The Unofficial 2008 Beijing Olympics Blog

Men’s Singles World No. 1 Lin Dan of China thrashed Malaysia’s World No. 2 Lee Chong-wei 21-12, 21-8 to win the gold in the Beijing Olympic Badminton tournament on Sunday, August 17.

The anticipated heart-pounding dream final turned out to be a frustrating exit for Lee, who was bidding for Malaysia’s first Olympic gold.

“I suffered a lot of pressure tonight but I do not want to use it as an excuse for my defeat,” he said.

Maybe it was the pressure that made a normally sharp Lee lose his edge on court and essentially provide no match for Super Dan’s quickly-adapted strategies and crosscourt smashes.

In the first game Lin raced into a 7-1 lead. Eager to close the gap, Lee made too many unforced errors, enabling the World No. 1 to stretch his winning margin to 16-8 before closing out the game 21-12.

Lin continued to attack Lee in the second game, opening up an 8-0 lead and forcing his opponent to chase shuttles to all four corners of the court before killing rallies off with his smash. As the game progressed, Lee simply had no answers to Lin’s speed and the Chinese left-hander closed out the match in just 41 minutes.

“I have tried my best but Lin Dan played perfectly tonight,” said Malaysian sport icon Lee. “I couldn’t match his shuttle speed. He was much stronger than me and controlled the whole match.”

“At the end of the match it is not who is playing at a higher level, it is all about who is mentally stronger,” Lee commented on his loss.

“I felt a lot of pressure playing in front of my home crowd,” said an exhilarated Lin. “I thought it would be difficult to play the match and the pressure of the crowd might even be to my disadvantage, but I played well.

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Since Day 1 to Day 7, the Chinese have re-emphasised the fact that they are more than determined to occupy the top spot at the Olympic games. They indeed are on the top with 26 Gold Medals, where Her next competitor is standing at 10 Golds only. Where as United States of America still trying its level best to hold with 46 Medals in total, 5 ahead of China’s total tally of 41 at the end of Day 7.

IF we take the Gold medals for example, Whopping 16 of those 26 Gold medals come from Women for China where as American women could only 5 Gold Medals to American Total Tally.

On the Men Side, the competition has been neck to neck where the Chinese Men managed 10 Golds and Americans managed a competitive 9 Golds.

The Other Striking Observation for the Americans is that they dont miss out on medals atleast. May not be Gold but they have a knack of finishing up in the final three more often than any . This can be seen by looking at the Bronze tally of USA.

So, Surely its the Women Power which is driving the Chinese Canoe out of the Rough waters

Benjamin Philip Kleibrink of Germany took gold in the Men’s Individual Foil at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 13, while the silver medal went to Ota Yuki of Japan in a 15-9 bout.

The bronze medal went to Italy’s Salvatore Sanzo, who scored the winner against the flow of play, disappointing China’s Zhu Jun in a two round, 15-14 bout.

In the quarterfinals, Germany’s Benjamin Kleibrink eliminated Lei Sheng of China 15-7 to advance to the semifinals, while Italian Salvatore Sanzo outscored Erwann le Pechoux of France 10-9 to secure his place in the semifinals.

Italian Andrea Cassara (World No. 3) failed to reach the semifinals, losing to World No. 9 Zhu Jun of China 15-14.

This is Kleibrink’s first Olympics, though he went into the event with a World No. 6 ranking.

Germany claimed its second Fencing gold of the evening, when reigning world champion Britta Heidemann defeated Romanian Ana Maria Branza in the final of the Women’s Individual Epee at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in a 15-11 bout on August 13.

The final marks a vast progression for both athletes, with Heidemann improving on a tenth place finish at Athens in 2004, when Branza finished sixteenth.

Ildiko Mincza-Nebald of Hungary won bronze, beating hometown hero Li Na of China, also with a score of 15-11

Standings

Women’s Individual Epee

HEIDEMANN Britta                     Germany          Gold
BRANZA Ana Maria                    Romania           Silver
MINCZA-NEBALD Ildiko            Hungary           Bronze

Men’s Individual Foil

KLEIBRINK Benjamin Philip       Germany          Gold
OTA Yuki                                 Japan               Silver
SANZO Salvatore                     Italy                 Bronze

Fun pick. Via johnny-ong and 2008 Beijing.

This just went in my inbox. Apparently, two Americans, family members of a coach for the U.S. Olympic men’s indoor volleyball team, were attacked by an unknown Chinese man on the opening day of competition at the Games. The Chinese man killed one of the Americans, before committing suicide shortly after.

The Beijing Municipal Government says the attack happened in downtown Beijing at noon on Saturday. Officials issued a statement saying the 47-year-old attacker, Tang Yongming, also injured an American woman and her Chinese tourist guide. The attack took place on the second level of the Drum Tower, a popular tourist attraction in north Beijing, all of this while the Olympics opening ceremony was in full swing, with fireworks and beautiful displays of choreography. Tang threw himself from the ancient monument used to tell time centuries ago.

“Our priority in this hour is to attend to the needs of the family members, the U.S. Olympic men’s indoor volleyball team and staff, and the entire U.S. Olympic delegation,” the USOC said in a statement. “In addition, the USOC is working closely with the United States Embassy, United States law enforcement authorities and local law enforcement authorities.”

U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan said it was “aware of the reports of the accidents suffered by two American citizens, we are working with the Chinese authorities to find out more on the cause of the incident.” He declined to comment further, but said U.S. officials were in contact with relatives of the two Americans who are in Beijing.

A Beijing Drum tower.

No, we’re not doing it. We prefer micro-blogging it over Twitter. But the NY Times is doing a hell of job in covering the event. So, we thought they deserve a good pat on the back and of course a link. LIVE-BLOGGING the Opening Ceremony by NY Times.

If you own a blog or work at a publication that live-blogs the event, then send us and e-mail or leave a comment bellow and we’ll link to you as official Beijing live-bloggers!

Because there’s a lot of things going on in the Beijing Olympics, it’s virtually impossible for us to keep up with all the stuff and post about them. So, we decided to make a Twitter account especially made for the Olympics. You can always expect new updates there, detailing live events from our collaborator who’s there in the Beijing stadiums.

Follow our Twitter account here, please.

We’re just an hour away from the Olympics. Preparations are high end, with thousands of people working hard to make this the most awesome Olympics up to date, and considering this is the most expensive, they sure better do it.

Anyway, I’m more then certain that this is gonna be a stellar event, and the opening ceremony? Well let’s just say it’s gonna be nothing short of spectacular. Those who’ve seen the rehearsals from a few days ago know what I mean. Speaking of rehearsals check out some great pics of Olympics opening ceremonies from along the years.

Indeed 08.08.08 will be forever a date that will be remembered in time. Oh, has anybody but me wondered what’s with the Chinese obsession for the number 8? Did a bit of digging around and apparently found my answer. Quite the explanation.

So, let’s just kick back, tune on the TV (if you’re out of cable you could always watch the Olympics online) and enjoy the show. I’ll be updating the blog from time to time when something important happens.

In the photo next to me, the world famous Chinese basketball player Yao Ming, is featured carrying the Olympics Relay Torch, in Beijing August 6, 2008.

In the photo he’s been captured, right in the moment Yao entered Tiananmen Square, with a picture of Chairman Mao above his head.

It’s really impressive, and at the same time shocking, how well the contrast as been captured between Yao and the rest of his country mens’ height, as well as the seemingly calm, chilled Yao, in a bath of enthusiasm and motion.

Photo by: Joe Chan, Reuters (China)

Our colleagues down at BBC Sport just made an extraordinary animated advert for the upcoming Beijing Olympics, set to kick start just a few days from now on August 8th. The video is brilliantly made, depicting a monkey at it’s center, making it’s way to the top of one of Beijing Olympics arenas. By the way, I just love the Journey to the West reference (who here’s read it?). Check out the video bellow.