 |
OLYMPICS DAY 10
|
Kelly Holmes produced an awesome display to win a dramatic gold medal in a memorable women's 800m.
The British runner produced an awesome sprint finish in the final 100m to edge out Hasna Behnassi of Morocco and Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia.
On the track, Jeremy Wariner won the men's 400m crown with a brilliant run, clocking 44.00 seconds.
In the decathlon, Britain's Dean Macey equalled his personal best in the high jump to lie fourth after five events.
Holmes, who was last with 300m gone, ran a tactically perfect race to win her first global title in one minutes 56.38 seconds.
"I can't believe it. I didn't realise I had won - I had to see the replay twice to be sure," she said after the win.
The USA proved their strength in depth in the men's 400m, with Otis Harris taking the silver and Derrick Brew bronze behind Warriner.
And Macey's score of 4,454 points left the Briton behind Dmitriy Karpov of Kazakhstan (4,689), Czech world record holder Roman Sebrle (4,594) and Bryan Clay of the USA (4,454).
Meseret Defar of Ethiopia won the women's 5000m gold, with Britain's Jo Pavey taking a highly creditable fifth place.
Cameroon's Francoise Mbango Etone broke Greek hearts by pipping home favourite Hrysopiyi Devetzi to triple jump gold.
Robert Fazekas of Hungary won the men's discus gold medal ahead of Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania and Zoltan Kovago of Hungary.
In the women's 200m, Abi Oyepitan was an impressive qualifier for the semi-finals, finishing second behind Allyson Felix of the United States.
Britain's Chris Rawlinson qualified for Tuesday's 400m hurdles semi-finals, finishing third behind Angelo Taylor and Jiri Muzik in his round one heat.
Meanwhile, a tearful Paula Radcliffe faced the media after dropping out of Sunday's marathon, telling BBC Sport she did not know what had gone wrong.
And the International Olympic Committee confirmed shot put gold medallist Irina Korzhanenko would be stripped of her title because of doping.
Earlier, it was the cyclists who won the first medal of the day for Britain, although they were not able to overcome a classy Australian outfit in their gold medal race in the 4,000m team pursuit.
That meant silver for the British four of Chris Cummings, Rob Hayles, Paul Manning and Bradley Wiggins - who added to his individual pursuit gold.
World Champions Australia clocked three minutes 58.233 seconds to win their third cycling title of the Games.
Also in the velodrome, Ross Edgar went out of the individual men's sprint in the quarter-finals, and Victoria Pendleton won a race-off to decide places nine to 12 in the women's event.
There was controversy in the gymnastics when Bulgaria announced they are appealing against the result of the men's rings final.
And South Korea have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) over a judging error which cost Yang Tae-young a gymnastics gold.
In the arena, Gervasio Deferr won Spain their second gymnastics gold as he defended his men's vault title, while Romania's Catalina Ponor celebrated double success in the women's beam and floor exercise.
Team GB's canoeing success continued in the men's K1 1000m.
Britain's Tim Brabants qualified fastest for Friday's final when he will look to to add to the medals won by team-mates Campbell Walsh and Helen Reeves.
Great Britain's Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks moved into silver medal position in the 49er class sailing with a second place in race 11 and fourth place in race 12
And Nick Dempsey won race nine of the Mistral windsurfing class, but he stays in fourth overall with only two races remaining.
Irini Merleni became the first female wrestling champion in Olympic history by edging out Japan's Chiharu Icho in a thrilling 48kg freestyle final
But there was joy for Japan as Saori Yoshida won the 55kg gold and Kaori Icho won the 63kg category, while China's Wang Xu won the 72kg.
In table tennis, Ryu Seung Min of South Korea ended China's hopes of a clean sweep of golds with a dramatic win over China's Wang Hao.
Sweden's table-tennis legend Jan-Ove Waldner almost certainly ended his Olympic career with defeat in the bronze medal play-off.
In men's basketball, China beat world champions Serbia and Montenegro to advance to the last eight and send their opponents crashing out.
The USA's "Dream Team" ended an unconvincing group stage with an 89-53 win over Angola.
Great Britain's hockey men saw their miserable Olympics continue with an emphatic 8-2 drubbing at the hands of Pakistan.
In the women's football, the United States edged past world champions Germany in a dramatic 2-1 victory to seal their place in the final.
Standing in their way in the final will be Brazil, who beat Sweden 1-0 in the other semi-final.
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
The defining images