Hochschorner brothers win third gold

Pavol and Peter Hochschorner have won the gold medal in double canoe slalom, making it three straight Olympics the brothers from Slovakia have finished first. The brothers were in second place after the semi-final, but posted the best combined time of 190.82 seconds yesterday to earn another set of whitewater medals to add to their collection from the Sydney Games and Athens. Jaroslav Volf and Ondrej Stepanek of the Czech Republic took the silver medal, finishing 2.07 seconds behind the winners. Mikhail Kuznetsov and Dmitry Larionov of Russia won bronze in 197.37. The German team of Michel Felix and Sebastian Piersig led after the semifinal, but they could not recover once their canoe capsized and finished sixth.

Slovakia’s Kaliska wins second straight gold

Elena Kaliska of Slovakia has won the gold medal in women’s single kayak slalom by nearly 15 seconds, successfully defending her top finish at Athens. Kaliska led after the semi-final and dominated on the whitewater course at the Beijing games yesterday, cleanly navigating her way through the challenging rapids and snaking her way around the 21 gates. Her combined time of 192.64 seconds was 14.30 seconds ahead of silver.

Another gold for Ukraine, this time in shooting

Artur Ayvazian of Ukraine won the gold medal in the men’s 50-metre prone rifle yesterday, holding off Matt Emmons of the United States in the final round. Emmons won the silver and Warren Potent of Australia took the bronze. Ayvazian was the top qualifier with 599 points. Emmons, who won the event in Athens four years ago, was two points behind. Ayvazian scored at least 10 points on each of his 10 shots in the final, making it difficult for Emmons to catch up. Ayvazian finished with a score of 702.7.

Wiggins beats the Olympic record

Bradley Wiggins (photo) of Britain broke the Olympic record in qualifying for the individual pursuit in track cycling yesterday, beating the record he set when he took the gold medal four years ago. Wiggins completed the 4,000 metres in the Laoshan Velodrome in a time of 4 minutes, 15.031 seconds. The competition concludes today.

China’s Tong wins heavyweight women’s judo

Tong Wen of China came through with a big throw in the closing seconds to defeat Maki Tsukada of Japan and take the women’s over 78-kilogram gold on the final day of the Olympic judo competition yesterday. Tsukada, the Athens champion, took the lead two minutes into the bout with a leg sweep that sent Tong to the mat. Tong, a three-time world champion who has beaten Tsukada repeatedly, took a koka point to narrow the gap. With just 16 seconds left, Tong found her opening and threw Tsukada to the mat.

Britain wins men’s cycling team sprint gold

Britain beat France for the gold medal in the men’s Olympic cycling team sprint yesterday, avenging three straight losses to its top rival at the world championships. With new bikes estimated at $26,000 apiece and in high-tech suits modelled after the Speedo suits swimmers have used to set records at a dizzying pace, Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff finished the three laps around the velodrome in 43.128 seconds, beating the French time of 43.651.

Ruban wins men’s individual archery

Ukraine’s Viktor Ruban took advantage of a mistake by South Korean Park Kyung-mo to win 113-112 in the Olympic gold medal match in men’s individual archery yesterday. Ruban had a 103-95 edge after his 11th arrow when Park scored just eight on his 11th to make it an even score. Ruban responded with a 10, forcing Park to get a perfect score on his final shot. Park missed the centre section by a few millimetres.

Federer salvages bid for Olympic medal

Roger Federer has salvaged his bid for an Olympic medal, winning his doubles quarter-final with fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka against Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi of India. The Swiss pair beat the Indians 6-2, 6-4 yesterday, completing a match that was suspended at 1.15am because of rain and resumed 15 hours later. Top-ranked Federer lost his singles quarter-final to James Blake on Thursday. Venus and Serena Williams also completed a suspended second-round doubles match and beat Ayumi Morita and Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 7-5, 6-2.

Brazil’s women reach semi-finals

Daniela scored with a dramatic 30-metre blast and Marta capitalised on a defensive lapse for another goal to lead Brazil past Norway 2-1 yesterday, sending the South Americans football semi-finals for the fourth straight time. Daniela's goal in the 43rd minute was her second in three games and capped a half in which the Brazilians repeatedly attacked, sending in crosses that were easily cleared away. Marta used her speed to exploit a blunder by Martin Fiane Christensen and added another in the 57th. Brazil will play its next match Monday in Shanghai.