More Olympic Quick Hits, Day 8

Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington strikes again, going the distance to win gold in the 800-meter freestyle in world record time. It's an 8:14:10 for Adlington, who shares the same first name as my mom.

===

The men's volleyball match against China isn't supposed to be as tough for them as it was for the women. As I type this, they win the first game, 25-22.

===

Remember when you were five, six or seven years old, and there was a small trampoline outside on the front yard, and you bounced on it until it broke? Well, wouldn't you know it, we have an event on the trampoline. Erin Blanchard and Chris Estrada both represent the States in their respective events. For China on the women's side, He Wenna and Huang Shanshan look to medal for the People's Republic. On the men side, the home fans should look out for Lu Chunlong and Dong Dong (that rhymes, and those ARE their names).

===

BOb Costas was joking about the Greek headline for their basketball game against the USA: "We invented the Games for THIS!?"

Seems the Hellenics got more than they bargained for.

===

Cavic's coach, being the sore loser he is, files a protest. He's just made that he lost. Gotta let it go, guy. That's all you can do. He's not going to win this one. And if he decides to do things a la Munich 1972 basketball, he should reviled even more.

If his protests succeeds, which I believe, should not, he will be reviled. Fortunately, that didn't happen, and I would suppose either he could use Viagra or PRozac, or lay off the coffe for a while.

===

Who is the world's fastest swimmer? The questions was answered in 21.3 seconds It was Brazil's very own Cesar Cielo Filho, in an new Olympic record time, besting his previous one by .04 seconds. And you call yourself a man, Amaury Leveaux.

I don't get these Frenchmen. By the way, his fellow comrade Alain Bernard finished second.

===

Moving right along, the USA men's volleyball continued to pour it on the Chinese. They take Game 2, 25-12. Meanwhile, Jefferson Perez brings home Ecuador's second medal in the 20 km walk-a silver. Han Wang of China finished fourth.

===

Man! I can't believe it. In volleyball, China's women gave us more of a match than the guys. 25-22, 25-12, and 25-18 for the USA men. Sweep.

===

I think the doujin artists are at work in paying tribute to the yuri pairs of Sonya V. Litvyak and Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen, Gertrud Bankhorn and Erica Hartmann, & Lynette Bishop and Yoshika MIyafuji. My categories respectively: Meant For Each Other, Comedy Pair, Shy Couple.

Brilliant. Watch for those things to surface in the coming weeks on Rapidshare, Fakku and the like.

===


Meanwhile, some more badminton golds are on the way for China. Martk Spitz described Michael Phelps's effort as "EPIC." I wholeheartedly agree.

===

Our performance in table tennis is just as forgettable as the likes of badminton and archery. FACT, deviants.

===

First victory for the USA in women's field hockey. After a heartbreaker to the Germans and their football-delusional coach, they rebound against New Zealand, 4-1.

We face the bloody Brits next. Heheheh...CHA~~~~~NCE.

===

In fencing, the women nearly gave it up in the team foil semifinal to Hungary. Aida MOhamed's rally against Erinn Smart ended up falling short by two points.

Bring on the Russians.

===

The baseball team rebounded yet again, dealing yet another defeat to Canada, rallying in the seventh to win, 5-4. And the USA men's water polo team defeated Croatia, 7-5. Softball had no problem laying the mercy rule on Chinese Taipei, 7-0.

===

Could it be that Serbians are going to stay away from purchasing, let alone boycott, watches made by Omega? After all, they timed Phelps to be .01 faster than Milorad Cavic.

===

Meanwhile, some of the rowing events are werapping up. We have three opportunties to get some medals, along with a gold in fencing (gotta out hit the Russians first).

---

Well, Bulgaria's Rumyana Neykova set the world's best time in women's single sculls with a 7:07.71 down in Seville in 2002, so it was no surprise that she went into the final as the odds-on favorite. As expected, she brought home a gold medal for Bulgaria. That said, I was quite pleased with the USA's Michelle Guerette getting the silver, with Zhang Xiuyun of China finishing fourth.

---

I am geting a gut feeling that this trampoline event will be another place where China will get some more medals. Believe it or not, this is another event where we suck at. I think the sales of trampolines will go down after our efforts; none of our entries qualified for the finals.

---

And where there is success in one area, there is futility in another. The Winklevoss brothers finished dead last in the Men's Pair in rowing. And another. Megan Kalmoe and Ellen Tomek finishing fifth in the women's double sculls, behind even China's Li Qin and Tian Liang. Suddenly, the Antipodes are guaranteeing the world that they won't go empty-handed these Games.

---

As if things hadn't been bad enough for our boxers, it just got worse. Shawn Estrada, from my part of town, lost to London's James Degale, 11-5. I thought that this guy was going to make a big impact. But when you don't have any punch, or hand speed a Manny Pacquiao, there is no way you will connect, and I had the unfortunate honor of witnessing just that.

If Luis Yanez doesn't get through in the light flyweight division, USA Boxing should have some administrative changes in order, as well as provide a report on why we didn't medal at these Games. Horrible.


---

We got ourselves our first gold in shooting. VIncent Hancock delivers in the men's skeet, outlasting Tore Brovold of Norway in a shoot-off. Jason Parker and Matthew Emmons-already with bronze and silver, respectively-each have an opportunity to add one more to their collection in the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions event.

This will be fun.