Athletics: Men's 50-km walk: 36-year-old
Kazimir Verkin of Slovakia finished 47th; his time of 4:21:26 was 44:17 behind the gold medallist. There were seven
DNFs, five disqualifications, and two
DNSes.
Women's long jump: In qualifying Tuesday,
Tricia Flores of Belize, 28, had the shortest best jump: 5.25 metres in
group A; the gold medallist got 7.04 metres in the final. Three athletes had no mark; one was disqualified for being bad.
Women's 5,000 metre: 30-year-old
Celma da Graca Soares Bonfim of São Tomé and Príncipe finished
heat one with a time of 17:25.99 on Tuesday; the gold medallist's time was 15:41.40. One
DNF and one
DNS apiece in the heats.
Women's 4×100-metre relay: Never mind the final, the heats Thursday saw three disqualifications and two
DNFs, leaving the team from
Thailand with the slowest finishing time of 44.38 seconds. The gold medal time in the final was 42.31 seconds.
Men's 4×100-metre relay: The men's side saw two disqualifications and four
DNFs; the slowest team left standing was that of
France, with 39.53 seconds. The gold medallists in the final did it in 37.1 seconds.
Men's pole vault: Three athletes cleared 5.3 metres (the gold medallist did 5.96 metres); I'm unable to break the tie. No
DFL will be awarded.
Men's decathlon: There were
14 DNFs in this event -- 35 percent of all athletes entered. Of the 26 capable of attempting all 10 events,
Mikko Halvari of Finland, 25, was 26th with a score of 6,486 -- 2,305 points behind the gold medallist. Mikko got zero in the pole vault; he and one other athlete continued nonetheless, while two athletes did not start the following event. I don't know the circumstances for all 14
DNFs; I wonder how many were the result of giving up when zeroing out on a specific discipline.
Canoe/Kayak (Flatwater Racing): Men's 1,000-metre kayak single (K1):
Alcino Gomes da Silva, 17, São Tomé and Príncipe, 9th in heat two with a time of 4:28.057.
Men's 1,000-metre canoe single (C1):
Sean Pangelinan, 21, Guam, 8th in heat two with a time of 4:49.284.
Women's 500-metre kayak four (K4):
Canada, fourth in the semifinal with a time of 1:38.366.
Men's 1,000-metre K2:
José Ramos, 25, and
Gabriel Rodriguez, 29, Venezuela, seventh in the semifinal with a time of 3:27.423.
Men's 1,000-metre C2:
José Everardo Cristobal, 22, and
Dimas Camilo, 18, Mexico, seventh in the semifinal with a time of 3:49.695.
Men's 1,000-metre K4:
Australia, fourth in the semifinal with a time of 3:02.743.
Cycling (BMX): In the men's BMX event, Latvian
Ivo Lakucs, 29, had the lowest score of the
four heats of the quarterfinal round. On the women's side, Australian
Tanya Bailey, 27, had the worst score in the
semifinals.
Field Hockey: New Zealand lost its
classification match in women's field hockey to finish 12th.
Modern Pentathlon: All the female athletes in the modern pentathlon were able to complete the equestrian portion; insert cliché about women and horses here.
Lada Jienbalanova of Kazakhstan, 38, was already 36th after the equestrian portion and did not start the final 3,000-metre cross country run. Her final score was 3,736 points; the gold medallist's score was 5,792.
Standings to date: Canada retakes the lead with its eighth
DFL; Australia moves into fifth place with its sixth last-place finish. With their third
DFLs each, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, New Zealand and France move into 14th, 15th, 18th and 23rd places, respectively. With two last-place finishes and only three athletes, São Tomé and Príncipe jumps into 24th place.
Labels: athletics, australia, beijing 2008, belize, canada, canoe-kayak, cycling, field hockey, finland, france, guam, latvia, mexico, modern pentathlon, new zealand, sao tome, slovakia, thailand, venezuela