Monday, August 18, 2008 - 11:02 PM

Australia's Sally McLellan has qualified for the final of the women's 100 metres hurdles at the Beijing Olympics.

The 21-year-old clocked 12.70 seconds to finish fourth in her semi-final behind favourite LoLo Jones of the United States (12.43).

Jones's time was the fastest in the world this year as she up another US-Jamaican athletics showdown in Tuesday's final.

One night after Jamaican women swept the 100m medals with three Americans behind them, Jones and compatriot Damu Cherry won their heats, Cherry taking her semi-final in 12.62, and Dawn Harper advanced just .04 behind.

"We're going to go for an American sweep, 1-2-3, and see what happens," said Cherry, who is fighting the flu.

"I'm going to execute my race and see what happens."

Jones - whose heritage is French, Norwegian, Native American and African-American - would not predict a US sweep.

"I never say clean sweeps because anyhthing can happen when you have 10 obstacles in front of you," Jones said.

"I'm not going to worry about other lanes, but I hope we have a great day for the USA tomorrow."

Jones, who won the world indoor 60m hurdles crown earlier this year, beat the prior 2008 best and personal best of 12.45 she set to win at the US Olympic trials in July.

"I don't remember the start too much," Jones said.

"I just got in the rhythm and everything clicked. I am happy with the time, but as soon as I leave the stadium I'm forgetting the result and focusing on tomorrow.

"I did the same thing in the US Olympic trials. I ran a personal best in the semi-final but still improved it for the final so this will not be a problem."

Jamaicans Delloreen Ennis-London, second at the 2005 worlds and third at last year's worlds, and Bridgitte Foster-Hylton advanced to the final but a fall for Sweden's Susanna Kallur ended hopes of another Jamaican sweep.

Neighboring Vonnette Dixon was thrown off stride when Kallur stumbled over the first hurdle. The Jamaican struck her fourth hurdle and finished fifth in 12.86, .02 behind Britain's Sarah Claxton for the last spot in the finals.View historical results of the women's 100m hurdles.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 11:06 AM

Host China has entered the Olympic women's field hockey semi-finals at Australia's expense after holding the former champion to a 2-2 draw in a crucial league match.

The Chinese, who needed a draw to qualify, overcame a spirited Hockeyroos fight-back to finish second in pool A behind the Netherlands.

Both China and Australia finished level on 10 points each, but the home side went through on a superior goal difference of plus-two to qualify for its second successive Olympic semi-final.

"If we had five more minutes, we could have had the result we wanted," veteran Australian captain Nikki Hudson said.

"I guess things were not meant to be. You can't win everything.

"I am proud of our girls even though things did not go as we would have liked. This young team of ours has made a great start."

In Wednesday's semi-finals, China takes on defending champion and pool B winner Germany, while world number one the Netherlands clashes with number two Argentina.

China appeared secure when Li Hongxia scored once in each half to make it 2-0 before the Hockeyroos, the Atlanta and Sydney gold medallists, launched a breathtaking comeback.

Casey Eastham reduced the margin in the 51st and Sarah Young drew level in the 62nd, but time ran out on the Australians, who needed a win to make the semi-finals.

They will now play off for fifth and sixth place, as they did in Athens.

The Dutch meanwhile ended the league as the only team with five straight wins after beating Spain 2-0 through goals by Maartje Paumen and Ellen Hoog.

Germany, which defeated the Netherlands in the Athens Games final four years ago, topped the other pool with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Japan, its fourth success in five matches.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 3:00 PM

Australian diver Robert Newbery scraped into the final of the men's three-metre springboard with a points total of 460.35 in the semi-final on Tuesday.

With the first 12 of 18 divers qualifying for the final, Newbery was in 11th position after the semis behind China's Chong He, who led the field with 547.25 points.

World champion and team-mate Qin Kai was third in the semi-finals as China look to continue their domination of the diving after winning five out of five golds in the competition so far.

Australia's other diver in the semi, Matthew Mitcham, finished in 16th position on 427.45, not enough to qualify for the final.

Canada's Alexandre Despatie, a silver medallist in the event in Athens, finished second to also qualify, storming back in the semi-finals after finishing a lowly ninth in the preliminaries.

He, 21, performed one of the toughest dives of the semis, pulling off a forward two-and-a-half somersault with three twists in a pike position to earn 102.60 points from the judges.

World number two Mexico's Yahel Castillo finished fourth on 504.55, while five-time Olympian Russian Dmitry Sautin also qualified in eighth place.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 4:33 PM

Australian athlete Sally McLellan will be looking to spring an upset when she races the final of the women's 100 metres hurdles tonight.

McLellan ran 12.70 seconds to squeeze into tonight's final at the Bird's Nest, finishing fourth in her heat last night won by world number one American LoLo Jones in a time of 12.43 seconds.

McLellan, who grew up on Queensland's Gold Coast, will take to the blocks at around 12:30am AEST on Wednesday morning.

The 21-year-old, who is the first Australian woman to make the 100m hurdles final since Glynis Nunn back in 1984, is also shooting for Australia's first ever medal in the event.

McLellan will need to get past the American trio of Jones, Dawn Harper and Damu Cherry, as well as Jamaican gun Deloreen Ennis-London.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 7:37 PM

Australia's triathletes say they are disappointed with their results in the Olympic men's event.

German Jan Frodeno outlasted 2000 Olympic champion Simon Whitfield in a sprint finish in the final run leg to take gold in the race at the Ming Tomb Reservoir.

Whitfield looked set to wrap up his second Olympic gold before Frodeno mowed him down in the final stages to cross the line in a time of 1 hour, 48 minutes and 53 seconds. Whitfield took silver just five seconds behind and New Zealander Docherty took bronze.

Australian hopes Brad Kahlefeldt and Courtney Atkinson, who were looking to match the efforts of Emma Snowsill and Emma Moffat yesterday, finished in 16th and 11th respectively.

Atkinson finished 1:16 off the pace and Kahlefeldt was a further 26 seconds back.

Atkinson says it was a strong field and anyone had a chance of winning.

"Even the guys who placed in front of me and behind me, they were guys that I probably would have said were shuffled back or forth, or, you know, wherever," he said.

"Don't get me wrong, I would have liked to be up further toward the pointy end of the field. But at the same time, it was a great experience. I walk away and it's still been .. it's all good and I'm proud of what I did."

Kahlefeldt says a persistent hip injury flared during the cycle leg and dogged him throughout the race.

"It is disappointing when you know you're capable of doing more with 100 per cent preparation, with no problems, but unfortunately this preparation was dogged with a hip injury," he said.

"But I've done my best job I could under the circumstances and I'm pretty happy with that."

Four athletes - Frodeno, Whitfield, Docherty and world champion Javier Gomez - were together with 250 metres to go, before Canadian Whitfield and Frodeno broke clear.

"I think I slept about two hours last night," Frodeno said. "I knew I had trained very well but these guys who were with me at the front were really the big guys."

"I just tried to execute my own race. As Simon went I knew it was going to be tough, I just had to bite and fight.

"This year I've lost all my races on sprints. It teaches you a lesson and I've learned at the right time I guess."

Commonwealth champion Kahlefeldt and Atkinson were inside the top 10 coming into the final 10-kilometre run leg, but could not keep pace with the leaders and finished outside the medals.

Spain's Gomez, nicknamed the "Tiger Woods of triathlon", was the hot gold medal favourite after dominating the sport for the past two years, but could not keep up the pace when Whitfield broke away.

He finished 20 seconds behind Frodeno in fourth place.

Rank outsider


The 194cm Frodeno was nobody's pre-race tip, entering with a relatively modest record including 13 top-10 World Cup finishes and last year's German national title

But he put on a devastating burst of speed to run down Whitfield with just metres left and leave Gomez and Docherty trailing.

The four had been neck-and-neck entering the stadium but world champion Gomez faded at the final turn, dashing the Spaniard's hopes of a first Olympic medal.

Earlier, Russia's Alexander Bryukhankov led out the swim but it was New Zealander Shane Reed who landed first and made it through the transition followed by Frederic Belaube of France with Gomez not far behind.

Luxembourg's Dirk Bockel and Axel Zeebroek of Belgium broke away on the bike leg and established a lead of nearly a minute on the favourites going into the run.

Their advantage was chopped to just 20 seconds by the end of lap one and it disappeared entirely in the next lap as Gomez and Spanish team-mate Ivan Rana hit the front.

The smart money was on Gomez, 25, who has four World Cup victories this season after winning the series for the past two years running. He also won last year's World Cup race on this course.

But the expected surge never came as he was tracked all the way by Frodeno, Whitfield and Docherty, and ran out of steam at the last.View historical results for the men's triathlon.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 8:09 PM

Australian cyclist Anna Meares will race for the gold medal in the women's sprint at the Beijing Olympics.

China's Guo Shuang beat Meares 2-1 in their three-race semi-final but was relegated after officials reviewed their physical third race.

After Meares had evened the ledger, Guo crashed in the third leg, forcing the decider to be re-run.

Guo went on the win the third race, however she was later disqualified after a jury decision ruled she had entered the sprinters' lane while Meares was already there.

Meares will meet Great Britain's Victoria Pendleton in the final.

Pendleton, a three-time world champion in track cycling's blue riband event, coasted past Dutchwoman Willy Kanis over two legs of their semi-final.

Kanis will now meet Guo in the bronze medal match.

Meares, the reigning Olympic 500 metres champion, has saved Australia's blushes somewhat in Beijing.

Her feat means Australia - who has yet to win a medal from the seven finals so far - will avoid equalling an unwanted national record.

The last time Australia went home without a track cycling medal from the Games was at Moscow in 1980.

The Aussies were the kings of the velodrome in 2004, but since then have been playing catch-up to the dominant British team.

Australia finished just off the podium several times during the five-day competition, in which Britain has so far won five gold for a total of nine medals.

To rub salt into the wounds, Britain is set to win more gold on the final day.

They have two riders, Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, in the gold medal match for the men's sprint gold, while Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish of Britain also went into the men's Madison as the world champions and gold medal favourites.

Meares' feat in making the Olympic final comes only seven months after she returned home from a World Cup race in a wheelchair following a crash which almost left her permanently paralysed.

As well as winning sprint bronze in Athens, she is also the champion in the now defunct Olympic event of the 500 metre time trial.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 9:50 PM

Australia's Anna Meares has finished with the silver medal in the women's sprint at the Beijing Olympics.

Meares was no match for Great Britain's Victoria Pendleton in the final, going down 2-0.

Her silver medal is one better than her third place in the sprint in 2004, and is Australia's only cycling track medal of the Games.

Her feat means Australia has avoided equalling an unwanted national record.

The last time Australia went home without a track cycling medal from the Games was at Moscow in 1980.

The Aussies were the kings of the velodrome in 2004, topping the table with five gold and nine in total, but since then have been playing catch-up to the dominant British team.

Meares's feat in making the final comes only seven months after she returned home from a World Cup race in a wheelchair following a crash which almost left her permanently paralysed.

As well as winning sprint bronze in Athens, she is also the champion in the now defunct Olympic event of the 500 metre time trial.

The 27-year-old Pendleton is the first British woman to win Olympic gold in track cycling's blue riband event.

Pendleton competed in Athens, where she came away with a ninth place in the sprint and a sixth place in the time trial, won by Meares.

Guo Shuang picked up the bronze, China's first track cycling medal of the Games, and just the second in Olympic history, following Jiang Yonghua's silver medal from the women's 500m time trial in Athens.

Guo had battled Meares for a place in the final and beat the Australian 2-1.

However Guo was disqualified by the race jury for entering Meares's lane as they rounded the final bend in the decider.

She went on to win bronze by dominating Willy Kanis of the Netherlands over two legs.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 9:01 AM

Australian Sally McLellan's surprise Olympic silver medal in the women's 100 metres hurdles last night came as American Lolo Jones lost control and "crashed and burned", giving the gold medal to compatriot Dawn Harper.

McLellan, the youngest runner in the field at 21, got off to a blistering start and held on in the dying stages to narrowly claim second in a time of 12.64, 0.1 behind the winner.

McLellan admitted that she had not believed her own prediction that she would win a medal.

"I lied to you," the 21-year-old said after a photo finish separated her from bronze medallist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep.

"In my heart I didn't think I'd medal. But then I did."

Athletics Australia's high performance manager Max Binnington says McLellan's win provides a much-needed Olympic success and will have a positive impact on the sport.

"I think once Nathan Deakes and Jana Rawlinson had gone, I think the pressure was off the medals a bit, but we've always had a youth policy," he said.

"We are in a rebuilding phase and this is really icing on the cake.

"She's progressed very quickly and I think gone way ahead of where I think even she expected to be.

"Twelve months ago I don't think she'd be dreaming of it. Well, she might have been dreaming of it, but that's all it would have been."

Jones, 26, who used her athletic and academic prowess to get her out of poverty and was favourite to win the race, finished seventh after hitting the penultimate hurdle.

"You hit a hurdle about twice a year where it affects your race," Jones said, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's just a shame that it was on the biggest race of my life.

"The hurdles were just coming up very fast and I just told myself what I always tell myself, 'Keep things tight'.

"But it's kind of like when you are racing a car and going max velocity and you hit a curve, either you can maintain control or you can crash and burn. Today I crashed and burned."

Harper admitted she was a surprise winner.

"You have certain people that are supposed to be the favourites," she said. "On this particular day, and at this time, you have to run your best race.

"It's anyone's race ... we do hurdles, and they come at you really fast. You have to execute your race."

Jones remained kneeling on the track for a long time after the race.

"It was difficult to get back up," Jones said. "Tonight will be hard, tomorrow will be hard. I just have to get myself back up."

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - 10:41 PM

Australia's softball team has taken the bronze medal after losing a marathon match against Japan at the Beijing Olympics.

Japan progressed to the gold medal match with a 4-3 win in the 12th inning after the two teams were equal at 2-2 after seven innings.

Despite having runners on third base multiple times during the extra innings, the Spirit could only manage one run at the top of the 11th when Stacey Porter ran home after a hit by captain Natalie Ward.

But the Japanese replied straight away before holding the Australian's scoreless at the top of the 12th and sealing a date with the United States with their next at bat.

It is the Aussies' fourth minor medal since softball's inception after claiming a bronze in Atlanta, bronze in Sydney and silver in Athens.

It is Australia's last match at an Olympics because softball has been left of the program for the 2012 London Games.

Thursday, August 21, 2008 - 12:00 AM

Australia's Craig Mottram has failed to make the final of the men's 5000 metres at the Beijing Olympics.

Mottram missed the chance to progress to the final, finishing fifth in his heat.

Compatriot Collis Birmingham also failed to qualify after finishing tenth in his heat.

Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele cruised into the final to keep his bid for an elusive long-distance running double on course.

Bekele finished third in Mottram's heat and advanced to Friday's final, where he will seek to emulate the 5000/10,000m double last achieved by compatriot Miruts Yifter in the 1980 Moscow Games.

The Ethiopian, who won his second consecutive 10,000m Olympic gold early on Monday morning (AEST), was happy to coast along at the back of the pack as Swiss Philipp Bandi set the early, slow pace.

Abdelaziz Ennaji el Idrissi of Morocco and Belgium's Monder Rizki took up the running with four laps to go, before Kenyan-born US runner Bernard Lagat hit the front.

James Kwalia C'Kurui then darted away, taking a 20-metre lead into the final lap.

But the Kenyan-born Qatari faded in the final straight and was caught by Lagat, who failed even to make the 1500m final in his own ambitious bid for a double.

Kenyan Thomas Pkemei Longosiwa finished in the fourth and final automatic qualifying berth ahead of Mottram.

American Matthew Tegenkamp was a surprise winner of the first heat, winning the race to the line in a five-man sprint to clock 13:37.36.

Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, Bekele's younger brother Tariku and Eritrean Kidane Tadesse followed him home.

The second heat winner was Edwin Chruiyot Soi of Kenya, who outsprinted Moses Ndiema Kipsiro of Uganda to the line, with Ethiopian Abreham Cherkos finishing third.

Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi, who won the 1500m on Tuesday, elected not to race.