Olympics: Cougar, Ute miss out,Canadian, Brazilian basketball teams' losses end hopes for Beijing

Olympics: Cougar, Ute miss out

Canadian, Brazilian basketball teams' losses end hopes for Beijing

Neither Utah's Tyler Kepkay nor Brigham Young's Jonathan Tavernari will be going to the Olympics.
Both men lost quarterfinal games with their respective national teams Friday at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens, Greece, ending their slim chances of reaching the Beijing Games in China.
Kepkay and his Canadian teammates lost 83-62 to Croatia, while Tavernari and his Brazilian team - along with former Jazz and BYU player Rafael Araujo - fell 78-65 to Germany. Both teams had to finish in the top three of the 12-team tournament to qualify for Beijing.
Kepkay played little for Canada, making just one basket in 15 minutes of three games. Araujo, however, scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds while shooting 9-for-15 in 37 minutes of three games, while Tavernari played 48 minutes but scored just six points on 2-for-5 shooting with five assists and three rebounds.
- Michael C. Lewis


Gymnast bounces back

Add another chapter to Chellsie Memmel's already dramatic comeback story.
A case of whiplash forced Memmel to miss three events Friday, the first of a two-day Olympic selection camp in New Waverly, Texas. But she reminded everyone what a tough gymnast she is, returning for the balance beam and doing a near-perfect routine that had
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national team coordinator Martha Karolyi - and everyone else in the gym - clapping.
Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin earned trips to the Beijing Games with their 1-2 finish at last month's Olympic trials. That leaves four spots still up for grabs, though, and 10 women are vying for them. Well, nine now. Shayla Worley, a member of last year's gold medal squad at the world championships, broke her right fibula just below the knee during warm-ups Friday and is essentially done.
Memmel and Alicia Sacramone are thought to be locks for two of the four remaining spots - but they must be healthy when they get there.

Amputee fails to qualify

In the end, it was a split second and not a court's decision that kept double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius from competing in the Beijing Olympics.
Pistorius was left off South Africa's 1,600-meter relay team Friday, ending his hopes of participating in the Summer Games.
He couldn't hit the 400-meter qualifying time of 45.55 seconds, despite running a personal best 46.25 on Wednesday on his prosthetic blades at a meet in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Pistorius overcame the International Association of Athletics Federations in a long legal struggle. The Court of Arbitration finally ruled against the IAAF in May, saying the sprinter's carbon-fiber blades did not provide an unfair advantage against able-bodied athletes.
The 21-year-old Pistorius has said the court fight kept him from focusing on training, and acknowledged it might be more realistic to aim for the 2012 London Olympics. Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene said four other runners had faster times, and two others were chosen as alternates.
Pistorius plans to run at the Sept. 6-17 Paralympic Games in Beijing. He holds the Paralympic world record of 46.56 in the 400.