Italian Wins Mountain Bike Again

Paola Pezzo of Italy won the gold medal today in women’s mountain bike, surviving a collision that dropped another racer on the fourth lap to successfully defend her Olympic title from Atlanta.

Barbara Blatter of Switzerland, the world’s top-ranked rider, took the silver and two-time world champion Margarita Fullana of Spain, who was leading until she collided with Pezzo, won the bronze in Fairfield, Australia.

Alison Dunlap of Colorado Springs, Colo., finished seventh.

BOXING: Judges erred in failing to pay attention to body punches in a second-round 106-pound bout in which world champion Brian Viloria of Hawaii was outpointed, a top official of the international boxing federation said.

Viloria landed 10 or 12 body punches, but none was recorded as a scoring blow in his 6-4 loss to Brahim Asloum of France on Friday night.

“The judges just didn’t do a good job of scoring body punches in the bout,” Loring Baker of Atlanta said.

No action was taken against any of the five judges, and the U.S. team did not file a protest.

SAILING: Light, shifting winds plagued the Olympic regatta again, bringing mixed results for two Americans sailing their first races.

Finn skipper Russ Silvestri of Tiburon, Calif., in his first Olympics, led around the first mark today and finished third in the first fleet race for the single-handed dinghies on the Pacific Ocean.

Star skipper Mark Reynolds, a four-time Olympian from San Diego, wasn’t as lucky. He headed out to the right side at the start, which proved to be the wrong move. The wind was stronger on the left side, and Reynolds finished 14th out of 16 boats.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL: Yugoslavia took over third place in Group B with a 21-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-22 victory over Argentina. By taking one game, Argentina put more pressure on the struggling U.S. team to reach the next round. Under the tiebreaker formula, the Americans virtually had to sweep South Korea today, then beat Italy and hope Argentina loses to Russia.

FIELD HOCKEY: The Australian women’s team got goals by Katrina Powell, Alison Peek and Nikki Hudson to defeat South Korea, 3-0, and advance to the medal pool.

The Netherlands also advanced with a 2-2 tie against Germany. South Africa beat China, 1-0, and Britain beat Spain, 2-0.