RHC Olympic Update no.12 - 27 Sept 2000 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - Olympics Update no.12 - 27 September 2000 CUBAN WRESTLER FILIBERTO AZCUY GIVES CUBA A GOLD MEDAL Sydney, September 27(RHC)-- Cuban greco-roman wrestler Filiberto Azcuy in the up to 69 kilogram division gave the island the satisfaction of another gold medal. This is the fourth gold medal the island wins in Sydney. His rival, Japan's Katsuhiko Nagata fell to the Cuban after one minute and 44 seconds due to Azcuy's superiority. Japan took silver and Russia Bronze. Thanks to the gold medal won by Cuban wrestler Filiberto Azcuy in the 69 kilo division, Cuba finished second by countries in that sport in Sydney. Russia concluded in first place with two gold, one silver and a bronze. Cuba was second with one gold and two silver and the U.S. third with a medal of each color. CUBA GRABS SILVER IN BASEBALL IN SYDNEY Sydney, September 27(RHC)-- Cuba won silver at the baseball Olympic tournament. The island arrived in Sydney with the dream of revalidating the title for the third consecutive time, since the sport's Olympic debut in Barcelona in 1992. However, the powerful Cuban team clashed against the excellent pitching of Ben Sheets, who Worked on the mound from beginning to end. Cuban batters were unable to do much, in fact, they produced only three hits. Cuba fell to the U.S. 4 to zero. South Korea won bronze after defeating Japan. SILVER FOR CUBAN RODIGUEZ IN WOMEN'S TAEKWONDO Sydney, September 27(RHC)-- Cuban Urbia Melendez won the silver medal in women's taekwondo in the 49 kilo division. Despite having some world champions and silver medal winners in this sport, this medal was a surprise for Cuban sports fans. Gold went to Australia. CUBA IS LEFT OUT OF THE FINALS IN MEN'S VOLLEYBALL Sydney, September 27 (RHC)-- The Cuban men's volleyball team, though loosing to Russia in tie break, nevertheless offered a good performance. The squad lost any possibility to get into the finals and will be fighting for the 5th place with Brazil, which surprisingly fell to Argentina and was also eliminated. The Cuban players were all courage and technique in the first set with a victory of 25-21, but the Russians with taller blockers and a good defense, especially Ushakov, dominated the next two sets. Cuba brought the game to a tie in the 4th set, but Russia was better in tie break in service and attack. In Atlanta, Russia also eliminated Cuba's medal chances. YUMILEIDI CUMBA FOR THE GOLD IN WOMEN'S SHOT PUT Sydney, September 27 (RHC)-- Cuba's Yumileidi Cumba got into the list of 12 classified athletes for women's shot put. With an 18.12 meter throw, Cumba finished in place number 8, in a competition dominated by European athletes. Only three participants were able to register throws over the 19 meter mark. One is from Belarus and the other two from Russia. In the list of competitors are 10 Europeans, one from Asia and the Cuban shot put specialists, the only Latin American woman present in the finals. YIPSI MORENO DREAMS ABOUT A MEDAL IN WOMEN'S HAMMER THROW Sydney, September 27(RHC)-- Cuba has medal aspirations in women's hammer throw with the inclusion of Yipsi Moreno in the finals with the 4th best mark in preliminaries with 65.74 meters. Russian Olga Kuzenkova finished in first place with 70.60 meters. PRETTY CLOSE, BUT FINISHED 4TH Sydney, September 27(RHC)-- World champion in women's 400 meter hurdles, Cuba's Daimi Pernia, saw her Olympic aspirations go down the drain when she crossed the finishing line in 4th place. She was pretty good in preliminaries, but had very strong rivals, particularly Russian Irina Privalova, who finally walked out with the gold with a time of 53.02 seconds. Pernia was only 11 hundredths of a second behind the bronze that went to Moroccan Nousha Bidiouane. Pernia told the press she is not satisfied with the result, for she was sure to be among the medal winners. She aadmitted she never thought about the gold, but a medal of any color. Pernia, gold at the Seville World track and field championship, said that for the 1999 event she was better prepared and this year has only attended a couple of international competitions due to several physical problems. She said she wasn't the same person who competed in Seville. CUBA PRESENTS AN OFFICIAL NOTE OF PROTEST Sydney, September 27(RHC)-- Cuba presented an official note of protest today due to two unfair arbitration decisions that affected two Cuban boxers. In the 57 kilo division Yosvani Aguilera lost to Russian Kamil Dzamulutdinov 17-12 while in 71 Juan Hernandez Sierra lost to Yermakhan Ibraimove from Kazajstan 16-9. There has been discontent among non European boxers, especially Latin Americans, who feel the judges have favored European boxers. But despite Cuba's two official protests, the island lost a total of four boxers and has secured only 6 bronze medals. Alexis Rubalcaba, in the more than 91 kilo division, and Manuel Mantilla, in 51, were the other Cubans who lost their medal hopes. Diogenes Luna, in the 63.5 kilo division, was the only Cuban who climbed into the ring and won over his rival Saleh Abdel Maksu of Egypt. Russia also has 6 boxers in semifinals, while the U.S. takes three. The only non-Cuban Latin American present in semifinals is Mexican Cristian Bejarano who will be fighting Ucranian Andriy Kotelnik. FOUR DAYS OF COMPETITIONS REMAINING Sydney, September 27(RHC)-- When there are four days of Competitions remaining, Cuba is ranked number 14 with four gold, eight Silver and two bronze. Canoe experts Ledys Frank Balceiro in C-1 and Ibrahim Rojaas and Leobaldo Pereira in C-2 are in the finals for the 500 meters. Long jumper Ivan Pedroso and his teammate Luis Felipe Meliz-- the two best classified for men's long jump competition-- will be competing tomorrow. SURPRISES AND INJURIES PLAY MAIN ROLES DURING WEDNESDAY'S TRACK AND FIELD COMPETITIONS Sydney, September 27 (RHC) - The U.S.'s Marion Jones is ready to get her second Olympic gold in Sydney after her classification Wednesday for the women's long jump medal round with a 6.78 meter jump. The 100-meter gold medallist achieved the second best mark of Group 2 of the preliminaries, only behind German Heike Drechsler, who classified with a 6.84-meter jump. In Group 1, Italian Fiona May reached the finals with a 6.81-meter mark, better than Jamaican Elva Goulbourne's 6.68. Meanwhile, in women's discus throw, Ellina Zvereva, from Belarus, took the title with a 68.40-meter mark and was followed by Greek Anastasia Kelesidou and Irina Yatchenko also from Belarus. In other results, two of the best 1.500-meter runners of all times, Algerian Nourredine Morceli in men's and Russian Svetlana Masterkova in women's, said good-bye to the Sydney Olympics without even having reached finals in their respective events. In semifinals, Morceli -three times world champion and Olympic gold medal four years ago- could not advance to the finals after suffering a leg injury, while Masterkova had to abandon the race after only 50 meters for unknow reasons. In women's 100 hurdles, Olga Shishigina from Kazajstan walked away with the title with 12.65 seconds in a competition abandoned by the U.S.'s Gail Devers after suffering an injury. The silver and bronze medals went to Nigerian Gloria Alozie with 12.68 seconds and the U.S.'s Melissa Morrison with 12.76. In this event, Cuban Aliuska Lopez entered fifth. Also on Wednesday, during the pole vault classification, Ukranian Serguei Bubka could not advance to the medal round since he was not able to clear any height. The "Czar" -as the six times world champion and world record holder is also known- renounced 5.25, 5.40, 5.55 and 5.65 meters and decided to start the competition with a 5.70 meter height like in the good old times -but he failed to clear it in his three attempts. Something similar happened to Bubka in the 1992 Barcelona Games when he was not able to clear his first requested height, while in Atlanta, four years ago, he abandoned the competition shortly before its beginning. In other action yesterday, Brazilian Claudinei Quirino classified for the 200 meters semifinals with 20.24 seconds. The Brazilian representative, who owns the South American record in this discipline with 19.89 seconds, was the gold medallist at the Winnipeg 1999 Pan Am Games and silver in the same year's world championship of Seville, Spain. According to Quirino, his main rivals are American John Capel, Ato Boldon from Trinidad and Tobago as well as Obadele Thompson from Barbados. LIST OF WATER POLO QUARTER FINALLISTS COMPLETED Sydney, September 27 (RHC) -- Spain, Australia, Russia, the United States, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and Yugoslavia secured their tickets for quarterfinals of the Olympic water polo tournament with their results during the last day of preliminaries. While Spain and Australia tied at seven, Croatia defeated the Netherlands 11-7, Italy steam-rolled Kazajstan 11-7 and Yugoslavia took a tight win over Hungary 10-9. In other results, Russia smashed Slovakia 21-5 and the United States did the same with Greece 9-3. In quarterfinas, Spain will face Croacia, Australia will have a difficult match versus Yugoslavia, Hungary will take on Italy and Russia will meet the United States. SOUTH KOREA AND THE UNITED STATES FOR GO THE GOLD IN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Sydney, September 27 (RHC) -- South Korea gave another surprise Wednesday after defeating the strong French women's basketball team 68-59 in quarter finals.The Asian representatives will face in semifinals the United States, winner over Slovakia 58-43. In the two other matches of quarterfinals, Australia defeated Poland 76-48 and will take on Brazil in its climb to the finals. The Brazilians beat Russia 68-67. A LEGEND COMES TO ITS END IN GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLING Sydney, September 27 (RHC) -- The legend of Russian Greco-Roman wrestler Alexander Karelin came to an end Wednesday evening. The most awarded wrestler of this discipline's history -unbeaten in 13 years and more than 100 bouts- was looking for his fourth Olympic title in Sydney but the U.S.'s Rulon Gardner stood in his way. Gardner, whose only outstanding performance had been the Pan American title won in 1999, will now be remembered as the first man who could defeat Karelin in any Olympic Games. ARGENTINA AND AUSTRALIA WILL FIGHT FOR THE GOLD IN WOMEN'S FIELD HOCKEY Sydney, September 27 (RHC) -- Argentina steam-rolled New Zealand 7-1 during the Olympic field hockey semifinals that took place on Wednesday. Vanina Oneto was the winners' main scorer with four goals. In the gold medal match, the South American representative will face Australia -winner over China 5-1. Meanwhile, in men's, world champion Australia will face the Netherlands, 1996 Olympic gold medallist, in one of the two matches of semifinals. In the other, Pakistan will take on South Korea. GERMAN CYCLIST JAN ULLRICH WINS ROAD INDIVIDUAL PURSUIT Sydney, September 27 (RHC) -- German star cyclist Jan Ullrich won his first Olympic title in Sydney in the road individual pursuit with 5.29.08 hours in the 239.4-kilometer race. The silver and bronze medals went to Alexandre Vinokourov from Kazajstan and also German Andreas Kloeden. In this event, Tour de France champion, the U.S.'s Lance Arsmtrong, finished 13th, 1.26 minutes behind Ullrich. According to specialists, Armstrong will have his revenge in the time trial competition. (c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. Todos los derechos reservados. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= rhc-eng-18121 2000-Sep-28 00:19:04