Olympics: Tall Ferns answer their critics but NZ swimmers and table tennis bow out

7.45am

The Tall Ferns women's basketballers produced an Olympic surprise and rolled over South Korea last night (NZ time) to send a message to detractors who said they shouldn't even have been allowed to go to the games in Athens.

But the run ended for table tennis sisters Li Chunli and Karen Li , bowing out in the fourth round of the doubles to highly ranked opponents while New Zealand swimmers missed out on finals spots and the Black Sticks hockey players struggled, going down 2-0 to China.

Leading into the Games, long-serving Olympic selector Bruce Cameron felt so strongly that the New Zealand women's basketball team did not deserve the New Zealand Olympic selection panel's nod for the Games, that he resigned.

But, after suffering an opening match hiding by the United States, the Tall Ferns rebounded to upset Korea 81-73.

They are also on track to meet their seemingly unambitious performance target of finishing in the top 10 of 12 teams at Athens, which is also the goal set them by the Olympic selection panel.

The victory was the Tall Ferns' first in Olympic preliminary competition. Their only other Olympic win was in the wooden spoon play-off against Senegal, which saw them finish 11th at the Sydney Games

Korea finished fourth in 2000 and beat New Zealand in two recent Olympic warm-up matches.

"That was a big moment for us, a big moment for New Zealand," the Ferns' charismatic Australian coach Tom Maher said after beating Korea.

"To win a round game is a fantastic achievement and certainly in my 30 years of coaching, it ranks as one of the best games that I'll ever remember."

Forward Donna Loffhagen, who had 19 points and 14 rebounds, was outstanding for New Zealand while Gina Farmer topscored with 22 points and showed her experience to dig New Zealand out of trouble.

Day three of the Athens Games also saw more encouraging New Zealand performances in the pool, with swimmers progressing for the first time beyond the heats.

In his 200m butterfly heat, Moss Burmester led United States star Michael Phelps through the last turn before finishing fifth, but Burmester's time of 1 minute 58.13 seconds qualified him 10th for the semifinals.

Helen Norfolk, having narrowly missed the cut for the 400m freestyle final on Sunday, was the slowest qualifier for the 200m individual medley semifinals with her 2min 17.27sec heat time.

In hockey, the Black Sticks made much of the play against the higher-ranked Chinese but couldn't convert any of their five penalty corner chances while China netted two goals from their six chances.

New Zealand will now need to beat Japan on Thursday to have any chance of a medal.

At the at the Galatsi Olympic Hall table tennis venue, Li Chunli and Karen Li first took just 35 minutes to dispatch Nicole Struse and Elke Wosik, of Germany, 4-1 in the third round and advance to the fourth round of the women's doubles.

But the joy was short-lived as later in the day the duo were eliminated in the fourth round 8-11 13-11 6-11 13-11 5-11 4-11 by eighth-seeded North Koreans Kim Hyang Mi and Kim Hyong Hui.

Canterbury archer Ken Uprichard was eliminated after a tense match against the higher ranked Ming Huang Liu of Taiwan.

The scores in their sudden death 18-arrow clash at Panathinaiko Stadium -- an ancient amphitheatre converted to be the main stadium for the first modern Olympics in 1896 -- were tied with just two arrows remaining before Uprichard was edged out 148-145.

At the equestrian centre, Taranaki three-day eventer Heelan Tompkins was the best performed of the New Zealanders after the dressage with 44.00 points and remained well placed for the medals although she slipped back to thirteenth on Glengarrick after being second overnight.

Another Taranaki rider Matthew Grayling gave a strong performance on Revo, incurring just 47.20 penalty points for 22nd, helping New Zealand to sixth in the team standings.

Frenchman Nicolas Touzaint now heads the individual competition on Galan de Sauvagere, after an outstanding dressage test while overnight leader Germany's Bettina Hoy slipped to third.

Andrew Nicholson was 52nd, while Blyth Tait sat 54th and Dan Jocelyn 61st.

In the yachting, among the sailors to get on the course as winds played havoc, a highlight for New Zealand was the second placing in race five for the Yngling crew Sharon Ferris, Joanna White and Kylie Jameson.

A ninth in race six had them sixth overall and just nine net points away from the silver medal position.

After six races in the Finns, Dean Barker has dropped from fourth to ninth after seventh and 16th placings.

It turned out to be a day off for the New Zealand rowers as winds sweeping the course postponed races for the day.

Star medal hopes Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell were unaffected having already qualified straight into the finals.

But the two New Zealand crews who must compete in repechages, single sculler Sonia Waddell and women's pair Juliette Haigh and Nicky Coles will have to race tomorrow afternoon and possibly Wednesday respectively.

- NZPA