Records falling
BEIJING — Shocking news from the pool: Michael Phelps finished second in something! Well, it was merely in qualifying for the 200-meter medley finals.
On the first day he wasn't chasing gold, Phelps won his semifinal heat, then saw teammate and top foe Ryan Lochte go 0.01 second faster in his. That means Lochte will have the coveted middle lane in Friday's race, when Phelps will be looking for his sixth medal in Beijing and 12th of his Olympic career.
Perhaps the bigger shocker Thursday was that neither set a world record because they sure were falling during the morning session at the Water Cube.
France's Alain Bernard moved back atop the 100-meter freestyle list, beating Australia's Eamon Sullivan and taking away the mark he set in qualifying; Liu Zige broke the 200-meter butterfly record in winning China's first swimming medal of these games; and Australia smashed the standard by nearly 6 seconds in the 800-meter freestyle relay, giving Stephanie Rice her third gold of these games and making it 18 world records set at this meet.
Japan's Kosuke Kitajima may not have set a world record, but he did have an Olympic-record time in the 200-meter breaststroke, and he became the first swimmer to sweep the two breaststroke events at consecutive Olympics.
American Jason Lezak, the anchor-leg star of Phelps' dramatic 400 free relay gold, added a bronze to his collection in the 100 free. Katie Hoff, Natalie Coughlin and their U.S. teammates took bronze in the 800 free relay.
The swimmers weren't the only ones to get soaked Thursday as drenching rain returned to Beijing. Beach volleyball, archery and shooting were among those to play through it. Baseball did, too, but with delays. Softball was suspended until Friday with the U.S. trailing Canada 1-0 in the fourth inning. Rowing and canoe-kayak also called it a day. Sailing was scrapped because of light winds. Tennis was suspended before even starting.
Conditions were perfect for China's Yang Wei at the National Indoor Stadium, where he won the men's gymnastics all-around title, perhaps letting him shed his derisive nickname of "Silver Collector" earned for finishing second in Sydney and at the 2003 world championships.
Through seven of the 17 medal events Thursday, the United States and China were tied atop the medals chart with 32 each.
China also has 20 of the 77 golds thus far. Other than the U.S., no country has won 20 total medals. Australia is third with 16.
While Yang added the individual gold to the team title, Americans weren't able to add anything to their bronze collection. Jonathan Horton finished ninth and Sasha Artemev was 12th.Things might have been different if reigning champ Paul Hamm was healthy. Without him, it was Yang's to lose and he never came close to that, winning by nearly three points over Kohei Uchimura of Japan. Benoit Caranobe of France won the bronze.Hiroyuki Tomita, the only other man to win the world title since Athens, finished fourth. Fabian Hambuechen, the silver medalist at world's last year, fell from the high bar, his signature event, and wound up seventh.
Having a star NBA center is always a good thing.Rockets star Yao Ming scored 30 points to lead China past Angola 85-68 for the hosts' first win of the tournament, and Lakers center Pau Gasol scored 13 in Spain's 72-59 victory over Dirk Nowitzki and Germany. Nowitzki was held to 11 points by a defense designed to shut him down.Bucks center Andrew Bogut was less of a factor for Australia, but they still beat Iran 106-68 behind 24 points from Brad Newley.The U.S. was playing Greece later Thursday.
After posting shutouts and no-hitters in its first two games, the Americans faced their first deficit since the gold-medal game in 2000. And it took some weird circumstances.The Canadians scored a run without a hit when an umpire ruled that pitcher Monica Abbott made three illegal pitches; her violation was losing contact with the pitching rubber. One of the illegal pitch do-overs led to an error by center fielder Caitlin Lowe, her first in 123 games since joining the U.S. team in 2005. Before that, she went 237 games without a miscue during four perfect years in the field as an All-American at Arizona.The teams will resume play Friday following the U.S.-Japan game, which begins at noon.
Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Matt LaPorta hit a three-run homer and Matt Brown added a solo shot as the Americans bounced back from losing their opener by beating the Netherlands 7-0.The game was called off after eight innings following a second rain delay. The Dutch protested the decision because they had loaded the bases with none out in the ninth inning, but it was denied by baseball's international federation.
The Three Musketeers of the U.S. women's saber team weren't so good as a team. After sweeping the individual medals, Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson and Becca Ward lost to Ukraine in the semifinals. They still had a chance for bronze, against France.
Dremiel Byers and Brad Vering, the Americans' top Greco wrestlers, were bounced from the Olympics without a medal as an already bad tournament got even worse for last year's world team champions.
