Jan Frodeno Gold In Men's Triathlon

Beijing Olympics - Jan Frodeno gave the German gold in a thrilling men's triathlon clocking one hour 48:53 seconds, a well-timed sprint clearing with 50m to go to finish ahead of Canada's Simon Whitfield and New Zealand's Bevan Docherty

Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee had been among the leading group for much of the run before fading to 12th place.

Fellow Brit Will Clarke was two places behind Brownlee with Tim Don, suffering from a virus, failed to finish.

Don, who had hoped to among the medals in Beijing, was struggling with illness in the build-up to the race and withdrew early.

Whitfield looked to have time his sprint finish to perfection, breaking from a group that included Frodeno, Docherty and pre-race favourite Javier Gomez of Spain.

But Frodeno stuck with him and, with just 50m to the line, had the legs to out-sprint the Canadian to claim the gold.

"My advantage was that I wasn't one of the big favourites. They had all the media attention," said Frodeno.

"I knew this was going to be a tough race, the 10 km run was going to be the hardest of my life, but I just realised this is what I have been dreaming of, this is my only chance," he added.

It was a fitting end to a fantastic race in which Brit Brownlee more than played his part.

he 20-year-old set the agenda on the 40km bike ride after a hugely impressive swim and looked in contention for a medal as he initially formed a six-man breakaway group in the 10km run.

But he just did not have the legs to keep up with the experienced Frodeno, Whitfield, Docherty, Gomez and Ivan Rana, falling off the pace before crossing the line 86 seconds behind the winner.

"I got to 7km on the run and there was nothing left," said Brownlee. "I've got to find a way of getting 12 places better in time for London."

Clarke was always playing catch-up after a disappointing 1.5km swim in a race which was competed in blistering heat.

"I just didn't do it on the swim," he said. "I wasn't fast enough so I had to do too much on the bike and that meant I came to the run tired. I have to go back and do lots of work on my swimming."

Who Is Jan Frodeno
Jan Frodeno was born on August 18, 1981 in Cologne, Germany, Frodeno is an Olympic triathlon champion from Germany. He won gold in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Frodeno started out as a swimmer in South Africa at the age of 15, and he entered into triathlon in 2000. He then went to Germany to compete in the Bundesliga, and qualified for the national team in 2002. He currently trains at the Olympic Training Centre in Saarbrucken. Before his Olympic victory, his best result was placing sixth in the 2007 World Championships, and winning the German Championship the same year. He had previously also placed second and third in various races of the World Cup from 2005 to 2008.

His gold medal win at the 2008 Summer Olympics was a surprise. He beat out race favorite and 2008 World Champion Javier Gomez. In the final meters of the race, he sprinted against 2000 Olympic champion Simon Whitfield. The victory came the day after his twenty-seventh birthday.

FYI - 2008 Beijing Olympic Sports

Roger Federer Still In Contention For Olympic Gold Medal

BEIJING - A dream of Olympic gold medal is still alive for Roger Federer in joining Swiss teammate Stanislas Wawrinka beating American twins Bob and Mike Bryan and get the privileged in the final of the men's doubles Olympic competition.

The fourth-seeded Swiss pair collapsed to the ground and hugged each other after beating the top-ranked duo in the tournament, 7-6 (6), 6-4.

"I'm very excited," said Federer, who was knocked out of the single's on Thursday. "Having beaten the best in the world and going for gold — this is a big moment in my career."

An Olympic medal is one of the few glories that has eluded Federer, who holds 55 titles that include 12 Grand Slam trophies. Federer's best Olympic showing was a singles semifinal appearance at the 2000 Sydney Games.

The Swiss star, who is struggling to overcome a yearlong slump, came to Beijing knowing he would lose the No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal next week after 4½ years on top.

Federer seldom plays doubles, but put on an inspired performance packed with well-placed winners that had the world's best doubles team swinging their rackets at the air as balls sped by.

The Bryan brothers, who have been playing tennis since the age of 2, have won 48 titles together but never an Olympic medal. The twins reached the doubles quarterfinals in Athens four years ago.

It was the second match of the day for the Swiss players, who just a few hours earlier beat Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi of India 6-2, 6-4 in a rain-delayed quarterfinal.

"They both came up guns-a-blazing," Paes said. "We got stuck with Roger just playing unbelievable tennis."

It was a turnaround from the night before, when Federer put on a lackluster performance in his singles quarterfinal against James Blake and was eliminated in straight sets.

Federer and Wawrinka will face unseeded Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson in the final Saturday. The Swedes beat French duo Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 7-6 (6), 4-6, 19-17.

Their third set tiebreaker went back-and-forth with head-to-head battles at net for 36 games, setting an Olympic men's record for most games in a set. The old record was 34 games.

The second-seeded Venus and Serena Williams, both eliminated in singles Thursday, also completed a suspended second-round doubles match and beat Ayumi Morita and Ai Sugiyama of Japan 7-5, 6-2.

Another set of sisters, Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine, beat Italian pair Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

FYI - 2008 Beijing Olympic Sports

Michael Phelps Wins 2nd Gold In Swimming

BEIJING – Michael Phelps winning his second gold of the Beijing Olympics and his teammates set a record in winning the 4x100 freestyle relay, barely beating France in three minutes, 8.24 seconds. Michael Phelps is trying to win eight golds at the Beijing Games. “You could tell I was pretty excited, “I lost my voice and I was definitely pretty emotional out there." said Phelps.

Kosuke Kitajima of Japan defended his 100-meter breaststroke Olympic title in a record time of 58.91 seconds, and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe shaved two tenths of a second off the 100-meter backstroke record to win her semifinal in 58.77 seconds.

The first positive doping test at the Beijing Games also was announced Monday. Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno was ousted from the games after testing positive for EPO, a blood-boosting hormone that enhances endurance.

The International Olympic Committee said Moreno, who was to compete in the women’s individual time trial, was tested in the athletes’ village on July 31 and left China later that day before the result was in.

Moreno is the first athlete caught under the IOC’s Beijing drug-testing program, which includes a record 4,500 doping controls.

In the swimming pool, Phelps’ hopes of breaking Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds in a single games appeared doomed when the French team took the lead of the relay at the 250-meter mark.

They were 4.03 seconds under world-record pace at 350 meters before Jason Lezak, the oldest American male swimmer at 32, rallied over the closing strokes. Nearly a body length behind Alain Bernard at the final turn, he overtook the Frenchman at the wall by a fingertip.

After winning seven straight golds in the event, the Americans were beaten by Australia and South Africa at the last two Olympics.

“I’ve been on the last two relays where we come up short," Lezak said. “To be honest with you I got really tired of losing. I finished real strong."

The US team shattered the world record of 3:12.23 they set Sunday in the preliminaries. Australia won bronze in 3:09.91.

Phelps, who swam the first leg, thrust both arms toward the roof after Lezak’s incredible finish.

“I was going nuts," Phelps said. “As soon as (Lezak) came off that last wall, I started going crazy. We’re a team. We went in as a team and now we’re exiting as a team — and we’re going out with that gold that we needed to get back."

Phelps also advanced to the 200 freestyle final, qualifying fourth-fastest in his semifinal in 1:46.28, a day after he shattered the 400 individual medley world record to win his first gold medal. The American lost his heat to teammate Peter Vanderkaay, whose time of 1:45.76 made him the leading qualifier for Tuesday’s final. Park Tae-hwan of South Korea was second-fastest, followed by Jean Basson of South Africa.

Coventry broke the record of 58.97 set by Natalie Coughlin at last month’s US trials. The two are the fastest going into Tuesday’s final.

In the men’s 100 breaststroke, Kitajima rallied from third after 50 meters to break the 59.13 world record set by Brendan Hansen of the United States two years ago.

“It was perfect," Kitajima said.

Libby Trickett captured her first Olympic gold in the women’s 100 butterfly in 56.73 seconds, just 0.12 off the world record, and Rebecca Adlington of Britain rallied in the final meters to overhaul Katie Hoff of the United States and take the gold in the 400 freestyle in 4:03.22.

Hoff was second in 4:03.29, Joanne Jackson of Britain won the bronze in 4:03.52.

Medals will also be awarded Monday in weightlifting, with the women competing in the 58-kilogram category and the men at 62 kg, and in the women’s individual foil in fencing. Shooting will hold the men’s 10-meter air rifle and the women’s trap finals, while the men will compete for the 10-meter platform synchronized diving gold.

FYI - 2008 Beijing Olympic Sports