Photo Gallery Day-2

Photos: China's Xian Dongmei wins Women's 52kg Judo gold

Updated: 2008-08-10 19:51:41

Xian Dongmei (white) competes against An Kum-ae. (Photo credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

The Women's -52kg Judo final on day two of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was held at the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium on August 10, 2008, in Beijing, China. Chinese Xian Dongmei defeated An Kum-ae of the DPRK to win the gold medal in the event. Soraya Haddad of Algeria and Nakamura Misato of Japan won bronze.

Xian Dongmei celebrates her victory over An Kum-ae. (Photo credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

(L-R) An Kum Ae, Xian Dongmei, Soraya Haddad and Misato Nakamura (Photo credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Photos: Sailors competing in 49er (Skiff)

Updated: 2008-08-10 19:48:28

Nathan Outteridge (R) and Ben Austin (L) of Australia compete. (Photo credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images)

The 49er (Skiff) Sailing event was held at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center during day two of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 10, 2008 in Qingdao, China.

Pietro Sibello (R) and Gianfranco Sibello (L) of Italy compete. (Photo credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Iker Martinez De Lizarduy (L) and Xabier Fernandez (R) of Spain compete.

Women's Road Race: Cooke nets soggy gold

Updated: 2008-08-10 19:32:26

Cooke celebrates on the podium (Photo credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

(BEIJING, August 10) -- Nicole Cooke of Great Britain opened up a long sprint with 200m to go to claim the gold medal in the Women's Road Race on Sunday under a torrential rainstorm along the Great Wall.

Emma Johansson of Sweden couldn't match Cooke's explosive sprint and got the silver medal. Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, who attacked with about 13km to go to forge the winning breakaway, hung on to win the bronze.

Cooke snuck into the winning, five-rider breakaway after following the attacking Guderzo in the decisive second and final lap of a 23.8km circuit at the end of the 126.4km Women's Road Race to claim Great Britain's first Gold medal of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Britain's Nicole Cooke gears up to the finish line (Photo credit: Xinhua)

The remaining rivals, including pre-race favorite Marianne Vos (Netherlands), hesitated in organizing a chase and the leading quintet disappeared down the rainy, final descent to battle for the medals.

Rainfall, wind and unseasonably cool weather made for challenging conditions for the race.

Some 66 starters lined up on dry roads under cloudy skies at Yongdingmen in the south of Beijing to begin the race at 14:00. Steady rain began to fall midway through the race.

Several riders crashed in a pileup just ahead of the final two loops up the Badaling Great Wall climb, with Gu Sung-Eun of Republic of Korea toppling into a ditch. Two more crashes marred the action under treacherous conditions.

Natalia Boyarskaya of Russia attacked midway up the first of two finishing laps to carve out a 59-second lead over the top of Badaling climb. Christine Thorburn of the United States led the chase on the descent and trimmed the gap to 34 seconds for the bell lap.

Emma Pooley (Great Britain) and Guderzo surged away to swarm Boyarskaya and form a threesome with 22km to go, but the pack regrouped under a steady pace set by the German team.

Guderzo attacked again, this time over the final summit with about 13km to go.

Christiane Soeder (Austria), Johansson, Cooke and Linda Melanie Villumsen Serup (Denmark) bridged out to open a 16-second gap with 7 kilometres remaining.

Cooke drove home to win gold and the desperately chasing Vos led the bunch sprint and finished sixth, 21 seconds back.

Defending Olympic champion Sara Carrigan (Australia) finished 38th at 1:01 behind.

Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (France), 49, was active throughout the race to finish 24th, 33 seconds back.

Argentina loses, Lithuania wins on last-second three

Updated: 2008-08-10 19:21:30

The Lithuania bench celebrates after defeating Argentina (Photo credit: Getty Images)

(BEIJING, August 10) -- 2004 Olympic champion Argentina will have to work a little harder to defend its gold spot on the podium, after starting the Men's Basketball preliminary round with a last-second 79-75 loss to World No. 4 Lithuania on August 10.

Argentina only managed to outscore Lithuania in the fourth quarter, 30-28, but it was too little too late. Lithuania got double-digit contributions from five players, led by Linas Kleiza with 13 points and Robertas Javtokas with 12 points and five rebounds. Sarunas Jasikevicius had a great overall game with ten points, eight assists and four rebounds.

Lithuania ended the first quarter with a 14-11 lead, and it was only in the last four and a half minutes of the half where one of Argentina's stars of the game, guard Carlos Delfino, came out strong. Delfino first hit a big three-pointer to narrow the gap 23-20, and later had two in the paint and sunk two free throws when he was fouled after a successful steal。

With 1:02 minutes left in the first half, Argentina's Pablo Prigioni made an unsportsmanlike foul on Jasikevicius, who hit his foul shots plus two more when Progioni again fouled him five seconds later. Lithuania's lead was 32-26 when Argentina's NBA superstar Manu Ginobili took the chance to tighten the score with two made free throws and Scola put up another two points before Lithuania called a time-out. The teams went to the break 34-30, and Lithuania only outscored Argentina by one point in the quarter. Argentina shot eight for eight on their free throws in this half, and Delfino led his team with a big 10 points.

In the third quarter, Lithuania entered and exited on top, but not without fighting through four lead changes. Delfino was relatively quiet in this quarter with just one made free throw, as were Ginobili and Scola with only two points each. Argentina's center Fabricio Oberto had five points with three rebounds

The last quarter got frantic even though Lithuania held the advantage throughout. Argentina did manage to lead in scoring by two points in this quarter, however, and it was free throws by Progioni that started their failed attempt at turning the tide. Prigioni's two turns at the line narrowed the gap to 75-71,and after Lithuania had several scoreless possessions, Argentina was looking to come from behind. They forced Lithuania to call another time-out when Delfino got a board and put back up two points. Lithuania returned with a shot clock-violation and Argentina again capitalized with two points in the paint from Scola to even the score for the first time in the quarter 75-75.

With 20 seconds left and Lithuania's possession, the crowd was on its feet. Forward Kleiza hit a three-pointer leaving just 2.1 seconds for Argentina to make up the difference, not enough time though they tried by stopping the clock with fouls and sending Sinskauskas to the line for one more point, ending the match 79-75.

World No. 2 Argentina was led by Ginobili with the game-high 19 points and Andres Nocioni with 15 points and nine rebounds. Delfino ended the game with 13 points and six rebounds.