Beijing Blog

If I had a dollar for every "Lightning Bolt" headline that appears in tomorrow's papers ...

There were two groups of adults acting like kids at the Olympic stadium last night.

As the last runner in the Heptathlon crossed the finish line, the winner started to celebrate.

Ukranian Nataliia Dobrynska grabbed her silver-medal-winning Ukranian team-mate Lyudmilla Blonska. Then they grabbed a Ukranian flag. Then they grabbed another competitor ... and another ... and another.

Arm in arm, the five of them headed off on a victory lap.

But it didn't stop there. Before we knew it, all of the heptathletes were off on a lap of honour! All 39 of them!

Pencil in 22 golds for Aussies

American sporting bible Sports Illustrated has tipped the Australian Olympic team to grab a surprise 22 golds at the Beijing Games and 56 medals overall.

That number is two more gold medals than official Australian estimates judged from world rankings as of the end of 2007.

SI's Australian break-up is 22 gold, 14 silver and 18 bronze - five more medals than the Athens haul where the Aussies came away with 17 gold.

Cathy rates among the best of the best

It's an unenviable task, trying to come up with a list of the 20 most pivotal moments in Olympic history. Damn near impossible, in fact.

But the people at Sports Illustrated in the US have given it a go, and published a list on their Olympics site, which is a co-production with CNN.

American achievements dominate the list. You would have to expect that, both because like most societies the US is somewhat inward looking and because Americans have been the dominant forces through Olympic history.

But one Australian has been listed in their 20 greatest moments - our Cathy.

Fast men just keep getting faster

Who needs Justin Gatlin? That must surely be the question on athletics fans' lips after a crazy weekend has changed the face of the men's 100m Olympic race yet again.

We have a new world's fastest time, if not a new world's fastest man, courtesy of sprinter Tyson Gay at the US Olympics Trials in Eugene, Oregon.

Gay ran the 100m in an incredible 9.68 seconds, beating the all-time record of 9.69 seconds set by Barbadian Obadele Thompson in 1996.