Chinese lead platform diving

America's 2000 gold medalist Wilkinson fifth after preliminary round

BEIJING -- Now comes the tough part for China's diving team: The 10-meter platform, the one event the Chinese didn't win at the two previous Olympics.

They're off to a good start this time, with teenagers Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin leading the women's standings in preliminaries.

China already has six gold medals in diving and is looking for two more to make it a clean sweep.

Attempting to avoid a second straight shutout in the diving medals for the United States, Laura Wilkinson was fifth after completing the second-best dive of the opening round. She won this event in Sydney, and the Americans have not won a medal in diving since.

CYCLING: Remember the spark snowboard cross put into the Winter Games in Turin? Maybe bicycle motocross -- BMX, to those in the know -- will do the same.

American racers Mike Day and Kyle Bennett gave the crowd a great introduction to the sport, with Day winning the time trial and each of his three quarterfinal heats and Bennett advancing but also dislocating his left shoulder in a wreck on his final heat.

Top-ranked racer Donny Robinson also moved on, as did Jill Kintner, the lone American in the 16-racer women's field, who is competing despite a shredded knee ligament.

"You can't get much more rad than this," Robinson said.

WRESTLING: Ben Askren has to be thinking, "I cut my hair for this?"

The bushy-haired former NCAA champion, who promised a gold medal, lost in freestyle's 74-kilogram round of 16, ending his Olympics after two matches. The gold ended up around the same neck it has been placed at the past two Olympics -- Buvaysa Saytiev of Russia. The three straight golds in the sport tie a record.

"I lost -- I don't know what to say, my dreams are crushed," said Askren, who cut the hair he'd been growing for two years because he feared having it pulled.

Doug Schwab, a former NCAA champion, lost in the 66-kg qualifications but made the bronze-medal bracket when the guy who beat him advanced. Schwab ended up losing again. Turkey's Ramazan Sahin won the bracket.

TAEKWONDO: Mexico's Guillermo Perez has a gold medal. And Afghanistan now has a medal, period.

Perez won the men's under 58-kg division, beating Yulis Gabriel Mercedes of the Dominican Republic. A bronze went to Rohullah Nikpai, marking the first ever medal -- in any sport -- for Afghanistan.

In the women's under 49-kg class, reigning world champion Wu Jingyu of China took the gold.

MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: The U.S. men beat Serbia, remaining undefeated and earning a spot in the semifinals against Russia.

Brazil plays Italy in the other semifinal match on Friday.

MEN'S WATER POLO: The U.S. squad knows who it will be playing in the semifinals: Serbia. The other semifinal will pit reigning European champs Montenegro against two-time defending Olympic gold medalist Hungary.

Serbia beat Spain to advance. Montenegro moved on by upsetting Croatia, which came in as the world's No. 1 team.

KAYAK: American Rami Zur failed to qualify for the finals of the men's 1,000-meter single kayak (K-1).

China added three boats to the finals, with the 1,000-meter canoe double team, the 1,000 K-2 and the 1,000 K-4 qualifying.

MEN'S BEACH VOLLEYBALL: The stunning loss in the tournament opener seems like ancient history for Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, especially now that the Americans are playing for the gold medal.

The guys needed only 41 minutes to eliminate Georgia in straight sets in the semifinals, then watched Brazil's No. 2 team beat its best, the Athens gold medalists.

BOXING: British middleweight James Degale beat former Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan to clinch Britain's third boxing medal in Beijing, and Vijender Kumar clinched the first boxing medal in India's history.

Cuba's last two fighters also reached the semifinals with one-sided victories, guaranteeing a whopping eight medals for the sport's now-unquestioned power. Flyweight Andris Laffita earned a marquee meeting with Russia's Georgy Balakshin, and middleweight Emilio Correa emulated his medal-winning father with a win over Uzbekistan's Elshod Rasulov.