ATHENS, 16 August 2004 — The underdogs roared at the Olympics here yesterday with basketball minnows Puerto Rico pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the 108-year history of the Games with victory over the United States ‘Dream Team’.
The Puerto Ricans’ stunner over America’s team of pampered NBA millionaires resounded across the games like a lightning bolt hurled by Zeus, completing an extraordinary day which saw the form book left in tatters.
After 25 gold medals awarded over the weekend, China head the medal rankings with five gold, two silver and one bronze, leading from Australia (four gold, one silver, three bronze).
In the swimming pool, an expected duel between the powerful Australian and United States contingent went out the window as South Africa, France and Japan snatched three out of the four golds on offer.
In a further upset, Argentina defeated world champions Serbia and Montenegro with a last-gasp 83-82 victory on the buzzer.
Yet the shocks weren’t just confined to basketball and swimming.
In badminton, world No. 1 Lin Dan of China, regarded as the game’s most exciting talent for years, was outshone by unseeded Ronald Susilo of Singapore, losing 15-12, 15-10.
In the football tournament, war-weary Iraq’s fairy tale campaign continued as they secured their place in the quarterfinals with a 2-0 win over Costa Rica.
Sporting controversies rumbled on as Greece digested the suspensions of local sprint heroes Kostadinos Kenteris and Ekaterini Thanou pending the outcome of a drugs probe.
The International Olympic Committee will on Monday hear the athletes’ explanations for failing to attend a doping test before deciding whether to throw them out of the Olympics.
Reports from Bratislava meanwhile said Slovak shot-putter Milan Haborak has been kicked out of the Games after failing a test.
And a botched disqualification at the table tennis destroyed a Honduran battler’s Olympic debut. Izzwa Medina, ranked a lowly 342 in the world, thrashed Jordanian junior Zeina Shaban 4-0 in their first round match on Saturday but was disqualified when officials ruled the rubber on her racket was illegal.
After Medina appealed, tournament organizers decided to allow her to replay the match against Shaban yesterday — and she lost in the seventh and decisive set.
In the judo tournament, Iranian two-time world champion Arash Miresmaeili failed to make the weight for a contest against an Israeli fighter he had previously vowed to boycott. “He came to the weigh-in but he was overweight. He is not competing,” Michel Brousse, the spokesman for the International Judo Federation said.
Miresmaeili, who was bidding to become the first Iranian to win an Olympic judo medal, had told the Iranian media he would refuse to fight an Israeli as a gesture of support for the Palestinian cause.
A controversy also erupted in the gymnastics tournament, where American star Blaine Wilson accused top officials of cheating over a late change to the scoring system.
The biggest smile of the day belonged to pint-sized Thai weightlifter Udomporn Polsak, who became the kingdom’s first ever female Olympic champion with victory in the 53kg category.
Halil Mutlu of Turkey completed a hat trick of gold medals and Polsak made history as Thailand first women’s Olympic champion in weightlifting.
The five-time world champion Mutlu took the gold with 295.0 kilos from 135.0kg in the snatch and 160.0kg in the clean and jerk as only the fourth treble Olympic champion in the sport in the 53 kilos event. His earlier golds were in 1996 and 2000.
Wu Meijin of China got the silver with 287.5kg and the bronze medal also went to Turkey, from Sedat Artuc with 280.0kg.
Polsak, who is also a world champion, set an Olympic record with 222.5 kilos after scoring 125.0kg in the clean and jerk to go with 97.5kg in the snatch in the women’s 53 kilos.
Lisa Raema Rumbewas from Indonesia, a silver medalist in Sydney in the 48kg class, had to settle once again for silver, with 210.0kg. The bronze medal went to Mabel Mosquera from Colombia, at 35 years the oldest competitor, scoring 197.5kg.
Xian and Uchishiba Strike Gold
Masato Uchishiba ended an embarrassing run for the Japanese when he won the under 66-kg judo gold at the Olympics.
The usually dominant Japanese had not won a medal in the class in six Olympics and world championships since 1996.
But Uchishiba displayed his speed of thought and movement in countering Jozef Krnac of Slovakia for ippon in the final to win Japan’s third judo gold in two days.
Uchishiba, representing his country at a major world event for the first time, said he had shut his mind off from everything but his fights yesterday.
“I was so focused today that I never once looked at the scoreboard. I was just so determined to win the gold medal,” he said.
China’s Xian Dongmei became the first person to defeat a Japanese judoka at the Athens Games when she took the women’s under 52-kg title by pinning Yuki Yokosawa just over a minute into the final.
Yokosawa, 24, made the final only by the skin of her teeth, scoring ippon in the last second of her semifinal against world champion Amarilys Savon of Cuba.
Savon took bronze by defeating Salima Souakri of Algeria with tomoe-nage (stomach throw) before bursting into tears and announcing her retirement from the sport.
Belgium’s Ilse Heylen outlasted France’s Annabelle Euranie in a six-minute marathon for the other bronze medal.
Xian, 29, said the Olympics might also be her swansong.
Cuba’s Yordanis Arencibia added a men’s bronze to his three world championship bronze medals after beating Georgia’s David Margoshvili in 25 seconds but looked distraught at the end.
Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev managed a small score in the golden-score period to win the battle of the underdogs in the other 66-kg bronze-medal bout against Spain’s Oscar Penas.
Nagy Retains the Women’s Epee Fencing Title
Hungarian Timea Nagy retained the Olympic women’s epee fencing title on Sunday after a 15-10 win over the 1996 champion Laura Flessel-Colovic of France.
Maureen Nisima of France won the bronze medal by beating another Hungarian, Ildiko Mincza-Nebald 15-11.
Nagy, gold medalist in Sydney, has struggled to climb the rankings since taking an 18-month sabbatical because of the birth of her second child. She entered the competition as 22nd seed but worked her way steadily through to the final.
In spite of losing the first point she quickly gained control, opening up a three-point lead at 7-4. From then on her French opponent never got within two points of her and Nagy ended the bout in convincing fashion.
Ambitious Japan Trounce Italy as Cuba Lurk
Last time Japanese slugging third baseman Norihiro Nakamura played an Olympic game, he saw his team suffer the ignominy of being shut out on a medal in Sydney with a painful defeat by Asian rivals South Korea.
A 12-0 trouncing of Italy put Nakamura and this year’s more powerful Japanese team on track in Athens. The game ended after seven innings under the “mercy rule” that calls a halt if a team is trailing by more than 10 runs at that point.
Cuba, which has taken two golds and a silver in baseball, launched its campaign in Athens with a 4-1 win over Australia.
