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On track when it counts
Latest: Thursday September 28, 2000 03:45 AM
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By Mitch Gelman and Adam Levine, CNNSI.com
SYDNEY, Australia -- Marion Jones qualified to try for more gold and Gail Devers blew out a hamstring at Olympic Stadium.
But between those stories, there were performances not likely to make the headlines.
A hurdler who ran the heats too slowly and was eliminated in the last world championship, Angelo Taylor, of Atlanta, learned from his mistake. At the Olympics, he made it to the finals and ran the race of his life to win a gold medal.
And a miler from Utah, Jason Pyrah, who didn't think that he belonged in these Games, among the world's best, qualified for the finals in the 1,500.
While the cameras focused on Jones and Devers, Taylor and Pyrah ran their hearts out.
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Marion Jones easily qualified for the 200-meter semi-finals, then got an "automatic" for the long jump with her first attempt. If her husband C.J. Hunter's steroid test problems are bothering her, it didn't show. The 200 semis and finals are Thursday and the long jump finals are on Friday.
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United States decathlete Chris Huffins leads the decathlon after the five events of day one. Huffins had 4,554 points to lead after the 100, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400. Going into day two -- during which the 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 -- Czech favorite Tomas Dvorak was in seventh spot only 260 points behind.
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Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj is poised to avenge his loss in the 1,500-meter run in Atlanta. El Guerrouj, who is the world record holder, seemed to toy with the field in his semi-final heat. The final is on Friday.
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Rulon Gardner beat the unbeatable when he knocked off three-time defending Olympic champion Alexander Karelin in the super-heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestling competion.
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Ben Sheets of the United States tossed a complete-game three-hitter against defending champs Cuba. The victory earned the U.S. its first baseball gold in Olympic history.
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Australian TV Channel 7 stopped running a post-race interview with 400-meter champ Cathy Freeman, who said that after her win her brothers looked the happiest she'd seen them when they weren't drunk. Concerned it would reinforce Aboriginal stereotypes, network bosses told producers not to use the clip.
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Chinese corporations have taken a grass-roots approach to ambush marketing. Companies have filled the stands at table tennis and other events with flag-waving adjuncts cheering wildly in front of televison cameras that pick up their companies names and logos on the their hats, flags and shirts.
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The husband-wife pole vaulting team of Tatiana Grigorieva and Viktor Tchistiakov are becoming stars in Australia. After winning the silver medal in the first women's pole vault earlier this week, Grigorieva said that she called her agent and told him: "Show me the money." As Tchistiakov gamely qualified for the men's finals Thursday, fans at Olympic Stadium cheered whenever the big screen flashed to Grigorieva in the stands.
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The doctor who gave Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan the cold tablet, Nurofen, that contained enough of a banned stimulant for her to test positive and be forced to give up her gold medal in the all-around. Other athletes carefully avoided cold medication leading up their events. What was the Romanian doctor thinking?
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Kurt Angle of the U.S. 
Golden Dutch swimmers have fallen in love with Australia. Both Inge de Bruijn and Pieter van den Hoogenband have traveled to the coast, where they've been snorkeling and hanging out on Bill Gates' boat and talking about buying houses and moving to Australia.
With one point earned when Alexander Karelin lost hold of a clutch, former Nebraska football walk-on Rulon Gardner ended the reign of one of the greatest Olympians ever.
Ato Boldon, who won silver in the 200-meter sprint in Atlanta, goes for gold against a strong field, including John Capel and Obadele Thompson.