Pool records fall as Phelps gets 17th medal

LONDON - Swimmer Michael Phelps won his 17th Olympic medal to take him closer to the all-time mark, but his U.S. freestyle relay team were upstaged by France as records fell in the pool on Sunday's second day of competition at the London Games.

South Africa's Cameron Van der Burgh and American Dana Vollmer set world records in the men's 100 metres breaststroke and women's 100 butterfly, Van der Burgh denying Japan's Kosuke Kitajima in his bid to be the first male swimmer to win gold in the same event at three successive Olympics.

Cyclist Lizzie Armitstead won Britain's first medal of the London Games, a silver behind the Dutch favourite Marianne Vos in a nailbiting, rain-drenched women's road race.

The latest U.S. basketball Dream Team played to the gallery as they cruised through their opening match against France, but there was an upset for another American gold medal favourite, gymnastics world all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, who failed to qualify for the individual Olympic final.

Overall, China took a commanding early lead in the rankings with 12 medals, six of them gold, ahead of the United States on 11 medals, including three golds.

Meanwhile organisers sought to quell growing frustration with empty seats among the tens of thousands of Britons who finished up ticketless in the pre-Games booking system.

First silver

Phelps won his first ever silver after swimming a storming second leg in the 4x100 freestyle relay to lift his overall medal tally to 17, just one shy of the all-time record held by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina.

But a flying anchor leg from France's Yannick Agnel snatched the gold from the fingertips of Phelps's team mate and great individual rival Ryan Lochte.

Australia, the fastest qualifiers and looking to notch a famous victory against their traditional rivals for pool supremacy, were soundly beaten into fourth.

Four years ago in Beijing Phelps won gold in each of the eight events that he swam. In London, after losing his 400 individual medley title to Lochte on Saturday, he has already tasted defeat twice in two days.

U.S. swimmer Dana Vollmer ended a lifetime of frustration and battles with her health to win the 100 metres butterfly gold medal in world record time.

Swimming like a woman possessed, Vollmer sliced 0.08 seconds off a record set at the 2009 world championships in Rome before polyurethane bodysuits were banned.

Vollmer won a relay gold at Athens in 2004 a year after heart surgery. But she failed to qualify for Beijing in 2008 and did not return to form until she was diagnosed with an egg allergy and put on a special diet.

Cameron Van der Burgh also broke the world record, for the 100 breaststroke, to become the first South African man to win individual Olympic swimming gold.

His time trimmed 0.12 seconds off the record set by Australia's Brenton Rickard, also in Rome in 2009.

Japan's Kitajima, who won the breaststroke double at Athens in 2004 and Beijing four years later, was fifth, and will have to look to the 200 in London to try to make it three in a row.

There was a further pool gold for France when top-ranked Camille Muffat won the women's 400 freestyle ahead of Allison Schmitt of the United States and Britain's defending champion, Rebecca Adlington.

Home quest

Britain's quest for its best ever medal haul had got off to a slow start when it failed to win one on the first day of competition.

But Armitstead got in ahead of Adlington to set the ball rolling on Day Two when she, Vos and Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya launched a gutsy breakaway in torrential rain 50 km from the end of the women's cycling road race.

Vos, the hot favourite, who won the points race on the track in Beijing but has come second in the last five world championship road races, made no mistake on the final sprint down the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.

"The Olympics is different than the world championships. I knew it was a different race," Vos told a news conference. "You don't have to think about the years before."

Meanwhile China took its gold medal tally to six, twice that of the nearest challenger, the United States.

Guo Wenjun produced a near-perfect last shot to retain her Olympic title in the women's 10 metre air pistol shooting, while Wu Minxia and He Zi took their expected easy gold in the women's synchronised 3 m springboard diving.

The sight of rows of vacant seats at football stadiums, Wimbledon, the Aquatic Centre and beyond has angered Britons who tried and failed to buy tickets in the build-up to the Games after being told they had sold out.

More gaps were reported on Sunday, many at the equestrian eventing dressage despite the draw of Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter Zara Phillips making her Olympic debut.

Organisers launched an inquiry to nail down precisely who had not taken up their places and why, and filled many of the seats with soldiers taking a break from Olympic security duties.

"It's infuriating to see so many empty seats on TV. Surely it can't be beyond the organisers to allow real sports fans to fill them up on a first-come first-served basis?" said Ed Shorthose, a London-based father of two who had been trying for months to get tickets to see the Games.

South Korea's women extended their domination of Olympic archery by winning their seventh straight gold, although they needed a near-perfect nine from their last arrow to overcome China, who took their third successive silver.

Dream Team

The latest U.S. basketball "Dream Team", this time featuring LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, began their title defence with a 98-71 defeat of France, drawing 'oohs' from the crowd with no-look assists, thunderous dunks and sublime handling.

But there was no such joy for Jordyn Wieber, who fled from reporters as her dreams of being crowned all-around Olympic gymnastics champion were shattered.

A scrappy floor routine and a far-below-par balance beam display meant that it was her team mates Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman who qualified for the individual final.

"She did not make any major errors but what can you do, sport is sport," said U.S. team co-ordinator Marta Karolyi.

At Wimbledon, where rain forced the closure of the roof over centre court, women's second seed Agnieszka Radwanska slumped out in the first round to Julia Goerges of Germany.

Britain's Andy Murray beat Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets but world number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia made a slow start against Italy's Fabio Fognini before winning 6-7 6-2 6-2.

Tiny Georgia added to its mighty judo tradition when Lasha Shavdatuashvili, the youngest competitor at just 20 and ranked only 32 in the world, won his country's third ever judo gold.

But proving the old Olympic adage that taking part is more important than winning was Hamadou Djibo Issaka, a rower from landlocked Niger.

Having taken up the sport only three months ago, the wildcard entrant was roared on by 20,000 spectators as he struggled to the finish line in the men's single sculls a full minute and 39 seconds after the heat winner.

"There are many people who want to start rowing because I have come to the Olympic Games," he said. "We will start when I get back. We just have to wait for the boats to arrive." 

Source: REUTERS

London organizers investigating empty seats

LONDON - London's Olympic organisers launched an investigation into empty seats on the first day of the Games on Saturday.

On a school holiday and after months of public complaints over the inability of thousands in Britain to buy tickets, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the minister responsible for the Olympics, said he was disappointed by the empty seats and that the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) were looking into it.

"LOCOG are doing a full investigation into what happened," Hunt told publicly funded broadcaster BBC one day after a widely praised opening ceremony starring Queen Elizabeth, Paul McCartney and Rowan Atkinson.

Television coverage of events on Saturday showed and visitors to venues found scores of empty seats in the early part of the day at the aquatics centre, in the basketball arena and later on at Wimbledon for the tennis. There was also plenty of space to stretch out in the Olympic Park.

"We think it was accredited seats that belong to sponsors, but if they are not going to turn up, we want those tickets to be available for members of the public, because that creates the best atmosphere. So we are looking at this very urgently at the moment," Hunt said.

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said he was surprised that the events were not full.

LOCOG became used to putting up the "sold out" sign within minutes of each tranche of tickets going on sale to the public.

On Saturday some ticket box offices at venues in the park still had queues of people seeking to buy tickets for selected sports.

"I've been trying and trying every day to get (soccer) tickets for Argentina," 34-year-old Argentinian electrician Lucas Lopez told Reuters on a stroll through the park.

Nicolette Robinson, 47, a branding and design consultant, wanted to be a gymnast when she was growing up just like her hero Nadia Comenici and was very disappointed that she could not get tickets for the event at the London Games.

"I thought the least I could do was go and see them (the gymansts) and I'm watching them on television and the place is half empty and that's a shame. I would have paid whatever it takes to see them," she said.

LOCOG said in a statement late on Saturday: "Where there are empty seats, we will look at who should have been sitting in the seats, and why they did not attend. Early indications are that the empty seats are in accredited seating areas, but this is day one, and our end of day review will provide a fuller picture,"

LOCOG declined to provide a figure for the number of people in the park on Saturday or how many tickets had been sold but said that 11 million people would attend the Games.

"I was at the Beijing games in 2008 and one of the lessons we took away from that was that full stadia create the best atmosphere, it's best for the athletes, it's more fun for spectators, and it has been an absolute priority," Hunt said.

"It is a shame this happened but we are going to do everything we can to make sure we fill up those stadia."

Skewed

By early June, 7 million of the total 8.8 million Olympic tickets had been sold, and about half of the 2.45 million Paralympic tickets, in a process that began last year.

But the combination of a complex and opaque online ticketing system which appeared unable to cope with the huge demand and seemed skewed towards those prepared to bid for thousands of pounds worth of tickets, resulted in a wary public.

About a quarter of the 928,000 tickets made available in May failed to sell, including for popular sports such as beach volleyball and boxing.

In early June, LOCOG still had about 550,000 tickets to sell with just weeks to go.

A large chunk of them were so-called contingency tickets which had been held back while logistics such as TV camera positions were resolved.

On a walk around the park, a Reuters correspondent found he could buy a burger from McDonald's at lunch time in four minutes flat from back of the queue to food in hand, plenty of empty picnic table seats at most of the eating areas and a vast Champagne & Seafood restaurant with fewer than 10 people inside.

Across the park, almost every visitor asked praised the ease of getting around, the lack of queues and the spacious feel of the park, the swift access to facilities, drinking water, open spaces and the friendliness of the staff.

Kyle Sutherland, a 22-year-old American sports management student on a course in London told Reuters he had been touring sports facilities all over Britain and been to many in the United States, but said the Olympic Park felt the most open.

"The park is so spacious it doesn't feel crowded with the amount of people in it." 

Source: REUTERS

Amazing GIFs, photos from London Olympics opening ceremonies

Social media tool and website Storify has created a collection of photos and GIFs made by Internet users in the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

You can view other London Olympics-related multimedia content on Storify's special sectionthat it created for the Games.

Bond, Beckham, Bean star in London Olympics opening

Britain's David Beckham drives a powerboat with the Olympic torch as fireworks are launched over Tower Bridge during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

LONDON - James Bond, David Beckham and even Mr Bean starred Friday as Britain welcomed the world to the Olympics in an eccentric opening ceremony showcasing the country's rich history and sense of fun.

Four years after Beijing's tightly choreographed spectacular wowed the world, Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle's "Isles of Wonder" show eschewed grandeur for a creative and chaotic approach packed with music and comedy.

In front of about 80,000 VIPs and spectators, the Queen was depicted parachuting out of a helicopter with Bond actor Daniel Craig, Mr. Bean played "Chariots of Fire" and children bounced on National Health Service beds.

Soccer superstar Beckham was shown motorboating up the Thames holding the Olympic torch.

Thousands of athletes then began trooping in behind their national flags, led by Greece, before the show culminates with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron -- by someone whose identity remains a secret.

Details of Boyle's creation had remained a closely guarded secret until Friday's 9:00 pm start, heralded by the ringing of a giant bell by Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins as farm animals frolicked below.

Actors portraying the Queen and James Bond arrive via parachute after jumping from a helicopter during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Large fluffy clouds circled the stadium's covered track and birdsong was played over the loudspeakers before children counted down to the bell, sounded at exactly 9:00 pm (2000 GMT), by popping giant balloons.

A formation of Red Arrows jets flew past, trailing red, white and blue smoke at 8:12 pm, or 2012 (1912 GMT) and there was a party atmosphere in the stadium as a comic actor and folk singer warmed up the crowd in light rain.

"It's a real privilege to be able to present this show to you," director Boyle told the crowd as he appeared briefly.

Tickets were in high demand with two spectators telling AFP they paid 1,600 pounds (US$2,500) for their seats.

Boyle's "liquorice allsorts" opening ceremony, costing £27 million (US$42 million) kicks off a two-week festival of sport, seven years and billions of pounds in the making, on a former industrial wasteland in east London.

Excitement in Britain, which has built up to the Olympics with a nationwide torch relay, was at fever-pitch ahead of the ceremony with Union Flags visible in gardens, windows and streaming from cars.

Millions of Britons packed pubs with friends and relatives for the grand opening of the greatest sporting show on earth, while fans gathered at big screens at London's Hyde Park and other outdoor locations.

"I think this is the biggest day of my life. I think this is just extraordinary," Games chief Sebastian Coe said earlier.

Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie and members of British royalty were among the dignitaries, along with about 80 heads of state.

The athletes' will last about 90 minutes with the show scheduled to wrap up, after a performance by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, after midnight local time.

Source: AFP