Cycling: The
women's road race had a lot fewer
DNFs than the men's race did yesterday: 4 vs. 53. I wonder if that means conditions were better today. But then there were also fewer competitors over a shorter distance (126 km). In any event, 21-year-old
Aurelie Halbwachs of Mauritius came 62nd with a time of 3:52:11 -- nearly 20 minutes behind the winner, and 20 seconds behind the penultimate cyclist.
Diving: We start with synchronized diving, where, in the
women's three-metre springboard, the British team of
Tandi Gerrard, 30, and
Hayley Sage, 22, finished eighth. The fact that there are only eight teams should give you an idea of what it's like even to qualify for this event. Their score of 278.25 was 65.25 points behind the gold medallists.
Shooting: Carolina Lozado, 37, of Uruguay finished 43rd in the qualifying round of the
women's 10-metre air pistol event, with a score of 367. It took a score of 384 or better to make it to the final. There was one
DNF. In
men's trap shooting, Filipino
Eric Ang, also 37, finished 35th with a score of 106; those who advanced to the finals has scores between 119 and 121.
Swimming: Four swimming events had their finals today, but for my purposes I have to go back to yesterday's heats to find my last-place finishers, who I will somewhat arbitrarily define as the person putting in the slowest time in the heats. (This is a little problematic if the slowest time in the event is in a semifinal or final, but I have to pick something, if I can.) In the men's 400-metre individual medley, the slowest time was produced in
heat one by 22-year-old
Hocine Haciane Constatin of Andorra: 4:32.00. (The gold medallist, you may have heard, put a time in of 4:03.84 in the final.)
Heat one is also where the slowest time came in the men's 400-metre freestyle (this does not appear to be an accident); Kazakh
Oleg Rabota, 18, put in a time of 4:02.16. (For comparison, the gold medallist's final time was 3:41.86.) There was one
DNS in another heat. In the women's 400-metre individual medley, it was
heat one again, where 18-year-old Thai swimmer
Nimitta Thaveesupsoonthorn's time was 5:02.18. (The gold medallist's time was 4:29.45 in the final.) There was one
DNS in Nimitta's heat. And finally, the women's 4×100 freestyle relay, which had only two heats: in the
second heat, the
South African team of
Melissa Corfe,
Wendy Trott,
Mandy Loots and
Katheryn Meaklim finished seventh (there was a
DNS) with a time of 3:51.14; the gold medal team's time in the final was 3:33.76.
Weightlifting: 22-year-old Venezuelan
Judith Andrea Chacon finished ninth in a field of nine in the
women's 53-kg event; she had a score of 181, compared to the gold medallist's 221. In the
men's 56-kg event, Moldovan
Igor Grabucea, 32, finished 15th with a score of 239; the gold medallist's score was 292, and there were four
DNFs.
A medal was awarded in archery, but it does not appear that I'll be able to award a last place in that sport -- at least not in the team events.
Standings to date: No country has more than one last-place finish at this point, but since Andorra has fewer athletes at the Games than the others, it displaces Nicaragua for the nominal lead.
Labels: andorra, beijing 2008, cycling, diving, kazakhstan, mauritius, moldova, philippines, shooting, south africa, swimming, thailand, uk, uruguay, venezuela, weightlifting