London: In a show of his sprint dominance to sports fans around the world, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won the gold medal in the 200 metres here Thursday to claim being "a legend" who has got "nothing left to prove". Bolt did what he promised he would do. He won the race in a commanding style, getting a flying start and running a fine bend to put him a metre-and-a-half...
09:56 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Nippy striker Billy Bakker and penalty corner shooter Roderick Weusthof scored three goals each as Netherlands stormed into the final of the Olympic men's hockey with a thumping 9-2 victory over hosts Great Britain. Netherlands, bronze medallists in the 2010 World Cup, played a brisk overlapping game to hammer six goals in the second session to silence a vociferous home crowd last night and earn a title contest with...
09:31 AM, Aug 10, 2012
Leading into the 2012 London Olympics, the confident tone of India's archery contingent was unmistakable. The team's head coach, former Commonwealth Games gold medalist Limba Ram, was postulating on India's chances and the archers themselves were brimming with self-assurance. This was, after all, the first time since Athens 2004 that India had filled the six quota places available at the Games. India had had a successful season, with the highlight...
08:41 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Newly-crowned "greatest-ever sprinter" Usain Bolt said on Thursday he had lost all respect for Carl Lewis, the man whose on-track exploits he has surpassed with his unique Olympic double-double but who still leads the way in self-regard. American Lewis is the only other man to win two Olympic 100m gold medals, the second coming in 1988 when he was promoted from second place after the disqualification of Ben Johnson....
08:23 AM, Aug 10, 2012
New Delhi: In the virtual Olympics that is also parallely underway on Google's home page, Friday's scheduled event is football. After a wrist-wrecking paddling in slalom canoe on Thursday, Google now wants to test your goalkeeping skills in with its interactive London 2012 football doodle. Football is the fourth sport in Google's armchair Olympics. After 11 static doodles, Google debuted an interactive hurdles doodle on Tuesday, followed by basketball, then...
06:45 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Servet Tazegul of Turkey has won the Olympic taekwondo gold medal in the men's 68-kilogram division on Thursday. The 23-year-old Tazegul is the world No. 1 and defeated Mohammad Bagheri Motamed of Iran by a score of 6 to 5 in a closely fought final where he was often in attack mode, throwing several combinations of spinning or jumping kicks. But despite the acrobatics, Tazegul rarely scored " unlike...
03:34 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Germany's Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann won the Olympic beach volleyball gold medal on Thursday night, beating reigning world champions Alison and Emanuel of Brazil 23-21, 16-21, 16-14. It was the first-ever gold medal for a European team in a sport that has been dominated by the Brazilians and Americans. Brazil saved three match points to tie it after falling behind 14-11. But, needing to win by two in...
03:32 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic successfully defended her Olympic javelin title on Thursday night. The 31-year-old Spotakova, who holds the world record, secured the gold medal with a best mark of 69.55 meters. Germany collected silver and bronze, with Christina Obergfoell finishing second at 65.16 and Linda Stahl third at 64.91. Obergfoell improved one spot on her finish four years ago, when her bronze was Germany's only track...
03:31 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Jade Jones won Britain's first taekwondo gold medal on Thursday in the women's 57-kilogram division. Cheered on by thousands of British fans, Jones defeated China's Hou Yuzhuo 6-4 in a cagey final where both fighters struggled to score. Jones eventually managed to get past Hou's blocks and landed several body shots. Earlier in the day, Jones ousted top-seeded Taiwanese fighter Tseng Li-Cheng in a tense semifinal she won after...
03:24 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: The U.S. won its first ever Olympic gold medal in women's water polo, getting five goals from Maggie Steffens and a sterling performance from goalkeeper Betsey Armstrong to cruise to an 8-5 win over Spain on Thursday. In a dominant performance, the Americans overpowered a young Spanish team on both ends of the pool to lead 5-2 by halftime, and they never looked back. The U.S. has long been...
03:08 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Ashton Eaton won the Olympic decathlon gold medal by 198 points on Thursday night. Eaton set the decathlon world record at the U.S. trials in June and backed it up with an Olympic victory with 8,869 points. Two-time world champion Trey Hardee settled for silver with 8,671 points and Leonel Suarez of Cuba took the bronze, 346 points behind Eaton, at 8,523. Eaton had a 151-point lead going into...
03:03 AM, Aug 10, 2012
Wembley: Hope Solo found herself enveloped in a group hug at the final whistle. Abby Wambach ran to join the fun in a celebration that unleashed a year of bottled-up frustration. The U.S. women's soccer team won its third straight Olympic gold medal Thursday, beating Japan 2-1 in a rematch of last year's World Cup final and avenging the most painful loss in its history. Carli Lloyd scored early in...
02:57 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Manteo Mitchell felt the pop in his leg and knew it wasn't good. "It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half," he said. The American sprinter had half a lap to go in the first leg of the 4x400-meter relay preliminaries Thursday and a choice to make: keep running or stop and lose the race. To him, it was never much of a choice. He finished...
02:48 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Christian Taylor won the Olympic triple jump gold medal on Thursday night, overhauling U.S. teammate Will Claye with his fourth jump in the final. Taylor, the world champion, earned the Olympic title with a best jump of 17.81 meters. Claye, the world indoor champion who had already won a bronze medal in the long jump at the London Games, earned silver in 17.62. European champion Fabrizio Donato of Italy,...
02:36 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Natalia Vorobieva of Russia has won Olympic wrestling gold in women's 72-kilogram freestyle, pinning Bulgarian veteran Stanka Zlateva Hristova in the second period to claim the title at just 21 years old. Vorobieva, a three-time junior world champion, denied Hristova her first gold medal. Hristova is a five-time world champion who settled for silver in Beijing and did so again in London. Vorobieva dropped the first period. But just...
02:25 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Chen Ruolin of China won the women's 10-meter platform title at the London Olympics on Thursday night, easily defending her title from Beijing by a 55.80-point margin. Chen totaled 422.30 points during the five-dive final. She earlier won gold in the 10-meter synchronized and swept the platform events for the second consecutive games. Chen was dominant through all three rounds of the competition. She finished the morning semifinal with...
02:07 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: After eight Olympics and five medals, Josefa Idem is finally hanging up the paddle. The 47-year-old Italian kayaker competed in her last race Thursday, finishing fifth in the final of the K-1 500-meters at the London Olympics, competing against opponents nearly half her age. Idem crossed the line in 1 minute, 53.223 seconds, just 0.3 seconds behind South Africa's bronze medalist Bridgitte Hartley. After the race, she confirmed that...
02:04 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Usain Bolt won the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds Thursday night to become the first man with two Olympic titles at that distance. Bolt beat countryman Yohan Blake by .12 seconds, and Warren Weir took third to make it a 1-2-3 sweep for Jamaica. The 25-year-old Bolt won the 100 on Sunday and now has five Olympic golds " a number he celebrated by hitting the ground and doing...
01:49 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: David Rudisha predicted a world record and delivered with an overpowering show of front-running to win the Olympic 800-meter title. When many were hoping that Usain Bolt would set such a mark in the 200 later Thursday, the Kenyan stole some of the Jamaican sprinter's thunder at the beginning of a balmy evening suited for setting great times. Rudisha set off with his giant strides from the starting gun,...
01:43 AM, Aug 10, 2012
London: Germany will defend its Olympic field hockey title in the final after stunning world champion Australia 4-2 in Riverbank Arena on Thursday. Australia came to London seemingly a sure bet as winners of the last four Champions Trophies and the 2010 World Cup, where Germany was beaten in the final. The Kookaburras had shown some vulnerability in draws with Argentina and Britain, but a formidable lineup headed by the...
01:18 AM, Aug 10, 2012
