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Canada at bat, yesterday at the Hellinikon Olympic Baseball Stadium.
The Good...
Britain held center stage yesterday in Athens, in what the head of the British Olympic Association called "the greatest ever day for Britain at an Olympics". The Brits won 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze on Saturday and leapt to the 11th place in the medal rankings.
Greece won another two medals yesterday, with Tasoula Kelesidou in the women's discus throw and with weighlifting legend Pyrros Dimas, who, after having won the gold in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney, ended his career yesterday with a bronze in the 85 kgs category.
In perhaps the best basketball game of these Olympics, Lithuania beat the USA 94-90. Sarunas Jasikevicius, perhaps the best European basketball player, scored 28. If the US fails to beat Angola on Monday it will be eliminated from the competition.
The Bad...
The second sample of Greek weightlifting bronze medalist Leonidas Sampanis also tested positive for abnormal levels of testosterone. The athlete, in tears, swore he had done nothing wrong, and the Greek authorities plan to pursue this matter with the international sports authorities since there is a feeling that this is probably a mistake.
And the Weird...
Officials from the International Gymnastics Federation said Saturday that three of the judges of the men's all-around event made scoring mistakes that cost Yang Tae Young of South Korea the gold medal, which went to Paul Hamm, the first American man to win the all-around Olympic title. But, because of the Federation's rules, Hamm gets to keep his medal although the judges were suspended.
nyloo's daily Olympic Diary
The Brits were all over the place on Saturday in Athens.
British athletes won 9 medals overall, of which 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze. Britain moved up to 11th place in the overall medal rankings.
US swimmer Michael Phelps won his 8th medal in these Games, yesterday and missed his goal of beating Mark Spitz's 7 gold medals record from Munich by 2 bronzes. Phelps, a member of the 4x100 relay team, although he did not actually swim, won his 6th gold in these Games.
Then, the night ended with another unforgettable Olympic moment.
For about 5 minutes, a sell out crowd at the Nikaia Weightlifting Arena bade Pyrros Dimas the most incredible farewell in Olympic memory. Dimas, the gold medal champion in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney was on a well publicized quest to become the first weighlifter ever to win four gold medals. At 33, and after having endured 5 operations in the last 4 years, he missed his goal by 5 kgs and finished third.
He became the first weightlifter in history to win medals in 4 Olympics.
When he climbed up the awards podium, the crowd went wild. The ceremony stopped and about 5 thousand people cheered and sang his name and waved flags while Dimas, alone on the podium, had a hard time keeping back his tears. It was a great, spontaneous farewell for perhaps the greatest Olympian this country has ever had.
