Hollywood ending for marathon runner Hassan and Paris Olympics

Paris, Aug. 12: Sifan Hassan completed her mission impossible with a gruelling women's marathon win on the sun-baked streets of Paris Sunday as Tom Cruise is rumoured to give the Olympic Games a Hollywood ending.

On the final day of what has been seen as a spectacular Games, the race to top the medals table was coming down to the final event, with China and the United States grappling for dominance.

Dutchwoman Hassan had taken on what many considered to be a crazy gamble, competing in the 5,000m, the 10,000m and the marathon -- the last two events just two days apart.

But in a thrilling sprint finish, Hassan overhauled Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa to take gold by three seconds in an Olympic record of 2hr 22min 55sec.

On Friday she had taken bronze in the 10,000m in the Stade de France after coming away with a bronze in the 5,000m.

She fell to the ground on the blue carpet in front of the golden dome of the Invalides memorial complex in the heart of Paris before grabbing a Dutch flag to celebrate an extraordinary achievement.

"It was not easy," said Hassan, 31. "It was so hot, but I was feeling OK. I've never pushed myself through to the finish line as I did today."

"Every moment in the race I was regretting that I ran the 5,000m and 10,000m. I was telling myself if I hadn't done that, I would feel great today.

"From the beginning to the end, it was so hard. Every step of the way. I was thinking, 'Why did I do that? What is wrong with me?'

The US dominated the athletics and are going for gold in the last event of the Games, as their women basketball stars added to the men's title against hosts France. US women beat France 67-66 in the curtain closing match of the olympics.

An eighth straight triumph gave them the record for most consecutive golds in any team sport at the Olympic Games -- breaking a tie with the US men, who won seven basketball titles in a row from 1936 to 1968.

Wrestling, weightlifting, water polo, volleyball, modern pentathlon, handball, and track cycling were the other sports to crown Olympic champions on the last day.

Hungary's Michelle Gulyas ran and shot to Olympic gold in the modern pentathlon, with home favourite Elodie Clouvel roared on to clinch silver.

On the cycling track, Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen surged to the men's keirin for his third gold of the Games, ending British dominance of the event they had won at every Olympics since 2008.

New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews blasted to the women's sprint title to add to her keirin gold, while American cyclist Jennifer Valente won the women's omnium. Valente's gold set up a thrilling denouement in the medal table.

Helped by a clean sweep in diving and table tennis, China equalled the gold medals with the US, both collecting 40 golds.  

Tola masters men's marathon

Ethiopian Tamirat Tola delivered a masterclass in solo front running to win the Olympic men's marathon in Paris on Saturday as Eliud Kipchoge's bid for a third gold went up in smoke.

Tola clocked an Olympic record of 2hr 06min 26sec for victory, finishing 21 seconds ahead of Belgium's Bashir Abdi, whose silver marked an upgrade from his bronze garnered at the Covid-hit Tokyo Games three years ago.

Kenya's Benson Kipruto, winner of Tokyo, Boston and Chicago marathons in recent years, rounded out the podium, a further 13sec adrift. "Thank you, Paris!" said Tola, the 2016 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist who will be 33 on Sunday.

"I'm happy today, I was 2022 world champion and now I'm Olympic champion. It's the greatest day in my life."

China clean sweep TT gold

China completed a clean sweep of the Olympic gold medals in table tennis Saturday by winning the women's team title in Paris, the sixth time the Chinese have collected the full set.

The Chinese women withstood a brave Japanese challenge but eventually overpowered their opponents 3-0, their fifth gold from five competitions at the Games.

Wang Chuqin and Sun started the Chinese gold rush in Paris, defeating the North Korean pair of Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong in the mixed doubles final. Chen then beat compatriot Sun in the women's singles final exactly one week ago. Fan Zhendong overcame a brave challenge from the competition's surprise package, Truls Moregard from Sweden, to win the men's singles the next day. The men's team dominated Sweden 3-0, leaving just the Japanese women's team standing in the way of the clean sweep. The gold won by Chinese great Ma Long in the team event was his sixth.

That took him past divers Wu Minxia and Chen Ruolin, and gymnast Zou Kai, as the Chinese athlete with the most golds at the Olympics. China have completely dominated table tennis ever since it was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul.

They won every medal on offer at Sydney in 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.

USA men claim bbl  gold

The United States won their fifth straight Olympic men's basketball crown on Saturday, holding off a battling France 98-87 to take their tally of Olympic golds to 17.

In a rematch of the Tokyo Olympics final three years ago, LeBron James and the US team stacked with NBA stars once again proved too much for France, despite the efforts of sensational NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama.

France sliced a 14-point deficit to three with 3min 04sec to play on Wembanyama's put-back dunk, but Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry drilled a three-pointer -- one of four from him with less than three minutes remaining -- and the United States relentlessly powered to the finish.

Curry finished with eight three-pointers -- including a rainbow over a leaping Wembanyama -- and led the US scoring with 24 points.

Women’s football gold for USA 

Mallory Swanson scored the winning goal as the United States edged Brazil 1-0 in Saturday's Olympic women's football final to claim the gold medal for a record-extending fifth time.

Brazil fought hard on a hot afternoon at the Parc des Princes, but the USA struck just before the hour mark when Swanson -– on her 100th cap -- ran through to finish past goalkeeper Lorena.

It is the first time the USA have taken the Olympic title in 12 years, their gold in Paris adding to those won in 1996, 2004, 2008 and 2012. The USA have now beaten Brazil in three of those Olympic finals, with the South Americans again having to settle for silver here just as they did in Athens in 2004 and Beijing four years later.

It was not quite the ending that their legendary captain Marta was hoping for, as she bowed out of her sixth and last Olympics aged 38 with a third silver medal.

"We surpassed ourselves throughout the competition to get to the final. That was our main objective, to come away with a medal," Marta said.

Strongest man

Lasha Talakhadze retained his iron grip on the title of "world's strongest man" as he won a third straight Olympic heavyweight gold on Saturday.

The Georgian remained unbeaten in major championships since his first world title in 2015, but unusually he had to come from behind. Gor Minasyan, an Olympic medallist for Armenia in 2016 but representing Bahrain in Paris, lifted 1kg more in the snatch half of the competition.

In the clean and jerk, Talakhadze delivered when he had to, wheeling and wobbling round the stage on his second lift before locking his arms and settling his feet to secure a total of 470kg.

Varazdat Lalayan of Armenia tried to pass that but failed and finished second, 3kg back. Minasyan was third.

China's Li Wenwen eased to victory in the women's heavyweight class to give her nation a fifth gold in the Olympic weightlifting competition in Paris -- hoisting her coach in the air to celebrate.

In the event for women with a bodyweight above 81 kilogrammes, the 150kg Li, who also won the superheavyweight category at the Tokyo Games, dominated.

She was so far ahead after two lifts in both the snatch and clean and jerk that she was able to pass on her final attempt in both categories. (AFP)