Briefs from the Games

ATHLETICS * World champion Irving Saladino of Panama won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s long jump yesterday.

Saladino’s leap of 8.34 metres was enough to stay ahead of South Africa’s Khotso Mokoena who managed 8.24. Cuban Ibrahim Camejo’s sixth-round jump of 8.20 earned him the bronze medal.ATHLETICS * Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia broke her own women’s pole vault world record at the Beijing Olympics yesterday.Isinbayeva cleared 5.05 metres, beating the previous mark of 5.04 metres she had set last month, after taking gold in the event.GYMNASTICS * Chinese gymnast He Kexin pipped American rival Nastia Liukin under the tiebreak rule to dramatically snatch the Olympic asymmetric bars title yesterday.In the most anticipated apparatus final at the Games, both the favourites earned identical 16.725 scores for their stunning gravity-defying routines.Following a complicated breakdown of averages relating to points awarded for execution, a jubilant He was adjudged the winner, leaving Liukin and the American camp bewildered.ATHLETICS * Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo added a golden lustre to her all-conquering season when she won the women’s Olympic 800 metres in great style yesterday.Jelimo, 18, who began running the 800 only this year, has ruled the race in the big European meetings this year and was in unstoppable form after hitting the front at halfway.She drove home to win easily in one minute 54.87 seconds ahead of team mate Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei, with Morocco’s Hasna Benhassi taking bronze.BRITISH MEDALS * Britain’s 12 golds and third place in the medals table herald their best Olympic performance since the “Rule Britannia” days of empire nearly a century ago.The gold triumph by Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins in the men’s cycling track team pursuit yesterday put Britain behind only sporting superpowers China and the United States in the Beijing table.It is a remarkable turnaround just 12 years after Britain collected a solitary gold at the Atlanta Olympics and finished way down in 36th place.Nampa-ReutersCuban Ibrahim Camejo’s sixth-round jump of 8.20 earned him the bronze medal.ATHLETICS * Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia broke her own women’s pole vault world record at the Beijing Olympics yesterday.Isinbayeva cleared 5.05 metres, beating the previous mark of 5.04 metres she had set last month, after taking gold in the event.GYMNASTICS * Chinese gymnast He Kexin pipped American rival Nastia Liukin under the tiebreak rule to dramatically snatch the Olympic asymmetric bars title yesterday.In the most anticipated apparatus final at the Games, both the favourites earned identical 16.725 scores for their stunning gravity-defying routines.Following a complicated breakdown of averages relating to points awarded for execution, a jubilant He was adjudged the winner, leaving Liukin and the American camp bewildered.ATHLETICS * Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo added a golden lustre to her all-conquering season when she won the women’s Olympic 800 metres in great style yesterday.Jelimo, 18, who began running the 800 only this year, has ruled the race in the big European meetings this year and was in unstoppable form after hitting the front at halfway.She drove home to win easily in one minute 54.87 seconds ahead of team mate Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei, with Morocco’s Hasna Benhassi taking bronze.BRITISH MEDALS * Britain’s 12 golds and third place in the medals table herald their best Olympic performance since the “Rule Britannia” days of empire nearly a century ago.The gold triumph by Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins in the men’s cycling track team pursuit yesterday put Britain behind only sporting superpowers China and the United States in the Beijing table.It is a remarkable turnaround just 12 years after Britain collected a solitary gold at the Atlanta Olympics and finished way down in 36th place.Nampa-Reuters

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