OLYMPIC DIGEST GymnasticsSmiling 16-year-old Gabby Douglas took the Olympic Games by storm yesterday when she won the all-around gold medal ahead of Russian Victoria Komova.
Komova was reduced to tears for the second time in three days when American Douglas pipped her to the title by 0.259 of a point after producing the day’s best performances on the vault and the beam.
Aliya Mustafina, who with Komova was disappointed to take team silver behind the Americans on Tuesday, clung on for bronze despite a fall from the beam. She and Douglas’s compatriot Aly Raisman finished with the same total but the Russian won the medal on the tiebreak rule.
Douglas, dubbed the “Flying Squirrel” for the shape she produces on the bars, was watched from the stands by team-mate and world champion Jordyn Wieber, who had come into the Games touted as the favourite for yesterday’s honours but failed to qualify for the final.
Wieber finished fourth in qualifying for the all-around but missed the cut since each nation is allowed only two women in the final. As Douglas and Raisman ranked above her in the preliminaries, Wieber was demoted to the role of spectator yesterday.
Ndlovu leads breakthrough success for South Africa
RowingThe head of South Africa's Olympic squad urged triumphant rower Sizwe Ndlovu to go home and inspire a generation of black people to take up the sport after his thrilling victory at the London Games yesterday.
Ndlovu led the South African lightweight men’s four to victory after sprinting through the field in the final 300 metres of a dramatic race to win gold ahead of the two favourites for the title, Britain and Denmark.
The stunning come-from-behind win for Ndlovu, John Smith, Matthew Brittain and James Thompson was also the first Olympic rowing gold to be won by a South African crew.
“He will be received as a prince or a king,” South Africas chef de mission Patience Shikwambana said of Ndlovu.
Spain press to block Mullera
AthleticsSpain will continue its fight to prevent steeplechaser Angel Mullera from competing at the London Games following his implication in a possible doping violation, the president of the country's Olympic Committee (COE) said yesterday.
The Spanish athletics federation (RFEA) dropped Mullera from the Olympic team last month after a newspaper published an email exchange between an address in his name and an unidentified doctor in which a possible doping plan was discussed.
The athlete, who said he never followed through with the plan, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and they overturned the RFEA’s decision, saying the federation had used an “improper procedural course”.
The COE, the RFEA and the government’s sports council (CSD) appear undeterred, however, and Alejandro Blanco was quoted as saying in Spanish media they intended to “take this case to the end”.
Boxing referee sent home
BoxingReferee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov from Turkmenistan has been expelled from the London Olympics, the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) said yesterday.
AIBA suspended a second referee, Frank Scharmach of Germany, for five days and an Azerbaijani technical official sent home after two controversial decisions on Wednesday.
Meretnyyazov failed to stop a men’s bantamweight bout despite Magomed Abdulhamidov being knocked down six times in the final round. The referee was expelled and AIBA said he was on his way home.
Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu, who went into the last round of the bout against the Azerbaijani trailing by seven points, lost the contest by five when all three rounds were scored.
AIBA later overturned the verdict saying Meretnyyazov should have given the Azerbaijani “at least” three standing counts which would have resulted in the contest being stopped.
Iran’s Ali Mazaheri was disqualified by Scharmach in his opening heavyweight bout against Cuban Jose Larduet Gomez following three warnings for persistent holding.
