Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba holds onto Olympic 10,000 metres title

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from England

OLYMPIC GAMES: LONDON, Aug. 4 - A capacity crowd at Olympic Stadium on the opening day of the athletic competition of the 2012 Olympic Games proved the British passion for sport has grown up tremendously with the return of the world's greatest sports extravaganza.

Though there were early uncertainties over public participation and ticket sales, a packed Olympic Stadium on day one of the athletic competition was an ample testimony to dismiss such claims.

Sports crazy fans came to the Olympic Park in their numbers as British people showed a keen interest to become a part of London's third Olympic 'treat'. That gave an indication that demand for second hand tickets during the key athletic final sessions are going to be hectic.

Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba held on to her Olympic 10,000m title in stunning style at the Olympic Stadium . The 27-year-old, who won the distance double at the Beijing 2008 Games, saw off Kenya's Sally Kipyego and Vivian Cheruiyot with a final-lap burst to win by more than five seconds. Dibaba's time was a season's best 30 minutes and 20.75 seconds, with Kipyego taking the silver in 30:26.37 and world champion Cheruiyot bronze in 30:30.44.

Tomasz Majewski wins shot put again

Poland's Tomasz Majewski produced a stunning throw to successfully defend his shot put crown. Germany's 22-year-old hopeful David Storl, the reigning world champion, had set the standard with a throw of 21.86m but Majewski responded to claim gold with 21.89m.

American Reese Hoffa failed to capitalise on his good form this season and was forced to settle for bronze with his throw of 21.23m.

The prospect of records tumbling on the running track was reinforced by the heats for the women's 100m. No fewer than six women qualified for the semi-finals in under 11 seconds - in the past, the only other women to do that have gone on to win gold.

American Carmelita Jeter was fastest in 10.83, but her big rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, from Jamaica, slowed down noticeably in winning her heat and still managed 11.0.

In the men's 1500m heats, Algeria's Taoufik Makhloufi ran the fastest time, 3:35.15, while Kenya's Asbel Kiprop, the defending champion who is aiming to emulate Sebastian Coe's back-to-back Olympic titles, was a comfortable third-fastest in 3:36.59.

Great Britain's Jessica Ennis turned a sensational start in the Heptathlon into a 184-point lead following the opening four events. Ennis produced the fastest 100m hurdles ever run in a Heptathlon, clocking 12.54 to smash her personal best and break the GB record with a time which won individual gold in Beijing.

A clearance of 1.86m in the high jump gave Ennis a 25-point lead after two events, before a world Heptathlon best of 17.31m in the shot from Austra Skujyte took the Lithuanian into a 64-point lead.

However, Ennis then set another personal best of 22.83 in the 200m for a total of 4,158 points, her best ever first-day score and enough for a lead of 184 points over Skujyte.

Phelps wins final individual event

At Olympic Aquatic Centre, American Michael Phelps marked the final individual swim of his career with victory in the 100m Butterfly, while 15-year-old Katie Ledecky won the 800m Freestyle on her senior international debut.

Missy Franklin won the 200m backstroke in a new world record to join the American celebration. Phelps clinched the 17th Olympic gold medal, and 21st medal overall, when he came from seventh at the halfway point to win in 51.21 ahead of Chad ad Clos, his conqueror in the 200m, and Evgeny Korotyshkin, who shared second place.

It was the final individual race of the 27-year-old's career, with just the 4 x 100m Medley Relay to come before the Baltimore swimmer bows out of competition.

He said: 'I am just happy that the last one was a win, that is all I wanted coming into tonight.'

Ledecky led from start to finish and was under world record pace until the final few metres as she touched in eight minutes and 14.63 seconds, the second fastest time in history behind Rebecca Adlington's world record from Beijing. Mireia Belmonte Garcia was 4.14secs adrift in second, with Adlington securing her second bronze of the week in third.

Franklin claimed her second individual title of the week when she lowered Kirsty Coventry's world mark to 2:04.06, while Florent Manaudou of France won the men's 50m Freestyle in 21.34.

In the Basketball Arena, Australia, Turkey and the USA registered important wins while France needed overtime to get the job done. Liz Cambage scored a slam dunk to help Australia to a narrow 70-66 win against Russia in a battle of the two teams ranked joint-second in the world.

The tall Cambage powered through the lane to score with a one-handed slam in the midst of a 12-0 run early in the third quarter that gave Russia a 44-33 lead. The 20-year-old said it was her first ever dunk in a game.

'It's good to just finally do it and get everybody off my back about it,' she said. 'It's not been in my head all the time, but I was wide open, and I felt it so I just did it. 'It was kind of an out-of-body experience. I wasn't really thinking about it, it was weird.'

Cambage finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Australia, with Suzy Batkovic adding 15 and Jenna O'Hea 10.

Canada held off Brazil to advance to the quarter-finals. Canada's victory saw them improve to 2-2, but they had to scrap for the win after making it look easy in the first half.

They led 18-8 at the end of the first quarter and 39-25 at half-time, but Brazil came back much stronger after the break and began to chip away at the lead.

USA gets 37th straight win

The Czech Republic may have given the USA a wake-up call early on in their late-night match but got handed a lesson thereafter, as the USA enjoyed their 37th straight Olympic Games win, triumphing 88-61. The Czechs scored the first 10 points of the game and led 26-24 at the end of the first quarter. But the USA battled back to have a double-digit lead by half-time and they then began the third quarter on a 20-3 run that killed the game.

France needed overtime to see off, Great Britain who suffered a heartwrenching 80-77 defeat. Celine Dumerc nailed a three-pointer with six seconds left in regulation to force the extra period and then hit another almost on the overtime buzzer to win it.

Croatia got off the mark at the fourth attempt to stay in touch with a 75-56 win over Angola, while Turkey cruised to a big victory, 82-55, over China to secure a quarter-final place.

Exciting day at hockey

It was another exciting day in the men's hockey competition, with Netherlands and Germany registered convincing wins to almost book their places in the semi-finals. The Netherlands strengthened their position at the top of Pool 'B' with their first convincing victory of the tournament, 5-1 against New Zealand.

New Zealand began well when Nick Wilson crossed for Simon Child to score from close range. The Netherlands thought they had equalised when Sander de Wijn, sliding on his knees, brilliantly turned in Teun de Nooijer's lifted shot, but his effort was ruled out as his stick was above his shoulder.

It did not take long for the Dutch to ease past the Black Sticks, though, as De Wijn's short corner rebound hit Blair Hopping's body on the way to goal and Roderick Weusthof converted the penalty stroke. The Netherlands scored again from the spot in the 27th minute after a foul by Ryan Archibald allowed Mink van der Weerden to slot home his fourth of the tournament.

Within three minutes, the advantage became three as Rogier Hofman picked up a long through-ball to race into the circle and square for Billy Bakker to force the ball home.

Bob de Voogd then hit the post as the Netherlands finished the half strongly, but after the break the game evened out and New Zealand briefly threatened before the Netherlands made certain of victory with 15 minutes remaining.

Argentina springs surprise on Australia

Argentina sprang a major surprise by taking a point off Australia from a 2-2 draw as the world number ones showed they were not infallible in conceding a 2-0 half-time lead. Even five-time world player of the year Jamie Dwyer breaking the Kookaburras all-time goalscoring record with his fourth of the tournament - taking his tally to 180 in 281 matches - was little consolation for dropping two points. Having scored 11 goals without conceding in their opening two Pool 'A' victories, everything seemed to be going to plan again at the interval. Matt Butturini picked up a penalty corner rebound to open the scoring in the 11th minute and then Dwyer added his record-breaking goal in unspectacular style seconds before half-time. But Argentina, who have only ever beaten Australia once before at the Olympic Games in 1976, produced a rally after the break on the back of some impressive goalkeeping by Juan Manuel Vivaldi.

Great Britain midfielder Ashley Jackson inspired his side to a comfortable 4-1 victory over Pakistan with a performance befitting his stature as one of the world's top players.

The 24-year-old was at the heart of almost everything as the hosts rediscovered their attacking flair, contributing two second-half goals to ensure there was no repeat of their late capitulation against South Africa. Injury-hit Spain survived a late rally by South Africa to record their first victory, 3-2, which keeps alive their slender semi-final hopes in Pool 'A', while Belgium's Cedric Charlier scored a fine winning goal as his side belied their low world ranking to stun Republic of Korea 2-1.