Cycling result bursts Britain’s bubble at Olympics

LONDON: Britain’s glow from the glittering Olympic opening ceremony didn’t extend to the men’s cycling road race Saturday, where Mark Cavendish was expected to bring the host country its first gold medal of the London Games.
Instead it was doping-tainted Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan celebrating in the Mall outside Buckingham Palace after winning the 250-kilometer race in a closing sprint and leaving Cavendish well back in the pack.
“It’s just unbelievable,” said Vinokourov, who won Olympic silver in the road race at Sydney in 2000. “I finished the Tour de France a little tired, but the Olympics, I must go there.”
Chinese shooter Yi Siling got the first full competition day underway with victory in the women’s 10-meter air rifle — the first gold medal presented at the 30th Summer Games.
And there was also a first doping sanction: the International Olympic Committee banned Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku after he tested positive for a banned steroid, stanozolol, on July 23.
Vinokourov himself was tainted by doping. Third at the 2003 Tour de France, Vinokourov served a two-year doping suspension after twice testing positive for banned blood transfusions during the 2007 race.
Other gold winners Saturday were Jin Jong-oh of South Korea in the men’s 10-meter air pistol and four-time world champion Wang Mingjuang of China in the women’s 48-kilogram weightlifting class. In judo, Sarah Menezes of Brazil took the women’s 48-kilogram event and Arsen Galstyan of Russia the men’s 60-kilogram.
Superstar swimmer Michael Phelps, meanwhile, barely qualified for his final and Beijing 400-meter freestyle champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea was reinstated after first being disqualified in a dramatic opening session at the Aquatics Center.
Olympic champion Park touched the wall first in his 400 freestyle heat, but was thrown out for a false start. South Korea later filed a protest which was upheld by governing body FINA.
Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, qualified only eighth-fastest for the night final of the 400-meter individual medley.
“That one didn’t feel too good,” he said.
Two other finals were scheduled on Saturday night — the women’s 400 IM and 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
On Friday night, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was one of the hits of the opening ceremony that was heralded in the local media as “breathtaking and bonkers” and which had placed the city at the “center of the world.”
The queen provided the highlight of Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle’s high-adrenaline show. With film trickery, Boyle made it seem that Britain’s 86-year-old monarch parachuted into the stadium with James Bond star Daniel Craig.
“Boyle’s inventive ceremony grabs the license and thrills,” said The Guardian, and all of Britain agreed.
London mayor Boris Johnson said the four-hour long ceremony was “stupefying.”
“The big anxiety we had was, could we do something that would rival Beijing,” said Johnson. “I think we knocked the spots off it.”
Vinokourov, who said earlier this year that he would end his career after the London Games, broke away from the leading group about 10 kilometers from the finish with Rigoberto Uran of Colombia.
Vinokourov then accelerated with 300 meters to go to leave Uran in his wake. Uran took silver, with Alexander Kristoff of Norway claiming bronze.
Vinokourov’s triumph ended Cavendish’s hopes of adding the Olympic title to the gold medal he won at the world championships last year. The British team tried to control the race from the start but could not prevent the final breakaway to succeed.
“What we needed was a couple of guys to help us,” British road captain David Millar said. “The Germans came up but we needed some help.”
Cavendish was officially given 28th place, 40 seconds behind Vinokourov.