SCARLET FACES IN ATLANTA Yesterday's Olympic bloomers

OLYMPIC GAMES

The fickle mood swings of the Olympic results computer were driving journalists crazy again yesterday.

The multi-million dollar results system began the day in benign mood. First it awarded a track cycling world record to the Australian Bradley McGee and then, in a spirit of Olympic generosity, delivered the same accolade to Denmark's Jan Bo Petersen. The track cycling begins today.

But then it got its bytes in a tangle, turned nasty and spluttered out a waspishly misleading fencing result. Hungary beat Spain in the semi- finals of the men's team epee event, it said. Wrong, both Hungary and Spain had been eliminated in the quarter-finals about an hour earlier.

The most bizarre lapse was awarding Asian records to all 36 weightlifters in Monday's 64kg snatch section. The lucky lifters included 10 Europeans, five Latin Americans, two from the United States and one each from Africa and Canada.

Even more fortunate were Tony Analau of the Solomon Islands and Wang Guohua of China. According to the results, they failed to register a lift. But, what the heck, they got Asian records too.