Athletics: The qualifying rounds for the women's discus were held Friday evening; in
group A, 24-year-old
Tereapii Tapoki of the Cook Islands had a best distance of 48.35 metres. She was the only competitor under 50 metres. The gold medallist's final result tonight was 64.74 metres. One competitor had no mark in the heats. Next, women's pole vault, where the Friday qualifying rounds saw
three women clear only four metres; two others weren't able to do even that, and had no mark. (The gold medallist cleared 5.05 metres.) To break the tie, I'm going to assign the
DFL to the woman who took the most attempts to clear four metres: Cypriot
Anna Foitidou, 31, who did so in
group B. Qualifying for the men's long jump was held Saturday evening: 29-year-old American
Miguel Pate's best jump was 7.34 metres, exactly a metre behind the gold medallist's best in the final. There were two
DNSes in the qualifying round, and one athlete had no mark. Also on Saturday, heats for the men's 3,000-metre steeplechase; 23-year-old
Ali Ahmad Al-Amri of Saudi Arabia finished in 9:09.73 in
heat two. The gold medallist's time in the final was 8:10.34. There was one
DNF and one
DNS in the heats. In
heat five of round one of the women's 800 metre, which was held on Friday,
Aishath Reesha, 19, running for the Maldives, had a time of 2:30.14. There was one
DNF and one disqualification in the heats; the gold medallist's time in the final was 1:54.87. And finally, the men's 400-metre hurdles. 22-year-old
Harouna Garba of Niger ran a time of 55.14 seconds in
heat one on Friday. The Monday night time put in by the gold medallist was 47.25 seconds. There was one
DNF in the heats.
Equestrian: With a total of 65 penalties, New Zealand's equestrian team was 16th in the
first round of team show jumping, and did not advance to the second round.
Gymnastics: Ana Rente of Portugal, 20, finished 16th in the women's trampoline
qualification round; only the top eight advanced to the final. Very low marks on her second routine led to a final score of 31.60 -- something must have happened. The next-to-last competitor's score was 57.60, and the lowest score to qualify for the final was 63.90.
Weightlifting: In the men's 105 kg, 31-year-old
Moreno Boer of Italy finished 18th, with a combined weight of 330 kg; the gold medallist's score was 436. There was one
DNS and one
DNF.
Standings to date: Italy adds its fifth last-place finish to move into second; the Cook Islands (!), Niger, New Zealand and the U.S. add their second
DFLs.
Labels: athletics, beijing 2008, cook islands, cyprus, equestrian, gymnastics, italy, maldives, new zealand, niger, portugal, saudi arabia, usa, weightlifting