Gold

The excitement was undeniable. All the years of training, enduring, and certainly dreaming are now allowing Jordan Burroughs the chance to attain a lifelong goal - an Olympic gold medal in wrestling. A Sicklerville resident and 2006 graduate of Winslow Township High in Camden County, Burroughs is considered the favorite to win the gold in freestyle wrestling at 74 kilograms (163 pounds). He ensured that there would be no sneaking up on the opposition after winning the World Wrestling Freestyle Championship in September in Istanbul, Turkey.

It was a long way from his father's butcher shop to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Aaron A. Gold was propelled on the journey by an innovative mind, a sharp judgment and a daring spirit that made him a pioneer in the consumer-loan business. When Gold died Saturday, the company he founded, Oxford First Corp., controlled $2 billion in assets. Gold was 73 and lived in Melrose Park. Gold was a founder, "if not the founder," of the business of purchasing packages of consumer loans for debt processing, said former Daily News business columnist and city editor Jack Roberts, now editor of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Heavyweight Bruce Baumgartner, from Edinboro, Pa., easily won his weight class at the U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling trials last night and will defend his Olympic gold medal in Seoul, South Korea, this summer. Two other Pennsylvanians - Penn Stater Ken Chertow of New York AC and Mark Schultz of Foxcatcher - will join him on the U.S. team. The best-of-three championship round held at Pensacola Civic Center decided the freestyle team. The Greco-Roman squad was chosen late Friday night.

Usain Bolt's third gold medal of the world championships failed to produce a third world record because the Jamaican 400-meter relay team only managed to produce the second-fastest time in history. "It is a little bit my fault," an apologetic Bolt said, complaining he was just too tired after nine races in eight days. "I didn't run the best third leg. I was happy to get around the track and give the baton to Asafa," he said. "I am dying right now. " Compounding Bolt's fatigue was Asafa Powell's groin injury, which made the anchor runner uncertain until one hour before the start.

Jan Albert of Green Valley, Mary Jo McWilliams of Llanerch and Lynne Kirkpatrick of Old York Road tied for first place with 80s in the 34th annual Gold Key Class A Invitation Tournament of the Women's Golf Association of Philadelphia yesterday on the North Course of Philmont Country Club. They will meet in an 18-hole playoff at a time to be arranged. SENIOR SCRAMBLE Tom Conboy of Sandy Run Country Club and Bill Campbell of Wilmington Country Club won the Senior 2-man Scramble Tournament of the Golf Association of Philadelphia with a 9-under-par 29-30-59 at Bala Golf Club.

"Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold. " - I Kings 10:14 The Bible never specifically mentions whether King Solomon actually had a mine named after him. But in the biblical verse, 666 talents of gold were delivered annually to Solomon from somewhere in his domain. A talent, according to biblical sources, can be either a weight (125 Roman pounds) or a value (30,000 ancient dollars). So, whether you measure the king's source of gold in weight (83,250 pounds)

Tracy Robinson can relate to those few opportunistic prospectors who panned successfully for gold in the 19th century. With his victory in the Class AAA 400 meters, the West Chester Henderson senior was the lone area gold medal winner at the PIAA state track and field championships, held yesterday and Friday at Shippensburg University. While local athletes were among the eight medal winners in most events, only Robinson had the glitter of gold around his neck. Rather than pan for gold, he ran for it. "I knew I could win once I started kicking at the 200," he said.

Carl Lewis started the day with a burden on his shoulders and ended it with a gold medal around his neck. Amid a controversy over scheduling and concerns about an injury, Lewis won his 56th straight long-jump competition and his second straight long-jump gold medal yesterday with an effort of 28 feet, 7 1/2 inches. With Mike Powell finishing second and Larry Myricks third in the event, the United States completed its first medal sweep of the long-jump competition since 1904.

When Aries Merritt shot out of the blocks to deny Liu Xiang victory in the 60-meter hurdles, he clinched more than just an unlikely victory. The American hurdler, who was thought to have little chance against the Chinese great, won the title and cemented a record gold medal haul for the U.S. team at the world indoor championships in Istanbul. "We psyched up everybody, including myself," said U.S. captain Bernard Lagat , who won his gold in the 3,000. In the women's long jump, Brittney Reese set a championship record of 23 feet, 83/4 inches on her last attempt to push teammate Janay Deloach to silver at 22-103/4.

VANCOUVER - Angela Ruggiero is tougher than you are. When she cried last night, it wasn't because her fourth Olympics ended with a silver medal instead of gold. It was because her fourth Olympics ended. This giant of women's ice hockey cried because last night's 2-0 defeat to gold medal-winning Canada was certainly her last game with this U.S. team, and might be her last with any team. "It's really hard," Ruggiero said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You give your life to this game, and you come up short as a team, it's just hard.