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Day-6 Roundup: Two Swimmers Double in Golds, Frenchwoman Perec Disappear
American Lenny Krayzelburg and Dutchwoman Inge de Bruijn both won their second swimming gold medals as the Millennium Olympics concluded its six-day competitions on Thursday, with a lone world record created by the South Korean women archers in the team final.
Treble world record holder Krayzelburg, who won the 100m backstroke on Monday, triumphed again in the 200m backstroke in an Olympic record of one minute 56.76 seconds, becoming the third American to sweep the Olympic backstrokes after Rick Carey in 1984 and John Naber in 1976.
De Bruijn won the 100m freestyle, denying Americans Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres in their final attempts for an individual gold, by touching the pad in 53.83 seconds to go with her gold in the 100m butterfly on Sunday.
With another bronze, Thompson snatched her ninth Olympic medal, beating Dawn Fraser, Kornelia Ender and Shirley Babashoff on the all-time list in her third Olympic Games. Seven of Thompson's medals are gold, but all of those have come in relays.
Italian Massimiliano Rosolino set an Olympic record of 1:58.98 for first place in the men's 200m individual medley, knocking American Tom Dolan out of a medley double.
Hungarian Agnes Kovacs, the 100-200m breaststroke European champion in 1997 and 1999, walked away with the women's 200m breaststroke title, while Qi Hui placed fourth, the best finishing by any Chinese in the Games.
For Azerbaijan, Thursday proved to be a memorable moment as Zemfira Meftakhetdinova awarded her country its first Olympic gold medal in the inaugural women's skeet.
Meftakhetdinova, the 1995 world champion and 1993 European champion, shot a perfect 25 in the final for a total of 98 hits, which was just one short of the world record of 99.
"I can't comprehend that I've won," said the 37-year-old woman, "It's the point of being an athlete in the Olympic Games. I would've been happy for any medal but this is the main thing in life for an athlete."
As the track and field competitions to be started on Friday, France's triple Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec disappeared from the Games and will not compete in her 400 meters.
French Olympic Committee President Henri Serandourand and French Sports Minister Marie-George Buffet confirmed that "Perec left Australian territory on September 20 which means she has withdrawn from the Sydney Olympic Games, and The French delegation doesn't know the reasons but it would like to clarify that it is in no way linked to an anti-doping test."
Perec has irritated French officials by refusing to train or live her teammates, and was last reported staying at a Sydney luxury hotel, French media reports said, adding that she left the hotel after receiving a threat.
In the gymnastics, Andreea Raducan of Romania won the women's all-around gymnastics title and her compatriots Simona Amanar and Maria Olaru ensured a clean sweep for Romania by finishing in the second and third places respectively.
Meanwhile, the IOC has begun to probe allegations that some teams sold tickets to scalpers, and the Sydney Morning Herald claimed some Olympic Committees from rich nations were guilty of the practice.
Besides, two Bulgarian weightlifters have failed drugs tests for a banned diuretic, and the IOC will have an executive meeting and make a statement tomorrow morning, according to reliable IOC sources.
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