Photos: NZ medal winnersKEY POINTS:
20.02: That concludes our live updates blog for day 12 of the Olympics. It's been quite an evening with another gold medal to NZ. Please join us again tomorrow when we'll be following the progress of our BMX riders Sarah Walker and Marc Willers in their semi finals and finals. See you then.
19.50: New Zealand is now up to 16th on the medal table with today's third gold. In terms of overall medals we are 13th, neck-and-neck with Spain.
19.45: Ashley's gold medal was NZ's first sailing gold since 1992, when Barbara Kendall won off Barcelona. Her brother Bruce Kendall also won a boardsailing gold off Seoul in 1988.
19.39: More great news for NZ. Athens silver medallist Ben Fouhy has finished a close second in his K1 1000 kayaking heat and he is through to Friday night's final. Well done Ben Fouhy. Another medal chance for NZ, Fouhy in the K1 1000 final 7.30pm NZT Friday night.
19.18: The distraught Frenchman Julien Bontemps is in tears, he throws his sunglasses into the sea.
Meantime discus thrower Beatrice Faumuina wants to quit the Olympic Games team, but is upset she has to pay for her own plane ticket to get out of Beijing early. Faumuina, the New Zealand flagbearer in Athens four years ago, was booked to fly home on a charter flight on August 26 as part of the team.
19.04: Ashley's final margin of victory 8 seconds. Well done Tom Ashley.
19.02: Awesome stuff from Ashley. He went out left when the rest of the field went right and the big gamble paid dividends. He crossed ahead of the French and British sailors, and when the Frenchman fell off his board, Ashley focused on protecting his lead, which continued to grow. The final margin of victory was significant, and the world champion is now Olympic champion. Tom Ashley with NZ's third gold and ninth medal in Beijing.
18.51: Tom Ashley wins gold, France are second, Israel third.
18.47: Ashley rounds the final mark with a commanding 50 metre lead over his French and British rivals. And it's over. Ashley has won gold!!
18.43: The Frenchman Julien Bontemps has fallen off his windsurfer. The Brit Dempsey is further back and it's Ashley who rounds the first mark in second place, behind the Hong Kong sailor who's out of medal contention. Ashley with a significant lead heading into the downhill leg. He's in the gold medal position!
18.40: Tom Ashley leads!! Heading towards to the top mark Ashley went left while the rest of the field went right. He got the windshift and the lead.
18.31: They're underway in the windsurfing!!!It's NZ, Great Britain and the French fighting for the gold. Whoever wins out of those three crews takes it. NZ's Tom Ashley has started well, he's right next to his two rivals early in the race.
18.11: We understand Tom Ashley's windsurfing medal race has been postponed. We'll bring you more details as soon as possible. Meantime, the IOC are delighted at only four positive drug cases so far from more than 4000 tests. By the end of the games on Sunday, the IOC will have carried out around 4,500 doping tests in Beijing, up from 3,600 in Athens four years ago.
17.51: Ashley's race has been further delayed. It's now set to start at 6.05pm and the race should last about an hour. Meantime Barbara Kendall has completed her fifth Olympic campaign finishing in sixth place in the windsurfing.
17.41: Defending champions Ricardo Santos and Emanuel Rego have been knocked out of the men's Olympic beach volleyball competition. Brazilians Marcio Araujo and Fabio Luiz Magalhaes will play the US for gold.
17.35: Ashley is set to get underway in pursuit of a windsurfing gold medal within the next 10 minutes. This is how the points stack up heading into the medal race:
FRA - Julien Bontemps 45 points
GBR - Nick Dempsey 46 points
NZL - Tom Ashley 46 points
ISR - Shahar Zubari 54 points
17.15: The women's windsurfing is underway, Barbara Kendall in sixth place playing out the string, she is too far back to win a medal. The men's windsurfing, featuring NZ's Tom Ashley, is set to go after this race.
16.00: Nick Willis has credited his faith in God for his bronze medal at the Olympics this morning. He is the first New Zealander to win a medal on the track in 32 years. Willis believes God influenced his success. "It might be hard to understand if you're not from my circle of thought, but a lot of people have been praying to help me focus on this race. He (God) didn't want me out there evangelising or preaching, he wanted me to focus on this race." Willis says a slight leg strain is the reason for his withdrawal from the 800m heats.
15.45: Kiwi Marc Willers has survived a crash that wiped out half the field and finished fourth in his men's BMX quarter final to qualify for tomorrow's semi finals.
15.37: Kiwi BMX rider Sarah Walker has qualified fourth fastest out of 16 riders for tomorrow's BMX semi finals. So she'll be one of the top two seeds in one of the semis, with the top four from each semi going through to tomorrow night's final.
15.22: Larisa Ilchenko of Russia has won a gold medal in women's 10-kilometre open water swimming, an event making its Olympic debut.
Ilchenko sprinted from behind in the closing metres and finished the gruelling race in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 27.7 seconds in the shallow, calm water at Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park.
Natalie du Toit of South Africa, an amputee who removed her carbon-fiber prosthetic left leg before diving in, finished 16th.
15.15: Less than two hours out from the start of the men's windsurfing medal race. This is how the points table looks:
FRA - Julien Bontemps 45 points
GBR - Nick Dempsey 46 points
NZL - Tom Ashley 46 points
ISR - Shahar Zubari 54 points
Those are the four in medal contention. The rest of the field is out of it. Bomtemps leading by one point. (the rider with the fewest points wins).
14.41: World BMX champion Shanaze Reade of Great Britain has crashed out of the first seeding heat at the Olympics. Reade lost control on a sweeping asphalt bend, sustaining cuts to her right elbow. As a result she is seeded last of the 16 women heading into the second seeded heat. Reade's coach Grant White left Walker to coach the Brit at the start of this year.
14.23: Both NZ BMX riders have completed their first of two seeding heats. In the men's Marc Willers has finished 12th out of 32 riders. But better news for Sarah Walker who recorded the second fastest time of 37.187 seconds. The seeding heats determine the make-up of the first round heats which take place this afternoon.
14.00: Welcome to our live updates blog for day 12 of the Olympics. Nick Willis' bronze this morning means we've medalled on five consecutive days. We (meaning NZ!) have also blitzed our medal tally from Athens when we secured three gold and two bronze. At the moment our Beijing tally sits at eight.
Now there's another huge chance of a medal this evening with Tom Ashley in the men's windsurfing. He's third heading into the medal place, just one point behind the co-leaders. With double points on offer for today's medal race, whoever wins out of those three racers will probably win gold. We'll also keep you up-to-date with the BMX results and all the other news in and around the Games over the next six hours.
