Defending Olympic basketball champions Argentina stumbled to a 79-75 loss to Lithuania yesterday, despite 19 points from Manu Ginobli.

[ FULL STORY ]

Seventeen-year-old Long Qingquan took China’s second weightlifting gold yesterday, winning the men’s 56kg category by lifting 292kg in his international debut.

[ FULL STORY ]

Ronaldinho scored two second-half goals yesterday to lead Brazil to a 5-0 rout over New Zealand and a spot in the quarter-finals of the Olympic soccer tournament.

[ FULL STORY ]

US No. 1 James Blake dodged heavy rain and thunder to secure a quick-fire win, but other stars were not so lucky as the Olympic tennis tournament faced serious weather disruption yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Reigning champions Masato Uchishiba of Japan and China’s Xian Dongmei retained their titles on the second day of the Olympic judo competition yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

RING FLAIR: Britain’s 18-year-old Billy Joe Saunders won praise from his coach Terry Edwards but faces a tough task in his next fight against Cuba’s Carlos Banteaux
Four years after Amir Khan became a star in the Athens Olympics, the British boxing team hopes it has found another teenage phenomenon.

[ FULL STORY ]

Unheralded Zach Railey of the US continued to throw down the gauntlet to defending Olympic Finn champion Ben Ainslie with another strong performance yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Former champions Australia produced a stunning fightback to defeat South Korea 5-4 in their opening match of the Olympic women’s field hockey yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL: US President George W. Bush was at the Water Cube to see the American collect his medal and South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan win in the 400m freestyle
Michael Phelps electrified the Water Cube yesterday, smashing his own 400m individual medley world record to claim the first of a possible historic eight swimming gold medals at the Beijing Games.

[ FULL STORY ]

Defending champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia of China won the Olympic women’s synchronized 3m springboard diving gold medal yesterday, having led the competition from the start.

[ FULL STORY ]

South Korea beat China to win gold in the women’s team archery yesterday, earning their sixth Olympic title in a row.

[ FULL STORY ]

xThree more Chinese crews finished first in their heats yesterday, boosting the total to five top spots in the first two days of competition and suggesting the country could win its first rowing gold.

[ FULL STORY ]

Welshwoman Nicole Cooke handed Britain their first gold of the Beijing Games when she won the women’s cycling road race yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

HOME ADVANTAGE: Sri Lanka had a good day with bat and ball yesterday as the visitors much vaunted middle-order failed to produce the goods once again
India were 161 for five, leading Sri Lanka by 14 runs, at the close of the third day of the deciding third Test on yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

England fast bowler Steve Harmison plunged South Africa into deep trouble when he picked up two key wickets on the fourth day of the fourth and final Test at the Oval yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

FALSE DAWN: Although Argentina earned a 9-0 lead inside 25 minutes, South Africa took control thereafter with Butch James slotting all of his nine attempts at goal
World Champions South Africa ran in nine tries to ease past Argentina in a one-off Test in Johannesburg, winning 63-9 on Saturday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Andres Romero pushed scoring to the limit as changing conditions at Oakland Hills allowed golfers to shoot lower scores on Saturday at the rain-interrupted PGA Championship. Argentina’s Romero tied the course record by shooting a five-under 65 in the final major championship of the season before third round play was postponed until yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

AMERICAN LEAGUE [ FULL STORY ]

Andy Roddick overpowered Denis Gremelmayr 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday to set up a showdown against Juan Martin del Potro for the Countrywide Classic title.

[ FULL STORY ]

■EQUESTRIAN

[ FULL STORY ]

Defending Olympic champion Zhang Ning of China recovered from a shaky start yesterday to defeat Thailand’s Salakjit Ponsana in three sets at the Olympic badminton tournament.

[ FULL STORY ]