BEIJING — The U.S. women’s basketball team passed its first test of the Olympics, beating Russia in its closest contest in Beijing. Now it’s on to a fourth straight gold medal game.

Diana Taurasi scored 21 points and Tina Thompson added 15 to help the U.S. pull away from Russia 67-52 today in the semifinals. The Americans will face Australia in the gold medal game Saturday. The U.S. will be looking to win its fourth straight Olympic gold medal.

The U.S. had been averaging 99.2 points as they cruised through the first six games, winning by 43 points a contest. The closest win was a 38-point rout of Spain, in which the U.S. only led by five at the half.

However, the Americans hadn’t played a team as good as Russia, which had been inconsistent during the Olympics — barely winning games in pool play. In the quarterfinals, the Russians trailed Spain by 18 in the first half before rallying for an 84-65 victory.

For nearly 23 minutes Russia gave the U.S. all it could handle, taking a 38-33 lead on Maria Stepanova’s bank shot with 7:17 left in the third quarter.

Then the Americans scored the next 12 points.

Thompson hit a tough turnaround jump shot to start the run. A 3-pointer by Katie Smith and another by Taurasi, layups by Thompson and Lisa Leslie gave the U.S. a 45-38 cushion.

Stepanova finally ended Russia’s drought with a foul line jumper with 3:25 left in the period it was the last points they’d score in the quarter as the U.S. led 48-40 going into the final period.

Russia could get no closer than nine in the fourth quarter.

Stepanova scored 14 points to lead Russia, which will play in Sunday’s bronze medal game.

U.S.-born Becky Hammon, a naturalized Russian citizen, didn’t score until making a free throw with 9:30 left in the game. She didn’t hit her first field goal until 2:52 was left in the game and Russia was down by 14. She finished the game with three points going 1-for-6 from the field.

After running through its group, winning by an average of 43 points, the U.S. routed South Korea in the quarterfinals. The only problem they had in the first seven games was in the first three minutes in the opener against the Czech Republic when the U.S. found themselves down 13-2. They went on to win by 40.

Today, the U.S. had a first half to forget as they missed a half dozen layups, shot poorly from the foul line, and turned the ball over. Only the Americans’ defense kept them in the game.

In other sports, the first-ever BMX medal was postponed a day as heavy rain this morning forced a number of changes to the schedule. Olga Kaniskina of Russia flashed a huge smile as she won the women’s 20K race walk, a marked contrast to the competitors in the men’s javelin who struggled in slippery conditions.

The International Olympic Committee said it is investigating Ukraine’s Lyudmila Blonska. If found guilty of a doping offense, the 30-year-old Blonska would lose her silver medal in heptathlon and be expelled from the games.

Another piece of news is that these Summer Games are on pace to be the most-watched in history, a figure skewed by how many of China’s 1.3 billion residents were tuned in.

The United States still leads the medal count, up 95-83 over China. The hosts bumped their gold count to 46, with a first-ever sailing victory joining the list.

China already has won more golds than the United States won when it hosted the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and has tied the number won by the Soviet Union in 1992. The Soviets won 55 in 1988, which is now within range for the Chinese, especially with 86 more golds to be decided through Sunday.



The U.S. women’s volleyball team has advanced to the gold medal game, defeating Cuba in three sets to guarantee the Americans their best Olympic finish since 1984.

The United States will play Brazil, which beat China today, for the Olympic title on Saturday.

Cuba, three-time Olympic gold medal winners, will play the loser of that semifinal for the bronze.

The U.S. improved to 6-1 in Olympic play with the 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 victory.

The team’s best finish in the Olympics was a silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.



The Americans went to extra innings against Japan and pulled out a win.

Brian Barden singled in the go-ahead run to break a scoreless tie in the 11th inning on the way to a 4-2 victory. The Americans earned the third seed in Friday’s medal round, with the Japanese getting fourth.

The U.S. will play defending champion Cuba, while Japan will take on South Korea, the only undefeated team.



Chen Ruolin rallied on her last dive, earning four 10s, to win the gold medal on women’s 10-meter platform, making China 7-for-7 with one event remaining in the Beijing Olympics.

Chen totaled 447.70 points Thursday night after hitting a backward 21⁄2 somersault with 11⁄2 twists with the title on the line.

Emilie Heymans of Canada, who led by 7.15 points going into Chen’s last dive, earned the silver with 437.05.

Chen’s teammate, Wang Xin, took the bronze at 429.50.

American Laura Wilkinson, the 2000 Olympic champion, finished ninth in her final competition before retiring.



Remember the spark snowboard cross put into the Winter Games in Turin? Maybe bicycle motorcross — BMX, to those in the know — will do the same.

American racers Mike Day and Kyle Bennett gave the crowd a great introduction to the sport, with Day winning the time trial and each of his three quarterfinal heats and Bennett advancing but also dislocating his left shoulder in a wreck on his final heat.

Top-ranked racer Donny Robinson also moved on, as did Jill Kintner, the lone American in the 16-racer women’s field, who is competing despite a shredded knee ligament.

“You can’t get much more rad than this,” Robinson said.



Ben Askren has to be thinking, “I cut my hair for this?”

The bushy-haired former NCAA champion who promised a gold medal lost in freestyle’s 74-kilogram round of 16, ending his Olympics after two matches. The gold ended up around the same neck it has been placed at the last two Olympics — Buvaysa Saytiev of Russia. The three straight golds in the sport ties a record.

“I lost — I don’t know what to say, my dreams are crushed,” said Askren, who cut the hair he’d been growing for two years because he feared having it pulled.

Doug Schwab, a former NCAA champion, lost in the 66-kg qualifications but made the bronze-medal bracket when the guy who beat him advanced. Schwab ended up losing again. Turkey’s Ramazan Sahin won the bracket.

Also, the Court of Arbitration for Sport will investigate the Greco-Roman bout that so incensed Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian that he dropped his bronze medal in disgust and eventually had it stripped by the International Olympic Committee.



Mexico’s Guillermo Perez has a gold medal. And Afghanistan now has a medal, period.

Perez won the men’s under 58-kg division, beating Yulis Gabriel Mercedes of the Dominican Republic. A bronze went to Rohullah Nikpai, marking the first ever medal — in any sport — for Afghanistan.

In the women’s under 49-kg class, reigning world champion Wu Jingyu of China took the gold.



The U.S. men beat Serbia, remaining undefeated and earning a spot in the semifinals against Russia.

Brazil plays Italy in the other semifinal match on Friday.



American Rami Zur failed to qualify for the finals of the men’s 1,000-meter single kayak (K-1).

China added three boats to the finals, with the 1,000-meter canoe double team, the 1,000 K-2 and the 1,000 K-4 all qualifying.



The stunning loss in the tournament opener seems like ancient history for Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, especially now that the Americans are playing for the gold medal.

The guys needed only 41 minutes to eliminate Georgia in straight sets in the semifinals, then watched Brazil’s No. 2 team beat its best, the Athens gold medalists.



British middleweight James Degale beat former Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan to clinch Britain’s third boxing medal in Beijing, while Vijender Kumar clinched the first boxing medal in India’s history.

Cuba’s last two fighters also reached the semifinals with one-sided victories, guaranteeing a whopping eight medals for the sport’s now-unquestioned power. Flyweight Andris Laffita earned a marquee meeting with Russia’s Georgy Balakshin, while middleweight Emilio Correa emulated his medal-winning father with a win over Uzbekistan’s Elshod Rasulov.

Italy’s Vincenzo Picardi left the arena on his coach’s shoulders after beating Tunisia’s Walid Cherif to clinch a medal. Italy already clinched medals for its two heaviest fighters, world champions Roberto Cammarelle and Clemente Russo, but rarely does well in the lighter classes.



The U.S. had a chance to finish seventh. It didn’t happen.

At least it took two extra periods before Spain beat the Americans. The tournament wasn’t a total loss, though, as the ladies beat New Zealand and had draws with world No. 2 Argentina, Japan and Britain. The team’s other loss was to defending Olympic champion Germany.

“I think with more experience on these top levels, as we continue to play against the best teams in the world on a consistent basis, that’s what’s really going to continue to develop this team and this program,” U.S. captain Kate Barber said.



China found another sport to pad its gold-medal count, getting its first ever victory in sailing when windsurfer Yin Jian claimed the women’s RS:X class. Yin won silver four years ago.

“Is it real? Is it real? Did I really win gold?” Yin asked after the finish.

New Zealand’s Tom Ashley won the men’s RS:X. Bronze went to Israel’s Shahar Zubari, who has been under intense scrutiny in his homeland because during his national trials he defeated windsurfer Gal Fridman, who won Israel’s first-ever Olympic gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics.



Larisa Ilchenko of Russia drafted behind the leading British duo most of the 6.2-mile race, then sprinted to a gold medal in the final 50 meters (yards).

The 25-woman race looked a lot like roller derby in water, turning lane-swimming into a contact sport.

The pace-setting Brits, Keri-Anne Payne and Cassandra Patten, got silver and bronze.

Natalie du Toit of South Africa, who lost her left leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident in 2001, finished 16th.

“My message isn’t just to disabled people,” du Toit said. “It’s to everyone out there that you have to work hard. I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs ... but I’ve seen a lot of good things along the way. I was able to use the negativism in a good light and say after my accident, ’I can still do it if I work hard.”’



All three members of the Chinese squad advanced easily in women’s singles competition, especially Zhang Yining, the defending gold medalist and top-ranked player in the world.

Two U.S. players — Gao Jun and Wang Chen — also stayed alive.



Eric Lamaze of Canada has ridden Hickstead to the gold medal in Olympic equestrian individual jumping.

Lamaze won a timed jump-off with Rolf-Goran Bengtsson of Sweden on Ninja, who took the silver in today’s competition.

U.S. rider Beezie Madden on Authentic won the bronze.

Lamaze and Bengtsson were among 10 riders with clean rides in the first rounds, but they were the only ones to cleanly finish the second round.

Bengtsson knocked down one rail in the jump-off, while Lamaze went clean to win the gold.



Andrey Moiseev of Russia won the men’s modern pentathlon, outlasting a pair of Lithuanians during the final run.

Moiseev led after the first four events — shooting, fencing, swimming and equestrian. That meant he was allowed to start the 3,000-meter run 13 seconds ahead of the field today.

Moiseev won by 21 seconds. Edvinas Krungolcas won the silver, and Andrejus Zadneprovskis took the bronze.

David Svoboda of the Czech Republic and Amro El Geziry of Egypt set Olympic modern pentathlon records in shooting and swimming. Svoboda earned 191 of a possible 200 points in the 10-meter air pistol, and El Geziry completed the 200-meter freestyle in 1 minute, 55.86 seconds.

They both dropped out of contention because of poor horse rides.