Finals Set in Javelin, Relays
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Here, in capsule form, are the events that will be highlighted today in Athens:
Track and Field
Finals are scheduled in the women’s high jump, men’s javelin throw, women’s 1,500 meters, men’s 800, men’s 5,000, and three relays. First among the relays is the men’s 400, followed by the women’s 1,600 and the men’s 1,600.
Breaux Greer of Athens, Ga., who’s competing despite a torn ligament in his left knee, has a chance to win the javelin throw. That could be the only individual medal for a U.S. athlete today, but all three relay teams are likely to place in the top three if they pass the baton properly.
Helene Elliott
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Boxing
Andre Ward will have to wait another day before fighting Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus, Ward in search of the first U.S. gold medal in boxing in eight years. But there will be five gold medal matches today, three of them involving boxing powerhouse Cuba: flyweight Yuriorkis Gamboa fighting Jerome Thomas of France, light-welterweight Yudel Johnson fighting Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand, and heavyweight Odlanier Solis fighting Viktar Zuyev of Belarus.
Other gold-medal fights will match featherweights Song Guk Kim of North Korea and Alexei Tichtchenko of Russia, and middleweights Gennadiy Golovkin of Kazakhstan and Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov of Russia.
Steve Springer
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Wrestling
Three U.S. wrestlers -- Stephen Abas of Fresno (121 pounds), Jamill Kelly of Stillwater, Okla. (145.5) and Cael Sanderson of Ames, Iowa (185) -- will be in today’s men’s freestyle semifinals. Three other U.S. wrestlers -- Eric Guerrero of Stillwater (132), Joe Williams of Iowa City (163) and Daniel Cormier of Stillwater (211.5) -- take to the mats for the first time today.
Steve Springer
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Taekwondo
Steven Lopez will try to make it two medals in two days for the U.S. team. Nia Abdallah won a silver for the U.S. on Friday night.
Lopez, from Houston, is much more experienced. He won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney in the featherweight division, and will be moving up to the new weight class of welterweight.
In today’s opening round, he will face wild-card entrant Raid Rasheed of Iraq.
-- Lisa Dillman
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