Beijing - European champion Tia Hellebaud of Belgium stunned favoured Croatian world champion Blanca Vlasic on the cruel countback rule to win Olympic high jump gold on Saturday.  Read more »

Beijing - Norway collected its first Olympic gold in women's handball Saturday, comfortably defeating world champions Russia 34-27 in the final.

The European champions raced into an early 13-3 lead and although this was reduced to 18-13 by half-time, they were never behind and fully deserved their win in front of
Norway's Crown Prince Haakon Magnus.  Read more »

Beijing - Mexico's Maria Del Rosario Espinoza took taekwondo gold in the women's plus 67-kilogram division Saturday thanks to a 3- 1 victory over Norway's Nina Solheim in the final.

Natalia Falavigna of Brazil secured bronze after a 5-2 victory over Karolina Kedzierska of Sweden in their bout. In the other bronze medal fight, Sarah Stevenson of Great Britain defeated Egypt's Noha Abdrabo 5-1. (dpa)

Abuja - Nigerian was full of long faces on Saturday as the West African nation's dream of picking up a gold medal in the Olympics was dashed by Argentina in the football final.  Read more »

Beijing - Somjit Jongjohor beat Cuba's Andris Laffita Hernandez in the men's flyweight final at Beijing's Workers' Gymnasium Saturday to collect the first boxing gold medal of the Olympic Games.

The Thai boxer built up a six-point lead by the end of the second round and never looked back, eventually defeating the Pan-American champion 8-2 on points after the four two-minute rounds.  Read more »

Beijing - Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov was disqualified and kicked out of the Beijing Olympics over a positive doping test for steroids, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday.

Razoronov, 38, tested positive for the steroid nandrole on August 18 after placing sixth in the 105-kilos division.  Read more »

Beijing - The ad hoc division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Beijing turned down Saturday protests by Spain and Italy over the decision to award the 49er category sailing gold medal to Jonas Warrer and Martin Ibsen.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) took the move after having two protests against the decision to allow the Danish pair to keep their medals - despite borrowing a boat Sunday for their final race - turned down by the International Sailing Federation's (ISAF) international jury.  Read more »

Beijing - The man standing on the pitch and watching from afar the medal ceremony after Argentina defeated Nigeria 1-0 in the final of the Olympic football tournament could have been anybody.

Wearing short pants, a sleeveless blue shirt and shoes without socks, the slightly overweight stocky man held his hands clasped behind his back, a plastic bag stuck between his right arm and body.

He looked as if he had just walked off a beach and by mistake ended up on the football pitch in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium.  Read more »

Beijing - Russia's synchronized swimming team collected their third Olympic gold medal in succession Saturday at a sold-out National Aquatics Centre in Beijing.

Anastasia Ermakova and Anastasia Davidova, winners of the duet gold three days ago, led their team to victory with a total of 99.500 points.

European champion Spain took silver with 98.251 points while China claimed bronze to register their first medal in the event since its introduction at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. (dpa)

Beijing - In an Argentinean Olympic football side that boasts the likes of Barcelona star Lionel Messi and Boca Juniors' Juan Riquelme, Angel Di Maria was an unlikely match winner.

But the midfielder, who plays his club football for Benfica in Portugal, not only scored his side's match-winning goal against Nigeria in the gold medal match at the Olympic football tournament, he also put the Nigerian defence under constant pressure.  Read more »