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Day 8 part 2: US wins War on Error

Paul Hamm won the USA's first ever gold medal in men's individual gymnastics. One problem, however. He shouldn't have been declared the winner.

South Korea's Yang Tae-Young was denied one-tenth of a point on his parallel bar routine due to a judging error. Yang took bronze behind Hamm and compatriot Kim Dae-Eun when 0.049 points separated all three. If Yang's score had been calculated correctly, he would have beaten Hamm by 0.051.

The Koreans appealed, and the International Gymnastics Federation agreed with their complaint, but said they couldn't change the result. Don't be surprised if we see Yang and Hamm declared joint gold medallists as an act of grace before these Games are through. The three judges involved in the gaffe have been suspended by the FIG pending an enquiry.

There's also an enquiry in progress over Friday's fire on the Mount Parnitha mountain bike track. Arson or accident?

India has won the men's hockey gold eight times - the last in 1980 - and they won't be winning it this year. A last-second goal by New Zealand put them out of semi-final contention, despite their protest that the game was in fact over when the goal was scored. Indian coach Gerard Rach provided sound logical argument that the umpires are cheats.

Fernando Gonzales and Nicolas Massu became Chile's first-ever gold medallists when they beat Nicolas Keifer and Rainer Schuettler in the men's doubles final of the tennis. See the report in Spanish from Chile's El Mercurio. Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat is the King of Badminton, Ning Zhang of China its queen.

The Dream Team lost again, to Lithuania 90-96. This Associated Press report gives American readers tips in how to pronounce Sarunas Jasikevicius. Serbia and Montenegro beat Croatia 11-8 in men's water polo. Whatever you do, don't mention the...

Not to mention the... . Iraq beat Australia 1-0 in the men's soccer quarter final. With all the attention they have been grabbing, they are concerned about politicisation of their success by the Bush administration. Al-Jazeera has a report.

Did you know? The official Volunteer Application Form was, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, available in French through the ATHENS 2004 website. Do you care? It's one of the Olympic Firsts being proudly announced on athens2004.com.

Finally, it would be remiss of me as an Australian not to carry at least hyperlink to a story about . Whew. Thank goodness I got that out of the way.

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