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World records fall

Swimming competition heats up Saturday

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The United States' Ray Marlon Shirley sets a new world record in his first win of the year. AP

By Luba Vangelova, Special to CNNSI.com

SYDNEY, Australia -- Several world records were shattered today as two of the Paralympics' most popular sports, track and field and swimming, got underway.

American sprinter Marlon Shirley surprised everyone, especially himself, when he emerged from teammates Brian Frasure's and Tony Volpentest's shadows to set a new world record (11.31 seconds) in the Paralympics glamour event, the 100-meter final for amputees and other leg-mobility impaired athletes. It was the first race Shirley had won all year.

Frasure and Volpentest also won their respective semi-finals (there were three in this event), setting the scene for a possible American sweep of the finals on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the International Aquatic Centre proved again that it is a "fast pool," as world records fell left and right. In the morning, 15-year-old Erin Popovich finished two seconds ahead of her own previous world record mark in a 200-meter individual medley heat. She broke the record again in the final, but this time it was only good enough for a silver medal; France's Beatrice Hess swam even faster for the gold.

Storylines

The defending men's wheelchair basketball champs, the Australians, lost their pool match-up against France today. The U.S. and Canada, two of the other favorites, remain unbeaten after two games. Pool competition continues tomorrow. The women's wheelchair basketball competition began today, with the Americans winning their game against Great Britain. Swimming heats up on Saturday, with nearly half the American team scheduled to compete. Among them is Trischa Zorn, who hopes to defend her 1996 gold medal in a 200-meter individual medley for the vision-impaired. Five more sports also get underway on Saturday: archery, boccia, soccer, powerlifting and standing volleyball. This year marks the debut of women's powerlifting (a bench press sport that is unique to the Paralympics).

Athlete of the hour

Blind lightweight judo player Scott Moore won the first-ever American gold medal in judo, in either the Olympics or Paralympics, when he beat China's Baoji Cui. Moore was the 1996 bronze medalist, and is only the second blind athlete to get a national ranking among sighted judo competitors.

Beauts

About 50,000 school children attended Paralympic events today, raising the roof at some venues. The Paralympic organizers had made a special effort to market tickets to school groups. In Australia, the opening ceremony television ratings were so much higher than expected, that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has expanded its daily coverage of the Paralympics to 2-1/2 hours. It has also promised to break into regularly scheduled programming to show Australian gold medal events.

Busts

Sadly, it's not only the Olympics that are tainted by drugs. Four powerlifters from four (thus far unnamed) countries were suspended after their first pre-competition drug tests turned up traces of banned substances. Further action against the athletes will be announced tomorrow, after the results of a second round of tests are revealed. Sydney's public transport system is running at little more than normal capacity, so journeys that took an hour during the efficiently orchestrated Olympics can now take up to twice as long. An Australian wheelchair rugby player was accused of spying on the Canadian team after his video recorder was discovered at their practice session against Sweden. The player, who claimed it was an innocent mistake, was reprimanded.

Gold rush

Athletics - men's 100m and other events Judo - men's middleweight, half-heavyweight and heavyweight (last day of competition) Swimming - men's and women's 200m individual medley; men's 50m butterfly and other events Table Tennis - men's team finals in some classes

On the spot

Australia's only Paralympic judo player, Anthony Clarke, will try to repeat his Atlanta gold medal win in the middleweight class, in front of a home crowd.

 

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