Olympics: Gymnastics gold for Romania

18/08/2008

Sandra Izbasa's confident floor routine wins her the top spot on the podium, while another Balkan gymnast -- Croatia's Filip Ude -- nets a silver on the pommel horse.

Sandra Izbasa of Romania (centre) poses with Shawn Johnson (left) and Nastia Liukin of the United States at the medal ceremony for the women's individual floor event. Izbasa won the gold medal Sunday (August 17th). [Getty Images]

Romanian gymnast Sandra Izbasa won the gold medal in the women's individual floor exercise Sunday (August 17th). Her routine had the highest technical difficulty level of the night, and she executed it with poise, receiving a score of 15.650 and edging past Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin of the United States. Izbasa's performance brought her not only a medal but a congratulatory phone call from Romania's president, Traian Basescu.

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Croatia's Filip Ude pulled off a thrilling upset in men's gymnastics, winning silver on the pommel horse and knocking China's Yang Wei out of medal contention. Louis Smith of Britain matched Ude's score of 15.725, but the Croat had fewer artistic merit deductions.

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Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse won a silver medal in track and field, finishing the 10,000m race with a time of 29:56:34. Gold went to Tirumesh Dibaba of Ethopia with her record-breaking time of 29:54:66.

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Bulgaria won its first gold medal in Beijing Saturday, with rower Roumyana Neykova finishing first in single sculls. Her time was 7:22.34. Meanwhile, wrestler Stanka Zlateva took the silver in the 72kg category after being pinned by Jiao Wang of China.

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Greece's men's basketball team overcame its opponent's home court advantage and beat the Chinese team led by Yao Ming. The final score was 91-77. Ioannis Bourousis and Vasileios Spanoulis had 19 points each.

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Bulgaria's men's volleyball team has reached the quarterfinals, defeating Venezuela 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-22). The match saw the return of team captain Plamen Konstantinov, who left early in the Games after recording unusually high testosterone levels in a routine test. Konstantinov was subsequently cleared of doping and rejoined his team in Beijing.

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Romanian rowers Georgeta Andrunache and Viorica Susanu won the women's pair event, with a time of 7:20:60. It was their second consecutive gold in the women's pair. In women's eights, the Romanians were the defending champions. But they proved unable to catch up with the United States and had to settle for bronze, following a late surge by the Netherlands.

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Montenegro's Red Sharks tied Australia 5-5 and will advance to the water polo quarterfinals and a match with <b>Croatia</b>. Meanwhile, <b>Serbia</b> lost 13-12 to Italy and as a consequence avoided ending up in the same bracket as Montenegro. Instead, it will play Spain and the United States.

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Middle-distance runner Daniela Yordanova of Bulgaria is out of the Games after failing a doping test. She was to have competed in the 1,500m race. Yordanova's coach took the blame, saying he may have inadvertently bought tainted food supplements for her.

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The defending champion in the women's 400m hurdle, Fani Halkia of Greece, will not get the chance to defend her medal. Team officials sent her home for failing a drug test. Fifteen Greek athletes -- including the entire weightlifting team -- have tested positive for methyltrienolone, an anabolic steroid that has become widely available online.

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Bulgarian gymnast Iordan Iovtchev finished last in the men's rings final, behind seventh-place finisher Robert Stanescu of Romania. China's Yibing Chen won the event.

(Various sources -- 18/08/08)