The long & short of basketball quarters

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Sydney: The shortest player and the tallest player in the Olympic women's basketball competition will come face-to-face in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

But in the sudden-death games, there will be only four winners among the eight qualifiers - the United States (5-0), Australia (5-0), Russia (3-2), France (4-1), South Korea (3-2), Brazil (2-3), Poland (3-2) and Slovekia (2-3).

Pint-sized Australian point guard Kristi Harrower and towering Polish centre Malgorzata Dydek are important pieces in their teams' strategies for their quarter-final clash.

Harrower, who was told when she was a teenager her 1.62 metre (5ft 4in) frame was too small to represent her country, is the on-court general for the unbeaten medal contenders Australia.

Dydek, who stands at 2.13 metres or seven feet, is the main scorer and rebounder for the European champions, who lost to gold medal favourities, the United States, and Russia in their Pool.

''To beat them on their home court will be very difficult,'' polish forward Joanna Cuprys said. the high-scoring and unbeaten US are likely toencounter little trouble against Slovekia, who had a shooting success rate of only 39.1 per cent in their Pool games.

''I think we can run them, but we have to play tough and strong team defence,'' American forward Natalie Williams said. In the other quarter-final matches, European championship runners-up France take on the tournament surprises South Korea, who are deadly from three-point range if they are on form.

Medal contenders russia, who are the best outside shooters of all the teams so far, play defending silver medallists Brazil, who were shell shocked after losing to Canada on Saturday.



(c) Reuters Limited.