Beard claims gold of her own

ATHENS, Greece -- American Amanda Beard won her first individual Olympic gold medal Thursday night, holding off Australian Leisel Jones in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Beard won in an Olympic-record time of 2 minutes, 23.37 seconds -- 0.23 seconds better than Jones, who was under world-record pace for the first 150 meters.

Jones took silver in 2:23.60. Anne Poleska of Germany earned bronze in 2:25.82.

Beard and Jones are the two fastest female breaststrokers in history. Jones owned the world record for two days in July before Beard broke it at the U.S. trials with a time of 2:22.44. The American also is the reigning world champion.

Beard, of Irvine, Calif., earned her sixth career Olympic medal. She also won a silver in the 200 individual medley in Athens. Four years ago, she was the bronze medalist in the 200 breast.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Brazilians Emanuel and Ricardo routed Americans Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger 21-17, 21-10 to finish a perfect run through pool play.

Despite the loss, the 12th-seeded Americans advanced to the medal round.

Later, top-ranked American women Misty May and Kerri Walsh got their toughest test of the tournament but stayed unbeaten with a 21-17, 21-17 win over 10th-seeded Czechs Eva Celbova and Sona Novakova.

BOXING: U.S. medal prospect Andre Ward beat Italy's Clemente Russo 17-9 to advance to the quarterfinals as the Americans finished 6-1 in preliminaries. The Americans sent eight fighters into the second round, with two advancing on byes.

CANOE-KAYAK: Former Olympic champion canoe racer Joe Jacobi and partner Matt Taylor clinched a semifinal berth in whitewater slalom event. Single American kayakers Brett Heyl and Scott Parsons also advanced to today's semifinals and finals.

EQUESTRIAN: Britain, France and the United States will jointly appeal a decision to award Germany the gold medal in the three-day equestrian event.

The judges gave Germany the gold Wednesday and France the silver, while Britain took bronze. The same officials, concerned that Germany's Bettina Hoy might have crossed the start line twice on the show jumping course, probed further.

Judges docked Germany 14 points, dropping it from first to fourth in a decision that lifted the United States to the bronze.

Germany then lodged a protest, an equestrian appeals committee reversed the decision of the judges and the Germans reclaimed the gold. Again, France was awarded the silver and Britain the bronze. The United States was left empty-handed.

FENCING: The Americans lost the bronze-medal bout to Russia, again 45-44. The United States had upset Hungary 45-43 a round earlier.

MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Stanislav Dineykin had 20 kills to lead the Russians to a four-set victory (22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-23) over the Americans. With opposite Clay Stanley struggling against the towering Russian block, the United States fell to 1-2.

TENNIS: Third-seeded Martina Navratilova won't win an Olympic medal after she and partner Lisa Raymond lost 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to fifth-seeded Shinobu Asagoe and Ai Sugiyama of Japan in the quarterfinals, one step shy of the medal round.

In women's singles, top-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne beat two-time major champion Mary Pierce of France 6-4, 6-4, while No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo outlasted No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2.

French Open champion Anastasia Myskina was the first woman to reach the semifinals, beating Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-1, 6-2.

WATER POLO: Defending Olympic champion Hungary handed the United States its first loss in men's water polo preliminaries, 7-5.

PROSECUTOR TO QUESTION KENTERIS' DOCTORS ATHENS, Greece -- A prosecutor looking into the suspicious motorcycle accident involving Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou wants to take a closer look at the injuries sustained by the athletes, a judicial source said Thursday. Prosecutor Haralambos Lakafosis, overseeing the investigation into the accident, wants to question some of the doctors at Athens' KAT hospital, a senior source in the Athens prosecutor's office told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The medical condition of the two athletes is considered a key part of the investigation into the accident and could answer allegations that it may not have taken place or was staged. -- Associated Press