Iran had publicly boasted that its judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili -- disqualified for showing up over the maximum weight -- was told not to go to the mat with Ehud Vaks on Sunday because of Tehran's political boycott of Israel.
But the International Judo Federation (IJF) said that after investigation it had determined that it was not politics that kept Miresmaeili from fighting Vaks, but a digestive problem. He was fully 5kg over the 66kg limit at the weigh-in.
Anarchists claimed responsibility for a bomb threat at the Greek Athletics Federation's headquarters, but police said they found only a bag filled with minced meat and syringes.
Judo supremacy
Noriko Anno landed a record sixth judo gold medal for Japan and Manfred Kurzer of Germany won gold in probably the last Olympic 10 meter running target shoot. The event is being axed as part of a drive to trim the Olympics.
In an unseemly row in a gentlemanly sport, France, Britain and the US challenged Germany's gold medal in the equestrian team three-day event.
The three, dropped a peg by Germany's gold, said they were united in an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Basketball
The US finally showed signs of coming together as a team but still needed a late surge to beat Australia 89-79 in the men's Olympic basketball tournament on Thursday.
Unbeaten Spain became the first country to clinch a playoff berth with a come-from-behind 71-63 win over Italy, and Lithuania became the second with a 98-76 victory over Greece.
In other play, a dunk by Sean Marks in the dying seconds powered New Zealand to a 90-87 win over world champions Serbia and Montenegro.
Puerto Rico edged Angola 83-80 and Argentina pressured China into committing 23 turnovers to make Yao Ming a non-factor in an 82-57 pasting of the Asian champions.
Tennis great tumbles
Gold medal favorite Carlos Moya joined the exodus of big name tennis players from the Olympics on Thursday, crumbling in the men's quarterfinals against Chile's Nicolas Massu.
With world numbers one and two Roger Federer and Andy Roddick already ousted from the Athens Games, third seed Moya was tipped for the title but the Spaniard was out-gunned 6-2 7-5 by an effervescent Massu.
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