| |
 | |||||||
| Saturday, September 23 |  |  |  |  |  | ||
| |||||||
 |
|
Guaranteed Gold for China On SaturdayThe women's doubles gold will go to a Chinese pair on Saturday, either defending champions Ge Fei and Gu Jun or Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei, who won their semifinals on Friday.China picked up its judo gold from Yuan Hua in the women's heavyweight division. India's powerful tennis doubles champions Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi went down to Australia's top-ranked pair Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in men's doubles 6-3, 7-6 (7-1). The Indians, winners of two Grand Slam titles in 1999, had been a medal hope. While things went China's way, Japan had a tough time, with heavily favoured double world champion Shinichi Shinohara losing to David Douillet of France in the men's heavyweight judo final. Miki Nakao got a bronze in the women's 200 backstroke behind Romanian Diana Mocanu, 16, and France's Roxana Maracineanu. "I thought if I did my best time I would be able to get a gold, but now I have the bronze, which is the wrong colour but I am very happy," Nakao said. Asia's sprinters started well on the track with Koji Ito, known as Asia's fastest man, qualifying for Saturday's semifinals, as did Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe. India's K M Beena Mol qualified first in the women's 400 metres heats on Friday, ahead of Olympic gold medal favourite Cathy Freeman of Australia. The 25-year-old finished in 51.51 seconds to move into the second round on Saturday. Jitka Burianova of Czech Republic was second in 51.59, just ahead of Katharine Merry of Britain in 51.61. Freeman won her heat in 51.63 after easing up at the end. Before the day began, Indonesia picked up a weightlifting medal when Bulgarian weightlifter Izabela Dragneva was disqualified for drugs. That moved Tara Nott of the US up to the gold, Indonesia's Raema Lisa Rumbewas to silver and another Indonesian, Sri Indriyani, to bronze. |
Copyright @2000 People's Daily Online
