Day three of the grandest sporting event this year continues in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with athletes bound to break new records for pride and honor representing their respective countries, powerhouse teams like China and USA begin their quest for Olympic glory.
Starting off with the event in 2008 Summer games of gymnastics where the Chinese women’s team survived a rare bout of nerves to come first in the qualifiers on Sunday thanks to an equally error-strewn outing from arch-rivals the United States. Head Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen wanted more from his charges, rating their performance at only 70 percent after a string of errors gave a glimpse of the immense pressure on the Chinese to win gold in Beijing.
World champion Americans came up short after vault specialist Samantha Peszek injured her ankle just 30 minutes before she was due to take the floor, failed to capitalize when they also served up a mistake-ridden performance.
In the sporting world of Archery, South Korea's archers set a new 24-arrow world record Sunday en-route to their sixth consecutive Olympic women's team gold medal. Double Olympic champion Park Sung-Hyun combined with teammates Yun Ok-Hee and Joo Hyun-Jung to fire eleven 10s and nine 9s in the 24-arrow women's elimination round for a 231 point total. The previous world record of 228 was set by South Korea's Yun Ok-Hee, Yun Mi-Jin and Lee Tuk-Young at the World Cup in Shanghai in 2006. It set them on the way to the final where they beat China while France took the bronze.
In swimming, the United States broke their own world record in the men's 4x100-metres freestyle relay with a time of three minutes 12.23 seconds in the heats at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday. The American team of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers beat the previous record of 3:12.46 held by the USA at the Pan Pacs in Victoria, Canada, in August 2006.
France qualified with the second fastest time and a new European record while Canada and Great Britain also reached the final with the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively.
In day one of the most popular sport in the 2008 Beijing Olympics – basketball Argentina's hopes of defending the Olympic men's basketball crown took a serious blow when Lithuania stunned a South American squad featuring five National Basketball Association standouts 79-75.
Linas Kleiza of team Lithiunia of the sank the game-winning three-pointer with just over two seconds remaining after Manu Ginobili, who scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter, sparked an 11-0 run to level the game at 75-75.
Reigning world champion Spain opened by routing Greece 81-66 in a rematch of the 2006 World Championship final in a Group B clash.
Starting off with the event in 2008 Summer games of gymnastics where the Chinese women’s team survived a rare bout of nerves to come first in the qualifiers on Sunday thanks to an equally error-strewn outing from arch-rivals the United States. Head Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen wanted more from his charges, rating their performance at only 70 percent after a string of errors gave a glimpse of the immense pressure on the Chinese to win gold in Beijing.
World champion Americans came up short after vault specialist Samantha Peszek injured her ankle just 30 minutes before she was due to take the floor, failed to capitalize when they also served up a mistake-ridden performance.
In the sporting world of Archery, South Korea's archers set a new 24-arrow world record Sunday en-route to their sixth consecutive Olympic women's team gold medal. Double Olympic champion Park Sung-Hyun combined with teammates Yun Ok-Hee and Joo Hyun-Jung to fire eleven 10s and nine 9s in the 24-arrow women's elimination round for a 231 point total. The previous world record of 228 was set by South Korea's Yun Ok-Hee, Yun Mi-Jin and Lee Tuk-Young at the World Cup in Shanghai in 2006. It set them on the way to the final where they beat China while France took the bronze.
In swimming, the United States broke their own world record in the men's 4x100-metres freestyle relay with a time of three minutes 12.23 seconds in the heats at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday. The American team of Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Ben Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers beat the previous record of 3:12.46 held by the USA at the Pan Pacs in Victoria, Canada, in August 2006.
France qualified with the second fastest time and a new European record while Canada and Great Britain also reached the final with the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively.
In day one of the most popular sport in the 2008 Beijing Olympics – basketball Argentina's hopes of defending the Olympic men's basketball crown took a serious blow when Lithuania stunned a South American squad featuring five National Basketball Association standouts 79-75.
Linas Kleiza of team Lithiunia of the sank the game-winning three-pointer with just over two seconds remaining after Manu Ginobili, who scored 11 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter, sparked an 11-0 run to level the game at 75-75.
Reigning world champion Spain opened by routing Greece 81-66 in a rematch of the 2006 World Championship final in a Group B clash.