22/08/2008 12:05 AM
Uzbekistan opened its Olympic gold medal account on Day 13 of the Beijing Olympics while Russia continued its march up the medal table with three more gold medals.
There would have been celebrations in Tashkent when Artur Taymazor defended the gold medal he won in Athens in the men's 120kg wrestling to get the central Asian nation's first gold medal of these Olympics.
The Caucasus have been dominant in wrestling at these Games with Georgia collecting its third gold medal thanks to Revazi Mindorashvili in the 84kg, while Russia won the 96kg gold medal thanks to Shirvani Muradov.
Russia's other two gold medals came in the women's 20km walk, with Olga Kaniskina and the men's modern pentathlon through Andrey Moiseev.
Three of the women's team sports were decided, football, softball and water polo. Japan shocked the US 3-1 to win softball gold, while there was also heartbreak for the Americans in the water polo, which The Netherlands won 9-8.
The Dutch had already had reason to celebrate when Maarten van der Weijden took gold in the men's 10km marathon swim.
But the US won a third Olympic title in women's football prevailing 1-0 in extra time over Brazil. There was some further joy for the Americans with Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor prevailing in the women's beach volleyball final.
Korea dominated the taekwondo gold medals with Taejin Son (men's -69kg) and Sujeong Lim (women's -57kg) successful, while on the water Spain's Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz won gold in the tornado and British combination Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson gold in the star.
China's magical run at the diving continued with Roulin Chen winning the women's 10m platform. That makes it seven gold medals from seven events with the men's platform to come.
Jamaica completed a sweep in the men's and women's sprints events on the track with Veronica Campbell-Brown taking out the women's 200m, while the Czech Republic's Barbora Spotakova is the new women's Olympic javelin champion.
The USA swept the medals in the men's 400m with Le Shawn Merritt causing a minor upset in beating Jeremy Wariner, while Cuba's Dayron Robels easily won the 110m hurdles and Portugal's Nelson Evora prevailed in the men's triple jump.
Canadian Eric Lamaze claimed gold in the individual jumping final in the equestrian ahead of Swede Rolf-Goran Bengtsson (silver) and American Beezie Madden (bronze).