China stole the limelight from the mighty Cubans by winning their first two Olympic boxing titles to deafening roars from a thrilled crowd on Sunday. Zou Shiming won the light-flyweight final and Light-heavyweight Zhang Xiaoping later doubled the hosts' tally.
In Thursday's semi-finals, world number one Australia clash with fourth-ranked Spain, while third-placed Netherlands take on number two Germany.
Amir Khan stopped Dane Martin Kristjansen in the seventh round in Bolton to close in on a world title fight.
The Olympics have come a long way since the first one in Athens where athletes alone mattered. Over a century later, technology too is helping athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics games to smash records.
Rebecca Romero became the first British woman to win medals in two different summer Olympic sports when she beat her team mate to win gold in the women's 3-km individual pursuit cycling on Sunday. A rowing silver medallist in Athens in the quadruple sculls, Romero switched sports and made her track cycling debut only two years ago. She won two world championship titles in March.
Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian threw down his greco-roman bronze medal in protest on Thursday after his bid for Olympic gold was ended by a decision denounced by the Swedish coach as "politics". Abrahamian took the bronze from around his neck during the medal ceremony, stepped from the podium and dropped it in the middle of the wrestling mat then walked off.
The Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics countdown got under way on Thursday with the lighting of the torch at the site of the ancient Olympics, with organisers hoping it will shift attention away from Brazil's political and financial turmoil.
The Delhi lad gave India the first ever individual Olympic goal when he won the 10m air rifle event in Beijing on Monday.
A quick glance towards the Centre Court scoreboard at the Olympic Tennis Centre hardly helped Roger Federer's prickly demeanour on Tuesday.
India's boxers are remembered only during a big event, says Olympics medal hope Akhil Kumar. 'Before and after that no one cares.'
As violence threatens to annihilate a few more of the greatest monuments, we count the cost of the irreplaceable losses, thanks to the Islamic State.
Australia's men's hockey team will defend their Athens Olympics title without experienced midfielder Nathan Eglington, Hockey Australia said on Thursday. Eglington, who has played 136 international matches and scored 47 goals, tore a muscle in his groin a month ago and had rejected surgery in the hope it would repair itself.
With the ghost of doping returning to haunt Indian weightlifting, Sports Minister M S Gill has taken strong exception to the latest case involving Kavita Devi and called for a review meeting to discuss the menace. After weightlifters let down the nation at the Athens Olympics and the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Gill does not want to take any chances ahead of the Beijing Games in August.
The IOC took back US sprinter Marion Jone's five Sydney 2000 Games medals after she admitted to taking drugs.
The Champions League final will be moved from its traditional Wednesday night slot and instead be held on a Saturday night, from the 2009-10 season, UEFA president Michel Platini announced on Friday.
Juventus returned to the Champions League proper for the first time in three seasons after a 1-1 draw at Artmedia Bratislava gave the Italians a 5-1 aggregate win.
Hot favorites the United States won Olympic men's basketball gold by beating Spain 118-107 in a final. Athens champions Argentina took bronze by outmuscling Lithuania in a 87-75 victory earlier on the final day of the Games.
Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba sprinted to gold in the slowest 5,000 meters race in four Olympics on Friday to become the first woman to win both long distance races at the same Games. The 23-year-old world record holder won the 10,000m in the second fastest time a week ago but the early laps of Friday's race more closely resembled the pace of the morning's 20km walk.
Tyson Gay's miserable Olympics continued on Thursday when he and U.S. team mate Darvis Patton contrived to drop the baton in their 4x100 metres relay heat.
China will take on champions Germany and Argentina will play the top-ranked Dutch in the Olympic women's hockey semi-finals on Wednesday. Three-times champions Australia came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with China on Monday but it was not enough to get them into the semi-finals. The draw meant both teams finished with 10 points, but China, who finished fourth in Athens in 2004, went through to the last four as the second team behind the Netherlands.
Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva won the gold medal in the Olympic women's pole vault on Monday and then broke her own world record when she leapt 5.05 metres.
The Netherlands set up a likely showdown with Argentina in the women's Olympic hockey semi-final by brushing aside Spain 2-0 in their final group match on Monday. Champions Germany qualified as the top team from the opposite pool with four wins when they beat Japan 1-0 in their fifth and final match.
Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore failed to make it to the final of the double trap shooting event at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday. He shot a series of 43,45,43,131 to finish 12th among 19 shooters. Samresh Jung's woeful form in the Olympics continued and he failed to make the 50m pistol final of the shooting competition, finishing a disappointing 42nd in the qualification round.
Michael Phelps broke his Olympic record to qualify fastest for the 400 metres individual medley final.
The US swimming team arrived in Beijing on Monday with Michael Phelps eager to start an Olympic adventure that could end with him breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in a single Olympics. The 23-year-old and other members of the US swimming squad flew in from a pre-Games training camp in Singapore four days before Friday's opening ceremony.
Rediff.com gives you a quick flashback, in pictures of the month gone by...
Houston gymnast Raj Bhavsar on Tuesday was named in the US Gymnastics men's 2008 Olympic team after he was chosen to replace the injured Paul Hamm. All-around champion Hamm, winner of one of the most controversial golds at the 2004 Athens Olympics, withdrew from the Beijing Games due to injury.
Lleyton Hewitt said he was eager to represent Australia at this year's Olympic Games in Beijing.
Beijing struggles to make its coming-of-age Olympics party perfect despite controversies, unsold tickets and media hyperventilation.
Russian star pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva said on Wednesday she plans to retire after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she has her sights sets on a third Olympic gold.
Manjeet Kaur hopes the 4x400m relay team will be able to better their performance at the Athens Olympics four years ago.
Usain Bolt, the 100 metres world record holder, ran the fastest time in the 200 this year, winning in 19.67 seconds, at the Athens Grand Prix on Sunday.
Indian sportspersons will be in action in the following events at 28th Olympic Games in Athens.\n\n
Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with 18 gold medals among his career haul of 22, will carry the US flag in Friday's opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics.
Sevilla midfielder Antonio Puerta died three days after collapsing during a Spanish Primera Liga match.
Panathinaikos secured a Champions League qualifying spot by beating PAOK Salonica 2-0 on Sunday to extend their lead in the Super League playoffs to a eight points with two matches left.
A high-level Indian parliamentary delegation, headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, arrived in Bahrain on Thursday.
Given a chance national women's table tennis champion Manika Batra is keen to get tips from her idol, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, ahead of her debut in next month's Rio Olympic Games.
Former Indian hockey captain, Dilip Tirkey, who is injured, has opted out of playing in the Professional Hockey league starting in Chandigarh next month.
