China’s athletes earned more than twice the number of Medals than Great Britain, who ended the Paralympic Games in second place in the Medal count. Chinese athletes, including runner Li Yansong pictured above, were awarded a total of 211 Medals (89 Gold, 70 Silver, and 52 Bronze). Great Britain earned a total of 102 (42 Gold, 29 Silver, and 31 Bronze). The United States ended the Games with 99 Medals and Ukraine was fourth with 74 total Medals. Canada was awarded 50 Medals, putting them in seventh place overall.

^{(photo © Newscom)}

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China Tops Paralympic Medal Chart

Ukranian athlete, Lyudmila Blonska, who was stripped of her Silver Medal in the heptathlon at the Beijing Games, has received a lifetime Olympic ban, according to the Ukranian Olympic Committee. Blonska tested positive for methyltestosterone on August 17 and was removed from the Games. This was her second offense. Blonska tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol in 2003. Her coach/husband, Serhiy Blonsky also received a lifetime ban.

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Blonska Receives Lifetime Olympic Ban

The American women took the Gold Medal in the women’s 4×400m relay, with anchor Sanya Richards passing Russian, Anastasia Kapachinskaya in the final meters. The Russian women took the Silver Medal and the Jamaican team earned the Bronze. In addition to Richards, the US team included Allyson Felix, Monique Henderson, and Mary Weinberg.

Nancy Langat of Kenya took the Gold Medal in the women’s 1500m event, followed by Iryna Lishchynskia and Nataliya Tobias of Ukraine for the Silver and Bronze Medals, respectively. American Shannon Rowbury finished in seventh place.

In the women’s high jump event, Belgium’s Tia Hellebaut surprised everyone by beating strong favorite, Blanka Vlasic of Croatia, who hadn’t lost the event in 34 meets. Vlasic got the Silver Medal and Anna Chicherova of Russia earned the Bronze Medal.

In the men’s 5000m contest, Kenensia Bekele of Ethiopia finished first for the Gold Medal. Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya and his countryman, Edwin Cheruiyot Soi earned the Silver and Bronze Medals. Bekele won the Gold Medal in the men’s 10,000m event earlier in the Beijing Olympic meet.

It was never a contest in the men’s 4×400 relay. The American men–Angelo Taylor, Jeremy Wariner, LaShawn Merritt, and David Neville–took the lead early and never relinguished it. The Silver Medal went to the team from the Bahamas and the Bronze Medal was awarded to the Russian team.

The men of the Baltic nations swept the men’s javelin competition, with Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen , the defending Olympic champion, winning the Gold Medal. Ainars Kovals of Latvia took the Silver and Tero Pitkamaki of Finland earned the Bronze Medal. Thorkildsen set a new Olympic record of 90.57m.

Kenya won its first ever Gold Medal in the mens 800m event with Wilfred Kipkemboi Bungei’s win in Beijing. Ismail Ahmed of Sudan finished second for the Silver Medal and Alfred Kirwa of Kenya finished third for the Bronze Medal. Kenya, with its long history of Medals in the long distance events, had never won the mens 800m.

^{(photo of Nancy Langat © Newscom)}

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Scenes from the Bird’s Nest – August 23

In the women’s 5000m event, Ethiopa’s Tirunesh Dibaba Kenene took the Gold Medal, her second of the Beijing Olympic Games. She was followed to the finish line by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey for the Silver Medal and Meseret Defar Tola of Ethiopia for the Bronze Medal.

Dibaba also won the Gold Medal in the women’s 10,000 event. She is the first woman to win both long distance events in a single Olympics. American Kara Goucher finished ninth.

In the womens long jump competition, Brazil’s Maurren Higa Maggi took the Gold Medal. The Silver Medal went to defending Olympic champion, Tatiana Debedeva of Russia and the Bronze Medal was awarded to Blessing Okhagbare of Nigeria.

In the women’s 4×100m relay, the drama continued as the Jamaican women botched the hand-off in the final race, causing them the favorites to be disqualified and ruining the Jamaica’s hopes of a perfect eight for eight Gold Medals in the sprinting events. The Russian women prevailed to win the Gold Medal, followed by the Belgians for the Silver and the Nigerian team for the Bronze Medal.

It was all business to the Jamaican men in the 4×100m relay. The team, including Usain Bolt, easily bested the field and set a new world record time of 37.10. It was the third Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing for Bolt.

The men from Trinidad and Tobago took the Silver Medal and the Japanese team took the Bronze Medal.

Australian, Steve Hooker set a new Olympic record of 5.96m/16-6.5 with his Gold Medal performance in the pole vault. Evgeny LUkyanenko of Russia took the Silver Medal and Denys Yurchenko of Ukraine took the Bronze Medal.

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Scenes from the Bird’s Nest – August 22

Lyudmyla Blonska of Ukraine has been forced to relinquish the Silver Medal that she was awarded in the womens heptathlon event after testing positive for steroid use, the International Olympic Committee announced on Friday. She had been temporarily suspended and removed from the long jump competition on Thursday pending verification of the test results. The official ban was made on Friday.

This is the second doping offense for Blonska and she faces a possible lifetime Olympic ban. Sanctions may also be taken against her coach, Sergei Blonsky.

Blonska’s removal gives Hyleas Fountain of the United States the Silver Medal in the heptathlon and Tatiana Chernova of Russia, who finished fourth in the competition, will be given the Bronze Medal.

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Lyudmyla Blonska Stripped of Olympic Silver Medal for Doping

The men’s individual gymnastics competition concluded on Tuesday. The Chinese made a strong showing, seizing three of the four individual Gold Medals. Below are the results:

In the horizontal bar, Zou Kai of China earned the Gold Medal. Jonathon Horton of the United States took the Silver Medal and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany took the Bronze.

On the parallel bars, Li Xiaoping of China earned the Gold Medal. Yoo Wonchui of South Korea earned the Silver and Anton Fokin of Uzebekistan earned the Bronze.

On the vault, Leszek Blanik of Poland took the Gold Medal, Thomas Bouhil of France earned the Silver and Anton Golotsutskov of Russia earned the Bronze.

On the rings, it was China’s Chen Yibing’s performance (pictured above) that earned the Gold Medal. The Silver Medal went to his countryman, Yang Wei and Oleksandr Vorobiov of Ukraine earned the Bronze Medal.

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Men’s Individual Gymnastics Results

Stephanie Brown Trafton won the Gold Medal in the women’s discus throw, followed by Yarelys Barrios of Cuba and Olena Antonova of Ukraine.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase event, Russia’s Gulnava Galkina-Samitova earned the Gold Medal with a world record timeof 8:58.81. Kenya’s Eunice Jepkoir received the Silver Medal and Russia’s Ekaterina Volkova earned the Bronze.

Francoise Mbango Etone of the African nation of Cameroon won the Gold Medal in the women’s triple jump, besting Tatiana Lebedeva of Russia and Chrysopigi Devetzi of Greece.

Ethiopia was impressive in the men’s 10,000m event, with Kenenisa Bekele taking the Gold Medal with an Olympic record time of 27:01.17. His countryman, Seleshi Sihine earned the Silver and Kenya’s Micah Kipkemboi earned the Bronze.

Slovenia’s Primoz Kozmus won the Gold Medal in the men’s hammer throw. Vadim Devyatovskiy of Belarus took the Silver and Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus took the Bronze Medal.

^{(photo of men’s 10,000m race © Newscom)}

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Scenes from the Bird’s Nest – August 18

Liu Chunhong of China earned the Gold Medal in the women’s 69kg weighlifting event, the 6th Gold for the Chinese weighlifters. Liu, the defending Olympic champion in this event, set a world record in the snatch, the clean and jerk, and in total points.

Oxana Silvenko of Russia earned the Silver Medal and Natalya Davydova of Ukraine was awarded the Bronze.

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China’s Liu Breaks Three World Records in Weightlifting Win

China took their fourth Gold Medal in synchronized diving in four days on Wednesday to sweep the synchronized diving events…to no one’s surprise. The Chinese have dominated this elegant sport since it became an Olympic sport in 2000 at the Sydney Games.

China’s Wang Feng and Qin Kai won the men’s 3m springboard event with a total of 469.08 points, a staggering 47.10 points ahead of the Silver Medal Russia team of Dmitry Sautin and Yuriy Konakov. Illya Kvasha and Oleksiy Prygorov of Ukraine took the Bronze Medal.

Individual diving events begin on Saturday.

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Chinese Sweep Synchro Diving Events

It’s a list of the qualified countries divided into groups which will play during the finals group stage that can somehow be translated to a “how-to-get-rid-of-World-Cup-wannabes” process.

There is a mixture of opinions and emotions about the draw. I reckon particularly in Australia since it’s their first time to qualify for the World Cup in years only to get Brazil in the draw or England who got Sweden, a team they haven’t beaten in 37 years. But you’ll never know. I do believe that anything can happen.

Anyway, I’ve listed the Draw results so you can go see for yourself.

GROUP A

Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador

GROUP B

England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

GROUP C

Argentina
Ivory Coast
Serbia & Montenegro
Holland

GROUP D

Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal

GROUP E

Italy
Ghana
USA
Czech Republic

GROUP F

Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan

GROUP G

France
Switzerland
South Korea
Togo

GROUP H

Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia

Image: BBC

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The Draw