Accessibility links

Breaking News
News

Gymnastics Judging, Doping Overshadow Olympics Day 11 Events - 2004-08-24


Gold medals were awarded in track cycling while the shadow of doping again darkened the Athens Olympics Tuesday. Also the reigning world champion in decathlon was knocked out of the Games.

Russian cyclist Mikhail Ignatyev won the gold medal in the men's track cycling points race by outlasting the favorites at the Olympic velodrome.

Ignatyev broke through with only two of the 16 sprints remaining to take the title with 93 points. Spain's Joan Llaneras won the silver medal with 82 points. German Guido Fulst took the bronze.

The women's sprint title went to Canada's Lori-Ann Muenzer. Tamilla Abassova of Russia won the silver and Anna Meares of Australia took the bronze.

IOC officials began an investigation of men's discus champion Robert Fazekas of Hungary after he was accused of tampering with his urine sample during a dope test. Fazekas would be stripped of the gold medal and expelled from the Games if found guilty. He would be the second track and field athlete to lose a gold medal if he is stripped. Russian shot putter Irina Korzhanenko lost her shot put gold medal and was expelled from the games for doping.

Reigning world decathlon champion Tom Pappas of the United States pulled out of the Games because of a foot injury suffered in the pole vault.

The injury occurred Tuesday as the American ran down the runway in his first vault attempt. After having his foot re-wrapped, testing his stride and talking to coaches, Pappas limped off the field. He was in fifth place when he withdrew and appeared unlikely to win a medal at the Games.

Italy advanced to the gold medal match in women's water polo thanks to a 6-5 win over the United States.

A minor earthquake shook the Olympics, but its reverberations were smaller than those from the men's gymnastics competition. Russia's team sent letters to the International Gymnastics Federation and to International Olympic Committee president Jaques Rogge to complain about scoring that they said cost Svetlana Khorkina a gold medal in the women's all-around and Alexei Nemov a medal in the high bar event finals.

The complaint came after a scoring controversy involving men's all-around champion Paul Hamm of the United States and South Korea's Yang Tae-young. Hamm won the gold medal Wednesday after judges incorrectly scored Yang Tae-young's parallel bars routine, failing to give him enough points for the level of difficulty. Yang ended up with the bronze.

XS
SM
MD
LG