(BEIJING, August 11) -- It promises to be another record-breaking day of action on day three of Beijing 2008 with thirteen medals up for grabs in six different sports.
Once again, the spotlight will inevitably fall on the Water Cube, where four more finals will be contested and records are likely to tumble.
The most vulnerable looks to be the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay record, which will surely fall in the final and was smashed by the United States yesterday without Michael Phelps. Well you know the rest¡.The French and the Australian teams could have a say¡
Alexander Dale Oen of Norway will swim in lane 4 of the Men's 100m Breaststroke final with the Athens gold medalist Kitajima Kosuke beside him in lane 5 and the world record holder Brendan Hansen in lane 2.
In the two women's finals of the morning the Women's 100m Butterfly final could be a battle between Australians Lisbeth Trickett and Jessicah Schipper, while the Women's 400m Freestyle final features Olympic record-breaker Federica Pellegrini of Italy and her strong rival Katie Hoff next to her.
In the semifinals, Phelps will go in the Men's 200m Freestyle as he continues his historic quest for eight golds.
Another Olympic-record breaker, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, will race with Laure Manaudou of France in heat 2, while Natalie Coughlin of the United States will be in heat 1 of the Women's 100m Backstroke semifinal.
The day's Diving final is the Men's Synchronized 10m Platform, in which 2007 World Champions Lin Yue and Huo Liang will try to grab China's second Diving gold medal, following Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia's Women's 3m Synchronized Springboard victory on Sunday. Russian duo Gleb Galperin and Dmitriy Dobroskok, who were silver medalists at the 2007 World Championships, will be in contention, as will Robert Newbery and Mathew Helm of Australia.
One of the more interesting competitors is 14-year-old British prodigy Tom Daley, who is the youngest diver at the Games.
The Republic of Korea (ROK) Men's archers will attempt, partly at least, to emulate the achievements of their women's team, who claimed a sixth consecutive title yesterday. The men's team is chasing a mere third title on the trot by comparison ¨C and look good, having finished the Ranking Round in first place. Their stiffest competition could come from the Russian and Ukraine teams.
The third day of the Olympic Fencing competition should see Italy dominate the Women's Individual Foil after capturing three consecutive Olympic victories in this event.
Italy's foil specialist Maria Valentina Vezzali is ranked World No. 1 with 16 World Championship medals under her belt and could become the first fencer to win three Individual Foil gold medals in consecutive Games. World Nos. 2 and 3, Margherita Granbassi and Giovanna Trillini, also of Italy, could also challenge, alongside Sylwia Gruchala of Poland and Nam Hyun-hee from the Republic of Korea. Another interesting contender is Chinese fencer Luan Jujie, who is representing Canada and making a comeback at the age of 50. She last won gold at Los Angeles 1984. The fifth and sixth gold medals of the Judo competitions will be contested in the Men's -73kg and Women's -57kg classes. Elnur Mammadli from Azerbaijan is the World No. 1 in the -73kg division. In the Women's -57kg contest, World No. 1 Sabrina Filzmoser from Austria will be challenged by World No. 2 Barbara Harel of France. In Shooting, another two gold medals will be decided in the Men's 10m Air Rifle and the Women's Trap. China will have a chance to win its third shooting gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Rifle with World No. 1 and defending champion Zhu Qinan of China being the favorite. Zhu's main threat will be Romanian Alin George Moldoveanu. In the Women's Trap, San Marino's Daniela Del Din, the current World No. 1, will strive to win a first ever Olympic medal for the tiny European country. China's Liu Yingzi will provide some tough competition, though. The Weightlifting medals being contested are the Men's 62kg and Women's 58kg classes, where the defending Olympic champions Shi Zhiyong and Chen Yanqing, both of China, are highly fancied to retain their crowns on home soil. In the non medal sports, there are remaining first-round matches of the Men's and Women's Singles Tennis tournament to be played after play was decimated due to bad weather on August 10, when only nine of the 46 scheduled matches were completed. Top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland, Rafael Nadal of Spain and third seed Novak Djokovic all play, while in the women's tournament, No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and American sisters Venus and Serena Williams will all be in action The 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta moves into full swing on Monday with the Finn (Heavyweight Dinghy) and Yngling (Keelboat Women) classes set for their fifth and sixth races. The 49er (Skiff) will stage their second set of three races, and the Men's and Women's 470 (Two Person Dinghy) and Men's and Women's RS:X (Windsurfer) will see the first two races of a 10-race series plus a double point medal race each. Gold medal favorites in the Yngling fleet, Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson from Great Britain, are just where everyone expected them to be -- leading the regatta. In the Women's 470, Japanese sailors Kondo Ai and Kamata Naoko are ranked No. 1 in the world and have demonstrated incredible prowess in sailing in light air. Expect them to have a formidable start to the regatta, given the forecast for the first day of racing. Places in the A finals are on offer in the Women's Double Sculls on day three of the Rowing regatta. The day's program has been rescheduled because of Sunday's inclement weather, and the four Eights heats will now be raced on Monday from 2:50 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8) and the first quarterfinal of the Women's Single Sculls starting at 3:30 p.m. as originally scheduled. Also outdoors, the Beach Volleyball pool stage will continue. In the women's competition, top seeds Tian Jia and Wang Jie of China will take on Liesbeth Mouha and Liesbet van Breedam of Belgium. Another match to watch will be between Larissa Franca and Ana Paula Conelly of Brazil and Alexandra Shiryaeva and Natalia Uryadova of Russia. The highlight of tomorrow's men's competition will see second seed Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser of the United States and Swiss pair Sascha Heyer and Patrick Heuscher. Indoors, winners from day one of the Women's Volleyball tournament Brazil and China meet Poland and Russia, respectively. The United States, which is ranked No. 4 in the world, will also play Cuba. The second day of competition in Men's Water Polo will see all teams in action. In group A Canada meets Montenegro, Greece takes on Hungary, and Australia plays Spain. The group B games see Germany play China, Serbia take on Croatia, and Italy face the United States. The Women's Handball prelims continue with 12 teams competing for eight quarterfinal spots. Powerhouse Russia, after tying with the Republic of Korea, will look forward to their first win in their second match against Sweden. Other games of the day see the Republic of Korea play Germany, China take on Romania, Brazil face Hungary, Angola play Norway and Kazakhstan meet France. Tomorrow's highlight in Olympic Boxing will be the repeat bout between the gold medalist in the featherweight (57kg) division at the 2007 World Championship, Albert Selimov of Russia, and the silver medalist at the same tournament, Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine, who meet in the first round of the Olympic boxing tournament. The only new sport starting on Day 3 is Canoe-Kayak Slalom which begins with heats in both KI and C1 classes. It promises to be a full, not-to-say fulfilling, day three of action at Beijing 2008. |
| [source:Beijing2008.cn] |
