Wansiru first Kenyan to win Olympic men's marathon

Samuel Wansiru already had made a name for himself in the heady world of Kenyan distance running. Now he's made history.

The 21-year-old Wansiru pulled away over the final few kilometers on Sunday to become the first Kenyan to win an Olympic marathon - and he did it faster than anyone ever has.

Wansiru negotiated the 42.15-kilometer (26.2-mile) course through Beijing streets in bright morning sunshine in an Olympic record of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 32 seconds.

Kenyans had twice won men's marathon silver, most recently in 2000, but never a gold.

Just across the line, Wansiru kneeled and crossed himself several times. He had just broken the Olympic mark of 2:09.21 set by Carlos Lopes of Portugal in the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

As Wansiru was still on one knee, Gharib crossed the line for the silver.

Wansiru won the Fukuoka International Marathon in Japan last December and was runner-up at the London Marathon in April.

Reigning world champion Luke Kibet of Kenya stayed with the leaders through the early stages but fell back and finally pulled out of the race shortly past the halfway mark. He later said he had a stomach problem.

World record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia decided not to run the race because of concerns about Beijing's notorious air pollution. But after an overnight thunderstorm, a glorious blue sky greeted the final day of these games.

The race began at the edge of Tiananmen Square, then wound around the Temple of Heaven before turning northward toward the Olympic Green and the Bird's Nest, where colorful dancers, drummers and cyclists entertained the crowd as it awaited the runners.

US storm to fourth straight gold

The United States swept to a fourth successive Olympic women's basketball gold medal with a crushing win over world champions Australia on Saturday.

The predicted fireworks failed to materialise as the Americans obliterated their fierce rivals 92-65 in a totally one-sided Beijing final to win their sixth Olympic title.

European champions Russia took bronze for the second consecutive Olympics by overpowering tournament hosts China 94-81.

The United States carried an astonishing 32-0 winning streak into Saturday's gold medal showdown, a run that was never threatened by an Australian team who came out flat.

The Opals shot a woeful 22 percent from the floor in the first half to go back to the locker room trailing by 17 points.

The Americans, who had been crushing their opponents by an average of just under 40 points, were led by 15 points from Kara Lawson, while Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker added 14 each.

Australia, who barely improved their field goal shooting during a scrappy final two quarters, took silver behind the US women for the third straight Games.

Germany win hockey gold

Power-packed Germany won the Olympic men's hockey gold medal after 16 years with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Spain in the final on Saturday.

Christopher Zeller netted the winner in the 16th minute with a ferocious penalty corner before the Germans warded off repeated Spanish attacks to strike gold in field hockey's 100th year at the Olympics.

Germany added the Olympic title to the World Cup triumph two years ago, reinforcing their credentials as the sport's foremost nation despite losing the number one ranking to Australia in June.

The Spanish strikers, led by the seasoned Santi Freixa, raided the rivals' half through 70 minutes of gripping hockey, but could not get past the sturdy German defence that packed a powerful punch.

Freixa, who had scored five goals in the competition, failed to convert three penalty corners as Germany built on their 1-0 win over Spain in the preliminary league.

Meanwhile, Athens Olympic champions Australia won the bronze medal with a spectacular 6-2 win over the Netherlands earlier on Saturday.

Germany improved upon their bronze medal finish at Athens four years ago, when they beat Spain 4-3 in the play-off, to win their first gold since the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

Dutchman won the Olympic gold medal for the men's 10 kms open water marathon swimms

Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden won the Olympic gold medal for the men's 10 kilometres open water marathon swim on Thursday adding to the world crown he won earlier this year over 25km.

The 27-year-old used his experience to let the leaders set the early pace before a late burst saw him claim gold in a time of 1 hour 51 minutes 51.6 seconds.

His strong finish left Great Britain's David Davies in his wake to finish almost two seconds behind for silver, while Germany's Thomas Lurz took bronze at Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on the outskirts of Beijing.

Davies, who finished sixth in the 1500m freestyle final at the Water Cube last week, and Lurz, who won gold at the open water world championships in 2004 and 2006 over 10km, had shared the lead for most of the race.

With an hour gone Davies had a two metres lead over Lurz before the German closed the gap and the pair tussled for the lead before van der Weijden made his late move.

There was shock for Russia's 10km world champion Vladimir Dyatchin who was disqualified after being shown a yellow card and then a red for misconduct in the last stages of the race.

US beach volleyball queens still be in power

US beach volleyball queens Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor overcame a stern challenge from China's Wang Jie and Tian Jia to successfully defend their women's Olympic title on Thursday.

In heavy rain, the bikini-clad Americans won 21-18, 21-18 to stretch their winning streak to an astounding 108 matches without dropping a set in seven appearances here.

China made the early running but May-Treanor, 30, coolly reeled off three points in a row to create three first-set points before spiking the winner.

China briefly led midway in the second set before the US regained control with Walsh converting the first gold-medal point.

Earlier, Chen Xue and Zhang Xi claimed China's first Olympic beach volleyball medal with a 21-19, 21-17 victory over Renata Ribeiro and Talita Rocha of Brazil.

China's silver-bronze finish breaks the stranglehold held by Brazil, Australia and the United States, who between them had collected all the women's Olympic medals since the sport's introduction in 1996.

Argentina to face Nigeria in final

My favorite Argentina crushed Brazil 3-0 in one of football's most combustible rivalries on Tuesday to reach the Olympic final where they will play African giants Nigeria who sauntered past minnows Belgium.

The defending champions, inspired by Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi who outshone AC Milan's Ronaldinho, upset their South American neighbors with a brace from Sergio Aguero and penalty by Captain Juan Riquelme.

It means that Brazil, despite being five-time World Cup winners, must wait another four years for a chance to win their first Olympic gold after coming up short twice before in final appearances in 1984 and 1988.

Atletico Madrid's Aguero broke the deadlock seven minutes after the interval when Angel Di Maria's pass appeared to strike his upper arm and flew into the net.

Aguero scored his second five minutes later when Messi released defender Pablo Zabaleta on the right and his pass was slotted home from close range.

Riquelme killed off the game with a 76th minute penalty after Aguero was brought down by Bayern Munich defender Breno.

It was wretched night for the Brazilians with Liverpool midfielder Lucas and substitute Thiago Neves both sent off for ugly fouls on Javier Mascherano late in the second half.

Now I am further sure that Argentina will win the game for the pride and for the gold medal.

Isinbayeva wins pole, creates her new record

Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva won the gold medal in the Olympic women's pole vault on Monday and then broke her own world record when she leapt 5.05 metres.

Jennifer Stuczynski of the United States won silver medal with 4.80m and Svetlana Feofanova took the bronze with a best jump of 4.75m.

Isinbayeva, who won gold in Athens four years ago and has dominated the sport since, spent most of the competition lying under her towel relaxing and did not take her first jump until 4.70.

The current world champion, took just her second jump at 4.85m and that was enough for her to retain her Olympic title.

Isinbayeva then jumped 4.95m at the third attempt and set up the bar to try and defeat her own world record of 5.04m and delighted the crowd when she did so at the third attempt.

She always give her best and thats make her at the top which she shows it by breaking her own record in third attempt.

Nadal Pleased to Win One for His People is now World no. 1

Gold medallist Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony after the men's singles competition at the 2008 Olympic Games August 17, 2008.

Rafael Nadal won over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez on Sunday, celebrating the No. 1 ranking with the gold medal at Olympics. After being ranked No. 2 in the world for an exact 141 weeks, Nadal will take over the first position from Swiss Roger Federer on Monday.

“Different pressure? No, I don’t think so. It doesn’t change too much between two weeks ago and right now. The pressure is the same because I will be No. 1 tomorrow, but at the same time I want to continue to win the same titles when I was No. 2. I want to continue to be in the top form when I was No. 2. Probably I’m going to be No. 2 another time in a few months,” said Nadal after winning the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

It is not a wonder that Nadal is enjoying a great run this season, defeating Roger Federrer in two consecutive finals of Grand Slams–French Open and Wimbledon. And now, he has crowned his achievements with a gold medal at the Olympics.

By winning the Olympic gold medal, Nadal has moved closer to the Golden Slam category where he would top Roger Federrer to win all the Grand Slams and also the Olympic gold medal.

Nadal became the first top-five ranked player in the recent era of Olympic Men’s tennis to win the Gold Medal.

Djokovic wins bronze medal for Serbia

Serbia's Novak Djokovic won the first medal of the Olympic tennis tournament on Saturday, beating American James Blake 6-3, 7-6 to go home with bronze.

The world number three, narrowly beaten by Spain's Rafael Nadal in Friday's semi-final, broke early in the first set and was rock solid throughout.

Blake, who ended Swiss world number one Roger Federer's run in the singles on Thursday, made a scrap of it in the second set and Djokovic became rattled, smashing his racket at 4-4.

However, the Australian Open champion went 6-4 ahead in the tie-breaker and fell to his knees in joy when Blake put a backhand into the tramlines.

The Serb celebrated by throwing most of his kit, including his rackets and shirt, into the crowd after holding aloft the Serbian flag.

Federer crahses out of singles

On a day of upsets, top seed Roger Federer was sent crashing out of the Olympic tennis quarter-finals 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) by US number one James Blake on Thursday.

Federer was broken when serving for the first set and crushed in the second-set tie-break, suffering his first defeat to Blake in nine meetings and ending his bid for a first Olympic medal.

It was Federer's third defeat in six matches since losing his five-year Wimbledon crown. He was beaten by Gilles Simon in Canada and then fell to Ivo Karlovic in Cincinnati.

The Swiss will be supplanted by French Open and Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal on Monday after a record four-and-a-half years as number one.

Blake now faces either Paul-Henri Mathieu of France or Fernando Gonzalez, the Chilean 12th seed, for a place in the final.

Rice wins third gold in relay victory

Stephanie Rice won her third gold medal of the Beijing Games by leading off Australia's victorious women's 4x200 metres freestyle relay team on Thursday.

The Australian quartet of Rice, Bronte Barratt, Kylie Palmer and Linda Mackenzie set a new world record of seven minutes 44.31 seconds, shaving 5.78 seconds off the previous record set by the United States at the world championships in Melbourne last year.

China won silver with the heavily-favoured US. team winning bronze. Rice has also won gold in the 200 and 400 metres individual medley and has set the world record with all three of her victories.

Determined Saina fails to reach Olympics semis

India's top shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Beijing Olympics after losing a exhausting quarter-final encounter of the women's singles badminton event here on Wednesday.

Courageous Sania lost to Indonesia's Maria Kristin Yulianti 16-28, 21-14 and 21-15.

Sania overcame a tough challenge put up by her Indonesian opponent Maria Kristin Yulianti in the very first game. Saina was well leading 20-16 and needed only one point to settle the game but Yulianti fought back hard to level the score 20-20.

However, Saina kept her cool and seal the first game 28-26 in her favour after wasting as many as eight game points.

Yulianti bounced back in the second game as she maintained her lead right from the start. Yulianti levelled the game 1-1 with a comfortable scoreline of 21-14.

Saina gained the lead right from the start in the deciding game as at one stage she was comfortably leading 8-1. But Yulanti came back strongly to first level the score and then took a decisive lead of 19-12.

Saina Nehwal was just one win away from ensuring India another individual medal after she stunned fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong to move into the quarter-finals of the event.

Saina, ranked 15, defeated Wang 21-19, 11-21, 21-11 in a grueling pre-quarterfinal contest on Monday. After first two easy encounters, there was no looking back for Saina as she booked her last eight places with ease with some elegant placement and perfect drop shots.

Bindra wins first ever Olympic gold

World champion Abhinav Bindra tied up India's first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics, winning 10m air rifle event at the Beijing Games here on Monday.

The 25-year-old, who qualified fourth for the event, shot an overall score of (596+140.5) 700.5 in a thrilling finale which went right down to the last shot.

Bindra's historic feat makes him India's first-ever individual gold medallist, bettering the silver medal feat of double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Athens 2004.

"He is the best shooter in the world and I think his is a morale boosting feat for everyone in the contingent," a jubilant Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi said after Bindra's win.

"We are all very happy. He is a very hardworking athlete. The entire shooting contingent is celebrating. We are very proud of him and it is just the beginning," national coach Sunny Thomas said.

"Abhinav is a very calm and composed guy and doesn't get very excited," Thomas added.

Bindra, a Khel Ratna awardee, had earlier won the gold medal in 2002 Commonwealth Games in the pairs event and silver in the individual event.

Earlier, Gagan Narang had failed to qualify for the finals of the same event after falling short in the count-back.

The silver in the event went to Chinese Zhu Qinan (699.7) while Finland's Henri Hakkinen (699.4) had to be content with a bronze.