PORTUGAL's Fernando Ribeiro ran a stirring last lap to reel in China's Wang Junxia to take the women's 10,000 metres title. Ireland's Catherina McKiernan ran a game race, setting the pace in the early stages, before fading in the latter stages of a dramatic race.

Ribeiro, who only passed Wang in the final 50 metres, won in a new Olympic record of 31 minutes 1.63 seconds. Wang, the 5,000 metres champion, followed in a time of 31:02.58, while Ethiopia's Gete Wami took the bronze in a time of 31:06.66. Wami relegated her more fancied compatriot, defending champion Deratu Tulu, into fourth place.

The American men's 4x400 metres relay team clocked the fastest time run in the United States when they won their Olympic semi final in 2:57.87.

The quartet of LaMont Smith, Jason Rouser, Derek Mills and Anthuan Maybank were pushed all the way to the ninth fastest time ever recorded by a determined Jamaican quartet who clocked 2:58.42.

Double Olympic champion Michael Johnson did not run because of the hamstring injury he aggravated in setting his world 200 metres record on Thursday.

In the 4x100 relay, the US team sent a snub to Carl Lewis, setting the fastest time in the world this year of 37.97 seconds in the semifinals. Amid speculation that Lewis may run in the final in an attempt to win an unprecedented 10th Olympic gold, the quartet of Jon Drummond, Tim Harden, Tim Montgomery and Dennis Mitchell set a cracking pace to beat Cuba by more than half a second.

. The dispute between the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) and BLE deepened yesterday after Nick Davis, the manager of the track and field team in Atlanta, issued a strong statement condemning the criticism of him by OCI officials this week. Davis has threatened to sue Dr Joe Cummisky, chief medical officer of the OCI, after hearing an interview Cummisky gave to RTE radio on Thursday.