The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 64

THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL; TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2000 OLYMPICGAMES CANADA AT A GLANCE Water F4 polo -7? w- i A SYDNEY Four Canadians had two-goal performances In a 10-3 romp over Kazakhstan In women's water polo action yesterday The victory raised Canada's record to 1-0-2 while Kazakhstan, considered the only team In the six-country field not to have a shot at a medal, dropped to 0-3-0. Kahnawake's Waneek Horn-Miller, Montreal's Marie-Claude Deslieres and Calgary's Cora Campbell and Jana Salat each netted two goals while singles went to Sue Gardiner of North Vancouver and Johanne Begin of Montreal The Canadians shone on offence and defence. They led 6-1 at the half, and held Kazakhstan's Olga Lechshuk, one of the tournament's leading scorers with four goals, without a shot "Kazakhstan, they have a similar style to Russia," Salat said. "They like to be very aggressive and dirty, but they're not maybe as in shape as the Russians, so they can't go for as long. I think the first two games were dirtier than this one was." And what constitutes dirty in all that cool, clear water? "There's elbowing.

There's grabbing and kicking. It happens underwater so you can't always see it," Salat said. Deslieres figured she would see more of it as they ran up the score on the hapless Kazakhs, who are clearly in over their heads against the likes of Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and the United States. DAN BARNES, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM 4 tl.llM lllllir mi.l.-,.TSr 4.f. si wit KEVIN FRAYER, CP triumphed easily, 10-3.

this is one of the biggest stories, although in North America we can still dream of gaining this attention." Estanguet outpaddled defending Olympic champion Michal Martikan of Slovakia to take the men's C-l gold medal, continuing a family Olympic tradition that had his brother earn bronze at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.There were no Canadians in the men's final. But Margaret Langford of B.C. came into yesterday's women's single kayak final with high hopes after battling from a ragged first effort in qualifying to assure herself a spot in the final. Her struggles continued, however, and the 30-year-old three-time Olympian completed her day in 13th place. Defending world and Olympic champion Stepanka Hilgertova prevailed over France's Brigitte Guibal to win gold yet again.

"I've had a fantastic year, training here and medalling in races with pretty much the same field here," lamented Langford, whose two big toes were polished with Canadian flags to celebrate her participation here. "Some people get their dreams coming true and others have them flash before their eyes." WENDY LONG, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM i C) Kahnawake's Waneek Horn-Miller Rezeda Aleyeva (foreground). Canada Tough loss to Kiwis BLACKTOWN, Australia Team Canada's players knew they would be facing a legendary opponent in 37-year-old New Zealand pitcher Gina Weber. And Weber lived up to her advance billing, grilling the Canadians for 10 innings in a 3-2 New Zealand extra-innings victory. Only the night before the big Kiwi had chucked nine-and-a-third frames in an extra innings loss to Australia.

Then yesterday she bounced back to four-hit Canada on five strike outs and a walk through 10. "That's just part of Softball," the 6-foot-1 righthander said about logging 19 innings inside 24 hours. "I've done it so often, it just doesn't even bother me." The Canadian team was no-hit in its opener and fell to 0-2 yesterday Sadly for Canada, this isn't the Beaches Fastball Tournament in Toronto, or the senior ladies draw in Edson, Alta. It is the Olympic Games, where a team is going to need at least three wins and likely four to make the playoff round of four teams. "We came into this tournament knowing we needed four wins to get into the playoffs, and we still have five games left," said Canadian second baseman Jackie Lance.

MARK SPECTOR, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM Badminton upset SYDNEY The Canadian badminton train could come to a full stop today as the women's doubles team of Granby's Milaine Cloutier and Robbyn Hermitage of Kitchener, meets fourth-seeded Joanne Goode and Donna Kellogg of Britain in the round of 16. Canada's only team remaining in badminton action upset Rhonda Cator and Amanda Hardy of Australia in the round of 32 yesterday to give them another life. The Aussies beat the Canadians in the fifth and deciding game of the team competition at the 1998 Commonwealth Games to prevent Canada from winning a medal. MARTIN CLEARY, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM Langford is 13th PENRITH, Australia The stands were packed with 15,000 spectators. Reporters crowded five-deep around athlete-access zones in an attempt to gain a quote from the latest sporting hero.

Music blasted and even when there was a lull in the action fans had no worries as they basked in the spring sua Baseball? Soccer? Hardly Would you believe Olympic Whitewater canoe and kayak events? "It's a very big sport in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, France, Germany and the Olympics are often the only time even for those countries to be at the top of the world," Canadian Whitewater team coach Vincent Redon explained yesterday as European journalists fought for space along a small stretch of fence to interview new Olympic single Whitewater canoe gold medalist Tony Estanguet of Franca "So that is why there are so many people from Europe here. For them PASCAL GUYOT, AFP India's Jitender Kumar stands over Canadian Donny Orr during their 75-kilogram bout. Kumar won when the referee stopped the fight. Indian stops On SYDNEY Donny Orr was tough enough to fight through a broken hand and a broken nose to get to Sydney. He wasn't tough enough, however, to fight through a broken heart "I'm extremely disappointed," said Orr, who wept openly after suffering a third-round technical knockout at the hands of India's Jitender Kumar in the boxing competition at the Sydney Convention Centre.

Orr, in the 75-kilogram class, was the first Canadian in the ring at the Summer Games. "This is one of the biggest disappointments in my life," he said. Orr, who had 17 family members and friends make the journey with him from Victoria, suffered a deep gash over his left eye when Kumar caught him with a right hand at the close of the third round. The rangy Indian had opened a big lead after Orr put in a solid first-round's work. "He had a very awkward fighting style, one that I'd never seen before," said the 23-year-old Orr, making his first Olympic appearance.

After the fight it was revealed Orr had broken his nose during training sessions in Hawaii just before the Olympics and hadn't been able to spar leading up to the Games. Orr didn't, however, use the injury as an excuse. But both boxing coach Wayne Gordon and his teammate Mike Strange said its effect on Orr's performance was telling. "It was bothering him," said Strange, a medal-hopeful in the 63.5-kilogram class, whose opening bout goes tomorrow. "He was timid in there.

He was afraid to exchange and Donny's a banger." Canadians Andrew Kooner and Scot-ty Macintosh, meanwhile, make their first appearances today. Kooner will meet Algeria's Nacer Keddam in the 48-kilogram division and Macintosh takes on Sakio Bika Mbah of Cameroon. Strange, who's in his third Olympics, said it is important that the Canadians establish some early success in the ring. "The first four, five guys lost in Atlanta (in the '96 Games)," said Strange, who faces Turkey's Nurhan Suleymanoglu. "Then I won and the momentum shifted.

But it gets the guys down in the dumps. There are no easy draws in this tournament No one will give you your medal. You're going to have to fight your a- off to get it. Everyone back home (in Niagara Falls) is going, 'You got an easy "I'm going, An easy draw? You've got to be ED WILLES, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM Hockey squad falters SYDNEY In a game where they lost the lead, their best defender and, maybe, their last hope, the Canadian men's field hockey team demonstrated how far it has come. Canadian players also absorbed lesson in how far they have to go.

The Canadians, who seem to be surprising everyone but themselves at the Olympic Games, were nine minutes away from one of the most significant wins in national-team history when their world exploded, blowing a 1-0 lead en route to a 2-1 loss to third-seeded Germany. They also lost key back-liner Ian Bird to a red card. The Canadians, who opened their tournament with a 2-2 tie against traditional world power Pakistan, will probably have to win all three of their remaining games to catch one of the top two spots in their pool and advance to the medal round. "We haven't beaten these (world-class) teams," head coach Shiaz Virjee said. "That's the next step.

1 battles for the ball with Kazakhstan's S'ftl the world. A win over Germany would have left them tied for first place in their pool with a showdown looming with the world champions from Holland tomorrow. Instead, they sit with one measly point and will have to scrape and claw to survive the roundrobin. In addition to Holland, Canada has games in its pool against Malaysia and Britain. ED WILLES, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM Buckingham out SYDNEY Add another name to the list of Canadian athletes who have crashed and burned here at the Summer Olympics and will carry home unfulfilled medal dreams.

Michelle Buckingham, who had the talent and tenacity to stand one of the three steps of glory, made one mistake in her four-minute opening round-of-16 match yesterday, and was eliminated from the women's lightweight 57-kiio-gram class in judo. The former Nepean, Ont, resident, who lives and trains in Montreal, joins an infamous group of highly ranked Canadian athletes who have tried and cried. "It's the Olympics and anything can happen," Buckingham said after her upset loss to Tania Ferreira of Brazil. "Everyone is at their peak and it's dog eat dog. Buckingham, 31, was touted as a fighter worthy of the Final Four and capable of challenging for a medal.

Her determination was unquestionable, after rebounding from surgery to both of knees in 1997 and 1998. The lead up to her third and final Olympics was exceptional as she won a career-best three bronze medals in one season on the international circuit. MARTIN CLEARY, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM CV.L w7! V'' i v. Swimmers qualify SYDNEY -Canadian medley swim-mers Joanne Malar and Marianne Limpert qualified last night for their second shot at the medals in the 200- -if; metre individual medley. Four years ago, Limpert won silver and Malar fin- ished fourth in a race that was magni- fied two years later when gold-medal winner Michelle (Smith) deBruin of Ireland was banned for tampering with a urine sample.

DeBruin might be gone, but there are new adversaries, notably 400-metre gold medalist Yana Klochkova of the Ukraine, Beatrice Caslaru of Romania and Cristina Teuscher of the United States. All three out-swam the Canadi-ans in the semi-finals -Malar, of Hamil-ton and Calgary, finished second and I Limpert, of Fredericton and Vancouver, third to Caslaru in one semi, but were -rated fourth and fifth on their times. Malar, however, showed promise for the second qualifying race of the day, this time turning in an excellent clos- ing freestyle to pull within a quarter- second of Caslaru. Malar 's 2: 13.59 ef- fort broke the Canadian and Common- wealth records. Limpert, who was either first or sec- ond in the race until the freestyle (final 50 metres) segment, touched one-third of a second behind Malar.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old U.S. breast- stroker Megan Quann made good her to prediction to bury defending cham- pion Penny Heyns of South Africa in the 100-metre final. Quann won it by a half-second during the last 50 after Heyns had pulled away to a half-second lead in the first 50. "I kept visualizing it before the race. That world record," Quann said.

"It's her (Heyns) who pushes me every day in practice." Quann missed the standard, set last year, by 13100ths of a second. "I'm kind of glad it's over," sighed Heyns, who trains in Calgary LARRY WOOD, SOUTHAM OLYMPIC TEAM MIKE RIDEWOOD, CP Rob Short of Victoria flies over an opponent in Canada's 2-1 field-hockey loss to Germany yesterday. I think we're capable of beating the Germanys and Pakistans, but we didn't do it; that's the bottom line." "We've been playing consistently," said goalie Mike Mahood, who again was spectacular for the Canucks. "We've been playing well. We just have to raise it up that one little notch." The Canadians are sailing in uncharted waters, coming into this tournament as the eighth-ranked team in.