in focus (recap)...

the 17-day event has reached its end and athens bade goodbye to the athletes and visitors, formally closing out the 2004 edition of the olympic games.

before finally leaving athens and start preparing for beijing 2008, here's a recap of "in focus".

>1. the rp team's quest for the gold.
no gold, no medal. another fruitless medal campaign and a continuing wake up call for the country. despite a not so good performance, still my hand salute to the athletes and coaches.

>2. us men's basketball team.
a disappointing bronze medal for a team full of nba stars. a dream team every one thought of its invulnerability and dominance was beaten twice in the eliminations before bowing to argentina in the semifinals. luckily, they've managed to edge out lithuania in the bronze medal match escaping a more dismal outcome. it was never a walk in the park but rather a long rough journey almost ended in vain.

argentina took the gold medal by trouncing italy in the finals.

>3. japan's baseball team.
it was predicted as cuba vs. japan for the gold medal match just before the quarterfinals. but australia beat japan in the semis denying their bid for the gold.

cuba blasted australia for the gold. japan settled for the bronze.

>4. ian thorpe and kosuke kitajima.
thorpe won two golds - 200m and 400m freestyle. he is third in 100m freestyle. thorpe is still the best middle-range freestyler in the world.

kitajima took gold in both of his 100m and 200m breaststroke events. now japan's first swimmer to have won two golds in the olympics.

in addition, michael phelps of the us took 8 medals. 6 of them are gold. won both gold in 100m and 200m butterfly. phelps challenged ian thorpe in 200m freestyle but outlasted by the thorpedo, finishing third for the bronze.

phelps was trying to match or even break the record set by mark spitz of seven golds in 1972 munich olympic games but came short. maybe in 2008.

>5. japan women's volleyball team.
not enough for a podium. japan made it to the quarterfinals but the brazilians show them the exit so quickly. powerhouse china came from a two-set deficit before finally thrashing russia in the finals for the gold. cuba took the bronze.

>6. tennis.
no roddick vs. federer in athens olympics men's singles finals. not even in the quarterfinals. federer lost as early as the second round of the tournament. the following day, roddick tumbled.

nicolas massu of chile took the gold.
world ranked no. 1 justine henin-hardenne of belgium won the gold in the women's singles.