Matthew Pinsent won his fourth successive Olympic gold medal amid tears of joy and relief yesterday as the British coxless four beat Canada in one of the closest rowing finals ever.
Pinsent, Sydney 2000 champion James Cracknell, Ed Coode and Steve Williams were neck and neck with the world champions for the last 500m but hung on to win by 0.08 seconds.
PHOTO: AP
With the stands full of British flags, and the fans rising as one in an enthusiastic rendition of "God Save the Queen," four years of hard work and sacrifices were rewarded.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Pinsent's stiff upper lip crumb-led and he sobbed on the podium.
"It's been immensely emotional all week," said the Briton, who kept his options open about the future after earlier suggesting he would retire.
There were also fine victories for New Zealand identical twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell in the women's double sculls and Australian duo James Tomkins and Drew Ginn in the men's coxless pair.
It was Tomkins's third gold in four Games.
HIGHLIGHT RACE
The men's coxless four, the last of seven finals on the day, was the main attraction.
Both crews sat slumped in their boats waiting for the photo-finish result before the Britons punched the air and did a lap of honor past their raucous fans.
Pinsent and Cracknell won gold in the four's in Sydney, helping Steve Redgrave to win his fifth Olympic gold title.
Britain, hit by injury and crew changes before the Games, had a foot lead for the majority of the race but favorites Canada staged a dramatic late surge.
In the men's coxless pairs, world champions Australia gave a lesson in finesse and flawless technique.
The Australians, renowned for their long, elegant style, beat Croatia's Skelin brothers by over half a length. South Africa took bronze.
FIRST MEDAL
The Evers-Swindell sisters handed New Zealand their first medal of the Athens Games, beating Germany with Britain taking bronze.
In the women's single sculls, Germany's Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski won her second Olympic gold, overcoming her two biggest rivals.
She beat double Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten into silver and double world champion Rumyana Neykova into bronze.
In the men's single sculls, world champion Olaf Tufte came from behind to win Norway's first medal of the Games.
Romania's women's coxless pair, Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu, retained their Olympic title and hinted at retirement.
The men's double sculls were won by world champion French duo of Sebastien Vieilledent and Adrien Hardy, who surprised the Olympic champions Slovenia and favorites Italy.
Athletics
World champion Carolina Kluft looked set to become only the second woman in Olympic history to break the 7,000 barrier in the heptathlon after raising her total to 5,208 points yesterday.
With two events remaining in the grueling two-day competition, the Swede had a huge 329-point lead over Kelly Sotherton of Britain.
The only heptathlete to break the 7,000 mark in the Olympics was Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who did it in 1988 in Seoul and in 1992 in Barcelona.
Kluft soared 6.78 meters in the long jump to expand her lead over Sotherton. The javelin and the 800 meters remain in the evening session. Austra Skujyte of Lithuania was third, 505 points behind Kluft.
Joyner-Kersee's world record is 7,291, set in Seoul.
100m title
Maurice Greene, trying to become the first man with back-to-back Olympic 100 titles since Carl Lewis in the 1980s, won his preliminary heat in 10.18 seconds.
Shawn Crawford, the fastest man in the world so far this year at 9.88, cruised home in 10.02. Justin Gatlin won his heat in 10.07 as all three Americans went through.
So did other contenders -- Asafa Powell of Jamaica, Francis Obikwelu of Portugal and world champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis. Joining them in the second round was Namibia's Frank Fredericks, the silver medalist at the 1992 and 1996 games.
Thirteen days after undergoing knee surgery, world champion Jana Pittman made a remarkable comeback by winning her preliminary heat of the women's 400m hurdles.
The Australian, who tore cartilage in her right knee while warming up for a race and quickly had arthroscopic surgery in hopes of running in Athens, won her heat in 54.83 seconds. The best time of the first round was 53.57 by Yuliya Pechonkina of Russia.
In the women's 400, gold-medal contender Ana Guevara of Mexico slowed so much in the final meters that she had to speed back up momentarily when she saw competitors catching up.
She won her first-round heat in 50.93.
Sanya Richards of the US set the fastest time in qualifying at 50.11 seconds.
10,000m throne
Kenenisa Bekele used a breathtaking final 400 meters late Friday night to claim the Olympic 10,000-meter throne previously occupied by his Ethiopian countryman, Haile Gebrselassie.
The soft-spoken 22-year-old champion is not finished in Athens. He will be the favorite again in the 5,000 meters, attempting to become the fifth man -- and first in 24 years -- to achieve the Olympic distance-running double.
Gebrselassie, seeking his third consecutive Olympic title in the event, finished in a painful fifth place, nearly dropping out because of an Achilles' tendon injury. He has long said it would be his final race on the track; the 31-year-old will now turn his attention to the marathon.
He leaves the 10,000 in good hands. With a jaw-dropping 53.02-second final lap, Bekele won in 27 minutes, 5.10 seconds, breaking Gebreselassie's Olympic record by more than two seconds.
Sileshi Sihine gave Ethiopia a 1-2 finish, earning the silver medal in 27:09.39. Zersenay Tadesse of Eretria took the bronze at 27:22.57.
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