Japan's doubles team ends Navratilova's medal chance
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ATHENS, Greece — Martina Navratilova's long, illustrious career will end without an Olympic medal.
Associated Press
She's taken everything else — dozens of Grand Slam titles and years ranked No. 1 — but one last hurrah as an Olympic rookie at 47 didn't pan out.
Ai Sugiyama, below, and Shinobu Asagoe of Japan eliminated the United States' team of Lisa Raymond and Martina Navratilova in quarterfinal doubles. Navratilova, 47, a former No. 1-ranked singles player in the world, was competing in her first Olympic Games.
Third-seeded Navratilova and Lisa Raymond lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 last night to fifth-seeded Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama of Japan in the quarterfinals, one step shy of the medal round.
"This was never a dream of mine when I was growing up. It was a bonus I was able to be here," Navratilova said. "It's disappointing, of course. We were hoping to get a medal. But the end of a dream? No. I am living my dream."
She retired the first time in 1994, came back to play doubles in 2000, and has said 2004 will be her final season. She left some wiggle room yesterday, though, saying: "Next year, I have no plan. I just want to finish out the year and see what happens."
Her loss leaves U.S. chances for hardware in tennis up to two unheralded men who were able to do something Andy Roddick couldn't — reach the singles semifinals.
Mardy Fish beat Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 6-3, 6-4, while Taylor Dent was a 6-4, 6-1 winner against Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, who stunned No. 1 Roger Federer.
"People have asked me, 'What would you rather do: win the gold medal or win a Grand Slam?' " Fish said. "I've always said it would be really cool to stand on the podium with a gold medal around your neck (during) the national anthem."
The success of Fish and Dent represented quite a turnaround for the U.S. contingent: Roddick, Venus Williams, Chanda Rubin, and Raymond all lost singles matches Wednesday, and Bob and Mike Bryan were ousted in doubles, too.
Today's semifinals will both be between the United States and Chile. Dent plays No. 10 Nicolas Massu, and Fish plays No. 16 Fernando Gonzalez, who upset Roddick in the third round.
JUDO
Anno wins Japan's sixth gold medal
Noriko Anno won the 78kg class in judo, giving Japan its sixth gold medal in 12 judo classes with one day of competition remaining.
Ihar Makarau of Belarus beat Jang Sung-ho of South Korea to win the gold medal in the men's 100-kilogram class after defending Olympic champion and three-time world champion Kosei Inoue lost in the quarterfinals, his first defeat in major international competition in four year.
SOFTBALL
USA's Fernandez blanks Greece, 7-0
Associated Press
Lisa Fernandez pitched a one-hitter as the two-time defending gold medalist United States won its sixth straight shutout in softball, a shortened-game 7-0 victory over Greece.
USA's softball player Jessica Mendoza lies across Greece catcher Stacey Farnworth after a collision at home in the fourth inning. Mendoza tried to advance on a grounder by Natasha Watley but was thrown out at the plate. The U.S. team won 7-0 in five innings.
Greece (2-4) did all it could. The United States (6-0) simply wore down the Greeks — whose team includes several Americans of Greek ancestry — and put an opponent away after five innings for the fourth time under the so-called mercy rule.
In another game, Melanie Roche shut out Canada on five hits, striking out 10, in Australia's 1-0 victory yesterday.
The game's only run came with two outs in the second inning when Simmone Morrow singled home Peta Edebone. University of Hawai'i senior Stacey Porter went 1 for 3 in the designated player position.
Canadian captain Kristy Odamura, a UH-Hilo graduate, was hitless.
The loss drops Canada (2-4) into a three-way tie for fifth with Greece and Chinese Taipei. Australia (5-1) is alone in second, behind the U.S. The lone defeat was a 10-0 pounding at the hands of the USA Sunday.
"Softball is a weird game," Australia coach Simon Roskvist said. "We believe we canÊbeat the U.S. team although we had a lousy game against them a couple of days ago."
Canada plays Italy today. It needs to win and have Japan and Greece lose to advance.
SHOOTING
Hungary's Igaly on target to claim gold
Diana Igaly of went a perfect 25 for 25 to win the gold medal in skeet shooting, finishing with a score of 97 to easily outdistance silver medalist Wei Ning of China and bronze medalist Zemfira Meftakhetdinova of Azerbaijan.
Earlier, Manfred Kurzer Germany had the worst final round of any shooter in 10-meter running target, but his world-record qualifying score gave the German a lead so big it didn't matter.
He won gold with a 682.4. Alexander Blinov of Russia took silver, and Dimitri Lykin of Russia, the 2002 world champion, won bronze.
ARCHERY
Galiazzo wins Italy's first gold medal
Marco Galiazzo won Italy's first archery gold medal.
Galiazzo beat Hiroshi Yamamoto of Japan, 111-109, for the gold. Tim Cuddihy of Australia, who beat two South Koreans along the way, took bronze.
The 21-year-old Galiazzo, who placed 49th at last year's world championships, became Italy's first-ever Olympic champion in the sport.
The South Korean men are still looking for their first Olympic individual medal. Their women have taken every Olympic gold medal since 1984.
WEIGHTLIFTING
China's Chunhong breaks world record
Liu Chunhong of China broke three of her own world records in winning the 152-pound (69kg) weightlifting gold medal.
Taner Sagir of Turkey won the gold medal in the 77-kilogram class with 826.5 pounds (375 kg). Sergey Filimonov of Kazakhstan won silver and Oleg Perepetchenov of Russia the bronze.
The 19-year-old Chunhong, the defending world champion, set records in the snatch of 270 pounds (122.5kg), the clean and jerk of 337 pounds (153kg) and total lift of 606 pounds (275kg).
BOXING
USA's Ward advances to quarterfinals
U.S. medal prospect Andre Ward beat Italy's Clemente Russo 17-9 to advance to the quarterfinals as the Americans finished 6-1 in preliminaries. The Americans sent eight fighters into the second round, with two advancing on byes.
BASKETBALL
Ex-Rainbow Wahine gets playing time
The Tall Ferns lost to Spain in their last game, after beating South Korea for its second Olympic victory overall.
Former UH player Tania (Brunton) Tupu, 30, is averaging nearly 14 minutes a game, but less than two points and two rebounds. Tupu scored New Zealand's first-ever Olympic points in 2000, when it won one game to finish 11th.
New Zealand (1-3) plays China today.
Athens2004.com and softball.ca contributed to this report
