Aug. 17, 2008

Rowing
UCLA assistant women's rowing coach Mark Hunter and teammate Zac Purchase won gold in the lightweight double sculls on Sunday, becoming the first British pair to ever win this Olympic event. Hunter is the first gold medalist for UCLA this year.

Hunter and Purchase grabbed the lead around the 600m mark and remained strong down the stretch, finishing in a time of 6:10.99.

"I've been dying for this day since I started rowing," Hunter said. "The national anthem, the flag. It's a dream come true."

Track & Field
Dawn Harper was an automatic qualifier into the 100m hurdles semifinal rounds with her run in heat five on Sunday morning. Her time of 12.73 was second in her heat and sixth-fastest of all runners.

Sheena (Johnson) Tosta was fifth in heat two of the 400m hurdles in a time of 56.12 and advanced to the semifinal rounds based on time as the 15th qualifier overall.

Softball
Tairia Mims Flowers hit her first home run of the Beijing Olympics in the second inning of Team USA's 8-0 rout of the Netherlands on Sunday. Natasha Watley went 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Stacey Nuveman was 1-for-3 with a run scored.

Watley drove in the Americans' third run of the game in the second inning on an RBI single. Nuveman scored her run, the sixth of the contest, in the third. The fourth Bruin on the roster, Andrea Duran, had Sunday's game off.

After extending its win streak to 20, the Americans, who are 6-0, close out pool play against China on Monday afternoon (9 pm PT Sunday).

Tanya Harding pitched five scoreless innings to help Australia earn the third spot in the semifinals with a 4-0 win over Canada on Sunday.

Beach Volleyball
Former UCLA All-American Elaine Youngs' Olympic run came to an end Sunday, as her and partner Nicole Branagh fell to China's Xue Chen and Zhang Xi 21-17, 21-13 in the quarterfinals of the beach volleyball tournament.

Youngs, who had 17 kills, four aces, one block and two digs on Sunday, announced her partial retirement following the match, as she is done playing internationally but might still play on the AVP Tour. Youngs and Branagh finish the tournament 4-1 and in a tie for fifth place.

Youngs and Branagh led by as much as four at 12-8, but could not hold the lead against Chen and Xi. The Chinese duo went on a 7-1 run to go ahead 15-13. The U.S. team got to within one on two occasions, but could not get even. Chen and Xi netted four of the set's final five points to win it 21-17. Youngs and Branagh never led in the second set and were tied on four occasions.

Youngs was competing in her third Olympics and earned a bronze medal during the 2004 Athens Games with partner and former Bruin Holly McPeak. She also won a bronze medal with beach volleyball coach and former UCLA All-American Liz Masakayan at the 1999 World Championships. Youngs has won nearly 40 professional beach volleyball tournaments in her career.

Beijing Blogs
Nicolette Teo shares what she learned from her Olympic experience in her latest blog.

Photo Gallery
View photos from today's action, including photos of Mark Hunter from his gold medal ceremony HERE.

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