Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang is out of competition due to injury.
The gold winning athlete left the Bird’s Nest on Monday morning before qualifying for his event.
Liu is said to have suffered injury to his Achilles tendon and after an initial false start by another athlete, he left the track with head down.
With Liu’s absence from the competition, Cuban sensation Dayron Robles looks like a shoo-in for the 110 men's hurdles gold medal.
Lord of the rings
But it is a different story in the National Stadium with Chen Yibing claimed his second gold, winning the Men’s Rings event.
His next-to-perfect performance won the hearts of judges and secured Chen's leading position with a score of 16.600.
The win marks the second Olympic gold in the event in China's gymnastic history.
It took China 24 years to make the achievement after Li Ning, who lit the Olympic torch on August 8, brought the first rings gold at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
A long jump to glory
The tiny country of Panama claimed its first Olympic gold last night in the Men’s Long Jump competition.
Irving Saladino leapt a staggering 8.34 metres in the final at the Bird’s Nest and in doing so was declared a national hero. Before last night’s victory, Panama only had two bronze medals both won by Lloyd LaBeach in the men's 100m and 200m sprints in 1948.
Saladino’s long leap was 10 centimetres ahead of indoor champion Khotso Mokoena of South Africa, who took silver, whilst Ibrahim Camejo of Cuba was third at 8.20 metres.
（英語點津 Helen 編輯）
" style="WIDTH: 120px; HEIGHT: 120px" title="">Marc Checkley is a freelance journalist and media producer from New Zealand. Marc has had an eclectic career in the media/arts working on various projects in theatre, television, online, radio, print and film. Marc spent three months with the China Daily last year leading the online video news initiative. He returns to chinadaily.com.cn as Senior Editor and Producer for the website’s Olympic media news coverage.
" style="WIDTH: 120px; HEIGHT: 120px" title="">Marc Checkley is a freelance journalist and media producer from New Zealand. Marc has had an eclectic career in the media/arts working on various projects in theatre, television, online, radio, print and film. Marc spent three months with the China Daily last year leading the online video news initiative. He returns to chinadaily.com.cn as Senior Editor and Producer for the website’s Olympic media news coverage.