Olympic roundup | Wednesday’s other events

Track and field: Jamaica’s Melaine Walker won the women’s 400-meter hurdles. American Sheena Tosta got silver. Aksana Miankova of Belarus set an Olympic record in winning the women’s hammer throw. Bernard Lagat advanced to the 5,000-meter final, moving on the Saturday night’s medal race. Three Jamaicans and three Americans were among those advancing to the women’s 200 finals, which will be Thursday night.

Men’s basketball: China’s run before its adoring home fans ended with a 72-59 loss to Lithuania. Lithuania advances to play Spain in the semifinals Friday night. The Spaniards advanced with a 72-59 victory over Croatia, led by 20 points from Pau Gasol.

Softball: The U.S. came as close to defeat as they have in a long time. Not that it mattered in the end. The Americans were in a scoreless tie with Japan after seven innings, then scored four runs in the ninth — three on a looooong homer by Crystl Bustos — for a 4-1 victory and a spot in the gold-medal game. Again, their opponent will be Japan in what will be the last Olympic softball game until at least 2016. The Japanese beat Australia 4-3 in 12 innings later to advance, leaving the Aussies with the bronze.

Baseball: The guys went to extra innings against Japan, too, and also pulled out a win. Brian Barden singled in the go-ahead run to break a scoreless tie in the 11th inning on the way to a 4-2 victory. The Americans earned the third seed in Friday’s medal round, with the Japanese getting fourth. The U.S. will play defending champion Cuba, while Japan will take on South Korea. the only undefeated team.

Diving: Now comes the tough part for China: The 10-meter platform, the one event the Chinese didn’t win at the two previous Olympics. They’re off to a good start this time, with teenagers Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin leading the women’s standings in preliminaries. China already has six gold medals in diving and is looking for two more to make it a clean sweep. Attempting to avoid a second straight shutout in the diving medals for the United States, Laura Wilkinson was fifth after completing the second-best dive of the opening round. She won this event in Sydney and the Americans have not won a medal in diving since.

Cycling: American BMX racers Mike Day and Kyle Bennett gave the crowd a great introduction to the sport, with Day winning the time trial and each of his three quarterfinal heats and Bennett advancing but also dislocating his left shoulder in a wreck on his final heat. Top-ranked racer Donny Robinson also moved on, as did Jill Kintner, the lone American in the 16-racer women’s field, who is competing despite a shredded knee ligament.

Wrestling: Ben Askren, the bushy-haired former NCAA champion who promised a gold medal, lost in freestyle’s 74-kilogram round of 16, ending his Olympics after two matches. The gold ended up around the same neck it has been placed at the last two Olympics — Buvaysa Saytiev of Russia. The three straight golds in the sport ties a record. Doug Schwab, a former NCAA champion, lost in the 66-kg qualifications but made the bronze-medal bracket when the guy who beat him advanced. Schwab ended up losing again. Turkey’s Ramazan Sahin won the bracket. Also, the Court of Arbitration for Sport will investigate the Greco-Roman bout that so incensed Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian that he dropped his bronze medal in disgust and eventually had it stripped by the International Olympic Committee.

Taekwondo: Mexico’s Guillermo Perez has a gold medal. And Afghanistan now has a medal, period. Perez won the men’s under 58-kg division, beating Yulis Gabriel Mercedes of the Dominican Republic. A bronze went to Rohullah Nikpai, marking the first ever medal — in any sport — for Afghanistan. In the women’s under 49-kg class, reigning world champion Wu Jingyu of China took the gold.

Men’s volleyball: The U.S. men beat Serbia, remaining undefeated and earning a spot in the semifinals against Russia. Brazil plays Italy in the other semifinal match on Friday.

Men’s water polo: The U.S. squad knows who it will be playing in the semifinals: Serbia. The other semi will pit reigning European champs Montenegro against two-time defending Olympic gold medalist Hungary. Serbia beat Spain to advance. Montenegro moved on by upsetting Croatia, which came in as the world’s No. 1 team.

Men’s beach volleyball: The stunning loss in the tournament opener seems like ancient history for Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, especially now that the Americans are playing for the gold medal. The guys needed only 41 minutes to eliminate Georgia in straight sets in the semifinals, then watched Brazil’s No. 2 team beat its best, the Athens gold medalists.

Boxing: British middleweight James Degale beat former Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan to clinch Britain’s third boxing medal in Beijing, while Vijender Kumar clinched the first boxing medal in India’s history. Cuba’s last two fighters also reached the semifinals with one-sided victories, guaranteeing a whopping eight medals for the sport’s now-unquestioned power. Flyweight Andris Laffita earned a marquee meeting with Russia’s Georgy Balakshin, while middleweight Emilio Correa emulated his medal-winning father with a win over Uzbekistan’s Elshod Rasulov. Italy’s Vincenzo Picardi left the arena on his coach’s shoulders after beating Tunisia’s Walid Cherif to clinch a medal. Italy already clinched medals for its two heaviest fighters, world champions Roberto Cammarelle and Clemente Russo, but rarely does well in the lighter classes.

Women’s field hockey: The U.S. had a chance to finish seventh. It didn’t happen. At least it took two extra periods before Spain beat the Americans. The tournament was a total loss, though, as the ladies beat New Zealand and had draws with world No. 2 Argentina, Japan and Britain. The team’s other loss was to defending Olympic champion Germany.

Associated Press