Brazil women too miss gold, lose to USA 1-0

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China

Carli Lloyd’s solitary goal in the 96th minute helped USA to beat Brazil in an exciting women’s football final and take the gold medal at the Workers Stadium under lights today.

It was a keenly contested affair, which dished out some thrilling soccer. There was no scoring in the first half and in the second half, the contest became even more exciting with both teams looking for that match winning goal.

Germany took the Olympic women’s football bronze medal by beating Japan 2-0 in their play off match at the Workers’ Stadium tonight. Both goals were scored by second-half substitute Fatmire Bajramaj in the 69th and 87th minutes Germany didn’t look like the two-time World Cup champion and a strong medal contender at the beginning of the game, since most of the early attacking was done by Japan

In the men’s football tournament of the Beijing Olympics, Brazil is set to secure a consolation bronze medal on Friday. Beaten 3-0 by Argentina in the semifinal, a bronze medal is the only thing left for Brazil to aim for, but it needs to beat Belgium in Shanghai in the third place play-off math.

American duo of Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor proved that they are the best-ever team in the history of the fledgling Olympic sport when they humbled China’s Wang Jie and Tian Jia in the final of the women’s beach competition, Walsh and May-Treanor won their second gold medal and remained undefeated in Olympic competition. Shirvani Muradov added another Wrestling gold to Russia’s tally beating Kazakhastan’s Taimuraz Tigiyev 1-0, 1-0, for the men’s freestyle 96kg wrestling title at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium today.

Tigiyev received the advantage from grasping Muradov’s leg to start extra time, but the Russian strongman quickly broke the grip and defended for 30 seconds for a two-period victory.

Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands won the gold in a major shock in the inaugural men’s marathon 10km swimming race at a rainy Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

The Dutch, who returned to competitive swimming after beating leukaemia which was diagnosed seven years ago, had not ranked among the pre-race favorites. He put in a great sprint with 500m to go to overtake medal favorites David Davies of Great Britain and Thomas Lurz of Germany to win in a time of one hour, 51 minutes and six seconds.

The Netherlands has beaten the United States 9-8 to win the gold medal in the Women’s Water Polo final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the Yingdong Natatorium on Thursday, August 21.

Meanwhile, Moon Dae-Sung, Claudia Bokel and Ruiz-Luaces Yumilka were elected into the Athletes’ Commission of the International Olympic Committee, replacing Sergey Bubka, Robert Ctvrtlik and Barbara Kendall. Alexander Popov, who was first elected to the IOC Athletes’ Commission in 1999, was re-elected into the commission.

Twenty-nine athletes were candidates for membership in the IOC Athletes’ Commission, including current and retired Olympic athletes. According to IOC regulations, the Athlete’s Commission is composed of 19 members, seven of whom are designated by the IOC president, with the other 12 made up of eight summer sports athletes and four winter sports athletes.

South Korean Moon Dae-Sung, who received the most votes won a gold medal in the +80kg taekwondo event at the Athens Olympics.

German fencer Claudia Bokel won the silver medal in the ‚p‚e competition at the last Olympics. Cuban volleyball player Ruiz-Luaces Yumilka took part in three Olympic Games in a row since 1996 and twice won a gold medal with her team and claimed the bronze in 2004. China’s hurdler Liu Xiang, who made a sad exit in his pet event of 110m hurdles due to an injury, came in eighth in the election with a total of 1,386 votes.

Out of 7,830 total ballots submitted by the athletes, 7,216 were eligible.

China’s century long dream of hosting Olympic Games has turned out to be a great success as they took a commanding lead in the latest medals table. The hosts have so fare bagged a total of 46 gold medals, 15 silver and 22 broze medals.

The American dream of displacing China from the top spot is gradually turning out to be a miracle. Having failed to maintain their track supremacy, the USA continued to remain in the second place with only 28 gold medals, 34 silver and 31 bronze.

Great Britain continued to collect their richest Olympic harvest after a century, securing the thrid place with 17 gold medals, 12 silver and 11 bronze. In the fourth place is Russia with 16 golds, 16 silver and 19 bronze, followed by Australia 11 gold, 13 silver and 14 bronze.

Seveal interesting Bejing Olympics contests are on the cards for Friday. China will meet the Netherlands in the women’s hockey final and the semi finals of the men’s basketball Argentina vs. USA and Spain vs. Litueania too should attract greater spectator attention.

BEIJING, Thursday

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