits. She holds the racket wrong on backhand volleys. Her footwork is flawed. And yet she has won 31 matches in a row.

"I think Venus is at 75 percent of her potential in singles and 50 percent in doubles," U.S. tennis coach Billie Jean King said.

That may be enough for Williams to win two gold medals. The second seed plays No. 10 Elena Dementieva of Russia for the singles title today, and she and sister Serena reached the semifinals in doubles by beating the top-seeded French team, Julie Halard-Decugis and Amelie Mauresmo, 6-3, 6-2 Monday.

"Venus to me is like on automatic pilot," said King, winner of 12 Grand Slam titles. "She is just playing so well."

Still, at age 20, Williams has room to improve -- a daunting prospect for the rest of women's tennis. In a quarterfinal victory over Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, for example, she double faulted 13 times.

"Her serve can be a lot better," King said. "She knows it. She's working on it. We work on everything."

In the men's quarterfinals, Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia beat Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil 6-4, 7-5. Arnaud Di Pasquale defeated No. 8 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 6-2, 6-1, and Tommy Haas rallied past Max Mirnyi of Belarus 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Top-seeded Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde of Australia will go for their second consecutive doubles gold medal today. They advanced by beating Spain's Alex Corretja and Albert Costa 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). The pair known as "The Woodies" plays Canadians Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: The Australian team of Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst defeated Brazil's Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede 12-11, 12-10 to win the women's gold medal. Jorg Ahmann and Axel Hager of Germany won the men's bronze medal, defeating Luis Maia and Joao Brenha of Portugal 12-9, 12-6.

CANOE/KAYAK: The Olympics couldn't have started any better for U.S. flagbearer Cliff Meidl. They couldn't have ended any worse. Meidl and Phillipe Boccara were eliminated from the two-man 1,000-meter kayak event after finishing last in an opening heat. Jordan Malloch, the U.S. entry in the solo 1,000-meter canoe, also was knocked out.

Angel Perez, the former Cuban Olympian who won a legal battle to represent the United States, helped guide his four-man squad into Saturday's final with a third-place finish in their 1,000-meter heat.

CYCLING: Leontien Zijlaard of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the women's road race in 3 hours, 6 minutes, 31 seconds.

Hanka Kupfernagel of Germany won the silver medal. Diana Ziliute of Lithuania took the bronze.

DIVING: Mark Ruiz of Orlando remained in position to give the United States another diving medal. He was seeded fourth after the semifinals of the 3-meter springboard competition.

Defending champion Ni Xiong of China led with 687.78 points. He was trailed closely by Russia's Dmitry Sautin (684.75) and Mexico's Fernando Platas (678.96).

Ruiz followed with 657.27 to advance to the 12-man final. The other American, Troy Dumais moved on by placing seventh with 631.80 points.

EQUESTRIAN: Rhythmical, ridden by American Nona Garson, fell on a turn during the qualifying round, eliminating her from the individual event. Horse and rider were unhurt and will be in the team event Thursday.

The mare Liberty, ridden by American Laura Kraut, lowered two fences for 8 faults. Kraut finished 21st in the group of 74 riders; Lauren Hough of Ocala was 37th; Margie Goldstein Engle of Wellington, 49th. The scores will be wiped clean if they move forward to the final event Sunday.

FIELD HOCKEY: Australia, the defending women's champion, clinched a spot in the gold medal game with a 5-0 victory over the Netherlands.

SAILING: Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks of Britain won the silver medal in the 49er class and Jonathan McKee and Charlie McKee of Seattle won the bronze. The gold medal was determined Saturday. It went to Thomas Johanson and Jyrki Jarvi of Finland.

SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING: Americans Tuesday Middaugh and teammate Anna Kozlova, a former Russian, were fourth in the duet competition and will compete in the final today. Monday's competition in the free routine cut the field to 12 pairs.

Russia's duet of Maria Kissleyeva and Olga Brusnikina led. The Japanese duo of Miya Tachibana and Miko Takeda was second.

TABLE TENNIS: China took gold and silver in all three other table tennis events before settling for gold and bronze in men's singles.

Linghui Kong defeated Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden 21-16, 21-19, 17-21, 14-21, 21-13 to win the gold.

TEAM HANDBALL: The preliminary schedule in the women's competition came to a close. In a classification match Thursday, Angola will play Australia. The quarterfinal games, also on Thursday, are South Korea-Brazil, France-Denmark, Austria-Hungary and Norway-Romania.

VOLLEYBALL: The United States (0-5) lost 21-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-18 to Italy and finished tied for 11th, its worst showing ever at the Olympics and the only time it failed to win at least once.

WATER POLO: American Chris Humbert had four goals, three in the first quarter, and 18-year-old Tony Azevedo scored three times in a 12-8 victory over the Netherlands.

But later in the day, the Americans lost 10-9 to Hungary. The United States needs a win or a tie against Greece to join Hungary, Yugoslavia and Croatia from Group B in the final eight.

WEIGHTLIFTING: Hossein Tavakoli of Iran won the gold medal in the 231 1/4 pound class with a total of 936 3/4 pounds