The Jamaican sprint sweep at the Olympics was completed Thursday by Veronica Campbell-Brown. To make it even worse for the US team, both the men's and the women's teams failed to make it out of the first round in the 4x100-meter relay, each missing a handoff. And on a night that kept getting worse for the Americans, the defending champion US softball team lost to Japan 3-1 and their top-ranked women's water polo team was defeated by the Netherlands 9-8. Campbell-Brown, the defending champion in the women's 200, made it two in a row, winning the final sprint race of the Beijing Games in 21.74 seconds. Campbell-Brown's win was the fourth in four sprints for Jamaicans at the Bird's Nest. Usain Bolt won both the men's 100 and 200 - setting a world record in each - and Shelly-Ann Fraser the women's 100. The US men's relay team was knocked out of contention when Darvis Patton failed to hand the baton over to anchor Tyson Gay. In the other race, anchor Lauryn Williams flubbed her exchange with Torri Edwards. Bryan Clay of the United States got off to a strong start to take an early lead in the Olympic decathlon. The final five events are set for Friday. Earlier, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh played through the rain to win their second straight gold medal in beach volleyball. The American duo extended their winning streak to 108 matches in a 21-18, 21-18 win over Wang Jie and Tian Jia of China. Another American gold went to the women's soccer team, which needed extra time to beat Brazil 1-0. Carli Lloyd scored the lone goal in the 96th minute to give the US team its third gold in four Olympics. The US women's basketball team reached the final by beating Russia 67-52. The defending champion will face Australia which won 90-56 over China. That was about as good as the Americans fared on a day when the weather played havoc with the schedule, even pushing a pair of BMX cycling events back a day. The American softball team had been trying to win a fourth straight gold medal in the sport's final appearance. The last time the US team lost an Olympic game was at the 2000 Sydney Games, a stretch of 22 straight wins. In water polo, Danielle de Bruijn scored her seventh goal with 26 seconds left to get the gold. “I don't think I've ever quite seen that,” United States coach Guy Baker said. “It is up there with some of the great performances, especially because she (de Bruijn) did it at the Olympics. We were trying to get her stopped, but she's always been a good scorer.” Dutch swimmer Maarten van der Weijden, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001, won gold in the men's 10-kilometer open water race in a three-way sprint. “I think the leukemia taught me to think step by step,” said Van der Weijden, who won in 1:51:51.6. “When you're laying in the hospital bed and feeling so much pain and feeling so tired, you don't want to think about next week or next month, you're only thinking about the next hour.” David Svoboda of the Czech Republic set an Olympic modern pentathlon record for shooting points, but Andrey Moiseev of Russia took the gold. The second sample of Ukraine's Olympic heptathlon silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska, who has been provisionally suspended from the Beijing Games, tested positive for steroids, the IOC said on Thursday. “The International Olympic Committee disciplinary commission held a hearing today in relation to her adverse analytical finding. The A and B sample analysis were positive for the substance methyltestosterone,” an IOC official said. The athlete, who faces a lifetime ban as a second-time offender, has also been removed from the long jump final she was due to compete in on Friday. Blonska will now await the executive board ruling, on Friday, which will most likely officially kick her out of the Games. Four horses have been banned from competing in Thursday's Olympic Games jumping competition for doping, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) announced Thursday. The horses - representing Brazil, Germany, Ireland and Norway - had been suspended after testing positive for a prohibited substance, the FEI, which controls the sport, said in a statement. The four banned riders are Bernardo Alves of Brazil and his horse Chupa Chup; Germany's Christian Ahlmann and Coster; Ireland's Denis Lynch and Latinus; and Norway's Tony Andre Hansen and Camiro. – AP __
