On 14 August, day one of the Olympic Games, two world records were broken in Swimming and three in Weightlifting. In Swimming, Michael Phelps improved the record he already held in the 400m Individual Medley, while the women’s Australian team broke the world record in the 4x100 Freestyle Relay. In total, 13 medal ceremonies took place and China is currently first in the overall medal standing with 4 gold medals. Badminton: The three Chinese players, GONG Ruina, ZHANG Ning and ZHOU Mi, the top three seeds in the tournament, were all unexpectedly put to the test in their first-round matches, with ZHANG and ZHOU both having to come from a set down to win. Diving: China's WU Minxia and GUO Jingjing lived up to expectations and took the gold medal in the Women's Synchronised 3m Springboard competition. With five very strong dives the Chinese pairing beat Vera ILYINA and Yulia PAKHALINA from Russia to the gold medal, as they did in in the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona. Rowing: The Czech Republic and Germany were the only countries to qualify both their men’s and women’s single scullers directly for the semifinals. The German heat wins for Marcel HACKER and Katrin RUTSCHOW-STOMPOROWSKI, both Olympic bronze medallists in Sydney, were expected and comfortable. Weightlifting: A record-breaking performance by 20-year-old Nurcan TAYLAN gave her the first gold medal in the Olympic Weightlifting competition. The young Turkish star broke the world record three times - in the snatch with lifts of 95kg and 97.5kg and with a total of 210kg - to grab victory in a thrilling finish from China's LI Zhuo. Fencing: MONTANO won by only one hit in the Gold Medal match against Zsolt NEMCZIK of Hungary, 15:14. Silver medallist NEMCZIK was distraught after the final. He was leading and controlling the match most of the time, and even at the end he was leading 14:13 and missed only one hit. But then MONTANO made the score 14:14 and the final hit for the Gold Medal. Cycling: Paolo BETTINI (ITA) has won the men’s Olympic Road Race after defeating Sergio PAULINHO (POR) in a two man sprint on the finishing stretch. The 30-year-old veteran escaped from the peloton at Lycebettus Hill in the penultimate lap and the little known Portuguese rider was the only one who could follow BETTINI’s blistering pace. Belgian Axel MERCKX (BEL) was rewarded for his efforts with a bronze medal. Judo: Both Japanese favourites, Ryoko TANI and Tadahiro NOMURA, won gold medals in the women's U48kg and men's U60kg respectively. In the men’s under 60kg category Tadahiro NOMURA wrote history winning his third gold medal in a row, a feat never achieved in Judo before. |