Published: August 21, 2008 09:11 pm            

U.S. golden on the beach, but silver on the diamond

Hard day on the track for American relay teams.

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. women’s softball and U.S. women’s beach volleyball, two sure things at the Olympics.

Make that one sure thing.

Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, who have never lost a set in the games, overcame steady rain, the partisan crowd and China’s Wang Jie and Tian Jia 21-18, 21-18 Thursday for their second straight beach volleyball gold medal. The duo has won 108 consecutive matches, a streak that could end soon because both plan to start families.

“We might be back,” May-Treanor said. “We want our kids to see us play.”

Hopefully in better conditions, though. Both Americans said it was the hardest continuous rain they’ve ever played in.

“The rain makes it better. We felt like warriors out there,” said Walsh, known as “Six Feet of Sunshine.”

While the masterful U.S. pair was extending its dominance in the sand, the equally untouchable softball squad got, well, touched. Make that knocked down and out in the gold medal game by Japan, 3-1.

Losing for the first time since 2000, the United States was denied a chance for a fourth straight gold medal in the sport’s last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years — and maybe for good. The International Olympic Committee voted baseball and softball off the schedule for the London Games.

Yukiko Ueno, Japan’s remarkably resilient right-hander, shut down the Americans, who had won 22 straight Olympic games — usually in routs. The U.S. team also had some sloppy fielding in, well, sloppy conditions.

“It hurts a lot,” said slugger Crystl Bustos, who homered for the only U.S. run. “You train your whole life and you want to win. You don’t expect to lose.”

Particularly when you never do lose.

Track and field

More disappointment for the Americans — the men and the women — particularly in the relays. Both teams dropped the baton, meaning the Americans would go 0-for-6 in the sprints for the first time.

“I take full blame for it,” Tyson Gay said of his bad exchange with third-leg runner Darvis Patton. “I kind of feel I let them down.”

About 25 minutes later, women’s anchor Lauryn Williams flubbed her exchange with Torri Edwards, who stared in disbelief at the baton sitting on the track. At the 2004 Olympics, Williams started running too early and missed a handoff from Marion Jones in the final.

“If people want to assess the blame to me, that’s OK. I mean, I can take whatever it is that people are going to dish out,” Williams said. “We had good chemistry. The hand was back there. She was there. I don’t know what happened.”

But the Americans also got that medals sweep in the 400. LaShawn Merritt won, and Jeremy Wariner, the defending world and Olympic champion and the favorite, slowed up at the end and barely held off David Neville, who dived across the finish line.

Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown ran the fastest women’s 200 in a decade, 21.74 seconds, to beat American Allyson Felix and complete her country’s sweep of the four men’s and women’s sprint races.

Bryan Clay of the United States led the decathlon after five events with 4,521 points, ahead of Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus, who had 4,433.

Volleyball

The “Iron Hammer” has calmly lead the U.S. women’s volleyball team to its best Olympic finish in more than 20 years.

Jenny Lang Ping — who was a member of the Chinese team that beat the U.S. in the final of the 1984 Los Angeles Games — led the Americans to the title match with a three-set win over Cuba.

The U.S. will play Brazil on Saturday for the gold medal. The Americans haven’t done better since that silver in 1984. They won the bronze in 1992.

Lang was nicknamed the “Iron Hammer” for her powerful spikes. But under her steady hand, the Americans improved to 6-1 in Beijing with the 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 victory over Cuba.

“It was unbelievable,” Lang said. “I am happy for myself, but I am more happy for the players. They deserve it, it’s a players’ dream. They’ve worked hard for three or four years and cooperated well. It’s not only these 12 players, we had to cut players who have worked very hard, so I’d like to celebrate with them as well.”

Basketball

Diana Taurasi scored 21 points and Tina Thompson added 15 to help the U.S. women pull away from Russia 67-52 to make the gold medal game against Australia, which routed China 90-56.

“We were ready for this test, and it was a test,” U.S. point guard Sue Bird said. “They played a great game. Even when we weren’t making our shots, they seemed to be making everything. We never got rattled. We stayed poised and our defense really led us through this.”

The U.S. had been averaging 99.2 points as they cruised through the first six games, winning by 43 points a contest.

Diving

China is 7-for-7 after Chen Ruolin rallied on her last dive to earn four 10s, winning the gold medal in women’s 10-meter platform. Only one diving event remains: men’s platform.

The 15-year-old Chen got out of the pool, bowed and cried after she had nailed her last — and toughest — dive to beat Canada’s Emilie Heymans.

“When I entered the water, I had a feeling that I was going to win,” Chen said through a translator.

Taekwondo

American Mark Lopez came within one kick — and one second — of winning gold.

South Korea, which has never failed to get at least a bronze in its native martial art, took the two taekwondo golds on the second day of competition, with Son Tae-jin scoring in the final second to send Lopez home to Texas with a silver.

But there is some consolation. Lopez’ kid sister, Diana, got a bronze. And his big brother and two-time Olympic champion Steven still has a shot at the gold.

Son beat Mark Lopez in the men’s 68-kilogram taekwondo competition.

        

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