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19 March 2024

Algerian romps to gold after pleading injury

Algeria's Taoufik Makhloufi celebrates winning the men's 1,500m final during the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday. (REUTERS)

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By Reuters

Taoufik Makhloufi ran a scorching last lap to take gold for Algeria in the Olympic 1,500 metres on Tuesday, a day after dropping out of an 800m heat with what his team said was a knee injury.

On another cold, rainy night in the Olympic stadium, Australia's Sally Pearson won the women's 100m hurdles by two-hundredths of a second from defending champion Dawn Harper of the United States. Unsure of the outcome, she let out a scream of delight when the scoreboard confirmed her victory.

Shaggy-haired Ivan Ukhov won gold in the men's high jump for Russia, which also celebrated victories in diving and synchronised swimming as it edged up to fifth in the medals table after a disappointing Games so far.

Iran took gold and silver in the superheavyweight weightlifting competition, where Behdad Salimikordasiabi - Salimi for short - earned himself the unofficial title of strongest man at the Games.

The Iranians also captured a wrestling gold and their first ever athletics medal when Ehsan Hadadi hurled the discus 68.18 metres to take second place, just 9 cm behind Germany winner Robert Harting.

Elswehere on Day 11 of competition in London, Italy's Josefa Idem, the only woman to compete in eight Olympics, advanced to the kayak final at the age of 47, powering past a field of 20- and 30-year-olds.

Two brothers won gold and bronze for Britain in the triathlon, adding to the host nation's biggest medal tally for 104 years, and four medals were awarded for the first time in an Olympic cycling race when a photo finish could not separate the third and fourth finishers from the Netherlands and New Zealand.

'NOT TRYING'

Makhloufi's victory was controversial as it came just a day after he was temporarily disqualified for not trying in his 800m heat - and then reinstated when his team said he had a knee injury and had the decision overturned on medical grounds.

He broke away on the back straight of the final lap and accelerated around the last bend to win comfortably from American Leonel Manzano and Moroccan Abdalaati Iguider.

China's Liu Xiang left the Olympic stadium in a wheelchair after hitting the first barrier in a 110 metre hurdles heat while Jamaican Usain Bolt breezed through an "easy" 200 qualifier in his favourite event.

Liu suffered a cruel echo of his early exit from Beijing four years ago, and indications were that it was the same Achilles injury that led to his fall on a cool, cloudy morning in London.

China's first male gold medallist on the Olympic track after triumphing in 2004, Liu remains his country's most popular sportsman alongside former basketball player Yao Ming.

Fellow athletes expressed their sympathy. "This is really sad for any athlete," Bolt told reporters.

Fans back in China quickly took to social networking websites to voice their dismay. "My heart is broken," wrote one on Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo.

At the opposite end of sport's emotional spectrum, there was jubilation in Grenada, whose prime minister gave everyone the afternoon off work to celebrate 19-year-old Kirani James' gold in Monday night's men's 400 meters. The Caribbean island nation of 110,000 people had never won an Olympic medal before.

BOLT THROUGH

Bolt, who set the second fastest time ever in his weekend 100 metres triumph, brimmed with confidence after qualifying comfortably for the 200 semis before another capacity 80,000 crowd at the main stadium.

He remains on course for an unprecedented Olympic sprint 'double-double' at Thursday's final, although he may have to do it without the skipping rope he uses to train.

On his way into Sunday's 100 final an official removed the rope, saying it was against the rules, and Games chief Sebastian Coe has ordered an investigation into why it was confiscated.

Bolt, who has described some of the rules at the Games as "weird", said he planned to bring the rope with him on Thursday.

"I am going to do it tomorrow ... I am going to stick it under my bag, bottom of my bag or something."

BRITISH JOY

Home nation Britain surpassed its heroics of four years ago, when it picked up 19 golds in Beijing, by amassing 22 and counting.

Triathlete Alistair Brownlee crossed the line in central London's Hyde Park draped in the Union flag to make it 19, while his younger brother Jonathan held on for bronze despite having to wait out a 15-second penalty for an infringement.

Britain's horse riders triumphed in the dressage arena at Greenwich Park, ahead of Germany and the Netherlands.

At the velodrome, where the crowd's roars were deafening, Chris Hoy won his seventh Olympic medal, and sixth gold, with victory in the keirin, where the riders shadow a motorised pacer bike before building to a sprint finish.

Hoy overtook rowing great Steve Redgrave's five golds and matched fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins as Britain's most decorated Olympian, although Wiggins has only four golds.

Hoy was pushed to the limit by German Maximilian Levy, who took silver. New Zealand's Simon van Velthooven and Dutchman Teun Mulder both won bronze medals after a photo finish could not split them.

Laura Trott won in the cycling track omnium, but Victoria Pendleton, favourite to prevail in the individual sprint, lost out to Australian arch rival Anna Meares.

MORE GOLDS FOR CHINA


China moved one step away from a second successive clean sweep of Olympic table tennis golds when their women marched to a 3-0 victory over Japan's young team.

The Chinese picked up two more wins in gymnastics. Deng Linlin beat her compatriot Siu Lu to the balance beam title an hour after Feng Zhe had won the men's parallel bars title.

Flying Dutchman Epke Zonderland caused an upset, however, by claiming the horizontal bar title ahead of Chinese favourite Zou Kai, who could only manage bronze.

American Aly Raisman won the women's floor exercise title, 90 minutes after earning a bronze on the beam.

Russia's Ilya Zakharov scored a surprise triumph in the men's 3 metre springboard diving final, ruining China's ambition of an eight-gold sweep in the sport.

Dutchman Dorian van Rijsselberghe became the last men's RS:X windsurfing champion at the Olympics, with the event being replaced by kiteboarding in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Games. Marina Alabau Neira of Spain won the women's title.

In kayaking, Italy's Idem advanced to the final where she aims to add to her gold from Sydney (2000), two silvers from Beijing (2008) and Athens (2004) and bronzes from Atlanta (1996) and Los Angeles (1984).

"I don't care about age," a smiling Idem told reporters. "The stopwatch doesn't ask."

Canada's women soccer players were less happy, accusing Norwegian referee Christiana Pedersen of bias towards the United States after their dramatic 4-3 extra-time defeat in the tournament semi-final on Monday.

Pedersen took the rare step of penalising Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod for holding the ball too long.

"We feel like we got robbed in this game," McLeod said.

South Korea's Kim Hyeonwoo won his country's first wrestling gold of the Games in the Greco-Roman 66kg final, despite competing with a badly swollen right eye.

Late on Monday, Cameroon's ministry of sports and physical education said seven athletes had disappeared while in Britain for the Olympics.

The five boxers, a swimmer and a soccer player may have vanished to seek a more prosperous life in Europe, but the International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday it was not aware of the incident.