Sports Greatest Rivalries

Agencies
London, Aug 7
China’s Deng Linlin beat her compatriot Sui Lu, the world champion, to the Olympic balance beam title on the final day of artistic gymnastics at the London Games today.

Deng, herself world champion on the apparatus in 2009, gave China their fourth gymnastics gold medal of the Games, an hour after Feng Zhe had won the parallel bars title. Sui, competing first, pulled off a difficult routine but cried after Deng surpassed her by 0.1 points with a score of 15.600. American Aly Raisman snatched the bronze medal from 2004 champion Catalina Ponor of Romania on a tiebreak after the judges increased the difficulty element of her score following a review requested by the US team.

Crowd and noise played the spoilsport – Deepika
World number one Indian woman archer Deepika Kumari, who tumbled out of London Olympics despite high hopes of medal, today claimed that crowd pressure was responsible for her dismal performance.
Talking to newsmen here after her return from London Deepika said, “The pressure of heavy crowd and noise inside the shooting arena got me nervous. We had practised at open shooting ranges and in calm ambience but the matches were in stadiums and there was heavy crowd.

We were not used to of such ambience.” She said her poor health also played as spoilsport at London.  “I was suffering from mild fever during the matches. It definitely affected my performance there,” the 18-year-old current national champion said expressing hope of winning a medal win at the next Olympics. On the occasion Jayanta Talukdar, a member of Olympic men’s team, said confidence level and mental toughness were key to better performance at such high level matches. He stressed for the appointment of regular quality psychologist and physiotherapist for the Indian archers.

Jonathan Brownlee hit with
15-second penalty
Britain’s Jonathan Brownlee was given 15-second penalty during the Olympic triathlon at Hyde Park today.
Brownlee, strongly tipped to medal along with his elder brother Alistair who is the world champion, incurred the penalty after mounting his bike too early in the transition zone after emerging from the 1,500 metres swim in fourth position.
He was part of a five-man breakaway on the 43km bike section although that was gradually reeled in by the main pack after two loops around the park.

Brownlee was allowed to choose at what point in the 10km run he served the penalty, in a designated box, but reached the halfway mark having not taken it having opened up a 20-second lead alongside brother Alistair and Javier Gomez of Spain.

Hammer pounds Trott to edge into omnium lead
The United States’ Sarah Hammer grabbed the psychological advantage over Britain’s Laura Trott thanks to a scorching pursuit victory that gave her a one-point lead in the women’s Olympic track cycling omnium today.  Hammer, the world record holder and four-times world champion in the individual pursuit, lived up to her top billing to beat Trott into second place by almost a second. Trott, who is bidding for her second gold of the Games after winning the team pursuit, has two races remaining in the six-discipline omnium to turn the tables. Canada’s Tara Whitten is in the bronze medal position, seven points adrift of Trott, with the 10kilometre scratch race and 500 metre time trial to come later today.

Holders Norway pass Brazil test to make semis
Olympic women’s handball champions Norway produced a stirring second-half fightback against Brazil to win the first quarter-final 21-19 today.
The Beijing gold medallists, who are also reigning world and European champions, trailed 13-9 at halftime but swept past their inexperienced South American opponents to set up a semi-final against either South Korea or Russia on Thursday.

Intriguing cast of women boxers take to stage
You can see why Damon Runyon and Norman Mailer just loved to write about boxing. The sport is awash with larger-than-life characters. And with the introduction of women’s boxing into the Olympics for the first time, there is a whole new list of intriguing back stories to tell.
Indian police officer Mary Kom, the mother of five-year-old twins, was gulping with emotion after battling her way into medal contention just 24 hours after her children’s birthday back home. “I speak to them every day ,” the diminutive, but feisty, figure told a phalanx of Indian reporters clustered round after her victory over Tunisian Maroua Rahali. For her, this was a real milestone.

US women beat Australia for place in final
The US women’s team booked a spot in the Olympic water polo final after defeating Australia 11-9 today, a repeat of the outcome of a semi-final between the two in Beijing.
The Americans secured the win by scoring twice in extra time after the Australians equalised from a penalty in the last second of normal time.

The heated rivalry between the two teams, consistently the best two female sides in the world since the women’s game was introduced as an Olympic event in 2000, was clearly on show.  The chance for a shot at the gold medal delighted American Olympic veterans Brenda Villa and Heather Petri, who are both playing in their fourth and final Games having already earned two silvers and a bronze.

Schwazer tested positive for EPO
Olympic 50 km race walk champion Alex Schwazer was excluded from the London Games yesterday for testing positive for EPO, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said today.
Although his exclusion was known yesterday, the substance he tested positive for had not been revealed until now.
‘Alex Schwazer gave a positive test for Erythropoietin (EPO) in an anti-doping test conducted by WADA on July 30,’ said CONI in a statement.
Schwazer, who has now been suspended by CONI, had been one of Italy’s big medal hopes in a sport where athletes move as fast as they can while keeping one foot in contact with the ground at all times.
The Olympic 50km race walk is scheduled for Saturday.
Schwazer had not yet travelled to London.

Article source: http://www.centralchronicle.com/chinas-deng-linlin-wins-beam-gold-medal.html