Games tidbits

TAEKWONDO

Serb used YouTube to form fight plan

As Serbia's Tijana Bogdanovic prepared to compete against a two-time Olympic champion, she relied on one rather unorthodox training aide: YouTube.

In one of the most surprisingly one-sided contests of the taekwondo competition, Bogdanovic easily eliminated China's Wu Jingyu in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. Wu won the Olympic title at the Beijing and London Games and also holds a world championship silver medal.

After the contest, Bogdanovic described Wu as a "legend" and her idol. She said she learned about Wu's style by studying her fights online and had prepared for the challenge with her sparring partner in Serbia.

Bogdanovic, ranked eighth, is a European champion and next faces South Korea's Kim So-hui in the 49kg division final.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Mind trick pays off forGermany

Germany's Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst used a special mind trick to help deal with a raucous home crowd as they crushed host Brazil to win the beach volley-ball final on Wednesday.

A packed house, loud music and swirling wind on Copacabana beach made for an intimidating atmosphere, but the Germans kept their cool to beat Agatha Bednarczuk and Barbara Seixas 21-18, 21-14.

Afterward, Ludwig said they practiced mind-control techniques and imagined that instead of playing on Brazil's most famous beach, they were at home in Germany and the deafening support was theirs.

"It was definitely tough. We knew it was going to be really loud," she said. "Before the final we were talking about it, how it could be a bit distracting.

"We had some tools, some routines in our heads that we worked through with our team before. And then we were just in a tunnel and we could play really well from the beginning to the end.

"We were just in our own court and we were just hearing our own German crowd. Not really, but in our heads."