JJ Shobha finished day one of the two-day heptathlon event at 29th place, ahead of compatriots GG Pramila and Susmita Singh Roy who finished 32nd and 34th respectively in the Beijing Olympics on Friday night.

Shobha, who won hearts in the Athens Olympics by running despite a torn ligament, totalled 3482 points after four events 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m while Pramila tallied 3419 and Susmita 3391.

The combined events contest got off with the 100m hurdles with the Indian trio vying for space. Of the trio, Shobha went on to post her personal best timing of 13.62, which fetched her 1033 points.

GG Pramila (983) and Susmita Singha Roy (963), however, were nowhere near their best as they timed 13.97 and 14.11 respectively.

Preeja Sreedharan could not repeat or better her personal best and put up a mundane show to finish a lowly 25th in the women's 10,000m event of the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

The Kerala runner clocked 32:34.64 to finish 25th among 29 athletes who completed the race.

Preeja had set a new national record by clocking 32:04.41s in London in June, which also earned her an Olympic B qualification norm.

Indian women discus thrower duo of Krishna Poonia and Harwant Kaur came a cropper in the Beijing Olympics with poor shows that was nowhere near there personal best.

Poonia, an Asian Games bronze medalist, cleared 58.23m to finish 24th while Harwant's effort was even worse, a dismal 56.42 which was good enough only for a lowly 30th place.

Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba produced a trademark electric last lap to win the Olympic 10,000 metres gold on Friday and keep her unprecedented bid for a long-distance running double on target.

Meanwhile, Poland's Tomasz Majewski gatecrashed the shot put competition, taking gold and with it any chance of US putters extending their Olympic dominance of the event.

American world indoor champion Christian Cantwell took silver with 21.09 and Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus took the bronze, 4cm adrift.

Dibaba, the reigning double world 10,000m champion, set a new Olympic record time of 29min 54.66sec in perfect conditions at a packed National Stadium.

Elvan Abeylegesse, the Ethiopian-born runner representing Turkey, won silver and American Shalane Flanagan won a shock bronze medal in 30:22.22.

Du Jing and Yu Yang won China's first gold medal in Olympic badminton on Friday, defeating South Korea's Lee Hyo-jung and Lee Kyung-won in the final of women's doubles.

Second-seeded Du and Yu overpowered the fourth-seeded Koreans on their way to a 21-15, 21-13 win and China's second medal of the tournament.

China's Wei Yili and Zhang Yawen took the bronze medal with a 21-17, 21-10 win Japan's Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna.

India's Akhil Kumar pulled off the biggest upset of the boxing competition at the 2008 Olympics when he beat current World champion Sergey Vodopyanov in the bantamweight (54kg) round of 16 bout in Beijing on Friday.

The Indian won the contest on a split decision after both the boxers were tied 9:9 at the end of four rounds. Akhil got the judges' verdict after an impressive comeback in the last rounds.

Singapore made sure of a first Olympic medal in 48 years when their table Athletics players made the final of the women's team event by beating South Korea on Friday.

It has been a long wait for the city state which last made the podium at the 1960 Rome Olympics when weightlifter Tan Howe Liang won silver -- their only previous medal.

Feng Tianwei got the ball rolling with a 11-5, 11-5, 11-2 victory over Dang Ye-seo before world number six Li Jiawei lost to Kim Kyung-ah 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6, 11-9. Li then paired with Wang Yue Gu, showing perfect teamwork to beat Kim and Park Mi-young 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 in the doubles. But Dang bounced back to crush an exhausted Wang 11-8, 14-12, 11-9.

With the match tied at 2-2, Singapore's destiny fell to Feng, who displayed courage to beat a tenacious Park 11-7, 12-10, 3-11, 11-9.

Ukraine's Viktor Ruban took advantage of a mistake by South Korean Park Kyung-mo to win 113-112 in the Olympic gold medal match in men's individual archery on Friday.

Ruban had a 103-95 edge after his 11th arrow when Park scored just 8 on his 11th to make it an even score. Ruban responded with a 10, forcing Park to get a perfect score on his final shot.

Russian Bair Badenov claimed the bronze with a 115-110 win over top-seeded Juan Rene Serrano of Mexico.

Slovakia's Elena Kaliska won the women's single kayak slalom gold, successfully defending her Athens title.

Kaliska led after the semifinal and dominated on the whitewater course at Beijing on Friday, cleanly navigating her way through the challenging rapids and snaking her way around the 21 gates.

Australia's Jacqueline Lawrence took silver and Austria's Violetta Oblinger Peters won the bronze.

Cao Lei won China's seventh weightlifting gold medal and smashed three Olympic records on Friday in the women's 75 kg competition.

The two-time world champion dominated the competition as expected, heaving 128 kg in the snatch and 154 kg in the clean and jerk.

Alla Vazhenina of Kazakhstan won a close duel for the silver medal with Russian lifter Nadezda Evstyukhina.

Chinese women entered four of the seven weight categories -- the maximum allowed and won all four.

The Olympic host has also won three gold medals in the men's competition.

The ace Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bowed out of the men's doubles at the 2008 Olympics, losing to the Swiss duo of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarter-finals in Beijing on Friday.

Resuming at 4-1 after rain stopped play on Thursday, Federer and Wawrinka continued the momentum, winning the match 6-2, 6-4 in just 82 minutes.

The Swiss pairing next faces the top seeded American duo of Bob and Mike Bryan in the semi-finals.

The US women's softball team remained on track for their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal when they beat mistake-prone Canada 8-1 on Friday in the completion of a rain-suspended game.

Canada clung to a 1-0 lead when play began in the fourth inning but the levee broke in the sixth inning when the Americans erupted for four unearned runs.

Scoring on a hit batter, a wild pitch and an error, the onslaught helped the Americans remain unbeaten in preliminary round play at 4-0, while previously unbeaten Canada fell to 3-1.

The US, which trailed for the first time since the 2000 Games in Sydney, scored four more in the seventh to turn the game into a rout.

Cuba held on to beat the US and China shocked Taiwan in two politically tinged extra-inning thrillers that saw national pride put ahead of gold medals on the Olympic baseball diamond on Friday.

Wukesong Field shook with drama as China erased a 7-3 deficit with a five-run burst in the bottom of the 12th to stun Taiwan 8-7 and claim a first Olympic win.

Right next door, Cuba and the US renewed their long-standing rivalry. Three-time Olympic gold medalists Cuba scoring two runs in the 11th inning to see off the determined Americans 5-4 and improve their record to 3-0.

Back in the Olympics after failing to qualify for Athens, the U.S. must quickly regroup after watching their record slip to 1-2.

Ukraine's Artur Ayvazian won the gold medal in the men's 50m Rifle Prone, scoring a total of 702.7 points.

The United States' Matthew Emmons won the silver medal with a total of 701.7 and Australia's Warren Potent won the bronze medal with a total of 700.5.

Ayvazian was the highest-scoring shooter in the qualification round with a total of 599, one point shy of a perfect score. Emmons finished the qualification round in second place with a total of 597.

American Nastia Liukin broke China's stranglehold in the gymnastics competition to win the women's all-around Olympic gold medal on Friday.

The 18-year-old put in a dazzling display on all four apparatus to win the title with a score of 63.325 and emulate the feat of fellow Americans Mary Lou Retton and Carly Patterson.

Liukin edged out compatriot and world champion Shawn Johnson by 0.6 of a point. China's Yang Yilin picked up the bronze.

Liukin's victory wrecked China's 100 percent success rate in Beijing. The hosts had claimed both team titles while Yang Wei emerged victorious in the men's all-round battle.

World record holder Usain Bolt cruised through the Olympic 100 metres heats along with compatriot Asafa Powell and world champion Tyson Gay on Friday.

The 21-year-old Jamaican, aiming to become the first man for 24 years to do the Olympic sprint double, started slowly but soon got into his huge loping stride and crossed the line in 10.20 seconds.

Powell, the former record holder, comfortably qualified for the quarter-finals in 10.16s, the third best time of the morning, despite suffering from stomach ache.

American Gay had the closest race but looked untroubled by the hamstring injury he suffered at the US trials last month and won his heat in 10.22s.

North Korean shooting double medalist Kim Jong-su tested positive for a banned substance and has been excluded from the Beijing Olympic Games and stripped of his medals, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

A female Vietnamese artistic gymnast, who finished out of the medals, has also tested positive for a banned substance, an IOC spokeswoman told reporters.

Kim won silver in the men's 50 meter pistol and a bronze in the men's 10m air pistol shooting.

Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput failed to qualify for the final of 50m Rifle prone event at the Olympics on Friday.

Gagan, who earlier disappointed by not qualifying for the 10m air rifle finals, finished a dismal 35th while Sanjeev finished slightly better at 26th.

Ukraine's Artur Ayvazian qualified top of the heap with a sensational series of 100,100,100,100,100 and 99. Ayvazian totalled 599.

American Matthew Emmons was second on the list after firing a series of 99,100,98,100,100,100 for a total of 597.

American Michael Phelps overpowered teammate Ryan Lochte in the men's 200m Individual Medley final in a new World record time of 1:54.23 seconds on Friday morning.

The victory gave him his 12th career Olympic gold medal and sixth of the Beijing Games.

The silver medal went to Laszlo Cseh of Hungary with a time of 1:56.52s. Lochte took the bronze at 1:56.53s.

Phelps set the previous World record (1:54.80) at the US Swimming Trials in July, 2008.

Germany's Britta Steffen won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 100m freestyle on Friday.

Libby Trickett of Australia won the silver while Natalie Coughlin of the US the bronze.

Ryan Lochte of the United States took the gold medal in men's 200m backstroke final with a time of 1:53.94s, breaking his own world record of 1:54.32s.

His teammate Aaron Peirsol, the other simultaneous WR holder, swam in second place at 1:54.33s.

Arkady Vyatchanin of the Russian Federation won the bronze medal in 1:54.93.

Lochte also won a gold medal in the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay final.

American Rebecca Soni broke the world record to win the women's 200 metres breaststroke final on Friday to collect her first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics.

Soni surged to victory in two minutes 20.22 seconds, wiping 0.32 off the previous world record set by Australia's Leisel Jones at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Jones, who won the 100 earlier in the week, faded on the last lap to finish second in 2:22.05 while Norway's Sara Nordenstam was third in 2:23.02.

Soni became just the second American female swimmer to win gold in Beijing after Natalie Coughlin won the 100 backstroke.

Thiago Neves scored a brace and Diego added a third as five-time world champions Brazil thrashed hosts China 3-0 on Friday to wrap up group play unbeaten at the Beijing Olympics.

Brazil won Group E with nine points from three matches, and will play Cameroon in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Belgium also advanced from the group, and will face Italy in the last eight on Saturday.

The loss eliminated hosts China from the tournament.

Rain played spoilsport to drop early curtains on the men's doubles quarterfinals match with the Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi trailing 1-4 to the Swiss duo of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in the Beijing Olympics on Thursday tonight.

The match was into its 16th minute with the seventh seeded Indians pushed to the corner when the sky opened up and what started as mere drizzle grew in strength, forcing the match officials to call off the tie.

Both the pairs would return on Thursday to play out the remainder of the match.

Double Olympic champion Venus Williams was beaten 7-5, 7-5 by China's Li Na in the quarter-final of the women's singles on Thursday.

Shortly after her sister Serena had been knocked out by Elena Dementieva, American Venus, the seventh seed, came up against an inspired home favorite.

Roared on by a noisy crowd under the Centre Court floodlights, Li recovered from a slow start to leave the Wimbledon champion reeling.

The United States beat 2006 World Championships finalists Greece 92-69 on Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

Kobe Bryant and Chris Bosh each scored 18 points for the United States (3-0). Dwyane Wade added 17 points and LeBron James scored 13.

The win helped the Americans clinch a spot in the medal round and move on to a match-up of Group B's other unbeaten side world champion Spain on Saturday.

The winner will earn the group's top seed for the quarterfinals.

Greece stunned the Americans two years ago in the semifinals of the world championships with a 101-95 victory but had no answers on Thursday.

In another match, Yao Ming's 30 points helped hosts China to dump Angola 85-68.

Serena Williams' bid for a first Olympic singles gold went up in smoke on Thursday after she lost to Russian number five seed Elena Dementieva in the quarter-finals.

The Russian, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon this year, won 6-3, 4-6, 3-6.

The America, seeded number four, had won doubles gold with her sister Venus at the Sydney Games but missed Athens four years later through injury.

Dementieva, an Olympic singles silver medallist in 2000 at Sydney, will play either unseeded Austrian Sybille Bammer or her ninth seeded compatriot Vera Zvonareva for a place in the final.

Gymnast Yang Wei wiped away eight years of frustration to become only the second Chinese man to capture the all-around title at the Olympics on Thursday.

After claiming a silver medal in 2000 and drawing a blank in Athens four years later, Yang finally lived up to his reputation of being the greatest gymnast of his generation when he scooped the gold medal with a total of 94.575.

His edged Japan's Kohei Uchimura by 2.6 points. France's Benoit Caranobe sneaked through to claim an unexpected bronze.

Indian challenge in swimming came to an end as neither Virdhawal Khade nor Ankur Poseria could repeat or better their personal best at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday.

In the 100m butterfly event, Poseria clocked 54.74 to finish overall 57th, more than one second behind his personal best of 53.68.

Khade, on the other hand, timed 22.73 in the heats to finish overall 40th, failing to better his personal best of 22.69s which he recorded at last month's FINA World Youth Championship in Mexico.

James Blake shocked world No 1 Roger Federer 6-4, 7-6 (2) to move into the last four of the Athletics competition at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday.

The American, who had taken just a set off the Swiss in eight meetings, won the surprisingly one-sided contest to end Federer’s medal hopes and continue his so far disappointing year.

Two-time 100 metres freestyle Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband retired from international swimming on Thursday after failing in his quest to win a third straight 100 freestyle gold medal.

The 30-year-old Dutchman said it was time to hang up his goggles after he finished a credible fifth in the final behind Frenchman Alain Bernard, conceding defeat to a younger generation of sprinters vying.

"That was my last race," he said. "It's a new generation and now it's time to step aside."

Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his greco-roman bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for Olympic gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as "politics".

Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat then walked off.

"I don't care about this medal. I wanted gold," he said.

A bitter Abrahamian, silver medallist at Athens 2004 who had high hopes of top honours in the 84kg competition in Beijing, announced he was quitting the sport.

"This will be my last match. I wanted to take gold, so I consider this Olympics a failure," he said.

Rain has delayed the start of play at the Olympic Green Athletics Center until 1630 IST at the earliest.

A chest-thumping Yao Ming relentlessly powered Olympic hosts China to their first victory in the men's basketball competition on Thursday.

Screaming constantly at his team mates to get him the ball, China's giant centre scored 30 points in a 85-68 Group B win over Angola, preserving their hopes of a spot in the quarter-finals.

"I think that's our chemistry," Yao told Reuters. "My team mates made a lot of room for me by making a lot of open shots and I needed to do something on the inside."

A thunderous slam dunk by Yao gave China a 24-8 lead before Angola sliced the deficit to just two on an off-balance Eduardo Mingas three-pointer to end the first quarter.

Fuelled by Yao's energy, the Chinese extended their lead again in the third quarter, Yi Jianlian's breakaway dunk making it 61-47 and reigniting the crowd of 17,000.

Japan's Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna upset defending Olympic champions Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen of China on Thursday to advance to the women's doubles semi-finals of the Olympics badminton tournament.

The unseeded duo Maeda and Suetsuna took advantage of unforced errors by the top-seeded Chinese pair en route to an 8-21, 23-21, 21-14.

Chinese gymnast Yang Wei won the gold medal in the men's Individual All-Around gymnastics in Beijing on Thursday, scoring a total of 94.575 points.

The silver medal was won by Japan's Uchimura Kohei, who scored 91.975 points, while the bronze medal went to France's Benoit Caranobe, who scored 91.925 points.

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.

China's Du Li won the gold medal in the women's 50m Rifle Three Positions with a total score of 690.3, a new Olympic record.

Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic bagged the silver (687.7) and Cuba's Eglis Yaima Cruz the bronze medal (687.6).

Anjali Bhagwat and Avneet Kaur Sidhu failed to qualify for the 50m Rifle Three Positions event at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday morning.

Anjali finished a poor 32nd with a total score of 571 while Avneet placed 42nd out of 43 competitors after scoring 552 in the qualifying round.

Li Du of the home nation topped the scoring chart with an Olympic record-equaling performance of 589 points.

Alain Bernard of France won the gold medal in the men's 100m freestyle with a time of 47:21 seconds, beating World record holder Eamon Sullivan of Australia, who was second with a time of 47:32s.

Jason Lezak of the United States and Cesar Cielo Filho of Brazil shared the bronze, clocking the same time of 47:67s.

Alain Bernard of France took gold at the men's 100m freestyle with a time of 47:21, beating world record holder Eamon Sullivan of Australia, who came in second with a time of 47:32.

Jason Lezak of the United States and Cesar Cielo Filho of Brazil shared the bronze, clocking the same time of 47:67s.

Kitajima Kosuke clocked a new Olympic record time of 2:07.64 seconds to win the men's 200m breaststroke final at the National Aquatics Center, Thursday.

The new low time comes a day after Kitajima broke the Olympic record in Friday's semi-final.

Swimming in second was Brenton Rickard of Australia (2:08.88) and Hugues Duboscq of France in third (2:08.94).

Kitajima took the gold medal and also set a new world record in the 100m breaststroke final on August 11

Manuchar Kvirkelia turned two strong moves into a two-period victory on Friday over China's Chang Yongxiang in the Greco-Roman 74-kg weight class and Georgia's first Olympic wrestling gold medal.

Kvirkelia's decisive victory by 6-0 and 3-0 in the best-of-three format came less than a week after Russia and Georgia fought battles.

The gold also was Georgia's first -- and second medal overall -- in Beijing.

virkelia, 30, was the 2003 world champion and was third in 2006 and has been wrestling on the world level since Chang was barely into his teens.

T The bronze medalists were Christophe Guenot and 2007 world champion Yavor Yanakiev of Bulgaria.

Masae Ueno of Japan retained the women's 70kg Olympic title at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

Ueno threw Cuba's Anaysi Hernandez for the maximum ippon score with a kochiki-taoshi (running leg grab) throw and become the third Japanese fighter here to retain the Olympic crown.

Ronda Rousey became the first American woman to win an Olympic judo medal with a win over Germany's 2004 bronze medallist Annett Boehm.

Edith Bosch of the Netherlands added bronze to the silver she won in Athens after beating European silver medallist Leire Iglesias of Spain.

Georgia's Irakli Tsirekidze won the men's 90kg judo gold.

China's Chen Ying, who won the world championship title in Croatia in 2006, added the Olympic women's 25m Pistol gold medal with a new Games record on Friday.

It was the hosts third title at the shooting ranges.

Mongolia's Gundegmaa Otryad took the silver and Germany's Mongolian import Munkhbayar Dorjsuren got the bronze.

With nine of the 15 shooting competitions over, hosts China have three golds, the Czech Republic two, while India, Finland, South Korea and the United States share the other four.

China's Liu Chunhong bettered her own world record in the women's weightlifting 69kg class on the same day by hoisting 128kg in the snatch at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

The 23-year-old defending Olympic champion made her intentions clear early with an initial total attempt of 276kg, gunning for her own Olympic records in the snatch, clean and jerk and total lifts.

She later changed her initial snatch attempt to 120kg, but went for the world record itself on her second attempt of 125kg, erasing Oxana Slivenko's 22 month-old standard of 123kg.

World champions Wang Feng and Qin Kai won the men's synchronised 3m springboard title on Friday to continue China's diving domination with the hosts' fourth straight gold in the diving pool.

China have swept aside all rivals in the diving and now have four golds from the competition's eight events.

This is China's most comprehensive performance in the games so far.

Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara won gold in the Olympic men's road cycling time-trial, completing the 47.3-kilometre (29.4-mile) course in 1 hour, 2 minutes, 11.43 seconds.

The medal was the second for the Swiss world champion. Earlier, he took the bronze in the men's road race on Saturday.

Gustav Larsson of Sweden took the silver and Levi Leipheimer of the United States the bronze.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi cruised into the quarter-finals of the Beijing Olympics with a straight sets win over Brazilian duo of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa.

The seventh seeded Indian pair beat Melo-Sa 6-4, 6-2 in the pre-quarters on Friday.

They will meet the winner of the match between fourth seeds Roger Federer/Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and Russia's Dmitry Tursunov/Mikhail Youzhny.

Athletics world No 1 Roger Federer was effusive in praise of American swimming sensation Michael Phelps after he became the greatest Olympian of all time at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

The 23-year-old American won two more gold medals -- from the men's 200 metre butterfly and 200m freestyle relay -- in Beijing to take his career tally to an unprecedented 11 victories. That saw him overtake an elite group including Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis who had won nine golds.

"What he's doing is quite incredible. He has been doing it for so many years," said Federer who is attempting to win a first Olympic Athletics gold.

"He's doing it in different competitions at different lengths. He's very impressive and he's one of the greatest athletes out there at the moment."

Australia's Stephanie Rice won the Olympic gold medal in the women's swimming 200 metres individual medley on Friday, breaking the world record.

Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry won the silver and Natalie Coughlin of the United States the bronze.

American cyclist Kristin Armstrong won the women's Olympic time trial on Friday, beating Britain's Emma Pooley who took home the silver.

Switzerland's Karin Thurig won bronze in the 23.5-km race against the clock.

Although the cyclists were spaced two minutes apart, Armstrong passed two riders -- the last one about 100 metres from the finish -- as she raced her way to a gold medal.

Taiwan Olympic baseball player Chang Tai-shan has tested positive for a banned substance in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) check, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday.

Taiwan were playing their opening Olympic game against the Netherlands on Friday morning and Chang was not part of the starting line-up.

The island's baseball association has applied to WADA to have Chang take another urine test, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.

The player may have taken a Chinese cold medication that contains a banned substance, an official with Taiwan's Olympic Committee told Reuters. Players were advised to avoid these medications during the Games, he said.

India's archery challenge in the Beijing Olympics came to an end with Mangal Singh Champia failing to replicate his ranking round form and crashing out in pre-quarterfinals in the men's individual section in Beijing on Friday.

Champia, who sizzled in the ranking round to finish overall second, was pipped by Russian Bair Badenov 109-108 at the Olympic Green Archery Field.

Incidentally, Badenov had shot 658 -- way below Champia's 678 -- in the ranking round but when it mattered the most, it was the Russian archer who raised his game and clinched the issue.

Earlier in the day, Champia had little problem in sweeping aside Vaezi Hojjatolah of Ireland 112-98.

China made history on Friday by winning its first Olympic gold medal in the Team event of women's gymnastics. They won the gold medal with a total of 188.900 points.

The United States won the silver medal with a total of 186.525 points and Romania won the bronze with a total of 181.525 points.

Michael Phelps claimed his fourth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics and then helped his American team win the 4 x 100 m freestyle and make it five wins from five, in fact five world records from five, at these Games.

He now has 11 Olympic gold medals.

He is still on course to break the old record of seven golds at one Games, held by Mark Spitz.

He first shaved 0.06 seconds off the World 200m butterfly record and then he and his team mates - Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens and Peter Vanderkaay -- sliced 4.68 seconds off the World record to win the 4 x 100m freestyle gold in 6:58.56 second, with Russia a distant second and Australia third.

Australia's Eamon Sullivan regained the world record for the men's 100 metres freestyle within minutes of losing it to Frenchman Alain Bernard during the semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

Bernard shaved 0.04 off Sullivan's previous record of 47.24, set during the final of Monday's 4x100 freestyle relay, when he won his semi-final in 47.20.

But Sullivan snatched it straight back when he won the second semi-final in 47.05 to go into Thursday's final as the fastest qualifier.

Federica Pellegrini broke her own world record to win the women's 200 meters freestyle at Beijing's Water Cube on Friday and become the first Italian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming.

Pellegrini powered her way to victory in one minute 54.82 seconds to shave 0.63 off the previous world record of 1:55.45 she set in Monday's heats.

Slovenia's European champion Sara Isakovic finished second to take the silver medal in 1:54.97 while the bronze went to China's Pang Jiaying in 1:55.05 as the first three finishers all went under the old world record.

Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal bowed out of the women's singles in the badminton competition at the Olympics, losing to Indonesia’s Kristin Maria Yulianti in the quarter-finals.

The 18-year-old, playing in her first Olympics, was beaten 28-26, 14-21, 15-21 by the world No 16.

American swimmer Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympian of all time when he won his 10th gold medal on Friday and his fourth of the Beijing Games.

The mighty Phelps broke his own world record to continue his dominance in the Water Cube pool and overtake an elite group including Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis who had won nine golds.

The 23-year-old showed little apparent emotion after winning the men's 200 metre butterfly in 1.52.03, knocking six hundredths of a second off his world record. Each of his four medals in Beijing have come in world best times.

Phelps is now halfway to surpassing Spitz's record of seven golds in one games.

Alain Bernard of France broke the men's swimming 100 metres freestyle world record in the semi-finals at the Beijing Olympics on Friday.

Bernard clocked 47.20 seconds to beat the previous world record of 47.24 set by Australia's Eamon Sullivan as the lead-off swimmer in the 4x100m freestyle relay final on Monday.

Indian swimming duo of Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal gave their best to create twin national records even if that was not enough to see them through in the semifinals of the 100m Freestyle and 200m Breaststroke events respectively at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday.

Kolhapur-born Khade, dubbed the fastest swimmer in his age group, clocked 50.07 to better his previous mark of 50.49 in men's 100m Freestyle to finish overall 42nd.

Sejwal did even better knocking down three seconds off his own previous mark of 2:18.23 and clocked 2:15.24.

World champions Spain produced an electrifying comeback to stun Olympic hosts China 85-75 in overtime in the men's basketball tournament on Tuesday.

Trailing by 14 points at the end of the third quarter, the Spaniards clawed their way back to 72-72 on a Marc Gasol lay-up with 19.7 seconds left.

Gasol's brother Pau, the Los Angeles Lakers forward, took control in overtime with a lay-up and then a dunk which drew giant Chinese centre Yao Ming's fifth foul, ending his game.

His successful free-throw gave Spain a five-point cushion to effectively seal the team's second straight win in Group B.

Pau Gasol finished with 29 points, the last two on an emphatic breakaway dunk, and guard Rudy Fernandez added 21 for Spain.

India's Akhil Kumar scored a comprehensive 12-5 win over Frenchman Ali Hallab in the opening round of the bantamweight (54 kg) category at Beijing.

Akhil never gave the Frenchman any leeway and stayed on course for a medal.

Earlier, Jitender Kumar made an impressive start to his campaign when he beat Turkey's Ulas Furkan Memis in his first round match.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi overcame the first hurdle, as they eased past Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon to enter the pre-quarters of the men's doubles at the Beijing Olympics.

The ace Indian duo, seeded seventh, beat the young Frenchmen 6-3, 6-3 in the first round on Tuesday.

They will next face Brazilian pair of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa, who beat Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-2, 8-6.

After winning the gold in 1996 but coming in second at the next two Olympics, Michal Martikán of Slovakia recaptured the gold in the Men's Slalom Canoe Single competition on August 12, finishing the semifinal and final races with a combined total time of 176.65 seconds.

Pak Hyon-suk of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea earned a standing ovation after winning the Women's Weightlifting 63 kilogram final on August 12. This is the first gold medal won by the DPRK in Beijing.

Irina Nekrassova of Kazakhstan set the tone of the final by lifting 105kg in the Snatch with her first attempt. Before that, Pak Hyon-suk of Democratic People's Republic of Korea lifted 106kg after three attempts, followed by 104kg from Lu Ying-Chi of Chinese Taipei.

Nekrassova then went on to lift 110kg with her rest attempts, establishing a four kilogram lead.

The Sydney Olympics ran out. Athens doubled the number. So organizers of the Beijing Games are hoping 100,000 condoms will satisfy the needs of Olympic athletes.

While sex is not an Olympic sport, it is expected to be an activity in the Beijing village housing 10,500 athletes, all of whom are in great shape and with plenty of free time on their hands once knocked out of the Games.

Athletes have received free condoms at every Olympics since Barcelona in 1992 to help raise awareness of AIDS, and Beijing is no exception.

Ole Hansen, spokesman for UNAIDS China, said the number available at Beijing was based on previous Games' experience and in keeping with previous Olympics would be available at medical centers at athletes' centers in Beijing, Qingdao and Hong Kong rather than put in rooms.

At Athens in 2004 about 130,000 condoms were distributed.

The Indian rowing pair of Devender Kumar Khandwal and Manjeet Singh finished a disappointing fifth in the Lightweight men's double Sculls Repechage 2 in Beijing on Tuesday.

The Indians clocked 7:02.06s, 23 seconds behind the winners -- Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes -- of Portugal who crossed the finishing line in 6:39.07s.

Devender and Manjeet's effort extinguished their chances of making it to the semi-finals of the event and will now compete for inconsequential 13-24 places.

Young Indian archer Pranitha Vardhineni bowed out in the women's individual event, losing to Korea's Un Sil Kwon in the round of 16 at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday.

Pranitha went down 106-99, the Koream scoring two perfect tens on the last two visits.

Walton Eller of the United States was in a class of his own in winning the men's double trap shooting Olympic gold medal on Tuesday.

The deer hunter from Texas dominated the field in the qualification and kept a steady hand in the finals on a hot afternoon in Beijing in front of a fired-up Chinese crowd to clinch the gold with two shots to spare.

Eller, 26, finished on 190 points with Francesco D'Aniello, an Italian police officer, taking second on 187.

China's Hu Binyuan won bronze after a fantastic final round.

Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin won gold in the synchronized women's 10 metres platform with 363.54 points at the National Aquatics Centre to give China its third diving gold medal in three days.

Briony Cole and Melissa Wu of Australia finished second, while Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz won Mexico's first medal of the Beijing Olympic Games by placing third.

American sisters Serena and Venus Williams powered on towards a likely gold medal showdown with easy second-round wins in the Olympic singles on Tuesday.

Serena needed just 44 minutes to blow away Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-0 on day three of the Athletics tournament.

Shortly afterwards on Centre Court Wimbledon champion Venus was not quite as ruthless but still had far too much for Czech Iveta Benesova, winning 6-1, 6-4.

Indian boxer Jitender Kumar made an impressive start to his campaign at the 2008 Olympics when he beat Turkey's Ulas Furkan Memis in his first round match in Beijing on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Jitender was leading 12-3, when his opponent threw in the towel 1:21 seconds in the third round.

He will next face Uzbekistan's Tulashboy Doniyorov, who beat Ngumba Irungu Bernard of Kenya 10:1 in his first round encounter.

China won the Olympic gold medal in the men's team gymnastics artistic on Tuesday.

Japan won the silver and the United States the bronze.

Dola Banerjee and L Bombayla Devi crashed out of the women's individual archery event at the Olympics after losing their respective opening round matches on Tuesday.

While Dola lost to Canadian Marie-Pier Beaudet, Bombayla went down to Poland's Iwona Marcinkiewicz.

Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore failed to qualify for the final in the double trap shooting competition on Tuesday.

Samresh Jung's woeful form in the Olympics continued and he failed to make the 50m pistol final of the shooting competition, finishing a disappointing 42nd in the qualification round on Tuesday.

Jung, a multiple gold medallist from the 2006 Commonwealth Games, shot a series of 88,92,91,86,90,93 to average 9.0 that ruled him out of contention. He earlier missed the cut for the 10m air pistol event final.

Meanwhile, China's Zongliang Tan qualified first for the event, shooting a series of 96,94,93,96,90,96 to average 9.417.

American Natalie Coughlin turned the tables on Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry to win the 100 metres backstroke gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday.

Coughlin held off the fast-finishing Coventry to touch the wall first in 58.96 seconds, just 0.19 outside the world record of 58.77 the Zimbabwean set during Monday's semi-finals.

Coventry finished second in 59.19 to claim her second silver medal in Beijing after being runner-up in the 400 individual medley while American Margaret Hoelzer won bronze in 59.34.

Coughlin, who won a relay silver on the first day of finals in Beijing, also won the 100 backstroke title at Athens and becomes the first woman to defend the title since the event was first introduced to the Olympics in 1924.

Michael Phelps of the United States won the Olympic gold medal in the men's swimming 200m freestyle on Tuesday, breaking the World record. South Korea's Park Tae-hwan won the silver and Peter Vanderkaay of the United States the bronze

Men's 200m freestyle final result: 1. Michael Phelps (United States) 1 minute 42.96 seconds WR, 2. Park Tae-Hwan (South Korea) 1:44.85, 3. Peter Vanderkaay (United States) 1:45.14, 4. Jean Basson (South Africa) 1:45.97, 5. Paul Biedermann (Germany) 1:46.00, 6. Dominik Meichtry (Switzerland) 1:46.95, 7. Yoshihiro Okumura (Japan) 1:47.14, 8. Robbie Renwick (Britain) 1:47.47. WR = world record

A local Beijing paper has revealed that some of the amazing fireworks in the Olympics opening show were digitally-crafted fakes, inserted into the live TV feed. The Beijing Times quotes the head of visual effects, who says that the 28 giant footprints that stomped through the air above the city, ending at the stadium, were advanced CGI.

Though the pyrotechnics really were set off, the airborne camera view that the rest of the world watched was fake. Why go to these lengths?

Apparently the Olympic committee decided that to follow the real trail of firework footprints was too dangerous for a helicopter camera. Instead a team spent almost a year crafting the fake segment, paying attention to even get the smog lighting effects correct.

India's Anup Sridhar bowed out of the Beijing Olympics on Monday after losing to Japan's Shoji Sato in the men's singles badminton tournament in Bejing.

Sridhar went down tamely 13-21, 17-21 in the second round.

A place in the semi-final was beyond his reach but Rehan Poncha could not even better his personal best as the Indian finished overall 40th among 44 swimmers in the heats of the 200 metres Butterfly event of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing on Monday.

While sharing the pool with record-chasing Michael Phelps in the spanky Water Cube is an achievement in itself, Poncha's timing of 2:01.89 was exactly 8.19s behind the American sensation who topped the chart at 1:53.70 in the heats.

Poncha's personal best of 2:01.40 came last month at the Telstra Grand Prix in Sydney last month.

Azerbaijan's Elnur Mammadli needed only 13 seconds to beat teenage world champion Wang Kichun of South Korea to win the men's 73kg category in Beijing on Monday and emerge as his country's first Olympic judo champion.

Mammadli dived straight for Wang's legs, grabbing him firmly and barreling the slightly built Korean into the mat for an ippon score and automatic victory.

The win gave Azerbaijan its first judoka medal, left a stunned Wang lying on the floor and sent the sizeable contingent of Azerbaijani fans at the venue into raptures.

China's Zhang Xiangxiang won the Olympic gold medal in the men's 62kg weightlifting in Beijing on Monday.

Colombia's Diego Salazar won the silver and Triyatno of Indonesia the bronze.

Sania Mirza's Olympics debut lasted all of 46 minutes. The Indian ace retired with an injury in her first round match against Czech Iveta Benesova, at the Beijing Games on Monday.

Sania, who had lost all her three previous matches against Benesova, was trailing 1-6, 1-2 when she quit.

Indian rower Bajranglal Takhar's campaign at the Olympics came to an end as he failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the men's singles sculls rowing event on Monday.

Takhar, with a timing of 7:19.01 was more than 28 seconds off the leader, as he finished fifth in the fourth quarterfinals.

Roger Federer shook off his poor recent form with a classy 6-4, 6-2 victory over Dmitry Tursunov in the first round of the Olympic Athletics event on Monday.

Earlier in the day, world No 2 Rafael Nadal beat Italy's Potito Starace 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Olympic Athletics men's singles first round results in Beijing on Monday (prefix number denotes seeding).

Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) beat Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 7-5 7-6(2) Kevin Anderson (South Africa) beat Komlavi Loglo (Togo) 6-3 6-2 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 6-4 6-2 9-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) beat Frank Dancevic (Canada) 4-6 6-3 6-2 Andreas Seppi (Italy) beat Tommy Robredo (Spain) 6-4 4-6 8-6 Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) beat Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) 7-6(4) 6-2 Marin Cilic (Croatia) beat Juan Monaco (Argentina) 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) beat Potito Starace (Italy) 6-2 3-6 6-2 Nicolas Massu (Chile) beat Steve Darcis (Belgium) 6-4 7-5 13-Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) beat Jiri Vanek (Czech Republic) 6-4 6-1 7-David Nalbandian (Argentina) beat Zeng Shao-xuan (China) 6-2 6-1 10-Gilles Simon (France) beat Robin Soederling (Sweden) 6-4 6-4 Olivier Rochus (Belgium) beat Ivo Minar (Czech Republic) 6-3 3-6 6-3 15-Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) beat Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 6-3 6-1 Thomas Johansson (Sweden) beat Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 4-6 6-4 6-4 Victor Hanescu (Romania) beat Simone Bolelli (Italy) 7-5 3-6 6-4 17-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat Yu Xin-yuan (China) 6-1 6-2 Guillermo Canas (Argentina) beat Frederic Niemeyer (Canada) 3-6 4-2 (Niemeyer retired) 8-James Blake (U.S.) beat Chris Guccione (Australia) 6-3 7-6(3) 4-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) beat Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 6-4 6-2 12-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) beat Sun Peng (China) 6-4 6-4

A L Lakra paid the price of being too cautious as he crashed out of the Beijing Olympics' boxing competition after losing 5-9 to Athens Games bronze medallist Bahodirjon Sultanov in the opening round of the featherweight category in Beijing on Monday.

Lakra, the only Indian boxer in action on Monday, evaded too much and attacked too little against an aggressive Sultanov in the low-scoring bout.

The first round had the Indian trailing 1-2 and the margin remained the same at the end of the second round with Lakra 3-4 behind.

The unseeded Japanese badminton duo of Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna scored the "win of their lives" when they rallied from the brink to eliminate Olympic champions Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen in the women's doubles on Monday.

The top seeded Chinese were two points from winning the match at 19-16 in the second game, but committed a series of errors and lost it 23-21.

The rattled Yang and Zhang crumbled in the second half of game three, giving up 12 of the final 17 points to go down 14-21.

Saina Nehwal defeated fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong to move into the quarter-finals of the women's singles badminton event at the Beijing Olympics on Monday.

Saina beat Wang 21-19 , 11-21 , 21-11 in the round of 16.

Britain, who gained a place in the Beijing Olympics men's hockey competition at the expense of eight-time Olympic champions India in the qualifying round, beat another former Olympic champion Pakistan 4-2 in their opening pool B game.

World number two Rafael Nadal overcame a second set lapse to advance into the second round of the Beijing Games.

Nadal beat Italy's Potito Starace 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in the first round on Monday.

President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated Abhinav Bindra on his "golden performance" in bagging India's first-ever individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

In separate messages, Patil and Singh lauded the achievement of 25-year-old Indian shooter, with the Prime Minister describing the feat as a "golden performance".

Bindra, who qualified in fourth place for the 10m air rifle final, shot an overall score of (596+140.5) 700.5 in a thrilling finale which went right down to the last shot.

His 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.

Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno has become the first competitor at the Beijing Olympics to fail a drugs test, the IOC said on Monday.

Moreno, entered for the women's road race and individual time trial, tested positive for the endurance-boosting EPO drug.

IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies said Moreno was tested on July 31 and left the city on the same evening.

The IOC said it expected between 30 and 40 positive drugs tests during the Aug. 8-24 Games and has boosted the number of Games-related drugs tests to more than 4,500 to root out drugs cheats.

International Cycling Union (UCI) President Pat McQuaid confirmed the doping offence.

Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in men's 10 metre air rifle event of the shooting competition at Beijing Olympics.

The gold medal is India's first since 1980, when the hockey team emerged triumphant in Moscow.

Michael Phelps, with teammates Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak took the gold medal in the men's 4 x 100m freestyle relay and smashed the World record for the second straight time.

The team's winning time of 3:08.24 seconds wiped out Sunday's prelim record of 3:12.23 set by Jones, and teammates Nathan Adrian, Ben Wildman-Tobriner, and Matt Grevers.

The victory gave Phelps his second gold in his quest for a perfect eight gold medals to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a summer Olympic Games.

The French quartet of Amaury Leveaux, Fabien Gilot, Frederick Bousquet and Alain Bernard finished second with a time of 3:08.32. The Australian team Eamon Sullivan, Andrew Lauterstein, Ashley Callus and Matt Targett swam in third at 3:09.91.

"It was unbelievable! Jason (Lezak) finished the race better than we could have asked for. In the last 50 (meters), I was like, this is going to be a really close race. At the end, as you could see I was pretty excited, I was very emotional," Phelps said following the race.

Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra qualified for the 10m air rifle final in the shooting competition of Beijing Olympics.

Gagan Narang however failed to make the final cut in the same event.

The United States won the Olympic gold medal in the men's swimming 4x100m freestyle relay on Monday.

France won the silver and Australia the bronze.

Rebecca Adlington won the Olympic gold medal in the women's swimming 400m freestyle on Monday.

Katie Hoff of the United States won the silver and Joanne Jackson the bronze.

Kristy Coventry of Zimbabwe rewrote the world record in the women's 100m backstroke with a time of 58.77 in heat 2 of the semi-finals at the Water Cube on Monday.

Her effort surpassed the Olympic record-breaking time she set only the day before in the preliminary round.

Former world record holder Natalie Coughlin of the United States of America came in first in heat 1 in 59.43.

Germany rallied from a goal down to beat hosts China 4-1 in the men's Olympic hockey tournament on Monday morning.

Yubo Na put China ahead in the seventh minute, but thereafter it was the Germans who held the upper hand.

Christopher Zeller restored parity for them in the 21st minute from a penalty-corner to see the teams go into the breather 1-1.

In the second session, two goals from Florian Keller (43rd and 54th minutes), and one from Carlos Nevado (68th minute) saw the Germans comfortably home.