It’s 1pm Friday in Athens, 8pm here in Sydney on a balmy Friday evening in late winter. We’re getting down to the Bismuth End of the Athens Games. Here’s where the team sports are up to:

Basketball: Women’s semi-finals, starting from 9.30pm Sydney time: Russia v USA and Australia v Brazil. It’s hard to go past the Dream Teamettes and the Opals in these. Men’s semis, from 3am Saturday my time: Argentina v USA and Italy v Lithuania. You don’t really know with the Dream Team these days, but I think my money is on Lithuania now for the gold. USA are currently the mens favourites with PaddyPower at 1.67, Lithuania 2.50, Italy 9.00, Argentina 16.00.

Soccer: With USA having won the women’s gold on Thursday, Iraq play Italy for bronze on Friday night, with Argentina playing Paraguay in a 10am local time kickoff on Saturday. Geez, even in Sydney the soccer final didn’t start till midday! Argentina are short priced favourites, but anything can happen in Olympic soccer. My trifecta: Paraguay, Argentina, Iraq (which will make them happy at the RNC next week).

Handball: The only sport in which Australia does not enter a team. Men’s semis today: Croatia v Hungary and Germany v Russia. In the women’s event, France v South Korea and Denmark v Ukraine. I don’t have a clue here sorry… Finals are not till Sunday, the bronze medal matches tomorrow.

Hockey: The Germans won their first women’s hockey gold yesterday. This evening, the German men play Spain for bronze, Australia play the Netherlands for gold starting at 3.30am Saturday Sydney time. This is one event where I will let parochialism run riot. Holland are favourites with PaddyPower at 1.53, Australia are 2.37. And Spain for bronze, if only to keep the Telediario crew happy tomorrow morning. (I’ve just put two euros on the Aussies.)

Volleyball: The Peace and Friendship Stadium sounds like somewhere the Hussein brothers would torture the Iraqi national football team after another loss. But it has been the scene of some great action over the past two weeks. Men’s semis tonight: Russia v Italy and USA v Brazil. I wouldn’t be unhappy to see an Italy-Brazil final. Saturday night, the women’s competition wraps up. Brazil plays Cuba for bronze, Russia and China for gold. China will do me. The men’s medal games are on Sunday afternoon.

Water polo: The women’s event is over, and congratulations to Italy. The men’s semi-finals are on tonight. Hungary play Russia and Greece play Serbia & Montenegro. Medal games on Sunday. I’ve never seen so many events continue on the final day right up almost till the closing ceremony starts. I’ll go with HUN to beat SCG.

The final classification matches in the men’s hockey have all been completed now. Pakistan are 5th, beating New Zealand 4-2. India are 7th, beating South Korea 5-2. Great Britain are 9th. They were 1-1 with South Africa after extra time and won the penalty shootout 4-3.

We’ve come a long way since Rick DeMont lost his swimming gold medal because of his asthma spray in 1972. Are there really more drug cheats in the Olympics these days or is the IOC just doing a better job of catching them? Two words: (i) East. (ii) Germany. Two more words: (iii) Stella. (iv) Walsh.

Since the start of these Games, the following medal-winners have been disqualified because of drug breaches:

• Leonidas Samparis (Greece), bronze in 62kg weightlifting (Israel Jose Rubio of Venezuela the beneficiary)
• Irina Korzhanenko (Russia), gold in the women’s shot put at Olympia (Yumileidi Cumba of Cuba receiving gold)
• Robert Fazekas (Hungary), gold in the men’s discus (the gold going to Virgilijius Alekna of Lithuania)
• Olena Olefirenko (Ukraine), bronze in the women’s quad sculls (the Australian team taking bronze)

Thursday was a good day for countries entering the Gold Medal roll of honour for the first time. Taiwan (Wikipedia explains some of this “Chinese Taipei” nonsense) broke their duck when Chen Hsih Hsin won the women’s 49kg taekwondo final. The very next event on the mat saw them go one better, Chu Mu Yen winning the men’s 58kg event. Here is how Xinhua reported the double victory for the island China likes to think of as “Taiwan Province”.

The Dominican Republic scored their first gold medal on Thursday night, albeit with an athlete born and raised in the USA. Felix Sanchez won the 400 hurdles with a time of 47.63 seconds. He was born in New York, but his parents are from the Dominican Republic and he has represented them internationally since 1999. Sanchez is a product of the University of Southern California, who proudly boast that they have had at least one gold medal in every summer Olympics since 1912. Hoy in the Dominican Republic reports Sanchez’s victory (in Spanish).

USC has been rather more successful in Olympic competition than Egypt. Karam Mohammed Gager Ibragim, as Karam Ibrahim is known on the FILA database, won the 96kg greco-roman wrestling to be Egypt’s first gold medallist since 1948.

New Zealand, who took home more gold medals from Los Angeles 1984 than Australia, picked up their third at Athens when Hamish Carter won the men’s triathlon.

The women’s hockey, water polo and soccer all wrapped up on Thursday. Germany beat the Netherlands 2-1 to take the hockey gold. Here’s the Reuters report of the game, and the Frankfurter Rundschau report in German. Argentina beat China (apparently known as the “Snow Lotuses”) 1-0 for bronze. Xinhua tipped me off about the nickname. South Africa consigned Spain to the wooden spoon with a 4-3 extra time win. The Hockeyroos finished fifth. They’ve never been less successful than that. Meanwhile, Mihir Bose of the Telegraph paints a gloomy picture of the future of British hockey.

Water polo, and a double-overtime 10-9 win to Italy over Greece. La Gazetta dello Sport has the story in Italian. USA beat Australia 6-5 for the bronze.

Soccer: The USA did it. 2-1 in extra time against Brazil. George Vecsey of the New York Times reports on what might be the end of the road for the 91ers. Notre Dame have claimed gold for the third time in their history, with Shannon Boxx and Kate Sobrero Markgraf being members of Team USA. Germany beat Sweden 1-0 for bronze.

Next: Preview of the last three days of team sports, and an extremely multilingual wrap of the beach volleyball.

When the Australian Government introduced anti-spam laws earlier this year, an exemption was included for charities and political parties. I’ve yet to see any legalised spam from an Australian charity or political party. They’d be mad to do it, you’d think.

Today’s Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Liberal Party in John Howard’s own electorate of Bennelong is sending out unsolicited emails promoting the local member of parliament in the forthcoming election. (An election for which he is yet to set the date.) These emails aren’t just going out to users inside his electorate, either.

But if that’s not enough, the company contracted to send the emails is a Sydney firm by the name of Net Harbour. And who happens to be one of the directors?

Tim Howard, son of the Prime Minister himself.

Quizzed about the matter on radio in Hobart this morning, JH said that he put up the money for the spam campaign himself. Defending his son, he said (source):

“I’m very proud of the fact that my son has started a small business. He’s in his 20s and I get a real buzz out of the fact that he’s prepared to have a go in a small business, that’s what the future of this country is all about.”

Regardless of the apparent exemption that JH is exploiting, and regardless of the serious conflicts of interest involved, there is the question of how his son’s company obtained the email addresses. Not from dad’s electorate website I hope…

Really, how stupid it is to send spam to your constituents just before an election? In the letterbox is one thing, but email is such a sensitive issue these days. Any other MP trying that sort of stunt would be immediately branded an idiot.

For the record (and a special hello to Google, Lycos, Altavista etc), the suburbs covered by the Bennelong electorate are: Boronia Park, Carlingford, Chatswood West, Denistone, Denistone East, Denistone West, East Ryde, Eastwood, Epping, Gladesville, Macquarie Park, Marsfield, Meadowbank, Melrose Park, Monash Park, North Epping, North Ryde, Putney, Ryde, Tennyson Point, West Ryde.

They’ve been in Olympic competition since 1952, but tragically the words “Israel” and “Olympics” have mostly been used together in terms of the terrorist atrocity at Munich 1972. On Wednesday, however, Israel finally picked up its first gold medal.

Gal Fridman came first in the Mistral class windsurfing event at the Agios Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre. Having taken bronze at Atlanta 1996, Fridman climbed to top place in the 11th and final race of this year’s series after Brazil’s Ricardo Santos, who was leading after race 10, finished 17th in the last race to miss out on a medal. Nikolaos Kaklamanakis, who lit the Olympic flame on opening night, took silver.

Ha’aretz reported on Fridman’s victory. Eyebrows have been raised in Israel, however, at sports minister Limor Livnat’s second trip to the Athens games to personally congratulate Fridman. Last week she flew to Greece to congratulate judo bronze medallist Arik Ze’evi. The Jerusalem Post has a report together with a shot of the Livnat/Fridman photo-op.

The first-ever performance of HaTikvah at a gold medal ceremony has aroused debate over an official national anthem for Israel. Arutz Sheva has a report, which includes a Windows Media video (in Hebrew) of the medals ceremony and the singing of HaTikvah. Here are the lyrics to HaTikvah. There’s a school of thought that Israel should choose an anthem that is more inclusive of its Arab citizens.

Faustine Merret of France won the women’s mistral event.

The American media must have been as confused as hell when ex-Australian Austrian Kate Allen won the women’s triathlon. Read (in German) how Triathlon Austria celebrated. And here is the Sydney Morning Herald report.

Pakistan beat India in a minor classification playoff in the men’s hockey on Wednesday night by three goals to nil. Reports from the Daily Times in Pakistan and the Hindustan Times. And it was, naturally, a cue for Mighty Merv Fernandis’ latest Dribble Scribble.

The Jamaica Gleaner reports Veronica Campbell’s 200 metre victory on the track. And, of course, the pollies’ reaction.

Oh, and while we’re in Jamaica, the Jamaica Observer’s weekend All-Woman magazine has a profile on that great Slovenian athlete Merlene Ottey. Her long career, spanning seven Olympic games, probably came to an end when she failed to finish the 200 metres semi-final. Here is the Merlene Ottey fan club website based in Denmark.

In Trans-Tasman news, the Opals flogged the Tall Ferns 94-55.

Finally, Jana. Marion.

Cuba has won the gold medal for Olympic baseball. That’s three gold and one silver in the four Games since baseball was introduced in Barcelona 1992. They did so by defeating Australia 6-2 in the final on Wednesday night. It was Australia’s first medal in olympic baseball competition.

It was a final, however, where the War on Error reared its ugly head. In the fourth inning, with Cuba leading 2-0, Australia’s Thomas Brice hit a fly ball to deep centrefield. Carlos Tabares gloved the ball, it bounced a few inches onto the fence and back into his glove. He claimed the catch (see this photo from the TV footage), and the umpires gave him out. But it looked fairly obvious on the replays that it was a rebound off the wall. Australian manager Jon Deeble complained and was ejected.

Australia had men on first and second base at the time, and would certainly have gotten one, and maybe two, runs from the hit if the catch had been disallowed.

NBCOlympics.com reported the controversy. Alex Brown reported the game for the Sydney Morning Herald, and he also wrote about the career prospects of the silver medallists after the Games.

Adelante of Camaguey, Cuba report the game in Spanish.

More reports on Australia’s finest hour in honkbal history, and for that matter another damn fine moment in Cuba’s history at juegos de pelota: New York Times, Miami Herald, CBC and Baseball America. And then there’s the Associated Press story about how the major league players in the US are paying no attention to the Athens ball games.
In Spanish: El Nuevo Herald (Miami), Univision,

Here is the play-by-play of the final, and the box scores.

Earlier in the day, Japan thwacked Canada 11-2. Stubby Clapp went 0 for 3.

Here is the ONS wrap of the final day of competition:

Men : Cuba is golden; silver and bronze for Australia and Japan

ATHENS, 25 August - Cuba tonight won an unprecedented third Olympic Baseball gold medal by defeating Australia in the final game of the ATHENS Olympic Baseball tournament. Japan won the bronze when it beat Canada.

CUB vs. AUS

Frederich CEPEDA’s two-run home run paced a 13-hit attack as Cuba defeated surprise finalist Australia 6-2 to capture its third Olympic gold medal in the last four Olympics.

Cuba’s Adiel PALMA (3-0) allowed four hits, one run, three walks and struck out five to earn his tournament leading third victory.

For the first three innings, starting pitchers Norge Luis VERA (CUB) and John STEPHENS (AUS) kept the both offences at bay.

With one-out in the fourth innings, three-time Cuban League batting champion, Osmani URRUTIA (CUB), hit a ground ball up the middle that shortstop Rodney VAN BUIZEN threw wide of first base. The error was costly, as left fielder CEPEDA slammed the two-run shot over the right field wall to give the current world champions a 2-0 lead.

A controversial catch in the bottom of the fourth extinguished a serious Australian threat.

With two outs and two runners on base, rightfielder Thomas BRICE (AUS) launched a long flyball beyond streaking centrefielder Carlos TABARES (CUB). TABARES gloved it, but before he could complete the catch, the ball popped out again, hit the wall and fell back into his glove before he tumbled to the ground.

Strong protestations by Australian manager Jon DEEBLE proved fruitless, and the out remained.

Australia got on the board in the next inning when lead off batter Paul GONZALEZ (AUS) hit a solo home run that chased starter VERA out of the game.

In the sixth inning, Cuba’s ‘Big Red Machine’ broke open the game with a five-hit, four-run inning keyed by tournament RBI leader Ariel PESTANO’s two run single and Eduardo PARET’s two out, two run double up the third base line.

Australia tacked on a run in the eighth inning, but Cuban manager Higinio VELEZ used his bullpen depth to repeatedly douse the Australian threats.

PALMA combined with three other pitchers to pick up the victory. Danny BETANCOURT (CUB), the winner in yesterday’s semifinal, got the save in one inning of relief.

The gold medal was a slice of redemption for a young Cuban team that had to settle for silver in the 2000 Games four years ago when it lost to the USA. Only four members of Cuba’s 2000 Games silver medal winning team returned to Athens. The Caribbean island nation has advanced to every gold medal game since 1992, winning three.

Australia won it’s first Olympic Baseball medal after finishing seventh in the 2000 Games.

JPN vs. CAN

In the bronze medal game, Japanese catcher Kenji JOJIMA knocked in four runs as Japan defeated Canada 11-2 for its second Olympic medal in Baseball.

JOJIMA jump started the Japanese offense with a two run homer that landed right in front of the scoreboard in left centre field in the first inning.

Canadian pitcher Mike JOHNSON (CAN) kept the Japanese bats silent the next inning but the floodgates opened in the top of the third.

Kosuke FUKUDOME (JPN) led off with a walk and was moved to second base after Shinya MIYAMOTO (JPN) bunted for a base hit. Yoshinobu TAKAHASHI (JPN) then executed a flawless small ball by bunting the two other runners over. This brought up the red hot JOJIMA who was intentionally walked to load the bases in order to set up the double play.

The strategy did not work as Kazuhiro WADA (JPN) hit a single to shallow right field to score FUKUDOME. JOHNSON was taken out in favour of Eric CYR (CAN) who got the next out but walked Norihiro NAKAMURA (JPN) with the bases still loaded to score a run.

The next batter, Takuya KIMURA (JPN) was fooled by a CYR offering and checked his swing. The ball ended up hitting the sweet part of the bat and made it through the middle of the infield to score two runners and put Japan up 6-0.

Japan scored another run in the fourth inning to add to its lead.

Canada mounted a challenge in the fourth and fifth innings, getting one run when Andy STEWART (CAN) drove in Danny KLASSEN (CAN) with a fielder’s choice and another thanks to a home run by Jeremy WARE (CAN) to cut the lead to 7-2.

Japan tacked on four runs in the eighth to pull away and cruise to the bronze medal.

Japanese pitchers Tsuyoshi WADA, Hiroki KURODA and Masahide KOBAYASHI combined to hold Canada to five hits while striking out eleven batters.

Canadian manager Ernie WHITT used six pitchers in the game, all of which let in runs with the exception of John OGILTREE (CAN) who pitched to one batter and got him to fly out.

Japan won the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games, while Canada was appearing in its first Olympic Baseball competition.

ONS dr/mp

Statistical leaders for the tournament: Ariel Pestano batted .514 (18 for 35) for Cuba, slugged .743 and hit 14 RBIs. Four players hit three home runs, none of them Cuban: Yurrendel de Caster (Netherlands), Brett Roneberg (Australia), Kosuke Fukudome (Japan) and Yoshinobu Takahashi (Japan). Fukudome (no you don’t pronounce it that way) scored 11 runs. Peng Cheng-Min of Taiwan stole 3 bases.

Among the pitchers, Chris Oxspring of Australia and Hiroki Koruda of Japan both had ERAs of 0.00. Adiel Palma of Cuba had 3 wins. Daisuke Matsuzaka of Japan made 20 strikeouts.

And let’s remember…the USA didn’t qualify. And they are going to struggle to do well in future Olympics, as MLB commissioner Bud Selig has made it clear that he doesn’t want the major league season disturbed for players to compete in Olympic games. It’s because of America that there is a question mark over baseball’s participation in Beijing 2008. Certainly the fact that women’s baseball is so sparse internationally is an inhibiting factor.

Only five teams competed in the inaugural Women’s Baseball World Cup, which concluded in Edmonton on August 8. (USA won, of course.) Eight countries competed in the fourth annual Women’s World Series in Uozu City. Can you believe that India sent a team? Can you believe that South Korea lost to Japan 53-0? No, softball is the proxy female baseball and will remain while Team USA runs rampant and hotties like Jennie Finch grab all the attention.