Poland Gets Silver Medal on the First Day

On the first day of competition at the 2012 London Olympics, Yi Silan, 23, of China just nipped Poland’s Sylwia Bogacka in the 10m air rifle. Yu Dan of China took bronze.

In the medal round, Bogacka, 25, was leading until the eighth attempt of the 10-shot final when a wayward effort handed Yi first place. Yi and Bogacka reached the finals with near-perfect scores, but Yi took the gold with an overall score of 502.9 to the Polish competitor\'s 502.2.

During the qualifying at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Bogacka and Siling each had 399.0 followed by Russia’s Daria Vdovina with 398.0.

This is the third Olympics for Bogacka, who studied sociology at the University of Zielona Góra and is a private in the Polish Army.

Qatar shooter Bahia Al Hamad created history in the 10m air rifle event when she became the country’s first female Olympian. The 20-year-old, dressed in a headscarf, finished 17th in qualifying.

Most of Tennis Gets Rained Out
World number two, Agnieszka Radwanska endured more Center Court woe as the Polish second seed was beaten 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 by Germany’s Julia Goerges. This was just less than a month after her Wimbledon final defeat to Serena Williams.

The 23-year-old was the first Pole to reach a Grand Slam singles final since 1939 when she got to this year\'s Wimbledon title match. This achievement lifted her to a career-high second place in the world rankings.

Radwanska was unable to recapture that Wimbledon magic and stumbled to a lackluster Olympic defeat against the world number 24. Goerges, who served 20 aces and hit 56 winners, will play Varvara Lepchenko of the United States or Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede-Royg in the last 32.

Most of the tennis has been delayed because of rain. Radwanska will try and regroup for doubles play.

Track and Field Hopeful Gets Marketing Help
Marek Plawgo, 31, of Ruda Slaska will make his third career Olympic appearance for Poland this summer in London. His strong international pedigree will put him in contention for a medal in the men’s 400m hurdles. He finished sixth in the event at the 2004 Games in Athens.

A giant photo of Plawgo along with Aaron Cook of Great Britain and Naide Gomes of Portugal was selected by VISA as one of their three life size TEAM VISA banners plastered all over the Olympic Village and Olympic Park.

Pair Win Schedule Battle with Organizing Committee
Poland’s Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba have successfully challenged a change to the London 2012 badminton program that left them playing twice in one day. The mixed doubles pair complained after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced dramatic revisions to the playing schedule on the eve of the competition. Mateusiak and Zieba are contenders for gold.

Without the changes it would have meant the European champions having to play both the Danish pair of Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen and Canadians Toby Ng and Grace Gao on the same day. They were initially told after the draw was made that they would open the competition against the Canadians on Saturday.

The BWF made the alterations after realising they had not followed their own regulations concerning group matches when drawing up the schedule. The rules stipulate that when using a round-robin stage, as they are for the first round in London, the highest-ranked participants in each group must play the lowest first.

Volleyball Men Hope For Continued Success
Poland, which won the maiden World League title over the defending Olympic champions from the United States, is looking only for London medals. “I’m really happy, with the progression of our team,” said Poland’s Italian coach Andrea Anastasi. The Polish National men’s volleyball team earned a large cash bonus for winning that championship in Bulgaria. The London Olympic medal matches will be August 11th and 12th. Beach volleyball finals will be televised on August 8th and 9th.

Raymond Rolak,
Lars Hjelmroth and
Jacek Adamski
contributed


Olympic Games

• 26 sports, 39 disciplines
• 34 venues
• 8.8 million tickets
• 10,490 athletes
• 302 medal events
• 21,000 media and broadcasters
• 19 competition days
• 2,961 technical officials
• 204 National Olympic Committees
• 5,770 team officials
• 20,000 plus media
• 70,000 Britons volunteering
• 205 National Anthems