Indonesia wins its first medal

Indonesia wins its first medal

SYDNEY (Agencies): After the second full day of competition,
Indonesia joined the medal winners at the 2000 Olympics here on
Sunday, thanks to diminutive Lisa Rumbewas who bagged a bronze in
the women's weighlifting event.

The 20-year-old lifter, who was a controversial last minute
entry to the national Olympic team, competed in the 48-kilogram
class. Her teammate Sri Indriyani, a former world junior
champion, was tipped to make a podium finish. But she came
fourth.

Lisa proved her doubters wrong when she snatched 80 kgs and
hoisted 105 kgs in clean and jerk for a total lift of 185 kgs.
American Tara Nott also totaled 185 kgs but was awarded the
silver because she weighed in at 47.7 kgs compared to Lisa's 47.9
kgs.

Bulgaria's Izabela Dragneva showed just how women's
weightlifting has flowered by lifting the first ever Olympic
gold. Dragneva, a top competitor for more than a decade with 17
world championship medals to her credit, won with a total of 190
kgs.

Indonesia, a home to 210 million people, is fielding 47
athletes who are chasing medals in 11 events. With hopes already
vanishing in archery and table tennis, Indonesia's realistic
medal chances are on the badminton court.

Three more world records tumbled in Sydney's Olympic pool
Sunday as both the Americans and Dutch staked their claim to what
was becoming known as Australian wunderkind Ian Thorpe's "Golden
Pond".

The wins shuffled the medals table and put the United States
on top with a total of 11 medals, four of them gold.

But even as the Olympics gathered steam in the second full day
of competition there were drug scandals and tragedies underlying
the triumphs.

The day opened on a somber note with news of the death of
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio
Samaranch's wife just hours before he could arrive at her
bedside.

IOC senior vice president Dick Pound said a memorial mass
would be held in Sydney which members of the Olympic family and
others could attend.

But the IOC quickly moved on with the business of running the
Olympics and by the time competition was getting under way again
after lunch it was facing another drug scandal with news the
entire Rumanian weightlifting team was thrown out for doping
offenses.

Soon enough though the attention was again on the swimming
pool emerging as possibly the fastest in Olympic history.

Dutch swimmers Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn
began the assault on the record books by posting back-to-back
world records, de Bruijn using hers to claim the gold medal in
the 100m butterfly.

Van den Hoogenband swam his record in the first semi-final of
the men's 200m freestyle and then watched Ian Thorpe come close
to breaking it in the second, which drew humble predictions from
the Dutchman.

"It'll be a great final, but I don't think the world record
will last that long," van den Hoogenband said. "Hopefully one
day."

Americans Tom Dolan and Brooke Bennett followed the Dutch
treat by winning the men's 400m individual medley and the women's
400m freestyle, Dolan breaking his own six-year-old world record
in the process.

Domenico Fioravanti also added Italy's first gold medal ever
in the pool by taking the men's 100m breaststroke final.

So again and again it all came back to the pool where five
other world records were broken on the first night of competition
Saturday.

"It's a fast pool, you just go out and take advantage of it,"
offered U.S. backstroker Lenny Krayzelburg by way of explanation.

Europeans dominated the cycling track Sunday, but it was
French star Arnaud Tournant who stole the limelight.

A day after the favorite missed out on a 1,000m time trial
medal, he took the podium at the Dunc Gray Velodrome alongside
teammates Laurent Gane and Florian Rousseau after outpacing
Britain for gold in the Olympic sprint, a debut event.

But it was the 1,000m world record holder's reaction to the
victory that served as a magnet for the cameras -- he broke down
in tears.

Japan's early stranglehold on the judo was snapped as Cuba's
Legna Verdecia won the women's under-52kg title and Huseyin Ozkan
of Turkey won the men's under-66kg gold

There was another poignant scene as the triathlon completed
its thrilling debut at the Olympics, when courageous Canadian
Simon Whitfield bounced back from a crash in the bike leg to win
a golden sprint showdown that featured none of the big-name
favorites.

"I felt great getting back up and did what I had to do -- I
yelled something at someone but it wasn't a huge drama," beamed
the patriotic Whitfield.

As Whitfield celebrated, Jamaican sprint legend Merlene Ottey
appeared set to get her wish to run in the individual 100m after
a leading Jamaican athletics official told AFP the 40-year-old
two-time world 200m champion would run at the expense of national
champion Peta Gaye Dowdie.

But the hopes of four-time Olympic sprint silver medalist
Frankie Fredericks of ever winning gold emotionally collapsed
when the Namibian withdrew because of an Achilles tendon injury.

An ankle injury also forced Morocco's world 5,000m champion
Salah Hissou out of the Olympics.