Beijing Digest

Other olympics stories in brief

Nigeria coach unhappy with win

SOCCER:Nigeria controversially beat the US 2-1 to reach the quarter-finals despite a performance that prompted coach Samson Siasia to criticise them for ball-hogging.

Ivory Coast and Cameroon completed a good night for Africa as they also advanced, Salomon Kalou giving the Ivorians a 1-0 win over Australia and a goalless draw with Italy proving sufficient for Cameroon.

Nigeria, who face the Ivorians in the last eight, failed to impress Siasia, who publicly berated his players for indiscipline and said transfers to European clubs had gone to their heads.

"When these players go to Europe, they change. They come back here and think that we cannot do without them," said Siasia, who left Chelsea's John Obi Mikel out of the squad for lack of commitment.

"They mustn't be ball hogs. Football is not a show game, it is business. A good team has to play to instructions. Football is made for 11 players, not just individuals."

Brazil and Argentina completed the group stage unbeaten.

Murrays licked

TENNIS:Andy Murray branded himself "unprofessional" after he and his brother Jamie were thrashed by France's Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement in the second round of the doubles at the Tennis Centre in Beijing's Olympic Park.

The British pair were outclassed as Llodra and Clement ran out 6-1 6-3 winners in just 66 minutes.

Murray lost in the first round of the singles to Chinese Taipei's Lu Yen-Hsun.

Spaniards reject racism allegations

BASKETBALL:Spain's Jose Calderon has rejected international media accusations that slit-eyed gestures by his team were racist, and said he had great respect for Asian people.

Pictures show the world champions dressed in Olympic kit standing on a basketball court marked with a Chinese dragon. All the players are pulling the skin back at the side of their eyes.

"I want to say that we have a great respect for the Orient and their peoples. Some of my best friends in Toronto are of Chinese origin," Calderon, who plays for the Toronto Raptors, said in a message posted on his website.

"Whoever interprets something else from the photos has taken it completely the wrong way."

Spanish newspapers also hit back at suggestions the pictures were racist, saying the team had donated to charities in Africa.

"To try and convert an affectionate gesture of a model group of sportsmen and women into racism is repugnant," said Jose Luis Martinez, columnist for Marca, in which the pictures first appeared.

Federations allowed to take blood

DOPING:The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have allowed four international federations to conduct blood screenings on athletes during the Games to determine whether any indicators were abnormal before their competitions.

The International Association of Athletics Federations, the International Cycling Union, the International Rowing Federation and the International Modern Pentathlon Union will conduct the screenings until the end of the Games.

This procedure was first used during the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, where several cross-country skiers being temporarily removed, but not banned, from competition and given specific periods for the indicators to return to normal.

If after that period the levels were still abnormal the IOC proceeded with doping tests.

The same procedure will apply in Beijing, said the IOC, which is in charge of doping throughout the Games.

Serena survives French fright

TENNIS:Serena Williams reached the quarter-finals of the singles after getting a fright from the French teenager Alize Cornet.

The American fourth seed advanced 3-6 6-3 6-4 under the Centre Court lights to join her sister Venus in the last eight and keep alive the chances of an all-Williams final.

First, however, she will have to raise her game for today's clash with the Russian fifth seed, Elena Dementieva.

Early test for Cragg

ATHLETICS:He'll have the gold medal favourite, the top Kenyan, and the leading European. And that's just for starters. There's no such thing as an easy draw in the heats of the Olympic 1,500 metres, as Alistair Cragg found out last night, reports Ian O'Riordan.

The start lists for tomorrow's opening sessions in the Bird's Nest were released yesterday, and Cragg is the first Irish athlete in action. He may be running the 1,500 metres as a tune-up for his main event, the 5,000 metres, later next week, but qualification for the semi-finals is still his ambition.

He is drawn in the second of four heats, and the field includes the reigning world champion Bernard Lagat, now running for the US and the winner of silver for Kenya four years ago in Athens after pushing Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco - now retired - all the way to the line.

Also in there is the Kenyan hope Asbel Kiprop, still only 19 but with a best of 3:31.64 this year, and the big Spanish kicker Juan Carlos Higuero, who ran 3:32.57 in recent weeks.

Cragg's season's best of 3:39.12 ranks him only 10th in the field, and with the top five progressing, plus the four fastest finishers across the four races, he'll need to improve on that if he's to get another race before the 5,000 metres.

The main intention, however, is to get his head around the truly cauldron-like surroundings of the Bird's Nest, and given his problems in that department in the past, running the shorter race first seems the wise choice.