Today's other stories in brief
Star pair take fourth sailing gold for Britain
SAILING:Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson capped a superb Olympic regatta for Britain, winning the Star class to secure a fourth sailing gold for the 2012 Games hosts.
Britain finished the Qingdao regatta as the top sailing nation for the third straight Olympics with a haul of six medals.
Percy, 32, won gold in the Finn dinghy in 2000 but said this triumph was "sweeter".
"It was unbelievable, so special. We felt good this morning, I knew we weren't going to bottle it and we didn't," said Percy, who was sixth in the Star in Athens along with Steve Mitchell. He joined forces with Simpson last year.
"It's been a killer four years and I am so glad it's behind me."
Brazil's Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada took silver and Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom of Sweden won bronze in the final race of the regatta.
Both finished on 53 points, but the Brazilians secured silver by winning the decisive medal race.
Blonska test positive confirmed
DOPING:The second sample of Ukraine's Olympic heptathlon silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska, who has been provisionally suspended from the Beijing Games, tested positive for steroids, the IOC said yesterday.
"The International Olympic Committee disciplinary commission held a hearing today in relation to her adverse analytical finding. The A and B sample analysis were positive for the . . . methyltestosterone (an anabolic steroid)," an official said.
Blonska faces a lifetime ban as a second-time offender.
MEN'S HOCKEY: Spain will face Germany in the final of the Olympic men's hockey after a stunning 3-2 win over the defending champions, Australia.
The Spanish fought back from two goals down before Santi Freixa scored the winner two minutes before the end.
Germany booked their spot in the final in equally dramatic fashion, by beating the Netherlands 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out after it was 1-1 in normal time. Leading scorer Taeke Taekema had his effort saved by Max Weinhold.
Lamaze best US pair take rain in stride
EQUESTRIAN:Canada's Eric Lamaze, who missed two Games because of drugs bans, won show-jumping gold after two dramatic jump-offs.
In a thrilling climax to the equestrian events, Lamaze put his past troubles behind him to beat Sweden's Rolf-Goran Bengtsson into silver.
The American Beezie Madden took bronze.
Lamaze was thrown out of the Canadian teams for the 1996 and 2000 Games after testing positive for cocaine on two separate occasions.
Brazilian women fall short again
BEACH VOLLEYBALL: United States duo Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor retained their women's beach volleyball crown with victory over China's Tian Jia and Wang Jie.
May-Treanor and Walsh won 21-18 21-18 to maintain their record of not having lost a set in the tournament.
Walsh sealed the match with a smash to knock out the pre-event favourites on a rain-sodden pitch.
China's Xue Chen and Zhang Xi claimed bronze when they beat Brazil's Renata Ribeiro and Talita Rocha 21-19 21-17.
The Americans said afterwards that they used the weather to their advantage.
"The rain makes it better," said Walsh. "We felt like warriors out there. The pressure of playing the hosts made it pretty intense."
"Ever since the ball dropped in Athens, we've wanted to repeat as Olympic champions," May-Treanor added. "No one has ever done it before."
Brazilian women fall short again
SOCCER:There was gloom for soccer power Brazil and some consolation for the United States late yesterday when the American women won their soccer final 1-0 after extra-time.
It was the third finals failure in a row for the Brazilian women and compounds the national pain over the semi-finals loss by the men's Olympic team.
The US soccer gold will be weighed against a dismal athletics showing, an unexpected loss in the women's water polo final to the Netherlands and defeat to Japan in softball, the first time the US have failed to win gold in that event.
Midfielder Carli Lloyd proved America's hero with a rasping angled drive that eluded the despairing dive of the Brazilian goalkeeper Barbara in the 96th minute.
