No Medal for Navratilova

Martina Navratilova’s long, illustrious career will end without an Olympic medal.

She has done everything else, from dozens of Grand Slam titles in singles and doubles to years ranked No. 1, but one last hurrah Thursday as an Olympic rookie at 47 didn’t pan out.

Third-seeded Navratilova and Lisa Raymond lost, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to fifth-seeded Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama of Japan in the women’s doubles quarterfinals, one step shy of the medal round.

That leaves U.S. chances for hardware in tennis up to two unheralded men who were able to do something Andy Roddick couldn’t -- reach the singles semifinals.

Mardy Fish beat Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, 6-3, 6-4, and Taylor Dent was a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, the 18-year-old who’d upset No. 1 Roger Federer.

The three highest-seeded women in singles play -- Justine Henin-Hardenne, Amelie Mauresmo and Anastasia Myskina -- won their quarterfinal matches.

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ARCHERY

Italian Strikes Gold

Marco Galiazzo of Italy beat Hiroshi Yamamoto of Japan, 111-109, for the men’s individual gold medal.

Galiazzo, 21, who placed 49th at last year’s world championships, became Italy’s first Olympic champion in the sport.

Australia’s Tim Cuddihy and Park Kyung Mo of South Korea set Olympic records earlier. Park set an 18-arrow record of 173 in the round of 16, and Cuddihy set a 36-arrow mark of 340 over three rounds on his way to the bronze.

He beat the record of 339 set only hours before by Szu Yuan Chen of Taiwan.

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BADMINTON

Chinese Dominate

Zhang Ning of China won the gold medal in women’s singles, beating Indonesian-born Mia Audina of the Netherlands, 8-11, 11-6, 11-7. Eight years after winning silver for Indonesia, Audina gave her adopted country its first badminton medal. China’s Zhou Mi defeated teammate Gong Ruina, 11-2, 8-11, 11-6, for bronze.

In mixed doubles, Zhang Jun and Gao Ling of China won gold, beating Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms of Britain, 15-1, 12-15, 15-12. Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager of Denmark won the bronze.

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BEACH VOLLEYBALL

U.S. Men Lose, Advance

Dax Holdren and Stein Metzker are looking forward to a fresh start after completing pool play with a lopsided 21-17, 21-10 loss to the top-ranked Brazilian team of Emanuel and Ricardo.

The Americans clinched a berth in the round of 16 even before stepping on the court when Australia’s Andrew Schacht and Joshua Slack defeated Norway’s Bjorn Maaseide and Iver Hoorem, 21-18, 21-17, earlier. That was fortunate for Holdren and Metzker, who lost 16 of the last 21 points of the match against Brazil.

“Starting today, everyone is 0-0,” said Holdren. “In single elimination, it’s a whole different game.”

Brazil finished atop Pool A with a 3-0 record. The U.S., Australia and Norway all finished 1-2, with the U.S. advancing in second place based on tiebreaking formulas. Holdren and Metzker will play Markus Dieckmann and Jonas Reckermann of Germany today.

On the women’s side, Misty May and Kerri Walsh defeated Eva Celbova and Sona Novakova of the Czech Republic, 21-17, 21-17, to complete pool play undefeated and without dropping a set. On Saturday, May and Walsh will meet China’s Tian Jia and Wang Fei, and Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs will face Celbova and Novakova. The American teams could meet in the semifinals Monday.

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FENCING

France Edges U.S.

Keeth Smart’s rally fell short in the U.S. sabre team’s 45-44 semifinal loss to France, which went on to win the gold medal over Italy. Russia beat the United States for bronze.

The Americans trailed France, 40-38, before the final rotation of the bout, where 45 touches win. Smart rallied, pulling to 43-42. Damien Touya took the next touch but Smart tied it at 44 and set up the deciding point. On the decisive play, referee Jose Luis Alvarez ruled that Touya caught Smart while preparing to attack, giving the Frenchman the victory.

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JUDO

Anno Takes Gold

Noriko Anno of Japan beat Liu Xia of China to win the gold medal in the women’s 78-kilogram (172-pound) class. Lucia Morico of Italy and Yurisel Laborde of Cuba shared the bronze.

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ROWING

Americans Fall Short

The American lightweight men’s double sculls team of Steve Tucker and Greg Ruckman gave up too much distance in the six-boat semifinal and finished fourth behind Poland, Greece and Denmark -- one spot and 3.6 seconds out of contention for Sunday’s final.

The U.S. men’s quadruple scull, which reached the semifinals with an impressive victory in its repechage, placed fifth. Belarus and Estonia advanced.

The U.S. women’s lightweight double sculls boat of Lisa Schlenker and Stacey Borgman also was eliminated, finishing 0.73 of a second behind Germany in fourth place.

The U.S. men’s lightweight four fell to last at the finish, four seconds behind Canada, the third and final boat to advance from that race behind Italy and Austria.

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SAILING

Greeks Win Gold

Sofia Bekatorou and Aimilia Tsoulfa of Greece clinched the women’s 470 class gold for the first sailing medal of the Games after building an insurmountable lead in 10 races. The silver and bronze medals will be determined Saturday.

A few minutes earlier, Americans Paul Foerster and Kevin Burnham took the lead in the men’s 470 with one race left in the 11-race series.

They finished fourth in the 10th race in a building sea breeze to leapfrog the British crew of Nick Rogers-Joe Glanfield and take a two-point lead into the final race Saturday.

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SHOOTING

German Sets Record

Manfred Kurzer of Germany won the gold medal after setting a world record in qualifying for the running target event.

Russians Alexander Blinov and Dmitri Lykin won the silver and bronze.

Diana Igaly of Hungary won the gold in skeet shooting. Wei Ning of China won the silver in a shoot-off with Zemfira Meftakhetdinova of Azerbaijan.

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VOLLEYBALL

Russians Block U.S.

Stanislav Dineykin had 20 kills to lead the Russians to a 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-23 victory over the American men.

With opposite Clay Stanley struggling against the towering Russian block, which features two 7-footers, the U.S. fell to 1-2, suffering its 10th defeat in its last 11 Olympic matches.

Brazil remained the only unbeaten team in Pool B with a four-set victory over the Netherlands. Italy stayed right behind with a sweep over Australia.

In Pool A, Argentina is 3-0 after handing host Greece its first loss. France picked up its first win by beating Poland in three sets, and defending gold medalist Serbia and Montenegro swept Tunisia.