Beach Volleyball: Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser will play Brazil’s Marcio and Fabio for the gold medal in beach volleyball. The reigning world champions beat Georgia 21-11, 21-13 in the semifinals in one of the quickest matches of the Olympics. Marcio and Fabio upset Athens gold medalists and fellow Brazilians Emanuel and Ricardo 22-20, 21-18. On the women’s side, Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor — the winners of 107 straight matches, including the last Olympic title — are headed to the finals against the Chinese duo of Tian Jia and Wang Jie. The Americans easily beat a Brazilian tandem in the semifinals. Tian and Wang advanced by beating another team from China.
Women’s basketball: Sylvia Fowles had 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Americans on their latest rout, a 104-60 victory over South Korea and a berth in the medal round. The Americans have made the medal round in every Olympics they’ve entered, and have won 31 straight games since losing in the 1992 semifinals. The U.S. plays Russia in the semifinals Thursday. Russia rallied to beat Spain 84-65 Tuesday. China plays Australia in the other semifinal. The Aussies advanced with a 79-46 victory over the Czech Republic. China moved on with a 77-62 victory over Belarus.
Baseball: The Americans advanced to the medal round with a 4-2 victory over Taiwan, powered by John Gall’s go-ahead homer and a solid outing by pitcher Brandon Knight. The final prelim test comes Wednesday night against medal favorite Japan. The semifinals start Friday. South Korea and Cuba are advancing, too. Those teams squared off in a battle of unbeatens, and South Korea won 7-4. Also, Canada beat the Netherlands 4-0 and Japan beat China 10-0.
Diving: China is up to 6-for-6 in its bid for all eight golds. He Chong easily won the men’s 3-meter springboard, getting 11 perfect marks of 10.0 in the six-round final. This is the fourth consecutive Olympics China has won this event. American Troy Dumais was sixth for the third straight Olympics. Teammate Chris Colwill was 12th and last.
Men’s soccer: Argentina is headed back to the Olympic final with the chance to become the first nation in 40 years to defend its title — and to avenge a loss to Nigeria in the 1996 finals. Sergio Aguero scored goals six minutes apart in the second half and later set up another to lead Argentina past Brazil 3-0. Nigeria advanced with a 4-1 victory over Belgium that included two scores from long distances.
Weightlifting: Germany’s Matthias Steiner won the men’s super heavyweight division, getting gold and the right to call himself the world’s strongest man. At the medal ceremony, Steiner held up a picture of his wife, Susann, who died in a car accident last year. “I thought of her before the competition,” he said. “I won this for her, for friends and family. But mostly for her.” Steiner lifted a total of 461 kilograms (1,016.3 pounds), clinching the win with a clean and jerk of 258 kg (568.8 pounds).
Cycling: With Victoria Pendleton winning the women’s track sprint and Chris Hoy taking the men’s version, the Brits won seven events and 12 medals in cycling, with Hoy claiming three golds.
Wrestling: Russia’s Mavlet Batirov won the 60-kilogram freestyle division.
Women’s volleyball: After a slow start, the U.S. took down Italy in five sets to advance to a semifinal matchup with undefeated Cuba. Brazil plays defending champion China in the other semifinal on Thursday.
Women’s water polo: The U.S. will be playing for gold, taking on the Netherlands on Thursday, but will do so without center forward Lauren Wenger, the team’s most versatile player who broke her right hand in the closing minutes of a 9-8 semifinal victory over Australia. Brenda Villa scored three goals, including the winner with a minute left. The U.S. is guaranteed to keep alive its streak of winning a medal at every Olympics that has included women’s water polo. The Americans won silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004. The Dutch advanced by upsetting Hungary 8-7 in the other semifinal.
Canoe-kayak: Rami Zur reached the semifinals of two kayak single (K-1) events. His berth in the 500 meters was secured a day after making it in the 1,000 meters. Carrie Johnson advanced to the women’s semis, giving the U.S. hope of returning to the Olympic flatwater medal stand for the first time since 1992. Also, Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden set a world-best time in the 500-meter kayak single in a qualifying heat.
Men’s triathlon: Germany’s Jan Frodeno, who was seventh at last year’s world championship, worked his way past a pack of foes with more glittering resumes and won the gold medal.
Sailing: The U.S. got its first gold from the regatta when British-born Anna Tunnicliffe won the women’s Laser Radial class. China’s Xu Lijia got bronze, marking the third sailing medal for the hosts. Britain got its third gold in sailing when Paul Goodison won the men’s Laser. Also, a jury rejected yet another protest about the 49er class gold medal that went to Denmark in a boat borrowed from Croatia. Spain, which would’ve moved from silver to gold if the Danes were disqualified, said they saw the markings for Croatia and didn’t realize it was really the Danes.
Synchronized swimming: Russia’s four-time world champion duo, both named Anastasia, kept their front-runner status going through the duet free preliminaries. Americans Christina Jones and Andrea Nott came out of prelims fifth.
Women’s handball: Russia needed two overtimes to beat France 32-31 and advance to a semifinal game against Hungary. South Korea plays Norway in the other semifinal.
Men’s field hockey: Australia advanced to the semifinals against Spain. Germany plays the Netherlands.
Associated Press
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