OLYMPIC ROUNDUP \Thursday’s results

Swimming: Michael Phelps qualified .01 behind teammate and top foe Ryan Lochte for the 200 IM during the morning session, then at night advanced out of the 100 butterfly preliminaries. Another American, Ian Crocker, figured to be Phelps’ top foe in the fly. But he’ll have to do a lot better than the 51.95 seconds he posted in the 100-meter butterfly preliminaries. The world record-holder’s time was just the 13th best of the night. Other challengers also emerged: Kenya’s Jason Dunford, who broke Phelps’ Olympic record in a heat, then Milorad Cavic of Serbia, who dropped it even lower. The biggest surprise of nighttime qualifying was Katie Hoff and Kate Ziegler fizzling in 800-meter freestyle heats. That means the U.S. won’t medal in that event.

Men’s gymnastics: While China’s Yang Wei added the individual gold to the team title, Americans weren’t able to add anything to their bronze collection. Jonathan Horton finished ninth and Sasha Artemev was 12th. Things might have been different if reigning champ Paul Hamm was healthy.

Men’s basketball: Yao Ming scored 30 points to lead China past Angola 85-68 for the hosts’ first win of the tournament, and Lakers center Pau Gasol scored 13 in Spain’s 72-59 victory over Dirk Nowitzki and Germany. Nowitzki was held to 11 points by a defense designed to shut him down.

Softball: After posting shutouts and no-hitters in its first two games, the Americans faced their first deficit since the gold-medal game in 2000. And it took some weird circumstances. The Canadians scored a run without a hit when an umpire ruled that pitcher Monica Abbott made three illegal pitches; her violation was losing contact with the pitching rubber. One of the illegal pitch do-overs led to an error by center fielder Caitlin Lowe, her first in 123 games since joining the U.S. team in 2005. The game was postponed in the fourth inning because of the rain, and the teams will resume play today following the U.S.-Japan game, which begins at noon.

Baseball: Stephen Strasburg of San Diego State took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Matt LaPorta hit a three-run homer and Matt Brown added a solo shot as the Americans bounced back from losing their opener by beating the Netherlands 7-0. The game was called off after eight innings following a second rain delay.

Fencing: The Three Musketeers of the U.S. women’s saber team weren’t so good as a team. After sweeping the individual medals, Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson and Becca Ward settled for bronze after a surprising loss in the semifinals. They were knocked off by Ukraine, which went on to win gold.

Wrestling: Adam Wheeler unexpectedly won bronze at 96 kilograms, but that was it as Dremiel Byers and Brad Vering, Americans’ top Greco-Roman wrestlers, were bounced. Golds went to Cuba’s Mijain Lopez in the 120-kilogram division, Aslanbek Khushtov in 96 kg and Italy’s Andrea Minguzzi in 84 kg.

Shooting: China’s Du Li won the women’s 50-meter, three-position rifle event and setting an Olympic record in points. Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic took the silver. American Jammie Beyerle was fifth. In skeet shooting, American Kim Rhode wound up silver after a three-way tie was decided by a shoot-off.

Women’s field hockey: The Americans let a 2-1 lead turn into a 4-2 loss to Germany, dropping to 0-1-2. They’ll be hard-pressed to make the medal round with games left against New Zealand and Britain.

Men’s water polo: The Americans had plenty of chances to upset Serbia, but they were 2-of-27 shooting and couldn’t score on three of their five power-play opportunities against a backup goalkeeper. Team captain Tony Azevedo was 0-for-8, including a missed penalty shot.

Beach volleyball: Both American women’s teams — Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, and Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs — wrapped up a 3-0 record in pool play, sending them into the 16-team medal round beginning today.

Judo: Mongolia has won its first-ever gold medal in any sport — Tuvshinbayar Naidan in the men’s 100-kilogram division. China’s Yang Xiuli flipped her first four opponents then won in an overtime decision over Cuba’s Yalennis Castillo to take the gold medal in the women’s 78 kg.

Badminton: Second-seeded Lee Chong Wei kept Malaysia’s best hope for an Olympic gold medal alive with a straight-sets win over Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in men’s singles quarterfinals.

Archery: China’s Zhang Juan Juan defeated South Korea’s Park Sung-hyun 110-109 to win the women’s individual gold. She’s the first non-South Korean to win the event since 1980.

Associated Press