Athletics Day 7 Review: Dropped batons spell disaster for US relay teams

Updated: 2008-08-22 01:22:05

(BEIJING, August 22) -- The US sprint teams' woes continued at the National Stadium on Thursday, August 21, when their Men's and Women's 4x100m teams failed to reach the finals.

The formerly dominant US sprint teams will exit the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with only two silver and two bronze medals from the 18 individual and relay medals available.

First, there was disappointment for the US Men's 4 x 100m Relay team, when a bungled baton change between Tyson Gay and Darvis Patton on the final changeover meant they failed to finish the first semifinal.

Then, in the Women's 4 x 100m semifinals, poor communication between Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams of the United States, also on the final handover, resulted in another dropped baton.

The US men were not the only fancied team to fail to reach Friday's final. Olympic Men's 4 x 100m Relay champions Great Britain were disqualified for a late changeover when final-leg runner Craig Pickering received the baton from Marlon Devonish outside the changeover zone.

Jamaica is the overwhelming favorite for the gold in both the Men's and Women's finals after both teams won their semifinals, the women in a year's-best of 42.24 seconds.

In the Women's 200m, Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica retained her gold medal from Athens 2004 when she led the field home in a personal best 21.74 seconds.

Her win meant Jamaica has now won the 100m and 200m in both the Women's and Men's competitions and taken seven of the 12 medals available over those distances.

The 2007 world champion, Allyson Felix of the United States, took silver as she did at Athens 2004, while Kerron Stewart of Jamaica claimed her second medal of Beijing 2008, a bronze.

LaShawn Merritt of the United States broke Jeremy Wariner's dominance in the 400m, overtaking the Athens 2004 Olympic Games winner and double world champion in the home straight to win with a personal best of 43.75 seconds.

Despite fading badly in the last 60m, Wariner held on for silver, while David Neville of the United States dived over the line to snatch the bronze medal and complete a US sweep of the medals for the second successive Olympic Games.

Dayron Robles of Cuba confirmed he is the best 110m hurdler by adding Olympic gold to the world record of 12.87 seconds he set earlier in 2008.

David Payne and David Oliver of the United States took the silver and bronze medals after a close tussle.

Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic threw a European record to win the Women's Javelin in rainy conditions. She threw 71.42m with her final attempt to overtake long-time leader Maria Abakumova of Russia, who was unable to retake the lead with the last throw of the competition. Christina Obergfoll of Germany took bronze.

Nelson Evora of Portugal added the Men's Triple Jump Olympic gold to his 2007 world title with a season's-best jump of 17.67m. Phillips Idowu of Great Britain took silver and the Bahamas's Leevan Sands, bronze.

The day began with a fifth Athletics gold medal for Russia in the Women's 20km Walk. Olga Kaniskina of Russia led from the front in treacherous conditions to finish first in an Olympic record 1:26:31.

Kjersti Tysse Platzer of Norway won her second Olympic silver medal in 1:27:07, while Elisa Rigaudo of Italy opened her NOC's Athletics account with a bronze medal in 1:27:12.

Sailing Day 9 Review: Australia rules the day

Updated: 2008-08-19 00:20:33

(QINGDAO, August 18) -- Gold was Australia's for the taking in Qingdao on Monday, August 18, and take it they did: sweeping the 470 (Two Person Dinghy) with a combined margin of 41 net points over the second-place finishers.

With disqualification the only thing standing in the way of gold for Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page of Australia in the Men's 470, the pair put an exclamation mark on their victory by finishing first in the medal race. Wilmot and Page, who won the 2004, 2005, and 2007 World Champions but had never won at the Olympics, took over first place after the third race and never looked back, building an insurmountable 22 point lead before the final race and winning with 44 points overall.

Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield of Great Britain jumped from fourth to second (75 net points) after a third-place finish in the medal race and Nicolas Charbonnier and Olivier Bausset of France (78 points) held off Sven and Kalle Coster of the Netherlands for bronze with a better finish on the final day of racing.

Despite a ninth-place finish in the medal race, Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson won the second 470 gold of the Olympics with 43 points overall, matching the gold won by the Australian Men's 470 pair just one hour earlier.

Rechichi and Parkinson went into the final race with an 18-point lead over Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout of the Netherlands, who finished sixth in the medal race and won silver with 53 points overall. Fernanda Oliviera and Isabel Swan of Brazil won the medal race and the bronze medal with 60 net points.

Though the boats in the 49er (Skiff) class did not race on Monday, gold was awarded to Jonas Warrer and Martin Ibsen of Denmark who had to wait overnight for the ruling on protests lodged against them after Sunday's medal race. Athens 2004 Olympic gold medalists Iker Martinez de Lizarduy and Xabier Fernandez of Spain took silver and German brothers Jan Peter and Hannes Peckolt won bronze.

Star (Men's Keelboat)

Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom of Sweden won race six today to take the regatta lead. Percy and Simpson got 11 points in Monday's racing moving them into second place. The French pair Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau are third overall.

The day's biggest comeback was made by No. 1 ranked Poland's Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dominik Zycki. They recovered from 13th around the first mark in race seven to finish in third.

Tornado (Multihull Mixed)

Spaniards Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz were tied at 20 points with Australians Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby in the overall lead after the three Tornado class races held on Course Area E today.

The Spaniards won race seven, the last of the day, in which the Australians came in second. They are both 12 points ahead of third placed Iordanis Paschalidis and Konstantinos Trigonis from Greece.

Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola of Argentina and Francesco Marcolini and Edoardo Bianchi of Italy each have 33 points. Johannes Polgar and Florian Spalteholz from Germany follow with 34.

Laser Radial (Women's One Person Dinghy)

World No. 1 Anna Tunnicliffe from the United States regained her Laser Radial series lead despite a 15th placing in racing.

Tunnicliffe shrugged off the race seven result and topped up with a pair of second places in races eight and nine to finish as one of only three sailors in the running for gold. She used her race 15 result as a drop and goes into medal race with a seven point advantage over yesterday's leader Gintare Volungeviciute of Lithuania.

Volungeviciute also used race seven as her drop after finishing in 17th place. She too came back, with sixth and fourth-place finishes, not straying too far from her nearest rival.

World No. 2 Chinese Xu Lijia came out strongly, scoring a bullet in race seven. She finished the day with an 11th and a sixth to be third overall going in to the medal race. Only Xu and Volungeviciute can challenge Tunnicliffe for gold.

World No. 3 Sarah Blanck of Australia moved up to fourth place overall after her first win of the series in race eight. She finished eighth and fifth in the other two races but is 21 points adrift of Tunnliciffe and out of contention for the gold medal.

Laser (Men's One Person Dinghy)

He missed a medal in Athens, he has struggled to win major regattas, but his talent is unquestionable and on Monday Paul Goodison of Great Britain came of age, his 1-4-6 results all but guaranteeing him a gold medal.

The ISAF World Ranked No.3, will add to Great Britain's already impressive collection of Yngling and Finn gold medals and Men's 470 Silver. His results Monday means he has amassed an 18 point lead over nearest rival Swedish Rasmus Myrgren going into tomorrow's double-points medal race.

Myrgren and a few others will battle it out for the silver and bronze medals, including current third placed overall Gustavo Lima from Portugal, Athens bronze medalist Vasilij Zbogar from Slovenia who is in fourth place and fifth placed Deigo Romero from Italy.

Early medal contender, Julio Alsogaray of Argentina started his day well with a second place, but 32nd and 16th places in the later races have almost killed any chance he has of winning the bronze medal.

Men's RS:X (Windsurfer)

Tom Ashley of New Zealand leads a group of five competitors in the hunt for a gold medal with Wednesday's medal race looming.

The New Zealander is three points ahead of Nick Dempsey from Great Britain and four ahead of Julien Bontemps from France, both also favored for a medal with one more race before Wednesday.

Others in contention for a medal at this stage include Shahar Zubari of Israel whose light wind superiority had him in the regatta lead until two days ago. Ricardo Santos of Brazil is fifth.

Women's RS:X (Windsurfer)

Three-time Olympic medalist Alessandra Sensini of Italy took the lead from Chinese Yin Jian on Monday with the double-points medal race scheduled for Wednesday.

In eight to 15 knot shifty winds and big seas, Sensini was at her best and scored a 2-5 result to sail past Yin who is at her best in light air.

Yin is only two points off the lead after 8-8 results in races eight and nine. Conditions will favour Yin on Tuesday as weather forecasters predict winds will diminish later in the day.

Another light-air performer, Jessica Crisp of Australia dropped two spots on Monday. World No. 1, Marina Alabau of Spain, took over third place from Crisp, while Bryony Shaw of Great Britain moved into fourth place, leaving the Australian in fifth.

Only 11 points separate the top five sailors, all of whom were favored for medals before the Games.

Handball Day 8 Review: Dynamos get weathered, surprises spring

Updated: 2008-08-17 02:28:08

(BEIJING, August 16) -- Iceland snatched a tie with Denmark and a spot in the quarterfinals, and Poland surprised Croatia on day eight in the Men’s Handball competition at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium on Saturday.

Brazil vs. China: 29-22

China’s defeat to Brazil put its win-loss record at 0-4 and ended the host team’s Olympic Handball campaign. Though the young Chinese team played hard in the first half, they were hindered by goalie Wang Long’s injury and retreat early in the match and could not survive Brazil’s attacks. Thanks to wings Helio Justino, Felipe Ribeiro and Silvio Laureano, who scored a team-high five goals each, Pan-American champion Brazil overcame China and secured their first victory in the tournament.

Still, Brazil’s chances of entering the quarterfinals are slim.

Egypt vs. the Republic of Korea: 22-24

Egypt has to bid farewell to the Beijing Olympics, after they failed to overpower the ROK team in this live-or-die match, forfeiting the quarterfinal spot to their opponent.

Though Egypt played strong in the first half, and the ROK team fumbled in defense, key player Mohamed Abd Elsalam, who scored a team-high eight goals for Egypt, was stifled in the second half by the opponents. By improving its attacks, the ROK gradually pushed the margin to the minimum and finally led by a narrow advantage of two goals in the end, thanks to top scorer Paek Won-chul, who contributed two goals in the remaining three minutes.

France vs. Spain: 28-21

A confident French squad beat Spain and crushed the opponent’s hopes of an early quarterfinal berth. Les Bleus have won all four of their matches and now stand at the top of group A.

The game started passively with both teams playing under pressure, but France quickly found its rhythm and took advantage of the two-minute suspension attached to Spain, enlarging the score gap to 16-10 when the first half ended. The second half saw an even fiercer duel and Spain’s inability to break through the French defense, though key player Juan Garcia (BRA) helped narrow the gap and netted seven goals. The top scorer for the French team was again Bertrand Gille, who put in six goals out of eight tries.

Spain has to win over Brazil if they want to play in the quarterfinals.

Russia vs. Germany: 24-24

A tie gave one point to each team but saw a suspension of their quarterfinal spots, though Germany, with five points so far, has a better chance than Russia, who only has three points.

Germany led 4-1 after six minutes, only to have the rest of the match become a close affair, since Russian goalkeeper Oleg Grams saved an impressive 52 percent of all shots in the first half to give his team an 11-10 lead at the break. The second half saw a “goal for goal” contest, but in the last minute when Germany was one goal ahead, Russia grabbed one more point to end the game in a draw.

Vasily Filippov was the top scorer for the Russian team with six goals out of eight attempts, while for Germany “score machine” Michael Krause netted a team-high six goals.

Croatia vs. Poland: 24-27

The former Olympic champion suffered a blow from the current Worlds silver medalist Poland, after both teams had already qualified for final-eight berths.

Croatia had an aggressive start in the first half, but Poland put in six consecutive goals later on to narrow the gap and lead 13-12 before the break. Though the second half was very close, the Polish players managed to get in three goals in the last three minutes and wrapped up the game three goals ahead.

Denmark vs. Iceland: 32-32

An intense, fast and dramatic match that ended in a tie saw Logi Geirsson (ISL) punished with a red card in the second half. Seconds before full-time, trailing Denmark by just one point, Iceland was rewarded with a 7m penalty shot; Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson scored and secured Iceland a ticket to the quarterfinals. Gudjonsson scored a team-high eight goals. Denmark also earned an extra point, and if they can secure a final win against Germany on Monday, they will add their name to the list of quarterfinalist teams.

Handball Day 6 Review: Les Bleus overpower Croatia, Denmark survives

Updated: 2008-08-15 01:58:48

(BEIJING, August 14) -- Surprises play out on the Handball stage every day, and Thursday evening witnessed France seal a victory over the old Olympic champion Croatia at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium on Thursday evening, August 14.

Germany vs. Egypt: 25-23

Germany capitalized on two late Egyptian suspensions to beat the African champion by two nettings through Michael Krause and Dominik Klein. Despite Pascal Hens's absence, Germany still led a narrow advantage, though they couldn't extend the gap with left-back Hussein Zaky putting in seven goals as the top scorer for the Egyptian team, equaling Germany's top scorer Holger Glandorf.

Both teams' goalkeepers made some great saves, but the final suspension asked for by Egypt fulfilled the Europeans' wish to wrap up the game with a victory.

Poland vs. Brazil: 28-25

The 2007 Worlds silver winner secured a slender win over Pan-American champion Brazil, who has just weathered two European powerhouses, France and Croatia. The previous two matches saw comfortable victories for Poland, but Brazil honed their play by showing great accuracy in attack and exploiting a Polish defense that lacked concentration. It was thanks to left-wing Mateusz Jachlewski, who created scoring opportunities, that Poland rallied to win the game.

Brazil's top scorer was Felipe Ribeiro who contributed seven goals for the team, and goalkeeper Maik Santos also did a good job by saving 43 percent of the shots.

The Republic of Korea vs. Iceland: 22-21

The ROK men shined just as much as their female counterparts in the match against Iceland, who has just proudly defeated 2007 Worlds champion Germany. Having the upper-hand throughout the match, the ROK played a focused and strong defense, with top scorer Yoon Kyung-shin targeting six goals in a row in the latter second. He jumped over Iceland's tall but unstable defense and sent the ball straight through them whenever he saw a gap.

Both teams now have four points and need one more win to safely secure their spots in the quarterfinals.

China vs. Spain: 22-36

China played with spirit even though Spain would prove to be too strong for them. The first half saw some entertaining play from China, including three crowd-pleasing goals from pivot Cui Liang, Miao Qing and Zhu Wenxin.

But Spain, as the 2005 Worlds champion, easily overpowered the host team with a large score gap; right-wing Victor Tomas scored seven goals and was the top scorer for the Spanish team. This victory marked their qualification into the final eight.

Denmark vs. Russia: 25-24

In their chase for a quarterfinal spot, both teams played nervously. The match was even throughout and time was already up when Denmark was awarded one last free throw. Mikkel Hansen (DEN) took the ball and hammered it past the Russian defense into the top-right corner of Russia's goal, ensuring that his team will advance to the quarterfinals.

A weaker first half for Denmark elapsed as a time-out was called, and the Danes fought back with left-wing Lars Christiansen breaking through and scoring the team-high six goals. For Russia, Konstantin Igropulo put in six goals as the top scorer for the Russian team.

France vs. Croatia: 23-19

The showdown between two European dynamos ended with Les Bleus sealing a victory over Croatia, making the former the No. 1 seed into the quarterfinals.

A very physical first half saw Croatian player Peter Metlicic sent out with a red card after receiving three two-minute suspensions in the first 30 minutes, though Croatia was then awarded four penalties, all on target by Mirza Dzomba.

France consolidated their speedy play with fast breaks and kept scoring one step further than Croatia till the end of the game. The final two minutes saw France extending the lead to four goals. Bertrand Gille contributed seven goals for the French team.

Day 6 Review: Archer Zhang leads Chinese charge

Updated: 2008-08-15 01:16:46

French swimmer Alain Bernard (Photo credit: Getty)

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(BEIJING, August 14) -- Shocks, surprises and inspirational performances were the order of the day on a rain-soaked day six of Beijing 2008, which caused postponement of many outdoor sports.

The entire days' Sailing competition was cancelled and most of the Games' Baseball competition, while the finals of the Men's Slalom Canoe Doubles (C2) and Women's Slalom Kayak Singles (K1) have been held over until tomorrow (Friday, August 15).

Play was also suspended for most of the day in the Beijing 2008 Tennis tournament -- but not long enough to prevent arguably the shock of the entire Games so far as James Blake of the United States defeated World No. 1 Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6 in the Men's Singles quarterfinals to leave the Swiss player, despite his dominance of men's tennis over recent years, without a medal from three Olympics Games.

At the end of day six hosts China stand proudly aloft the Beijing 2008 medal stable with 22 gold medals and 35 in total…and not just because of big name favorites in traditionally strong sports.

With no Diving or Weightlifting medals at stake, for example – sports in which China has been dominant at the Games -- it was a day for the host country's underdogs to growl.

No doubt about performance of the day. There was no sign of Gene Kelly at the Olympic Green Archery Field, but Chinese fans were left singing and dancing in the rain as, against all odds, China's Zhang Juanjuan out-fired World No. 1, Park Sung-hyun of the all conquering Republic of Korea (ROK) archery team, to win an enthralling Women's Individual final. It was a major upset, as 27th seed Zhang edged past top-seeded Park with the final shot of the match to become the first non-Republic of Korea Olympic gold medalist in the event since 1980.

Zhang also defeated World No. 2 Yun Ok-hee (ROK), who took third, in an equally exciting semifinal clash. Yun defeated Kwon Un-sil of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the bronze medal match.

Less of a surprise was China's Yang Wei winning the Men's Individual All-Around Artistic Gymnastics final with a total of 94.575 points, well ahead Uchimura Kohei of Japan, who scored a total of 91.975. The bronze medal went to Frenchman Benoit Caranobe.

Yang Wei competes in the Parallel Bars. (Photo Credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)

There was host joy in Judo, too. Yang Xiuli won gold in the Women's -78kg by defeating Cuba's Yalennis Castillo with a hantei after overtime failed to decide a winner.

Tuvshinbayar Naidan from Mongolia claimed the Men's 100kg class, beating Askhat Zhitkeyev from Kazakhstan in the final. Bronze medals went to Movlud Miraliyev from Azerbaijan and Henk Grol from the Netherlands.

China also prospered in Shooting, with Du Li winning gold in the Women's 50m Rifle Three Positions with a new Olympic record score of 690.3 points. Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic became a Games' double medalist by following her opening-day gold in the Women's 10m Air Rifle with a silver medal. Cuba's Eglis Yaima Cruz won the bronze medal.

Chiara Cainero of Italy won the gold medal in Women's Skeet after a shoot-off with Kimberly Rhode of the United States and Germany's Christine Brinker, after all three shooters had tied on 93 hits after the completion of the final. Brinker and Rhode missed their second shoot-off target, so the gold medal went to Cainero, who successfully hit both targets.

With no Michael Phelps finals we all thought this might be a boring day in the pool, right? Wrong!!!

Two more world records and an Olympic best were shattered – with one of them going to China's Liu Zige, who lowered the Women's 200m Butterfly mark by 1.22 seconds to set a new best of 2:04.18. It was double celebration time for the home crowd as Jiao Liuyang finished behind her teammate to take the silver medal. Former world record holder Jessicah Schipper led early on but finished third.

The other world record came in the Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final, as Australia sprang one of the upsets of the week by winning gold in a time of 7min 44.31sec. The team comprised of double Individual Medley gold medalist Stephanie Rice, and Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie, sliced a whopping 5.78 off the previous best time.

China claimed silver in an Asian record time of 7:45.93 and previous world record-holders the United States took bronze ahead of fourth-placed Italy. All of the first four teams beat the old world record of 7:50.09.

Yesterday we billed the Men's 100m Breaststroke final as a showdown between Frenchman Alain Bernard and Eamon Sullivan of Australia – and the boys didn't let us down. Frenchman Bernard won, coming from behind at the turn after Aussie Sullivan led. Surprisingly, the world record stayed intact despite the pair lowering it in the heats. Thirty-two-year-old Jason Lezak of the United States, who struck gold in the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay, won bronze.

Spare a thought then for poor old world and defending Olympic champion Kitajima Kosuke of Japan, who grabbed his second gold of the Games in the Men's 200m Breaststroke – but, alas, not the headlines.

The Men's 100m Breaststroke champion swam an Olympic record 2:07.64, with Australia's Brenton Rickard touching for the silver medal and Hugues Duboscq of France claiming his second bronze of the Games, in third.

If China dominated most medals, Europeans did the same in the day's three Wrestling finals, capturing 11 of 12 medals at stake.

Italy's Andrea Minguzzi beat Zoltan Fodor of Hungary to claim gold in the Men's Greco-Roman 84 kilogram category. Aslanbek Khushtov of Russia took gold, beating Mirko Englich in the Men's Greco-Roman 96kg class, while Cuba's Mijain Lopez beat Russia's Khasan Baroev to win the Men's Greco-Roman 120kg gold medal.

Italian wrestler Andrea Minguzzi (Photo credit: Getty)

Ukraine won gold in the inaugural Women's Team Sabre event defeating China 45-44 with pre-tournament favorites the United States taking bronze.

Indoors, Badminton Men's Singles World No. 1 Lin Dan comfortably beat World No. 9 Peter Hoeeg Gade of Denmark in the quarterfinals. There were also wins for his compatriot Chen Jin, World No. 2 Lee Chong-wei of Malaysia and World No. 10 Lee Hyun-il of the Republic of Korea, who defeated No. 3 seed Bao Chunlai of China.

Zhang Juanjuan shoots in the match. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

In Basketball, Team USA stand on top of group B with three straight wins after breezing past Greece 92-69. World champion Spain share the same points after defeating Germany 72-59, and China bounced back from losing its opening two games by beating Angola 85-68 to claim its first tournament victory.

Lithuania defeated Russia a tight 86-79 encounter to top group A with three wins from three games, Australia dominated Iran 106-68 to register their first win and Argentina cruised past previously unbeaten Croatia.

However, the Croats are the only unbeaten team in the Men's Water Polo competition, winning all three of their games so far after beating Germany 13-5. Hungary, who beat Spain 8-5, and Montenegro, victors over Greece 10-6, remain unbeaten after a draw on day one. Serbia beat the United States 4-2 in the lowest-scoring game in Men's Olympic Water Polo since 1980.

Handball Day 5 Review: Hungary rocks Germany in last minute

Updated: 2008-08-14 02:55:09

(BEIJING, August 13) -- Romania out-powered France, Norway cruised past Kazakhstan and Hungary rocked a last-minute win over Germany on day five in the Women's Handball competition at the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium.

Russia vs. Brazil: 28-19

Brazil got off to a good start with top scorer Alexandra Nascimento netting five goals, but Russia proved too strong for the Pan-American champion when the 2007 world champion swerved to a focused play. Though they lost key player Anna Kareeva to injury early on, Russia still had Ljudmila Postnova, Ekaterina Andryushina and Irina Bliznova who ensured the team would forge ahead and maintain the lead through the finish. Postnova was the top scorer with six goals for the Russian team.

Romania vs. France: 34-26

Romania staked further claim on its medal contender's position by overpowering France in the morning clash, with top scorer Ramona Maier firing 11 goals. France didn't look in good shape since the last fight with Kazakhstan, even their sharp-shooter Sophie Herbrecht had rather low jump shot efficiency, only Raphaelle Tervel (FRA) scored with all six of her shots. Throughout the game the French team lacked inspiration to catch up to the tempo of the Romanians, who were sharp in attack and solid in defense, and thus slid to defeat when the final whistle blew.

The Republic of Korea vs. Sweden: 31-23

Being equipped with two "score machines" Park Chung-hee and An Jung-hwa, each contributing seven goals, the ROK easily outclassed Sweden.

Sweden got off to a strong start but the ROK team soon took control and led 18-13 at half time. After the break the ROK maintained the advantage, when an incident that Sweden's goalie Madeleine Grundstrom got hurt by a penalty shot from Choi Im-jeong (KOR), who was then red-carded. But overall the game was one-sided.

China vs. Angola: 32-24

It was an intense preliminary match, since both teams needed to win to have a chance at advancing to the quarterfinals.

After a restless first half seeing the two sides playing a match that showed lack of experience, the latter half saw China taking control of the game and gradually increasing the score gap. Right-back Liu Xiaomei (CHN) scored seven goals while left-back Wang Shasha (CHN) hit six. For Angola, Nair Filipe Pires De Almeida had a third impressive match, netting eight goals.

Norway vs. Kazakhstan: 35-19

Already through to the quarterfinals, Norway used the match as a chance to practice different tactics. Kazakhstan played well in defense in parts, and goalkeeper Tatiana Parfenova (KAZ) made some good saves. In attack, Yelena Portova (KAZ) and Yana Vassilyeva (KAZ) managed five and six goals, respectively.

Germany vs. Hungary: 24-25

Both teams were desperate to win the match to secure a quarterfinal ticket, and Hungary prevailed in the end.

Living through two not so good matches, Germany finally honed its play. They closed gaps in their defense and simply managed to send more balls behind the opponent's goalkeeper -- nine of the goals were signed off by Nadine Krause (GER). Though Germany was in the lead for almost the entire game, Hungary was never far away, and in charge of the chase was the team's top scorer Gorbicz, with nine nettings, including the all important last minute goal -- a 7m penalty shot. It was this shot that sealed Hungary's narrow victory over Germany.

With a total of 24 goals, Gorbicz is the current top scorer of the Women's Handball competition.