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Olympic Roundup

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 20, 2000

Netherlands stuns Cuba with 4-2 win in baseball

SYDNEY, Australia -- After 21 Olympic games, the mighty Cubans struck out.

Cuba took its first Olympic baseball loss today as Hensley Meulens' bases-loaded double drove in three runs in the Netherlands' 4-2 victory.

Cuba won the gold in Barcelona and Atlanta while going unbeaten. But a team spiced with former major-leaguers and managed by Arizona State coach Pat Murphy finally took it down.

Ken Brauckmiller held the Olympics' top lineup to seven hits in eight innings, leaving to a standing ovation after Miguel Caldes reached on a throwing error to open the ninth.

Patrick Beljaards relieved, gave up a walk and got a forceout at second, bringing up the top of the order. Luis Ulacia hit into another forceout as a run scored, bringing up Yobal Duenas.

The centerfielder took a ball, fouled one off, then hit into another forceout at second, with Ralph Milliard cradling the ball in his glove for a moment before the Netherlands (2-2) lined up in front of the mound for low-key congratulations.

Earlier, Kurt Ainsworth settled down after a shaky first and led the unbeaten United States to a 6-2 victory over the Netherlands.

ARCHERY: South Korea swept the medals as 17-year-old Mi-jin Yun, still eligible for junior competition, beat teammate Nam-soon Kim in the individual event. Yun broke the Olympic record by five points by scoring 173 earlier in the day.

BADMINTON: World champion Camilla Martin of Denmark and three Chinese made it to the quarterfinals with straight-set victories. Martin downed Mia Audina Tjiptawan 11-2, 11-1.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Americans Rob Heidger and Kevin Wong split their two consolation matches but advanced to the final 16 because they had a better point differential than the other two teams that also split their consolation games.

Also, the "lucky losers" ended up with the best draw of the four teams emerging from consolation play, taking on the 24th-seeded Mexican pair of Juan Ibarra and Joel Sotelo when competition resumes.

BOXING: American Jose Navarro, after nine silver medals from various competitions, took a step toward Olympic gold by outpointing Hermensen Ballo of Indonesia 16-10 at 112 pounds. Watching and shouting instruction was Navarro's older brother, Carlos, who failed to make the 1996 Olympic team but who is 22-1 as a pro featherweight. Jermain Taylor became the eighth American to advance when he landed three more rights before a final crushing right dropped Dimitriy Usagin of Bulgaria before the referee stopped the fight with :10 remaining in the first round.

CYCLING: Germany broke the four-minute barrier as its 4,000-meter team pursuit set a world record of 3 minutes, 59.710 seconds in beating Ukraine, which broke the world record in the semifinal.

FENCING: In the women's team epee final, Russia defeated Switzerland.

FIELD HOCKEY: Eight-time gold medalist India earned a 2-2 draw with favored Australia in the women's preliminaries to keep alive its chance of making the semifinals after 20 years. India has not made the Olympics semifinals since winning the gold in 1980 after dominating the sport.

Off the field, British coach Jon Royce was suspended by the sport's governing body after being accused of using "crude and inappropriate language" to a female doping control escort after Britain's 1-0 loss to Argentina on Monday.

JUDO: Japan won its third gold medal in six events as Makoto Takimoto defeated Cho In-chul of South Korea to win the men's 81-kilogram division.

World champion Graeme Randall of Britain showed his frustration after a loss by not bowing to the referee or his Iranian opponent. The referee insisted Randall complete the bows before leaving the mat.

Severine Vandenhende of France defeated Li Shufang of China to win the women's 63-kilogram division.

MEN'S BASKETBALL: Dunks by Ray Allen and Antonio McDyess and a rejection by Alonzo Mourning were part of a 14-0 run near the midpoint of the second half that spurred the United States to a 93-61 victory over Italy.

ROWING: Carol Skricki and Ruth Davidon of the United States double sculls tandem advanced to the final through a second-chance classifying heat. The other U.S. teams that competed Tuesday advanced to Thursday's semifinals: single scullers Monica Tranel Michini and Don Smith, and the men's double scull of Henry Nuzum and Mike Ferry.

SAILING: The regatta continued at a snail's pace with marginal racing affected by light breezes for the third straight day. U.S. skipper Jeff Madrigali finished second in the first Soling race of the day, then finished 15th -- next to last -- in the second race to drop into ninth place overall after four races.

SHOOTING: Renata Mauer-Rozanska of Poland won gold in the women's 50-meter rifle, again denying world-champion Sonja Pfeilschifter a medal.

TENNIS: Venus Williams was not higher, faster or stronger than usual in the first Olympic match of her career, but she still was too much for her first-round opponent, Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia. Williams won in less than an hour, 6-2, 6-2, though Nagyova hustled and did her utmost to counter. The lone American to reach the second round of men's singles was Jeff Tarango, who beat 17-year-old wild card Diego Camacho of Bolivia 6-0, 6-1. No. 16 seed Michael Chang then lost to wild card Sebastien Lareau of Canada 7-6 (8-6), 6-3. Todd Martin and Vince Spadea were eliminated.

VOLLEYBALL: The U.S. men lost to powerful Russia 25-18, 25-23, 21-25, 25-17, dropping to 0-2 in pool play.

WEIGHTLIFTING: China added two gold medals in women's events. Xiaomin Chen set two more world records by winning the gold medal at 1383/4 pounds. Weining Lin won at 152 pounds with a total of 5341/2 pounds.

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