John Smallwood: Bosch hit of Games

EDITH BOSCH of the Netherlands won a bronze medal in the 70-kg division of women's judo last Wednesday, but she's gaining her place in 2012 Olympic lore for what she did Monday night as a spectator.

Bosch just happened to be standing near Ashley Gill-Webb, who was arrested for throwing a bottle onto the track moments before the start of the men's 100-meter final.

Enraged by what she saw, the 32-year-old Bosch called stadium security but not before she delivered a little Olympic justice of her own.

"Een dronken gast voor mij gooit flesje op de baan! IK HEB HEM GESLAGEN . . . Ongleofelijk!!," Bosch wrote on her twitter account not long after the suspect was arrested and taken away by London police.

English translation - "A drunken spectator threw a bottle on the track. I HAVE BEATEN HIM . . . unbelievable."

Bosch said that her emotions got the best of her when she saw the bottle thrown at the sprinters so she, "hit him on the back with the flat of my hand."

Unfortunately, because of the commotion, Bosch actually missed Jamaica's Usain Bolt win the 100.

"I am very sad about that," she said.

Lord Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Games committee, said of the incident, "I'm not suggesting vigilantism but it was actually poetic justice that they happened to be sitting next to a judo player."

Gill-Webb, who has been banned from any Olympic venue and the entire Olympic Park for the rest of the Games, denied the charge during an appearance at Stratford Magistrates Court, but Bosch's testimony plus worldwide video of the thrower might work against him as he is scheduled for trial on Sept. 3.

American judo competitor Nick Delpopolo became the first of the more than 10,000 athletes to fail an in-competition drug test.

Delpopolo, from Westfield, N.J., was disqualified and expelled from the Olympics after cannabis was fond in his system.

His excuse is that the positive test was, "caused by my inadvertent consumption of food that I did not realize had been baked with marijuana" before he left for London.

Delpopolo placed seventh in the 73-kilogram division, but will likely have his results erased.

In other doping news, reigning 50k race walk gold medalist Alex Schwazer of Italy won't defend his title.

The Italian Olympic committee announced on Monday that it had kicked Schwazer off the team after he failed a doping test before arriving in London. Details of the test were not given.

He was scheduled to walk on Saturday.

During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, residents of the Land Down Under cheered "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, hoy, hoy, hoy!" to the point of annoyance whenever one of their athletes performed well.

Now, with Australia struggling on the medal chart, some newspapers in Australia have resorted to pilfering medals won by its island neighbor New Zealand and combining the total for a one island/one island continent result.

On Monday, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney listed the newly created nation of "Aus Zealand" on its medal tally while the Morning Herald went with "Team Oceania."

After Monday's events, Australia was ninth on the medal tally with 21 (two golds), but "Aus Zealand" moved up to fifth with 28 medals (five golds).

It's all done tongue-in-cheek. Last week, mX, a free Aussie daily, listed the Koreas as "Nice Korea (South)" and "Naughty Korea (North)" in its medals table.

NBC, which has been criticized heavily for its tape-delayed coverage of popular events, hit a new low on Sunday when it would not allow live coverage of the men's 100 meter final in the United States.

I understand saving the good stuff for prime time on week nights because of the time difference, but this glamour event actually went off at 4:50 p.m. (Eastern) - that's later than most live NFL games.

The International Olympic Committee, which sold the exclusive American rights to NBC for the London Games and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games for $2.2 billion, wants no part of the argument.

"It's certainly not for us to tell [NBC] how to reach their audience," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

After a record 22 Olympic medals, swimmer Michael Phelps says he is done with racing in the pool.

The ocean, however, could present a new challenge.

Phelps said one of his first big plans after the Olympics is to visit his buddy, swimmer Chad le Clos of South Africa, for a diving adventure with great white sharks.

"Sharks are one of my favorite animals in the world," Phelps recently told NBC host Bob Costas. "A buddy of mine went [diving with sharks] in South Africa and he said that it was awesome.

"[Le Clos] and I were talking, and Chad said, "Why don't you come to South Africa?" So I said, 'Let's dive with great whites together,' and he said, 'OK, let's set it up.' "

Ultimate Fighting Champion president Dana White said it's not his decision to make, but doesn't see why mixed martial arts should not be added to the Olympics.

"We should be," White said in an interview on TMZ. "If you think about it right now, boxing you can punch to the head and body; judo you can do throws and submissions, taekwondo you can kick and punch and wrestling you have takedowns and throws.

"All those things are mixed martial arts. We bring it all together."