Thursday's sports roundup

ARCHERY
XMarco Galiazzo won Italy's first archery gold medal while the South Korean men kept up an unsuccessful Olympic streak. Galiazzo beat Hiroshi Yamamoto of Japan 111-109 for the gold. Tim Cuddihy of Australia, who beat two South Koreans along the way, took bronze. The 21-year-old Galiazzo, who placed 49th at last year's world championships, became Italy's first-ever Olympic champion in the sport. The South Korean men are still looking for their first Olympic individual medal. Their women have taken every Olympic gold medal since 1984. Cuddihy and Park Kyung-mo of South Korea set Olympic records earlier. Park set an 18-arrow record of 173 in the round of 16. Cuddihy set a 36-arrow mark of 340 over three rounds on his way to the bronze. He beat the record of 339 set only hours before by Szu Yuan Chen of Taiwan.
BADMINTON
XChina won the first two gold medals in badminton, with world champion Zhang Ning beating Indonesian-born Dutchwoman Mia Audina 8-11, 11-6, 11-7 in the singles final. China also flaunted its dominance of the sport in mixed doubles, with Zhang Jun and Gao Ling edging the British pair of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms 15-1, 12-15, 15-12 in a thrilling final. The bronze medal in the mixed doubles went to Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager, who beat compatriots Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen 15-5, 15-5. China also won bronze in the singles, with Zhou Mi defeating fellow Chinese Gong Ruina 11-2, 8-11, 11-6.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
XBrazilians Emanuel and Ricardo routed Americans Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger 21-17, 21-10 to finish a perfect run through pool play. Despite the loss, the 12th-seeded Americans advanced to the medal round. Later, top-ranked American women Misty May and Kerri Walsh got their toughest test of the tournament but stayed unbeaten with a 21-17, 21-17 win over 10th-seeded Czechs Eva Celbova and Sona Novakova. The Americans and second-seeded Brazilians Shelda and Adriana are the only duos -- men's or women's -- who have not dropped a set. The Brazilian women, silver medalists in 2000, capped their run through pool play with a 21-14, 21-19 win over Cubans Fernandez Grasset and Larrea Peraza.
CANOE-KAYAK
XFormer Olympic champion canoe racer Joe Jacobi and partner Matt Taylor clinched a semifinal berth in whitewater slalom event. Single American kayakers Brett Heyl and Scott Parsons also advanced to today's semifinals and finals.
EQUESTRIAN
XBritain, France and the United States will jointly appeal a decision to award Germany the gold medal in the three-day equestrian event. The judges gave Germany the gold Wednesday and France the silver, while Britain took bronze. The same officials, concerned that Germany's Bettina Hoy might have crossed the start line twice on the show jumping course, probed further.
FIELD HOCKEY
XDefending Olympic champion Germany pulled away from a 1-1 halftime tie to defeat Egypt 6-1 at the men's tournament, moving into first place in Group A. In other Group A matches, Pakistan shut out South Korea 3-0 and Spain beat Britain 5-1. In Group B play, the Netherlands edged South Africa 3-2 and New Zealand beat Argentina 3-1. Australia beat India 4-3 on three second-half goals.
FENCING
XDamien Touya scored the final touch to give France the team saber title over Italy, 45-42. Touya also scored the winning touch in a 45-44 semifinal win over the United States. In that bout, he badly cut his right hand and needed medical assistance with the score 44-44. After the loss to France, the Americans lost the bronze-medal bout to Russia, again 45-44. The United States had upset Hungary 45-43 a round earlier.
JUDO
XNoriko Anno won the 78kg class, giving Japan its sixth gold medal in 12 judo classes with one day of competition remaining. One of Japan's surest hopes for a gold lost early in the men's 100kg division. Ihar Makarau of Belarus beat Jang Sung-ho of South Korea to win the gold medal in the 100-kilogram class after defending Olympic champion and three-time world champion Kosei Inoue lost in the quarterfinals, his first defeat in major international competition in four year.
ROWING
XThe American lightweight double sculls team of Steve Tucker and Greg Ruckman gave up too much distance in the six-boat semifinal and was fourth behind Poland, Greece and Denmark -- one spot and 3.6 seconds out of contention for Sunday's final. The U.S. quadruple scull, which reached the semifinals with an impressive win in its repechage, placed fifth. Belarus and Estonia advanced. The U.S. lightweight double sculls boat of Lisa Schlenker and Stacey Borgman also was eliminated, finishing .73 of a second behind Germany in fourth place. The lightweight four, which includes coach Mike Teti's younger brother, Paul, fell to last at the finish, 4 seconds behind Canada, the third and final boat to advance from that race behind Italy and Austria.
SAILING
XGreek teammates Sofia Bekatorou and Aimilia Tsoulfa clinched the women's 470 gold medal by building an insurmountable lead following 10 races. Shirley Robertson, Sarah Webb and Sara Ayton of Great Britain clinched the gold medal in the Yngling class with one race left, then took a dip. The silver and bronze medals in both events will be determined Saturday.
TABLE TENNIS
XWorld and Olympic champion Wang Nan of China was eliminated from the women's quarterfinal by Singapore's Li Jia Wei. Wang, who won two golds in Sydney, was beaten 11-7, 11-7, 11-13, 11-9, 11-8. Top-seeded Zhang Yining of China advanced to the semifinals with a 12-10, 15-13, 13-11, 11-3 win over Tamara Boros of Croatia. In doubles there will be all-China and all-South Korea semifinals.
TEAM HANDBALL
XTwo-time Olympic women's champion Denmark held off a late rally by Spain to win 23-21, improving to 2-0-1 in Group B. In another Group B match, South Korea broke open a close game to beat Angola 40-30. In Group A, China routed Greece 33-13 and Ukraine beat Brazil 21-19, erasing an 18-17 deficit late in the game. Ukraine is 2-0 and tied with Hungary in the group.
WATER POLO
XDefending Olympic champion Hungary handed the United States its first loss in the men's preliminaries, 7-5. Tamas Varga scored his second goal on an extra-man play to seal the match with 1:27 remaining. Tony Azevedo scored two goals before he hit the post with an attempted equalizer at 6-5, then the Hungarians blocked shots by Layne Beaubien and Wolf Wigo to thwart a furious American comeback attempt in the last minute. Serbia-Montenegro, Italy and Spain are all 2-1 in the group stage.
WEIGHTLIFTING
XLiu Chunhong of China broke three of her own world records in winning the 152-pound (69kg) gold medal. Taner Sagir of Turkey won the gold medal in the 77-kilogram class with 826.5 pounds (375 kg). Sergey Filimonov of Kazakhstan won silver and Oleg Perepetchenov of Russia the bronze. The 19-year-old Chunhong, the defending world champion, set records in the snatch of 270 pounds (122.5kg), the clean and jerk of 337 pounds (153kg) and total lift of 606 pounds (275kg).
Associated Press
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