Beijing Digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief...

Ilchenko triumphs

SWIMMING: Larisa Ilchenko put in a late charge to overhaul Britain's Keri-Anne Payne and Cassie Patten for victory in a dramatic 10km marathon swim in Beijing yesterday.

The Russian, unbeaten since 2004, took the lead in the final 100 metres after Patten and Payne had led for most of the race. The British pair made the world champion work extremely hard for gold as they won the remaining medals.

Ilchenko finished in a time of one hour 59 minutes 27.7 seconds with Payne and Patten just a few strokes behind.

China deny Germany to reach final

WOMEN'S HOCKEY: Hosts China upset defending champions Germany 3-2 in yesterday's semi-final to reach their first Olympic hockey final.

The Chinese twice came from behind to secure their place in tomorrow's final, where they will meet the Netherlands.

The Dutch overwhelmed Argentina 5-2 in the days other semi-final to confirm their status as tournament favourites. They were led to victory by Maartje Paumen, who netted a hat-trick against an outclassed Argentina.

ATHLETICS: Belarussian Aksana Miankova landed the womens hammer title with an Olympic record throw yesterday.

The 26-year-old took an early lead with her first throw only to see Cuba's Yipsi Moreno overhaul her in the fifth round with 74.70 metres.

But Miankova immediately responded to claim her first major medal with an Olympic record throw of 76.34 metres.

Moreno finished second to match her silver medal from the Athens Games as China's Wenxiu Zhang took bronze.

Walker's record

ATHLETICS: Jamaica won another battle in its Olympic sprinting duel with the US yesterday when Melaine Walker took the women's 400 metre hurdles, outpacing Sheena Tosta.

Walker, slow out of the starting blocks, spent most of the race trying to make up her early deficit and the two runners arrived at the last 100 metres nearly even before the Jamaican powered away.

Walker finished in an Olympic record of 52.64 seconds.

Robles reaffirms status as front runner for gold

ATHLETICS: World record holder Dayron Robles reaffirmed his status as overwhelming favourite for the 110 metres hurdles gold with a commanding victory in his semi-final.

The Cuban came under brief pressure from France's Ladji Doucoure before winning heat one in 13.12 seconds. Doucoure eventually finished third, with David Payne coming through in second and Richard Phillips fourth.

David Oliver won heat two in 13.31 seconds as Artur Noga, Jackson Quinonez and Jackson Maurice Wignall also qualified. Robles has been drawn in lane six and Oliver in seven for the final, which takes place today.

The US hurdler remains the only man to have beaten Robles this season but the latter is expected to prevail. The withdrawal of reigning champion Liu Xiang of China has increased the chance of Robles, 21, adding the Olympic title to his world record, set in the Czech Republic in June.

Blonska facing lifetime ban

HEPTATHLON: Olympic silver medallist Liudmyla Blonska is facing a lifetime ban after failing a drugs test for the second time in five years. If Blonska's B sample matches her A sample she will be expelled from the Games and stripped of silver.

Hyleas Fountain of the US finished third in the heptathlon while Russia's Tatiana Chernova was fourth.

The Ukrainian, 30, was handed a two-year ban in June 2003 when traces of stanozolol were found in her system.

Britain's Kelly Sotherton was fifth in a competition won by the Ukraine's Nataliia Dobrynska. Sotherton has repeatedly denounced Blonska, most prominently after the Ukrainian beat her to the silver medal in the 2007 world championships in Osaka, and refused to shake her hand at the end of this year's event.

The IOChas opened a disciplinary hearing into Blonska's case and is expected to rule on it on Thursday.

D-Day for Lynch and Lantinus

EQUESTRIAN: Denis Lynch bids for Olympic glory with Lantinus today in Hong Kong as one of the top 35 combinations to have come through three preliminary qualifiers.

Flaminia Straumann's 10-year-old gelding made just a single jumping error in the three previous rounds when hitting the tape on the landing side of the water jump on Monday. Four jumping faults, matched by four time penalties over the three days' action, qualified the pair in joint eighth position. Today, all riders return to a zero score and, following the first round, the top 20 will compete in a second to decide the destination of the medals.

The individual show jumping finals sees the completion of the equestrian programme at Sha Tin racecourse and the first round gets under way at 12.15pm with round two scheduled for 4.15pm.