Off to my first event - Beijing Olympic tennis
August 14, 2008
Today I am finally going to my first ticketed event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I am taking my daughter to the Olympic tennis tournament this afternoon. I can’t wait.
She was probably more excited yesterday than she will be today as we got her a full set of Olympic mascots. She played with them for hours.
I was just checking the schedule for this afternoon and we are in for a treat. In quarterfinals action Roger Federer will be playing James Blake in the first match on centre court. This is followed by Venus Williams against the Li Na. And if that is not enough we will get to see Rafael Nadal take on Jurgen Melzer.
If the centre court action is not good enough we can wonder out to show court 1 and watch Serena Williams play Elena Dementieva followed by Paul-Henri Mathieu versus Fernando Gonzalez. After that match the Australian Open winner, Novak Djokovic will play exciting French player Gael Monfils.
I don’t think I could have asked for it any better if I could pick the exact matches I wanted to see at the quarterfinal stage in the Olympic tennis tournament.
China and Cuba play out five set thriller in women’s volleyball
August 14, 2008
Tonight I was lucky enough to watch the China-Cuba women’s volleyball match. It was a thrilling match between two of the one time heavyweights in women’s volleyball.
China were playing above their current world ranking of number 7 as the took on the world no. 3. The first two sets were all China as they won 25-18, 25-14. The spikers were in control and were hitting the floor with good succes. The third set was looking the same as China held a 15-11 advantage.
Here it all changed. Cuba called a timeout. When they came back it was a different team. They won 8 straight points thanks to some big serving from their setter Santos. Cuba went onto claim the set 25-23.
The fourth set was the most exciting of the match as both team refused to give their opponents the edge. Cuba’s no. 12 Rosir Calderon was hitting great angles to pile up the points for Cuba while China’s solid play saw them bring up match points. Six times they had a chance to claim the match but each time Cuba would deny them. In the end someone had to give and it was China. Cuba won the set 32-30.
The fifth set saw China take the early lead but Cuba came back. Before I knew it the score was 13-13. I said to my wife whoever wins this point will take the match. As it was China served out and this gave Cuba a match point. They just needed one.
The final score to this thrilling match was 18-25, 14-25, 25-23, 32-30, 15-13. Cuba now sits at the top of Pool A with six points. China and USA are on five points however China has a better sets ratio.
USA and China meet each other in two days time in what will be a crucial pool A match. Both team’s will be keen to take the points. The USA team are coached by former China volleyball great Lang Ping.
For Rice it is twice as nice after 200 medley gold
August 14, 2008
In the women’s 200m individual medley Stephanie Rice has out sprinted Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry down the final 50m to win her second gold medal at the Beijing Olympic swimming meet.
Rice turned a 0.09 deficit to Coventry at the final turn into a 0.14 winning margin. To give Rice something extra to celebrate she also lowered the world record she set at the Australian Olympic swim team trials in March. The new world record is 2:08.45.
In the final lap Rice swam the freestyle leg in 30.09 seconds compared to Coventry’s 30.32. It was only in the last few metres where Rice moved to the lead in this exciting race.
Katie Hoff who was once again expected to challenge for the gold did not live up to expectations and was squeezed out of third place by her USA teammate Natalie Coughlin.
Rice has done as best as expected at the Beijing Olympics. She has taken the individual medley double winning both titles in world record time. She can now let her hair down and enjoy the remaining days at the Olympics.
China wins first ever women’s team gymnastics gold after USA self destructs
August 14, 2008
One advantage of being in Beijing during the Olympics is that they are going to show Chinese athletes on television in all the major events. Today I got to watch the women’s team final for artistic gymnastics in full without interuption.
It what was an exciting final turned out to be a showdown between USA the current world champions and China the 2006 world champions. The home crowd were hoping to see the women, or should I say girls, claim the first Olympic gold medal in the teams event.
The USA took the early lead following the vault rotation. The US scored 46.875 to China’s 46.350. Shawn Johnson for the US and China’s Cheng Fei both topped the scoring with 16 point vaults.
On the uneven bars the Chinese made their move. Two brilliant performances by He Kexin and Yang Yilin where they scored 16.85 and 16.80 respectively gave China the lead. USA edged closer on the beam. China’s Cheng Fei helped them out after falling from the beam during her routine. Alicia Sacramone gave back the advantage when she fell from the beam as she mounted the apparatus.
The floor was to be the deciding rotation as the US or China could still win. In the end the USA self destructed. First the unfortunate Sacramone fell at the end of a tumbling run and then to make matters worse she stepped out of the competition area. The end result was a shattering score of 14.125. Her teammates also had costly errors and this left China to claim the medal.
China put in solid routines to lay claim to the nation’s first gold in the women’s team event. The crowd were of course delighted as the gymnasts had sealed the double following yesterday’s team win by the men.
China won the gold medal with a total of 188.900 points from the United States with a total of 186.525 points and Romania won the bronze with a total score of 181.525 points.
Next up is the Men’s Individual All-Around Final to be held from 11am Beijing time on Thursday.
Cook and Barnett pull off good win over Brazilians in Beijing Beach Volleyball
August 13, 2008
Australian beach volleyball duo of Natalie Cook and Tamsin Barnett have defeated the highly rated Brazilian pair of Ana Paula and Larissa. The Brazilians were world champions in 2005 and 2007 and have been the top ranking pairing on the FIVB world tour in 2005-2006-2007.
This match was a real test for the medal aspirations of the Australians and it was one that they emerged with high hopes for the days ahead. The score was 23-21, 23-21 to the Aussie underdogs. It could not have been closer than that.
Larissa’s seven service faults helped the Australian’s to victory although this was almost offset by five service errors from Barnett. Probably the key stat for the Australians was the dig successes with 5. This allowed Cook and Barnett to edge ahead of their opponents.
The win today leaves the Australian’s undefeated after the pool stage. They topped the pool with a 3-0 record. The Brazilians took second spot. The Aussies now move into the knockout phase and will play their next match on August 16 at 9.00am against a team that places third in one of the pools.
Phelps still on track for record gold medal haul in Beijing Olympics
August 13, 2008
Today in the Beijing Olympic swim meet Michael Phelps was lining up for gold medal four and five in his chase for eight at a single Olympics. He was also swimming for the most gold medals by an individual across multiple Olympics.
By the time lunchtime had passed in Beijing Phelps had become the most decorated Olympian of all time with eleven gold medals and two bronze.
First up for Phelps was the 200m butterfly where Phelps was once again not troubled on the way to gold medal four and his fourth world record. His time of 1:52.03 improved on his world record recorded at last years world championships which was 1:52.09. Second to touch the wall was Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh who was 0.67 behind the great one. Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda claimed the bronze in 1:52.97.
In the last race of the medal session the USA did as expected, they won the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. They did not just win it, they smashed the world record by over four seconds and went under 7 minutes for the first time. They stopped the clock at 6:58.56 compared with the old record of 7:03.24.
Phelps swum the lead off leg for the USA recording the race’s fastest split time with 1:43.31. He was then followed by the 4 x 100m hero Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay. The USA team were 5.14 seconds ahead of Russia in second while Australia grabbed the bronze.
Heartbreak for men’s Chinese basketball team
August 13, 2008
In an afternoon game in the men’s Olympic basketball tournament the hosts China took on world champion’s Spain.
After a day at Beijing Zoo I caught this match on local tv as I enjoyed a meal in a Beijing restraurant. At the time I picked up the match the Chinese were out to a 8 point lead just ahead of halftime.
In the third quarter they continued to play well and held a 61-47 lead. I had to remind myself that this was the current world champions in Spain taking on a team that had never done that much in a major championships.
As the match went into the fourth quarter Spain were taking advantage of turnovers from China and were quickly catching their hosts. With time winding down Spain levelled the scores at 72. That is how it ended. This match was going into overtime.
Here was where Spain dominated with a 10-3 period to wrapup the match. NBA player Pau Gasol scored 29 points for Spain to lead all scorers. He was ably assisted by Rudy Fernandez with 21. For China Liu Wei top the scoring with 19 points.
NBA star Yao Ming put in a good defensive effort in this match to help China get to the lead they had at one point. Turnovers at crucial times cost the Chinese and prevented one of the big Olympic basketball upsets.
China play Angola in a must win match on Thursday while Spain will face Germany in the early game.
Olympic Weightlifting double for China on Day 3
August 11, 2008
It is enough to have the hopes of a nation to carry let alone take on the strong men and women of the Olympic weightlifting competition. Today China’s best took on their opponents and walked away with a gold in the women’s 58kg and the men’s 62kg.
First up it was Chen Yanqing who won the women’s gold medal when she lifted a combined total of 244kg to easily win the competition. In second place with 227kg was Russia’s Marina Shainova. Bronze went to O Jong Ae of the Democratic Republic of Korea. Her total was 226kg.
For Chen it was her second Olympic gold medal following her win in Athens in the same weight division.
In the men’s 62kg event it was much the same story. China’s Zhang Xiangxiang dominated the proceedings with a combined total of 319kg to take the gold ahead of Colombia’s Diego Salazar who lifted 305kg.
Zhang needed only two successful lifts in the snatch and the clean and jerk to take the gold. He attempted a new world record after securing the gold in the clean and jerk however did not even get the bar up to his shoulders.
Zhang’s medal at the Beijing Olympics adds to the bronze medal he won in the 56kg event at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Following Zhang’s win China had a total of nine gold medals and lead the medal tally at the Beijing Olympics.
Cuba too strong for USA in women’s Olympic volleyball
August 11, 2008
In a match that saw world no. 3 Cuba face off against world no. 4 USA it was the Cuban’s who proved too strong for their northern neighbours.
The final score was 25-15, 26-24, 25-17. In the second set USA served with a set point however could not convert. If they did it may have been a different outcome.
Not to be deterred they jumped out to a handy lead in the third set before the Cubans got on top and closed out the match.
The Cuban team were more consistent and this helped them at crucial moments in the match. Carrillo and Ruiz for Cuba scored many points for their team.
With China yet to play, Cuba are now on top of Pool A. The Chinese face Poland and Japan will face Venezuela.
Chinese duo overcome tough Belgium resistance in beach volleyball
August 11, 2008
Wang Jie and Tian Jia have worked hard on the Chaoyang Olympic beach volleyball stadium sands to defeat the Belgium pairing of Liesbeth Mouha and van Liesbet van Breedam in three sets.
The final score was 18-21, 21-19, 15-13. The Belgium team had several service errors at the end of the deciding third set. This helped push the Chinese over the line. In fact the match point came following a long serve from the Belgium’s.
The match had many exciting rallies with both teams throwing themselves around on the sand. You could see the players were all quite fatigued in the latter stages of the match.
In the end it was probably just the service errors that cost the Belgium pair the match.
The Chinese pairing are currently ranked as the third team on the World Beach Volleyball tour. They have won three world tour titles while playing as a pairing, the most recent came in Shanghai in 2007.
Wang Jie and Tian Jia are now 2-0 in their pool A matches while Liesbeth Mouha and van Liesbet van Breedam are 0-2.
You can view all the results and pool standings at the Beijing2008 site.
