CYCLING

With a little help from her friends and more than a year’s planning, Britain’s Nicole Cooke delivered the big prize on Sunday: an Olympic gold medal.

Cooke launched a fierce sprint for the last hundred metres and narrowly edged out Sweden’s Emma Johansson, who took the silver, and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, who finished third. Cooke seemed so surprised with her own accomplishment that she let out a huge scream, similar to a war whoop, after she crossed the finish line.FOOTBALL Ronaldinho scored twice as Brazil strolled to a 5-0 win over New Zealand at the Olympics yesterday, while a delightful goal from Ezequiel Lavezzi gave Argentina a late win over stubborn Australia.The wins left the South American pair with 6 points from two games in their respective groups and guaranteed both a quarter-final place with a match to spare.African pair Cameroon and Nigeria won for the first time, Cameroon beating Honduras 1-0 thanks to a blunder by goalkeeper Kevin Hernandez and Nigeria overcoming Japan 2-1.BASKETBALL Argentina’s defence of their Olympic men’s basketball title suffered a blow when they were upset 79-75 by Lithuania in their opening game yesterday.World champions Spain, in contrast, had too much firepower for Greece in their Beijing Games opener, rolling to an 81-66 victory.Earlier, Dirk Nowitzki’s Germany overpowered Angola, while European champions Russia thrashed Iran.BOXING Billy Joe Saunders looks set to succeed Amir Khan as the bright new face of British Olympic boxing after a classy performance as he cruised through his first bout of the Beijing Games yesterday.A year older than Khan was when he won silver four years ago in Athens, welterweight Saunders showed maturity beyond his years to outbox Adem Kilicci of Turkey 14-3.SHOOTING David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s trap shooting yesterday with a brilliant final round in splendid duck-hunting weather to surge past a nervous Alexey Alipov of Russia.Kostelecky, who had never won a major championship, dropped to the ground and lay on his back soaking in the falling rain for a moment after hitting a perfect 25 for 25 targets in the final for a total score of 146.WEIGHTLIFTING An Indian woman weightlifter pulled out of the Beijing Olympics over doping has been cleared by the national federation of any violation but will still miss out, a senior lifting official said yesterday.Monika Devi, a 69-kg lifter, was withdrawn by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Tuesday after being informed she had tested positive in a pre-games test.TENNIS Top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia withdrew from the Olympic tennis event yesterday with an injury to her right thumb.Ivanovic, who will be replaced by fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic at the top of the world rankings today, said she had not been able to practise since arriving in China.She said she sustained the injury when she returned to training after losing at Wimbledon.JUDO Masato Uchishiba joined Japan’s pantheon of judo greats, defeating Benjamin Darbelet of France to defend his Athens title in the final of the men’s 66-kg category in Beijing yesterday.The wily 30-year-old veteran charged out to meet surprise finalist Darbelet, determined to dictate the pace of the bout as he had with all previous vanquished opponents.GYMNASTICS A crash landing off the asymmetric bars by He Kexin failed to stop China from upstaging an injury-hit United States team in women’s qualifying at the Olympics yesterday.The two gymnastics super-powers headed for a golden showdown in Wednesday’s team final but both had to overcome setbacks on the opening day of the women’s competition.He, one of the favourites for the asymmetric bars title, drew gasps from the crowd as she executed four stunning release-and-catch combinations in a high-flying routine.Nampa-AFP and ReutersCooke seemed so surprised with her own accomplishment that she let out a huge scream, similar to a war whoop, after she crossed the finish line.FOOTBALL Ronaldinho scored twice as Brazil strolled to a 5-0 win over New Zealand at the Olympics yesterday, while a delightful goal from Ezequiel Lavezzi gave Argentina a late win over stubborn Australia.The wins left the South American pair with 6 points from two games in their respective groups and guaranteed both a quarter-final place with a match to spare.African pair Cameroon and Nigeria won for the first time, Cameroon beating Honduras 1-0 thanks to a blunder by goalkeeper Kevin Hernandez and Nigeria overcoming Japan 2-1.BASKETBALL Argentina’s defence of their Olympic men’s basketball title suffered a blow when they were upset 79-75 by Lithuania in their opening game yesterday.World champions Spain, in contrast, had too much firepower for Greece in their Beijing Games opener, rolling to an 81-66 victory.Earlier, Dirk Nowitzki’s Germany overpowered Angola, while European champions Russia thrashed Iran.BOXING Billy Joe Saunders looks set to succeed Amir Khan as the bright new face of British Olympic boxing after a classy performance as he cruised through his first bout of the Beijing Games yesterday.A year older than Khan was when he won silver four years ago in Athens, welterweight Saunders showed maturity beyond his years to outbox Adem Kilicci of Turkey 14-3.SHOOTING David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s trap shooting yesterday with a brilliant final round in splendid duck-hunting weather to surge past a nervous Alexey Alipov of Russia.Kostelecky, who had never won a major championship, dropped to the ground and lay on his back soaking in the falling rain for a moment after hitting a perfect 25 for 25 targets in the final for a total score of 146.WEIGHTLIFTING An Indian woman weightlifter pulled out of the Beijing Olympics over doping has been cleared by the national federation of any violation but will still miss out, a senior lifting official said yesterday.Monika Devi, a 69-kg lifter, was withdrawn by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Tuesday after being informed she had tested positive in a pre-games test.TENNIS Top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia withdrew from the Olympic tennis event yesterday with an injury to her right thumb.Ivanovic, who will be replaced by fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic at the top of the world rankings today, said she had not been able to practise since arriving in China.She said she sustained the injury when she returned to training after losing at Wimbledon.JUDO Masato Uchishiba joined Japan’s pantheon of judo greats, defeating Benjamin Darbelet of France to defend his Athens title in the final of the men’s 66-kg category in Beijing yesterday.The wily 30-year-old veteran charged out to meet surprise finalist Darbelet, determined to dictate the pace of the bout as he had with all previous vanquished opponents. GYMNASTICS A crash landing off the asymmetric bars by He Kexin failed to stop China from upstaging an injury-hit United States team in women’s qualifying at the Olympics yesterday.The two gymnastics super-powers headed for a golden showdown in Wednesday’s team final but both had to overcome setbacks on the opening day of the women’s competition.He, one of the favourites for the asymmetric bars title, drew gasps from the crowd as she executed four stunning release-and-catch combinations in a high-flying routine.Nampa-AFP and Reuters