Bolt strikes twice to claim sprint double

Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt has roared to gold in the 200 metres to become the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win an Olympic sprint double.Bolt charged to a world record time of 19.30 seconds, falling to the floor in joy at the end.

"I'm number one," he mouthed at TV cameras, beating his chest and blowing kisses at the 91,000 crowd in the Bird's Nest.

Bolt had won the 100m there in swashbuckling style at the weekend, also setting a world record.

This time, he again joked on his way to the block, firing an imaginary arrow in the air, but looked deadly serious as he opened up a big gap and steamed through the finishing line to beat American Michael Johnson's 1996 record by 0.2 of a second.

"Superman 2 - incredible," said American Johnson on BBC TV.

"Incredible performance by Usain Bolt once again. He finished up in an incredible time. This was an incredible performance, he wanted that record. Congratulations Usain Bolt.

"He got an incredible start. I looked at his start and just went wow. It was more amazing than the 100 metres... guys that tall should not be able to start like that.

"This is his favourite event, he went for it, he came in focused on it, knowing he would most likely win the gold.

"My concern was he would not have the ability to hold that speed for the entire race but he showed he has been working on that.

"He used every ounce of energy, he wanted that record."

Nine men have now won the double sprint in Olympic history.

Bolt, who turns 22 on August 21, had "Happy Birthday" played to him over the stadium loudspeakers some 90 minutes early as he danced around the track on a victory lap.

He has established himself as the joint hero of the Games along with American swimmer Michael Phelps, who took an unprecedented eight golds.

Just as Phelps's exploits in the Water Cube have thrilled Americans, so Bolt has swelled national pride across his Caribbean homeland.

The lanky runner started sprinting only when a school cricket coach noticed his speed as a fast bowler.

-Reuters

Boomers, Spirit, Mottram play second fiddle to Bolt

Australia's women's softball and men's basketball teams face important matches in Beijing today, but both are likely to be overshadowed by Usain Bolt's attempt to secure the sprint double.

Bolt won the 100m gold in a stunning world record time of 9.69 seconds earlier in the meet and has qualified with ease for the final of the 200m.

That race is scheduled for just after midnight tonight, AEST.

"I like to enjoy what I do," said the lanky Bolt, who breezed through his 200m semi-final, playing up to TV cameras and taking a look round at competitors during the race.

"You can't be too serious in your job."

Bolt, who runs the 200m final the day before his 22nd birthday, faces a tough challenge though to beat Michael Johnson's 12-year-old world record of 19.32 seconds.

The Jamaican's best is 19.67. If he wins the race he will be the first man to win the 100m-200m sprint double since American Carl Lewis in 1984.

Crunch time for Spirit, Boomers

Aussie Spirit pitcher Melanie Roche says there's a positive feeling in the Australian camp ahead of this afternoon's softball semi-final against Canada.

"We've just got the mongrel in us at the moment and we've just got to take that mongrel feeling into the big games," Roche said.

Boomers forward Matt Nielsen says his side will be ready for its biggest challenge of the Olympics when it takes on the US Dream Team in tonight's men's basketball quarter-final.

"We feel confident, we feel pretty confident of where we're at right now," Nielsen said.

"We're in good form, and we're going to have a crack at the big dogs. That is what it is and we're fine with that."

Elsewhere today, Craig Mottram runs in the heats of the 5,000 metres tonight, while fellow Australian Steve Hooker will compete in the qualifying round for the men's pole vault.

They will be hoping to draw inspiration from the efforts of Sally McLellan, who won Australia's first athletics medal with silver in the 100m hurdles last night.

In early action, Melissa Gorman will compete in the women's 10km open water race, at event being held for the first time at an Olympics.

Semi-finals will also be held in the flat water canoe and kayak events at the Shunyi Olympic Park.

- ABC/Reuters

Snowsill storms to triathlon gold

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Video - Snowsill eases to triathlon gold

Emma Snowsill claimed triathlon gold for Australia as she stormed to victory in Beijing on Monday.

The Commonwealth Games champion, 27, broke clear at the start of the 10k run and never looked like being caught as she won in one hour and 58.27 seconds.

Portugal's Vanessa Fernandes won silver and Australian Emma Moffatt the bronze.

British world champion Helen Tucker came 21st while Hollie Avil, who has been struggling with a stomach bug, withdrew during the 40k bike ride.

Tucker had been in contention at the changeover from bike to run, having been in the lead group for much of the race.

But Snowsill stormed clear and another breakaway group formed and Tucker struggled to match the pace.


To come from a nation that's so strong in terms of triathlon, it's a fantastic feeling to finally bring home a gold medal
Emma Snowsill

The Welsh triathlete finished more than four minutes behind Snowsill but Avil, the 18-year-old national champion, could not finish the race because of the after effects of an illness at the weekend, which left her unable to eat.

"I have always told myself I would never not finish a race and it's hard to describe how I feel having to pull out," she said.

"When I was on the bike I was sick and every time I took on fluids I was sick again.

"But my aim has always been to compete at London 2012 and I've gained so much experience."

An eight-bike pile-up at the end of lap five dashed the hopes of Canada's Laura Groves and Russian Irina Abysova as riders careered over the barrier and into each other at the hairpin stadium turn.

But Snowsill powered on to victory and made up for the pain of missing out on selection for the team to compete at the last Olympics in Athens four years ago.

Hollie Avil
Avil completed the swimming leg before sickness struck

"I feel very proud and honoured to be an Australian with a gold medal around my neck at the Olympic Games," Snowsill said.

"I believe we came so close in Sydney and Athens that this makes up for those very close defeats.

"I don't feel any regret about not going to Athens, you move on and you deal with it.

"But to come from a nation that's so strong in terms of triathlon, it's a fantastic feeling to finally bring home a gold medal."

Tucker was hoping to add an Olympic medal to her World Championship win earlier this year.

But the 24-year-old from Bridgend suffered heartbreak in Beijing as she finished four-and-a-half minutes behind champion Snowsill.

"I'm a bit gutted but my legs didn't feel great," admitted Tucker.

"I didn't feel awesome on the bike but I stayed in a good position but I didn't have any legs when it came to the run, it felt hard.

"I know I should do better than that but I've had an awesome year so I can't really complain.

"This experience here in Beijing really makes me want to succeed at the London Olympics in 2012."

Frodeno claims gold as Brits fade

Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory. Video - Frodeno sneaks triathlon gold A well-timed sprint from Jan Frodeno gave the German gold in a thrilling men's triathlon race on Tuesday. He went clear with 50m to go to finish ahead of Canada's Simon Whitfield and New Zealand's Bevan Docherty, clocking one hour 48:53 seconds. Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee had been among the leading group for much of the run before fading to 12th place. Fellow Brit Will Clarke was two places behind Brownlee with Tim Don, suffering from a virus, failed to finish. Don, who had hoped to among the medals in Beijing, was struggling with illness in the build-up to the race and withdrew early. Whitfield looked to have time his sprint finish to perfection, breaking from a group that included Frodeno, Docherty and pre-race favourite Javier Gomez of Spain. OLYMPICS BLOG Don spent Thursday and Friday watching the contents of his stomach come back past his teeth BBC Sport's Tom Fordyce at Ming Tombs Reservoir, Beijing But Frodeno stuck with him and, with just 50m to the line, had the legs to out-sprint the Canadian to claim the gold. "My advantage was that I wasn't one of the big favourites. They had all the media attention," said Frodeno. "I knew this was going to be a tough race, the 10 km run was going to be the hardest of my life, but I just realised this is what I have been dreaming of, this is my only chance," he added. Alistair Brownlee finished in a creditable 12th place It was a fitting end to a fantastic race in which Brit Brownlee more than played his part. The 20-year-old set the agenda on the 40km bike ride after a hugely impressive swim and looked in contention for a medal as he initially formed a six-man breakaway group in the 10km run. But he just did not have the legs to keep up with the experienced Frodeno, Whitfield, Docherty, Gomez and Ivan Rana, falling off the pace before crossing the line 86 seconds behind the winner. "I got to 7km on the run and there was nothing left," said Brownlee. "I've got to find a way of getting 12 places better in time for London." Clarke was always playing catch-up after a disappointing 1.5km swim in a race which was competed in blistering heat. "I just didn't do it on the swim," he said. "I wasn't fast enough so I had to do too much on the bike and that meant I came to the run tired. I have to go back and do lots of work on my swimming."

Britain's cycling success - is it cricket?

Don't get me wrong, I'll never tire of hearing the national anthem at an Olympic venue, as the Union Flag begins its journey up into the heavens.

But that's five times God's Saved the Queen at the Laoshan velodrome so far and as I watched the Australian film crew trudge off disconsolately on Monday night, there was a small part of me (OK a very small part), which felt a little embarrassed.

Or should we bask in the glory of it all - in the knowledge that it can't last forever.

Denmark's team leader, Jesper Worre, was full of praise for his British counterparts, despite watching Bradley Wiggins and the crew thump his boys in the team pursuit.

But he did raise an interesting point, when I asked him if he had a problem with Britain's dominance on the track.

"No, that's what sport is all about," he told me, "But I do think it could be bad for track cycling if it gets worse than this. One or two medals each race could be bad. I think interest could fall.

"We have a World Cup in Copenhagen in two years time, and if one country is too dominant, it could decrease interest maybe."

Britain are the new Chelsea of the cycling world - with lottery cash in place of Russian roubles.

And again I stress that Worre wasn't moaning, only stating the facts, when he said: "In Denmark, we only have money to try to make success in the team pursuit. That went well, but we were still beaten by seven seconds. They are number one by far. The funding is too far ahead for almost all nations. I think nobody can match the funding."

It may not surprise you to know that Dave Brailsford, British Cycling's performance director, doesn't agree.

"It certainly doesn't get monotonous for me, I can tell you. It's a very British thing to worry are we winning too much. It doesn't fit into my vocabulary, I can tell you, and we'll keep on going. That's what I'm paid for, to win Olympic medals," he said.

And let's not lose sight of the main reason why Britain's cyclists are, in the words of Worre, "like animals on the track". Who else has got riders of the calibre of Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins, and the rest?

I'll be back there on Tuesday, hoping to hear that same anthem another three times, safe in the knowledge that interest in track cycling, in Britain at least, has never been higher.

China's medal haul dulls pain of Liu exit

China's seemingly unassailable medal haul and cleanest air in a decade helped dull the host nation's pain on Tuesday over the injury to track idol Liu Xiang.

In Day 11 sports, Germany's Jan Frodeno, a man who only took up triathlon to impress a girl, won the swim-bike-run endurance test on a hot day in Beijing.

The United States and Britain, second and third in the medal table, grabbed another gold apiece in sailing.

Chinese leaders and people alike showered injured Olympics 100m hurdles champion Liu with get-well messages a day after he limped forlornly off the track, depriving the hosts of what they hoped might be their greatest single moment of glory.

Liu, who along with basketball player Yao Ming is China's most idolized sportsman, put a brave face on.

"When I was warming up, I felt my foot was no good," he said, promising not to quit. "There'll be opportunities next year ... I'm still in peak condition. I need to be optimistic."

Liu took gold in Athens in 2004, becoming the first man to win a track-and-field event for China and transforming himself into a national symbol and multi-millionaire.

His -- and China's -- great dream was to repeat the feat at home. But local fans who openly wept at Liu's exit were cheered by a glance at the medal table.

Finally reaping the benefits of their 1.3 billion population and a Soviet-style training system, China have 39 golds, seven more than their total haul in Athens, when they came second.

"There is basically no worry about top spot," state news agency Xinhua said.

Chinese fans are loving it -- one man even cycled more than 1,300km (800 miles) to tow his 98-year-old grandmother to the Games in a pedicab.

Traditional Olympics table-toppers the United States, whose only serious rival in the past was the Soviet Union, have a less-than-expected 24 golds. Britain follow with 13.

Further cheering the Chinese national mood, environmental authorities said on Tuesday Beijing had enjoyed its cleanest air in 10 years this month. Officials pledged not to let air quality slide again once the Games were over.

CHAMPAGNE MOMENTS

China took drastic efforts, including shutting factories and taking several million cars off the road, to improve air quality before the Games. And despite fears ahead of competing, no athletes have yet raised serious concerns during events.

China's post-Olympics challenge is to keep pro-environment policies while maintaining the near double-digit growth rates that have made it an emerging global economic superpower.

"We will take some new measures to ensure that air quality will reach a new level after the Olympic Games," environmental official Du Shaozhong said on another sunny day in Beijing.

One man whose lungs definitely were not affected by Beijing's summer heat, or any lingering smog, was Germany's Frodeno.

"It was a moment I had dreamed of so many times in my head," said the former swimmer and lifeguard after his triathlon win. "During the race I told myself: 'Boy, be greedy -- it's champagne or fizzy water'."

Britain's latest gold came from Paul Goodison who made up for disappointment in Athens, where he nearly quit, by winning the sailing Laser title in Qingdao, on China's east coast.

Britain's 13 golds is already its best performance since 1920 and could not be better-timed with the 2012 Olympics taking place in London.

Experts attribute British success, which has come chiefly in cycling, rowing, sailing and swimming, to a decade of heavy investment in facilities, much of it from a national lottery.

"We can rule the waves again," Britain's top-selling Sun said, catching the wave of patriotism.

Though the "beautiful game" has long played second fiddle to other sports at the Olympics, a mouth-watering semi-final on Tuesday night between soccer superpowers Argentina and Brazil has excited fans around the world.

Brazil have won five World Cups but never an Olympic gold.

China is looking for more golds in diving and gymnastics on Tuesday, and Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt is back in action in the Bird's Nest venue for a 200 meters semi-final.

After his showboating win in the blue riband 100m, Bolt wants the first sprint double gold since Carl Lewis in 1984.

Gymnastics fans still had calculators out to decipher how American Nastia Liukin came second to China's He Kexin on Monday.

The pair had an identical score of 16.725 but a convoluted tiebreak system -- involving an A jury of two judges, a B jury of six judges, elimination of highest and lowest marks, then averaging and various deductions -- gave it to He.

"That makes no sense," commented Bela Karolyi, who once coached Romanian champion Nadia Comaneci.

Chinese authorities are delighted the pre-Olympics focus on human rights and pollution has died down. They have set aside "protest parks" for would-be demonstrators but have not yet approved any of the 77 applications lodged to use them.

The only noise there to trouble official ears is the birds.

(Reporting by Beijing Olympics bureau; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Johnson finally gets gold on beam

Shawn Johnson outshone rivals Nastia Liukin and Cheng Fei with her deft footwork on the balance beam to finally strike gold at the Olympics gymnastics competition on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old had been expected to go home with a stash of gold medals after picking up three titles at the world championships in 2007. But she had to wait until the final day of the competition to make her mark at the Games, with a score of 16.225.

She edged out fellow American and all-round champion Liukin by 0.200 of a point, while Cheng collected bronze with 15.950.

China's Li Shanshan had been tipped for the title but she was one of two finalists to fall off the wood and finished sixth.

Meares takes Olympics sprint silver

Australia's Anna Meares has finished with the silver medal in the women's sprint at the Beijing Olympics.

Meares was no match for Great Britain's Victoria Pendleton in the final, going down 2-0.

Her silver medal is one better than her third place in the sprint in 2004, and is Australia's only cycling track medal of the Games.

Her feat means Australia has avoided equalling an unwanted national record.

The last time Australia went home without a track cycling medal from the Games was at Moscow in 1980.

The Aussies were the kings of the velodrome in 2004, topping the table with five gold and nine in total, but since then have been playing catch-up to the dominant British team.

Meares's feat in making the final comes only seven months after she returned home from a World Cup race in a wheelchair following a crash which almost left her permanently paralysed.

As well as winning sprint bronze in Athens, she is also the champion in the now defunct Olympic event of the 500 metre time trial.

The 27-year-old Pendleton is the first British woman to win Olympic gold in track cycling's blue riband event.

Pendleton competed in Athens, where she came away with a ninth place in the sprint and a sixth place in the time trial, won by Meares.

Guo Shuang picked up the bronze, China's first track cycling medal of the Games, and just the second in Olympic history, following Jiang Yonghua's silver medal from the women's 500m time trial in Athens.

Guo had battled Meares for a place in the final and beat the Australian 2-1.

However Guo was disqualified by the race jury for entering Meares's lane as they rounded the final bend in the decider.

She went on to win bronze by dominating Willy Kanis of the Netherlands over two legs.

-ABC/AFP

10 ways Britain changed over the weekend

The weekend's goldrush in Beijing has left the British in an unusual position - celebrating real sporting success. And some things will never be the same again.

There have been few Monday mornings like it.

The British have returned to work basking in the glow of a rare sporting success story - winning more Olympics medals in one weekend than it did in three separate decades last century.

On Monday morning, Great Britain lay a heady third in the medals behind those two sporting juggernauts China and the US - and ahead of other powerhouses such as Australia, Germany and Japan.

For a national psyche more attuned to glorious defeat than destroying the opposition, this is uncharted territory indeed. We're already a different country to what we were on Friday afternoon.

1. Most gratifyingly, we can start to talk to Australians about sport on their level. Even if they did overtake us in the medals table for a few hours on Monday morning, your average sport-obsessed Aussie might stop looking down his nose. Just don't expect it to be a courteous exchange. British-born Australian DJ Jono Coleman says the Aussies aren't about to suddenly respect their colonial overlords. Instead they joke that all the British medals come in "sitting down sports" like rowing and cycling. And they also claim credit for Australian coaches behind British success. But underneath the bravado they are scared. "If Team GB remains ahead of Australia come the end of the Olympics, there will be renewed enthusiasm for an Australian republic and they will take the Queen's head off the stamps."

Remember this?

2. Suddenly football is an also-ran. It might be our national sport, but any headlines about the English Premier League kick-off at the weekend were eclipsed by talk of lightweight double sculling and finn class sailing. After a thrilling Euro 2008 in which all British representation was absent, England's 20 top soccer teams are playing second fiddle to Team GB.

3. A pretty dismal summer, with the gloom of the economic crisis matched only by the grey skies, looks a tad brighter, thanks to a new feel-good factor sparked by all those gold medals. "Watching their celebrations, watching how great it makes them feel, that transfers on to us as well and we feel part of it," says life coach Jeremy Milnes. "When we listen to the commentaries, it's the GB Team and how well we are doing and that use of language draws us into it and makes us feel part of it," says Milnes, whose enthusiasm alone sounds like a pre-match pep talk. "That transfer of emotion makes us feel great."

4. Everyone can say Yngling. This is the class in sailing in which the women's trio of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson repeated their success in Athens and won gold.

5. The Union Flag is back, partly because of an International Olympic Committee ruling which bans spectators carrying the flags of Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and any other nations not competing in the Games. So is a Union Jack renaissance in the UK on the horizon? "I suspect it will be a temporary thing, it's not going to substantially affect a nationalist movement in Scotland or Wales," says Ian Sumner at the Flag Institute.

This might be a good time to push out our chest and lift our head above the barriers Professor Leo Hendry

6. Forget glorious defeat, that's all in the past. Suddenly the images of those ultimately doomed penalty shootouts and Tim Henman never getting to a Wimbledon final seem a long time ago. And if the medals fire up a renewed enthusiasm for London 2012, perhaps the memory of the Millennium Dome fiasco, the opening of Terminal 5 and other grand projects mismanaged will soon be consigned to history as well. For a moment, let's forget characteristic British modesty says Professor Leo Hendry. "This might be a good time to push out our chest and lift our head above the barriers."

7. Mansfield is on the map again. Lord Byron once lived nearby, and now there's another famous name associated with it - Rebecca Adlington, double-gold medal winning swimmer.

8. Injury misery for Paula Radcliffe no longer plunges the nation into sporting despair. If we need any reminders how we felt when the marathon runner, who finished in 23rd place in Beijing, broke down in Athens, think how the Chinese are feeling having seen the nation's golden boy Liu Xiang limp out of the hurdles. One newsreader was apparently in tears telling the nation the news.

9. Lottery cash suddenly looks like money well spent. There was even a British gymnast winning a medal. Louis Smith was the first Briton on the podium in 80 years.

10. We're all about to become BMX fans. With a dozen golds under out belts, the nation is thirsty for more and among our brightest prospects over the coming days is British BMX world champion Shanaze Reade. Those who might have scoffed at the notion of including stunt cycling for the first time in the programme for the world's greatest sports event are busy devouring their words.

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Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

Wouldn't it be lovely if the image of Britain currently encapsulated by boozy and chemical hedonism and being obsessed by making short-term financial gains were replaced by the image of glorious, world-beating performances, the resulting natural highs and a determination to be and stay brilliant shown by some of our Olympians?
Matthew, Southampton, Great Britain

'If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same...' No longer the nation's favourite poem? Just a thought.
Teresa, Sussex

For all these decades where we Aussies have heaped derision on you poms' sporting mishaps, inwardly, at least I have felt somewhat sorry for all of you. What's wrong with all of you, I've thought. With your recent excursion to the top of the tables, I can't help feeling your joy. After all, it's only temporary, so you might as well enjoy the view whilst you're there. And, we Australians are not afraid. That's un-Australian.
Roger, Melbourne, Australia

I'd sooner want to see England competing and not winning, than 'Great Britain' competing at all.
Tom, Yorkshire

Nice, but not exactly earth-shattering. Things have come to a pretty pass where 'Britain' is on cloud nine over sports we've previously never heard of, and won't be giving the time of day once the Olympics have finished. If was athletics then we'd really have something to shout about.
Sportsfan, London

Having watched some of the Olympics for the first time this weekend I felt completely opposed to the sentiments expressed in this article. Rather I remember when the Olympics was about amateur sporting endeavour rather than tax-payer funded 'full-time' athletes in minor sports cynically racking up the medal count like former communist countries. Spare a thought for those true amateur athletes from less privileged countries no longer able to compete with the lucky few. Other than five to ten minutes of so-called glory on television I can't help feeling the money would have been better spent on saving or investing in school sports facilities, and letting adult sports find funding commensurate with their commercial popularity. Continually hearing the words 'Team Great Britain' rather than make me proud, was just a reminder that big spending centralised government has been mis-directing scarce tax payers resources in a bid to temporarily buy our happiness whilst also playing up the Union.
Stephen, London

As an expat living here in Oz for 14 years, I have found myself actually looking for the Brits in the various Olympic events with a feeling of optimism instead of impending doom! Go GB (and of course, "Come on Ozzie, Come on", if no Brit available!"
Lee, Perth, Western Australia

What a fantastic weekend of sport. Not only are the Brits winning golds, but there is a noticeably change in mentality of the Team GB. We no longer wish only to compete and 'experience' an Olympics, we want to win, win WIN!!! Just look at the pain on the women's faces of the quadruple skulls at coming second! I think we should keep up the momentum, once again be proud in our nation and start a resurgence in raising the Union Jack. This would make a great campaign leading into the London games.
Stephen Lowdon, North Yorkshire

We recently returned from watching the World Baton-Twirling championships in Limerick, Ireland, I am certainly supportive of the campaign to include it as an Olympic sport. The athletes and level of sportsmanship we witnessed there was inspirational and deserves recognition. Give the 'modern' events (including BMXing)a chance!
Angela Stock, London UK

"Sitting down sports"? Those Aussies had better be careful, the bulk of their medals come from "lying down, floating in water sports!". It just goes to confirm the old adage that the world's most sporty nation remains the least sporting. Fantastic effort by the whole of team GB... pity that the ever political Alec Salmond wants hive off the Scottish medallists for his own party political celebrations when they get home.
Anglophone, Wells

China's Chen wins men's rings gold

China's Chen Yibing gave a flawless display of strength and control to win the men's rings title at the Olympics on Monday, underlining the hosts' dominance of the gymnastics at the Games.
The double world champion kept his cool and the rings still to score 16.600, beating team mate and all-round champion Yang Wei by 0.175. Ukraine's Oleksandr Vorobiov grabbed the bronze.

Bulgarian Jordan Jovtchev, the 2004 silver medalist and second best qualifier, had trouble holding his final handstand and hopped forward on his landing to finish last of the eight gymnasts.

It was China's sixth gymnastics gold medal in Beijing, their best haul from the sport at an Olympics.

China loses main chance for track glory

China lost its main hope for a track gold on Monday when 110 meters hurdles Olympic champion and national hero Liu Xiang pulled out injured from the Games.

His painful departure in front of shocked fans at the Bird's Nest stadium took the gloss off an otherwise magnificent Games for China, who lead with 35 golds on Day Ten and look untouchable even by perennial medal-league winners the United States.

They have 19 gold medals.

After a false start in his first-round heat, Liu, whose face adorns billboards across China, clutched his leg and walked off the track. Fans in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium looked stunned and volunteers were seen openly weeping.

"Liu was very, very upset," said China's athletics head coach Feng Shuyong of Liu's hamstring injury. "He would not have withdrawn unless the pain was intolerable."

Along with NBA basketball player Yao Ming, the 25-year-old Liu is China's best-known sportsman.

He became his country's first male Olympic track champion in Athens 2004 and was China's best chance for an athletics gold in Beijing though he faced a stiff rival in Cuba's Dayron Robles.

Such was the weight of national expectation on Liu that he had not even been allowed to drive a car for fear of injury in a carefully-closeted buildup to the Beijing Games.

The son of a Shanghai truck-driver, Liu was initially selected at age seven as a future high jumper on the basis of bone measurements, but later took to hurdling and became an overnight star and multi-millionaire with gold in 2004.

Chinese fans were upset but sympathetic.

"I am extremely disappointed and I think he may have wanted to win too much and could have caved under the pressure," said 27-year-old He Sheng, who came from a southern province with just one Olympics ticket to see Liu race in Monday's heat.

College student Hu Xinliang, 21, said China had imposed too big a burden of hope on Liu. "He is now free," he said.

Before Liu's event, Usain Bolt breezed through a 200 meters heat in his quest to be the first man to win the Olympic sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1984.

The showboating Jamaican won the blue riband 100 meters final at the weekend, smashing the world record to join record-breaking American swimmer Michael Phelps as the 2008 Olympics poster-boys.

Mugging for cameras on his way to the block and wearing new golden shoes with "Beijing 200m" on them, Bolt barely broke sweat as he strode through his 200m heat, clearly keeping some juice in the tank for Wednesday's final as he slowed to cross second.

JAMAICAN JOY

The 21-year-old's performances, including his astonishing 100m final win when he pumped his chest in joy before crossing the line, have injected some much-needed glamour into athletics and brought celebrations across his Caribbean homeland.

Jamaica's women also took a clean sweep of medals in the women's 100m on Sunday night.

So what makes the land of laid-back reggae so speedy too?

"It's part of the natural ability of Jamaicans, I don't know, maybe it's in the water," Sports Minister Olivia Grange said.

It is China, though, slowly emerging as the new superpower of sport -- perhaps an inevitable trend given that the 1.3 billion population represent a fifth of humanity and a formidable Soviet-style sports system is geared to maximizing medals.

Since World War Two, only the United States and the Soviet Union have topped final Games medals tables.

But in the last Games in Athens, China came second, taking 32 golds to America's 36. This time, the hosts should go one better, even though the Americans can make ground in track-and-field.

That might usher in a new era of Chinese Olympics dominance to match Beijing's emerging global economic superpower status.

State news agency Xinhua said China's dominance of the Games reflected the traditional "host effect" of the Olympics, while a senior Chinese team official cautioned their medals haul would probably slow down in the second half of the Games.

Apart from China and the U.S., Britain are the only other country to have reached double figures in Beijing so far thanks to a strong showing in rowing, cycling, sailing and -- more surprisingly -- swimming.

The 2012 Olympics hosts have 11 golds and are on course for the best total since they first organized the Games in 1908. British media are already calling it "The Great Haul of China".

The first gold on Monday went to Australia when Emma Snowsill won the women's triathlon by over a minute, having time to collect a flag and slap hands with spectators before finishing.

"It's a fantastic feeling," she said.

Swimming phenomenon Phelps was finally resting on Monday after writing a new page in sports history with his record eight golds at one Olympics. That took him past fellow swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 feat.

Phelps, who howled in protest at his first swimming lesson when a child because he did not want to get his face wet, is the most successful Olympian of all time.

(Editing by Jon Bramley)

Snowsill turns tragedy into triumph

Australia's Olympic triathlon champion Emma Snowsill says she poured her "heart and soul" into the sport after being struck by tragedy early in her career.

Snowsill was just 19 when her boyfriend and fellow triathlete Luke Harrop was killed in a hit-and-run accident while bike training on Queensland's Gold Coast.

Several years later, and wearing Australia's first triathlon gold medal in Beijing, Snowsill said the loss had made her realise how lucky she was just to be alive and competing.

"Lessons learned through life are there not necessarily for good or bad reasons, you just have to take them as they are and move on," she reflected.

"I think triathlon is a passion. I've really put my heart and soul into it and every ounce of energy, so I'm very lucky to be able to do that and to be here."

More shocks were to come for Snowsill, who missed Australia's 2004 Olympic team despite winning the first of three world titles a year earlier.

Last year she was staggered to be diagnosed with asthma, raising concerns about her ability to compete in Beijing's notorious smog.

"Everybody has a personal story. I think everybody deals with it in different ways," she said.

"Definitely I can only look forward to tomorrow. You can't change the past, you can only take control of the moment now and the foreseeable future."

The 27-year-old Commonwealth champion ran a blistering road race in clear but hot conditions to seal the title by more than a minute from Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal.

Snowsill's father Garry praised his daughter's hard work, and said she had to make big sacrifices to win gold.

"It's her life, she trains six hours a day, six days a week minimum," he said.

"And you can get a pretty good idea by just looking at her web site, because it shows some of her training programs. She sacrifices a lot."

-ABC/AFP

Double gold for Australia in 470 sailing

Women's pair Tessa Parkinson and Elise Rechichi have delivered Australia its second sailing gold medal of the day with victory in the 470 class at Qingdao.

Parkinson and Rechichi, the youngest members of Australia's sailing team, made it an Australian sweep of the 470 class after men's pair Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page won their medal race earlier in the day.

The Australian girls took a huge lead into the medal race over their nearest rivals, Dutch pair Marcelien de Koning and Lobke Berkhout.

De Koning and Berkhout won silver and Brazil's Fernanda Oliveira and Isabel Swan claimed bronze.

The only way Parkinson and Rechichi could have lost their grip on gold was if they finished last in the final race and the Dutch pair claimed victory.

But the Brazilian pair won the final race to guarantee Australia gold after they coasted home to finish ninth.

The Australian pair got their medal race tactics right by herding the Dutch out wide on the course in the early skirmishes, relegating their rivals to last at the first mark.

The Dutch were forced to play catch-up and although they steadily worked their way past some stragglers, their chance of gold had gone.

Rechichi said they planned to hook up with Wilmot and Page and party.

"When we crossed the finish line we were screaming and crying and shouting. We're so stunned we cannot stop laughing," she said.

"We're very excited. we're going to the find the boys (Wilmot and Page) and our families and we'll go party."

Parkinson and Rechichi's gold handed Australia its third gold medal on day 10, together with the men's 470 gold and Emma Snowsill's triathlon gold medal.

The women's win took Australia's gold medal tally to 11 so far in Beijing.

Men's gold

Wilmot and Page went into the race with the gold virtually guaranteed, needing only to complete the course as they entered sitting in first place on 42 points, 22 ahead of nearest rival the Netherlands.

The pair held such an advantage after their 10-race opening series that they only had to make a genuine attempt to start the medal race to be assured of gold under racing rules.

They won the title in style, though, taking out the medal race.

Britain's Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield won silver and France's Nicolas Charbonnier and Olivier Bausset took bronze.

Wilmot, 28, and Page, 36, announced earlier this year they would retire from 470 dinghy sailing after the Beijing Games.

Page did leave the door open for a 2012 campaign, but said his first priority was to head for the dining hall.

"We're going to have a nice buffet with lots of food. We plan on getting fat and as far as another Olympics go, we'll have to wait and see," Page told reporters.

Consistency throughout the regatta had put the triple world champions in a commanding position. They failed to win one of the 10 preliminary races but had seven top-five placings.

"Today we were pretty relaxed and we were joking around," Wilmot said. "We saw all the boats behind us and we thought 'we might as well win our only Olympic medal race'".

-ABC/Reuters

China Beats Singapore for Women's Table Tennis Gold

China clinches the women's Olympic team table tennis title Sunday, after fighting off a strong challenge from Singapore to win the final 3-0, August 17, 2008. [Photo: Xinhua]

China clinched the women's Olympic team table tennis title Sunday, after fighting off a strong challenge from Singapore to win the final 3-0.

It was the 17th gold medal that China won at the Olympic table tennis competition since its national sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games.

The star-studded Chinese women pushed, chopped and smashed, proving too powerful for Singapore before an enthusiastic crowd of more than 4,000, though both world number one Zhang Yining and veteran Wang Nan dropped a game.

Finishing second, Singapore won its first Olympic medal in 48 years since a silver by weightlifter Tan Howe Liang in 1960.

Wang, who is often slow in finding her rhythm, failed to take a lead but brushed aside Feng Tianwei 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-6. The team title was the fourth Olympic gold for Wang, the most decorated players in table tennis.

The battle between Zhang and Beijing-born Li Jia Wei of Singapore was full of long rallies across the table, with Zhang winning 9-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-7. The singles and doubles gold medalist in Athens then paired with world champion Guo Yue, quickly finishing off Li and Wang Yue Gu 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.

Both China and Singapore had steamrolled over all before them with stunning victories since the start of the Olympic team table tennis tournament, which take the place of the doubles. They didn't meet each other until the final.

Chinese women, whose triumph seemed to have an air of inevitability, easily took down Hong Kong of China 3-0 in the semifinal, while Singapore slew a tenacious South Korea 3-2.

Zou Wins Olympic Men's Floor Exercise Gold

China's Zou Kai won gymnastics men's floor exercise gold medal at 16.050 points on Sunday, August 17, 2008. [Photo: Xinhua]

by sportswriter Chen Yu

Chinese gymnast Zou Kai won the men's floor exercise gold medal, the fourth gymnastics gold medal for host China, on Sunday at the Beijing Olympics.

The 20-year-old, who was making his Olympic debut, won the gold medal at 16.050 points, after reigning world champion Diego Hypolito of Brazil and Olympic silver medallist Marian Dragulescu failed their routines.

Gervasio Deferr from Spain took the silver in 15.775 points, and the bronze went to Russia's Anton Golotsutskov, in 15.725 points.

Zou, entering the final in sixth place and low on the list of hopefuls for the gold, brought a surprise when he took to the floor as the fifth player and staged a strong performance on the difficulty of 6.7 points, the highest among the eight finalists.

"I do not think I am the black horse," said Zou Kai, adding that he believed he is strong enough for a gold and he is in good form in the competition.

"I entered the floor exercise final in first place in last year's World Championships, and I came home empty-handed only because I did not play my normal level in the final," he said.

"The team medal is very important to all of us and this medal is very important to me," he added.

Before Zou, Dragulescu, a three-time Olympian and the floor exercise silver medalist in Athens, sat on the mat after a tumbling combination.

Hypolito, known for having one of the most difficult floor exercise routines, also suffered a last-minute defeat when he fell back and sat on the floor at the end of his complicated routines.

"I pushed my legs underneath and there was a mistake," said Hypolito. "It was a technical mistake. There's nothing I can do with it." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry to all the Brazilians."

Silver medalist Deferr said he was really happy to win the medal because "it's not easy to be in the last position (in the starting order). It is amazing to go to three Olympics and get three medals."

On the mistakes of Dragulescu and Hypolito, he believed the two were just too nervous "because it's not easy in the Olympic Games - after four years of work, then competing."

Bronze medalist Golotsutskov was also satisfied, but said he had expected more.

"I felt very good out there. I really like this (the bronze medal). I felt it was a very good combination on the Floor. I think my medal should be silver, not bronze, as the judges gave me a lower score (than I expected)," he said.