Americans sweeps 4x400 relays

Taekwondo
Cuba’s Angel Matos was winning 3-2, with 1:02 in the second round, when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov. He was sitting there, awaiting medical attention, when he was disqualified for exceeding the one minute he’s allowed.

Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge, then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden. Matos then spat on the floor and was escorted out.

“He was too strict,” said his coach, Leudis Gonzalez, referring to the decision to disqualify Matos. Afterward, he charged the match was fixed, accusing the Kazakhs of offering him money.

Then came this release from the World Taekwondo Federation: “Lifetime ban of the coach and athlete in all championships sanctioned by the (federation) and at the same time, all records of this athlete at the Beijing Games will immediately be erased.”

Earlier, a women’s match was overturned, the first time that’s happened since taekwondo became an official Olympic sport in 1990.

South Korea’s Cha Dong-min won the men’s over 80-kilogram class, bringing the fourth gold to his country in its native sport. Mexico’s Maria del Rosario Espinoza, the 2007 world champion, won the women’s over 67-kilogram class.

Men’s soccer
In temperatures that topped 107 degrees, Angel di Maria scored off a pass from Lionel Messi in the 58th minute, helping Argentina defeat Nigeria 1-0 and win its second straight Olympic soccer title.

“This group deserved this,” Messi said. “We knew coming in that we may never have this experience again, so we are lucky that everything went well and we got what we wanted.”

Di Maria’s strike was a goal to lift a game in which play obviously was affected by the searing temperatures. The referee took the rare step of twice allowing players to stop and take drinks.

The game was the only one to be played in Beijing’s main Olympic stadium, and it was watched by a crowd of 89,102 that included former Argentina great Diego Maradona.

Nigeria added silver to the gold it won in 1996.

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