Carli Lloyd powers USA women for football gold:

Rudisha lights up Olympic Stadium

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from England

Though legendary sprinter Usain Bolt could not shatter a world record in winning men's 200m gold, spectators at a packed Olympic Stadium last night were given that rare opportunity of a new world record being shattered as Kenyan David Rudisha lit up the Stadium with a sensational victory in the 800m. He bettered his own world record.

Rudisha made the most of ideal conditions, storming through the first lap in 49.28 and powering to the gold medal in 1:40.91. Despite USA suffering heavy losses at the hands of Jamaicans, there was success for Christian Taylor of USA who added the Olympic title to his world triple jump crown and Ashton Eaton claimed decathlon gold.

Taylor added the Olympic Games title to his world Triple Jump crown with a superb leap of 17.81m, the longest in the world this year. The 22-year-old had been in danger of going out of the competition after fouls in the first two rounds, but he earned himself three extra jumps with a leap of 17.15m in the third round.

He made the most of that reprieve by soaring out to 17.81m with his next jump to finish 19cm ahead of team-mate Will Claye (17.62m), with Italy's Fabrizio Donato taking bronze with 17.48m.

The final gold medal of the evening went to Czech Barbora Spotakova, who successfully defended her Javelin Throw title with a best effort of 69.55m.

World record-holder Eaton took a 151-point lead over team-mate Trey Hardee into the 1500m and finished ahead of the two-time world champion to end up 198 points clear after two gruelling days of competition. Eaton's score of 8,869 was 24 short of the Olympic record, with Hardee recording a season's best of 8,671 and Cuba's Leonel Suarez also managing a season's best of 8,523 to secure the third place.

USA - women's football champs

Meanwhile, USA emerged champions in women's football tournament. Carli Lloyd was the USA's Olympic hero again as they avenged their World Cup final defeat by Japan and took gold with a two goals to one victory at Wembley Stadium last night. Lloyd's brilliant double in the final were enough for Americans to complete a hat-trick of Olympic titles, as the midfielder added to her winner in the Beijing 2008 showpiece. They also made amends for her penalty shoot-out miss in last year's World Cup final.

Yuki Ogimi pulled a goal back for Japan, who had plenty of chances to equalise and were denied by the woodwork as they failed in a bid to add the Olympic title to their world crown. But they contributed to a superb spectacle and another brilliant advert for the women's game.

The USA were playing in their fifth successive final, having lost just one of the previous four, while Japan were in their very first. The bronze medal in women's football went to Canada. Diana Matheson scored a last-minute goal to earn Canada the bronze medal at the expense of France at the City of Coventry Stadium.

Matheson made no mistake from close range to make the final score 1-0 after Sophie Schmidt's shot had deflected into her path. It was hard luck on France who had dominated the second half but they were to rue a series of missed chances and fine saves from Canadian keeper Erin McLeod.

Canada were the more threatening in the opening 45 minutes and Christine Sinclair was only just too high with a rising drive. Melissa Tancredi then headed wide after French keeper Sarah Bouhaddi had collided with her own defender Laura Georges

Germany, Netherlands in hockey final

Germany will meet Netherlands in the final of the Olympic men's hockey tournament. They won their successive semi finals which produced a total of 17 goals. Netherlands crushed Great Britain by nine goals to two at the Riverbank Arena while Germany beat Australia by four goals to one.

Both Great Britain and Netherlands sides delivered on their promise to attack and entertain, but it was the Netherlands who made it through to set up a meeting with defending champions Germany in the final. Both Great Britain coach Jason Lee and his Dutch counterpart Paul van Ass are devotees of attacking hockey but even they must have been surprised by the first half, played at a high speed with barely a pause for breath.

The Netherlands lost midfielder Klaas Vermeulen to a shoulder injury early on following a collision with Glenn Kirkham, but that was a rare moment of physicality as the flow of the game soon took over. Considering how open the game was, it was surprising that the first three goals came from penalty corners.

USA-France cager final

USA qualified to play France in the women's basketball tournament final after the semi finals on Thursday night. USA beat Australia 86-73 while France had the better of Russia 81-64.

Germany won the men's beach volleyball gold medal with a two sets to one victory over Brazil. Latvia won the bronze beating Netherlands by two sets to one in the third place play-off.

LONDON, Friday.