Olympic highlights

Bettina Hoy showed astonishing composure to claim a three-day eventing individual gold yesterday shortly after finding herself at the centre of a storm surrounding the team event title.

But within minutes of her triumph, thanks to a superb showjumping display, the German equestrian broke down crying.

They were not mere tears of joy.

It was the uncontrolled sobbing of relief from a woman who had endured an emotional rollercoaster after a dispute over whether she had crossed the starting line warming up in the team competition and incurred penalty points.

At first the grand jury decided she had, so robbing Germany of the gold, and then it reversed its decision.

For the time being, though, Hoy, 41, has two Olympic golds to her name - and that is something for her to smile about.

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France unhappy

France will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest appeals body in sport, in a bid to reclaim the equestrian three-day event team gold.

Germany's reinstatement has pushed France back down to silver.

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Gale a worry

New Zealand gold-medal hopeful Sarah Ulmer is more concerned about winds howling through the Olympic cycling velodrome than the form of her chief rival ahead of the 3000m individual pursuit.

Ulmer and her coach, Brendon Cameron, yesterday voiced surprise and disappointment at arriving to a facility which wasn't fully enclosed as the International Cycling Federation had informed them.

Their first training session on Monday was rendered dangerous as the strong winds outside filtered on to the track which hosts the track competition starting tomorrow morning.

"Everyone would expect that at an Olympics, there would be a world-class venue which is indoors," she said.

"We arrived on about the windiest day Athens has seen in a decade and it was blowing an absolute gale.

"It was unbelievably slow. In fact it was actually quite dangerous."

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Hoogie's Pearler

Pieter van den Hoogenband, who won the men's 100m freestyle yesterday to become just the third man to twice win swimming's premier race, has his own way of preparing for the big Olympic ones. "Hoogie", 26, listens to Pearl Jam tapes to psyche himself up. The flying Dutchman joined Johnny Weissmuller and Alexander Popov as the only men to successfully defend the 100m title with a perfectly timed swim, hitting the front in the final two strokes.

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Breaking the jinx

Multiple world champion Hicham El Guerrouj says he is the unluckiest Olympic athlete of recent times - but hopes to put matters right in Athens.

"If you look at the statistics, I'm the unluckiest athlete from the Atlanta and Sydney Games. But I believe in destiny and I'm a practising Muslim," he said. "Athens is my last chance [in the 1500m, before moving up to longer distances]. I hope things will turn out right." The Moroccan has won four world 1500m titles but is without the Olympic title he most covets. He lost just three races out of 83 between 1996 and 2003 - two of those defeats in Olympic finals.

El Guerrouj will attempt a 1500m-5000m double in Athens.

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Messenger shot

Chinese athletes have failed to keep pace after dominating the first few days at the Athens Olympics - and state media have come under fire for exaggerating their potential. The media should stop "competing for a gold medal in hype", the China Daily said in an editorial. Articles and photographs of China's athletes are plastered across front pages, newspapers are publishing Olympic supplements and some television channels provide an almost round-the-clock feed. China won the first gold medal of the Games and followed that with a slew of unexpected wins. But after upsets in events China has historically dominated - such as gymnastics - officials have criticised the media for putting too much pressure on the athletes by building up expectations.

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Ad-man dunked

A Canadian man advertising an online gaming site, who broke security and jumped into the Olympic diving pool, has been given a five-month prison term for trespassing and disturbing public order. He has appealed against the decision and been released without bail. He was also fined €300 euros ($558). The man, wearing a tutu and with the website address written on his chest, disrupted the men's 3m synchronised diving when dodged security guards, raced up the ladder to a springboard and jumped into the pool to the delight of hundreds of cheering fans.

- AGENCIES