OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: Olympic Round-Up: High flying Zasulskaya

THE woman who has controlled much of the air traffic in the Olympic basketball tournament, Natalia Zasulskaya, guided the Unified Team to a gold medal with a 76-66 victory over China.

Trailing 43-35 at half-time, China responded to make it 55-53 with 10 minutes remaining. Zasulskaya, the 6ft 2in centre, then supplied four unanswered points to add to her match tally of 19 to check the Chinese revival. 'It was the dream of my life to be the Olympic champion,' Zasulskaya said. The Americans' dreams of gold assumed nightmarish proportions in the semi-finals, but they slept easier last night, after taking the bronze medal at the expense of Cuba.